magaddino and bonanno both came from sicilian mafia royalty. both were heavyweights in their own right. there are those who believed that magaddino was the top castelammarese, not maranzano. that could have been true, but don stefano was wily enuf, and smart enuf to stay on the outskirts of the fray.

remember magaddino was the leader of the good killers, and very well connected in the u.s. and sicily. that catapulted him to being made the buffalo boss in 1922, while bonanno was only 17 at that time. magaddino didnt need bonanno to be made boss. i also think bonanno didnt need magaddino to become a boss. bonaano was well respected among the castelammarese in n.y.

my belief is the familys were larger in the 40's, 50's, and 60's than most believe. in the book honor thy father bill bonanno stated that the bonanno family had 400 members in 1965, and were considered to be one of the smaller n.y. families. in the early 1960's the FBI estimated 2700 made men in n.y./n.j. personally i think that was a reasonable assessment. as italians were the largest ethnic group in the area during the 40's thru 60's time frame.

i continue to allege the buffalo family had 200 made menders during the time frame i pointed out. my guess is if you go back to the 1930's and 1940's the buffalo family probably had more than 200 members.