A difficult discussion to be sure, but some great points made by people here. I think it's difficult to compare bosses in the past with bosses of the 80s with bosses of the present. Different time periods, different considerations, different variables and factors that either made people successful or not. Perhaps grouping by decade might better focus the research and will have comparative data considerations (e.g., RICO, wiretapping, when snitches became prevalent, the declining importance of the older values that set up the families to begin with, etc.).