I would say that the Genovese from the 30's through the 50's were the most powerful family, possibly the most powerful of all time. They had the obvious interests in Cuba and Las Vegas, and they were probably the biggest family in South Florida at that time. Mike Coppola was big in New Port ,Kentucky, Charles Tourine had Joe Nesline in DC, and Costello was in New Orleans. During that time their top associate Lansky was his most prolific, setting up new ventures seemingly everywhere. One of their capos, Tony Pro, was running the biggest Teamsters local in the country. They worked very closely with Chicago, who I would say was a close second at that time. After Appalachian and Genovese going to jail I would say that Chicago probably jumped to the top in the early 60's, even though I am not sure that there was that there was much of a drop off with the Catena, Miranda, Eboli triumvirate running the day to day. The Gambinos also started to work their way up to the level of the Genovese starting in the early sixties. I would give Chicago the nod from about 1960 through 1970, then the Genovese, Chicago and Gambinos were virtually interchangeable until the early to mid 80's. Then Chicago lost Vegas and Castellano got hit, and from that point forward it has been the Genovese.

Assuming that the NYC families and Chicago operated on a different level, I would put Detroit, Buffalo, Philly and New England in the next tier. Strong bosses who were all on the Commission at one time or another, international interests and strong manpower. Slightly below that I would put Cleveland, who I think that many people overlook. They had Moe Dalitz as an associate, which meant big interests in Vegas and Cuba, they were very powerful with the Teamsters, and had a strong presence in South Florida, Youngstown and Newport. They were also very well connected to the Genovese. I think that because they fell apart so quickly people forget how powerful and well connected they were at their peak.

My next tier would be New Orleans and Tampa, not so much because of the power of the families but the power of the bosses and their connections with other mobsters across the country. The Decvalacantes would follow them, they were strong despite being in the shadow of NYC and Philly.

My bottom tier would be KC, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and Northeast PA, all families that had their moments but never quite on the level of the families in the higher tiers.