It still amazes me how people still compare bosses from the 40s 50s and 60s to the present day , modern day bosses like gotti , gigante , and massino had it far tougher than the likes of bonnano , gambino and lucchese , back then the Feds barely knew the mob existed let alone go after them . There was no Rico , no safety net of witness protection , no stiff penalties for drug dealing , no wiretaps and hardly any surveillance and hardly any rats , they had a free run . To compare bosses from back then to bosses of the modern era is naive , do u not thinking the the Feds back then had the resources and technology they have today that they wouldn't have got prosecutions and guys flipping left and right ?? Guys like accardo and gambino would have ended up in the same place as gigante , amuso and gotti . JAIL .
Good point.
What massino did with the family in the 90s was nothing short of phenomenal, the bonnanos considered the smallest of the 5 families were built up by massino to arguably one of the most powerful. Massino closed all the social clubs, stopped members from going to weddings and funerals and even got there seat back on the commission.
A compelling argument can be made that it was circumstance, not Massino that enabled the Bonannos to rebuild.
Closing social clubs, preventing members from going to weddings and funerals have nothing to do with the Feds depriotising them.
More likely the growth and stability was due to not having a seat on the commission as a result of Pistone and Drugs which enabled the family to skirt the commission and concrete club convictions and directed the Feds attention elsewhere.
When federal attention finally turned their way they collapsed like a house of cards.
Vitale flipping can be seen as the catalyst and his decision to roll can be payed directly at Massino's feet. His decision to shelve Sal led to Sal rolling and the dominos of collapse that ensued.
So Massino it can be argued was not so much personally responsible for the growth and stability and caused the family to implode by his decisions with his final one to rat himself.
Find it hard to support a case for best boss ever, personally I think he is at the other end of the scale.
Trying to choose the most competent Bonanno boss is like trying to choose the least diabetic mobster, or mobster with the smallest nose or mobster with the best hairpiece.
It's impossible.
