@ Adam
The article is a little Buffalo -centric, but their territory was huge. The Canadian border was during prohibition, and later, with heroin, a HUGE resource ( look at what the US/Mexico border means to the cartels...)
I mean, Maggadino was a boss, 26 guys isn't that many. Demeo was a soldier and he killed at least 37 himself. Gi ante would have you wacked FOR SPEAKING HIS NAME, which, when you think about it, is pretty insane, lol..
Hi Cabrini. I don't mean to be rude, but I have to disagree with some of the things you said. But in a friendly way. I'm fine with the article being Buffalo centric(I like that term) cause every city does that. It's pathetic and I find it disgusting, but all newspapers try to make their readers take some weird pride in their local band of organized murderers, drug dealers and thieves and their pasts for some reason. Some kind of fucked up nostalgia, but it happens. My research focus is Detroit and it happens here too. But here are some of my problems:
Buffalo never had 200 made members. Especially in the 1960s as the article claims. That would put them at about the size of the smaller NYC families. Large area of territory does not equal large number of made guys. It's often the opposite for LCN families. Comparing Buffalo in the past to a Mexican cartel is not a good comparison. Not that Buffalo wasn't influential, because we all know it was. But I agree with a previous poster that a lot of that came from Bonanno.
26 guys murdered for making fun of the boss is a laughable number of murders. The article implies it was one order Maggadino gave. Even spread out over fifty years it's ridiculous. Maggadino isn't Toto Riina. And if that story were true, which it isn't, Riina never even did that. To say that 26 isn't that many makes me question how much you know about American LCN.
Just to be helpful, Roy Demeo didn't kill 37 people himself. He and his crew are responsible for at least 37 deaths(possibly more) but Demeo didn't kill 37 people. In the same way Gravano didn't kill 19 people. He killed one person but was involved in 18 others.
I primarily research the Detroit mob, especially actual, possible, and supposed mob murders here. But I also try to keep tabs on the other mob city murders. An absolute truth is that people tell stories of the mob killing a staggering number of people and it goes into folklore and even into police and FBI reports. Quick well known example: FBI cites a location where Jimmy Hoffa may have been disposed of at, and an informant claims at least ten others have been disposed of there. Central Sanitation. But in that time that the facility existed there is only one minor minor person affiliated with the Detroit mob who disappeared. No other missing person reports that can be found. And definitely no names. But it's folklore now. It's like the Night of Sicilian Vespers which also never happened. For mob murders you really need an article on the death or a name mentioned as missing. If not it probably didn't happen. Someone just thinks it did.
And I'm not a Buffalo mob expert, but I collect articles about Buffalo mob murders from the 70s 80s and 90s and this 26 murders claim never pops up. And I've got Michael Rizzo's well researched book about the Buffalo mob in front of me and I imagine this article pisses him off.
Cabrini I'm really hoping you're not Michael Rizzo's cause if you are I'm a gigantic jackass.
But those were some of my thoughts. But I really do enjoy discussing these things.
Adam R.
