by eboli » Sat May 08, 2021 3:19 pm
After Tieri stepped down in late 1980, we have the reported triumvirate of bosses, which according to one FBI informant, was succeeded by Salerno's short stint as boss before he stroked out and Lombardo took over In March-April 1981 as the 'new boss'. Both Tieri and Lombardo had health issues since the 1960s and they were not in the best shape in the 1970s. It makes sense that Lombardo was the top dog in 1980-1981 because he was the most senior guy sitting on that panel. Somehow he was in a better shape at the time than he was just a few years earlier, but it seems he was still too ill and old to be a long-term option by then.
Lombardo was a powerful capo who had a ton of leeway in the family because he was close to Vito Genovese, Tommy Eboli and many administration members during the 1960s and 1970s. His name entered the boss discussion before he was even a captain. After Vito's death in 1969, the newspapers namedropped Lombardo alongside Catena, Eboli, Miranda and Tieri as a potential candidate for the boss position. We can argue that early on was his best shot at it because that's when he had support from other high-ranking members.
The information provided by Cafaro, Russo and confidential informants can be explained with Lombardo's operational freedom. Slogging through the FBI files, you don't really get the impression that Funzi was acting for anybody. In the 1972-1974 there are reports on both Tieri and Lombardo being the boss, but there are also reports of Lombardo being a capo regime. Then between 1974 and 1980 there are many reports of how Tieri was the one calling the shots, setting up ruling panels while hospitalized, meeting up with other bosses, etc. And only a few examples where Lombardo's name comes up. The FBI were very confident that Tieri was the Genovese boss when they indicted him, and that was pretty much what Hairy wrote earlier in the thread.
After Tieri stepped down in late 1980, we have the reported triumvirate of bosses, which according to one FBI informant, was succeeded by Salerno's short stint as boss before he stroked out and Lombardo took over In March-April 1981 as the 'new boss'. Both Tieri and Lombardo had health issues since the 1960s and they were not in the best shape in the 1970s. It makes sense that Lombardo was the top dog in 1980-1981 because he was the most senior guy sitting on that panel. Somehow he was in a better shape at the time than he was just a few years earlier, but it seems he was still too ill and old to be a long-term option by then.
Lombardo was a powerful capo who had a ton of leeway in the family because he was close to Vito Genovese, Tommy Eboli and many administration members during the 1960s and 1970s. His name entered the boss discussion before he was even a captain. After Vito's death in 1969, the newspapers namedropped Lombardo alongside Catena, Eboli, Miranda and Tieri as a potential candidate for the boss position. We can argue that early on was his best shot at it because that's when he had support from other high-ranking members.
The information provided by Cafaro, Russo and confidential informants can be explained with Lombardo's operational freedom. Slogging through the FBI files, you don't really get the impression that Funzi was acting for anybody. In the 1972-1974 there are reports on both Tieri and Lombardo being the boss, but there are also reports of Lombardo being a capo regime. Then between 1974 and 1980 there are many reports of how Tieri was the one calling the shots, setting up ruling panels while hospitalized, meeting up with other bosses, etc. And only a few examples where Lombardo's name comes up. The FBI were very confident that Tieri was the Genovese boss when they indicted him, and that was pretty much what Hairy wrote earlier in the thread.