THE BLACK HAND FORUM

CabriniGreen wrote: ↑Tue Aug 09, 2022 1:34 am

CabriniGreen wrote: ↑Tue Aug 09, 2022 1:24 am

CabriniGreen wrote: ↑Tue Aug 09, 2022 1:22 am

Ryan98366 wrote: ↑Sun Aug 07, 2022 9:16 pm

Dwalin2014 wrote: ↑Wed Nov 30, 2016 2:14 pm When, after Vito Genovese's death, the family started to use the power-behind-the-throne / front boss system, was it to trick law enforcement only or the other families too? For example, when Eboli was killed and Tieri took over, this was convenient for Gambino who was Tieri's friend, but did he know that Lombardo was the real power and had the last say, not Tieri? If I got it right, the "front bosses" did all the "duties" a boss is supposed to do, attended commission meetings etc, like for example, when Galante's murder was decided, Tieri was at the commission meeting, not Lombardo, although Lombardo surely knew. But did the other bosses know how the situation really was?

Terrific question. I believe that the other families knew of these games the Genovese family was playing. They all knew how cagey and secretive they are. However, my guess is none of the other families knew who was really “the boss.”

They knew. It was in Time Magazine in 1969... Lombardo as a boss candidate. I don't know where this " it was a big secret" stuff really comes from....

Sorry...Life Magazine. I always get em mixed up...

https://redirect.viglink.com/?format=go ... Bf%3Dfalse

CabriniGreen wrote: ↑Tue Aug 09, 2022 1:24 am

CabriniGreen wrote: ↑Tue Aug 09, 2022 1:22 am

Ryan98366 wrote: ↑Sun Aug 07, 2022 9:16 pm

Dwalin2014 wrote: ↑Wed Nov 30, 2016 2:14 pm When, after Vito Genovese's death, the family started to use the power-behind-the-throne / front boss system, was it to trick law enforcement only or the other families too? For example, when Eboli was killed and Tieri took over, this was convenient for Gambino who was Tieri's friend, but did he know that Lombardo was the real power and had the last say, not Tieri? If I got it right, the "front bosses" did all the "duties" a boss is supposed to do, attended commission meetings etc, like for example, when Galante's murder was decided, Tieri was at the commission meeting, not Lombardo, although Lombardo surely knew. But did the other bosses know how the situation really was?

Terrific question. I believe that the other families knew of these games the Genovese family was playing. They all knew how cagey and secretive they are. However, my guess is none of the other families knew who was really “the boss.”

They knew. It was in Time Magazine in 1969... Lombardo as a boss candidate. I don't know where this " it was a big secret" stuff really comes from....

Sorry...Life Magazine. I always get em mixed up...

CabriniGreen wrote: ↑Tue Aug 09, 2022 1:22 am

Ryan98366 wrote: ↑Sun Aug 07, 2022 9:16 pm

Dwalin2014 wrote: ↑Wed Nov 30, 2016 2:14 pm When, after Vito Genovese's death, the family started to use the power-behind-the-throne / front boss system, was it to trick law enforcement only or the other families too? For example, when Eboli was killed and Tieri took over, this was convenient for Gambino who was Tieri's friend, but did he know that Lombardo was the real power and had the last say, not Tieri? If I got it right, the "front bosses" did all the "duties" a boss is supposed to do, attended commission meetings etc, like for example, when Galante's murder was decided, Tieri was at the commission meeting, not Lombardo, although Lombardo surely knew. But did the other bosses know how the situation really was?

Terrific question. I believe that the other families knew of these games the Genovese family was playing. They all knew how cagey and secretive they are. However, my guess is none of the other families knew who was really “the boss.”

They knew. It was in Time Magazine in 1969... Lombardo as a boss candidate. I don't know where this " it was a big secret" stuff really comes from....

Ryan98366 wrote: ↑Sun Aug 07, 2022 9:16 pm

Dwalin2014 wrote: ↑Wed Nov 30, 2016 2:14 pm When, after Vito Genovese's death, the family started to use the power-behind-the-throne / front boss system, was it to trick law enforcement only or the other families too? For example, when Eboli was killed and Tieri took over, this was convenient for Gambino who was Tieri's friend, but did he know that Lombardo was the real power and had the last say, not Tieri? If I got it right, the "front bosses" did all the "duties" a boss is supposed to do, attended commission meetings etc, like for example, when Galante's murder was decided, Tieri was at the commission meeting, not Lombardo, although Lombardo surely knew. But did the other bosses know how the situation really was?

Terrific question. I believe that the other families knew of these games the Genovese family was playing. They all knew how cagey and secretive they are. However, my guess is none of the other families knew who was really “the boss.”

Dwalin2014 wrote: ↑Wed Nov 30, 2016 2:14 pm When, after Vito Genovese's death, the family started to use the power-behind-the-throne / front boss system, was it to trick law enforcement only or the other families too? For example, when Eboli was killed and Tieri took over, this was convenient for Gambino who was Tieri's friend, but did he know that Lombardo was the real power and had the last say, not Tieri? If I got it right, the "front bosses" did all the "duties" a boss is supposed to do, attended commission meetings etc, like for example, when Galante's murder was decided, Tieri was at the commission meeting, not Lombardo, although Lombardo surely knew. But did the other bosses know how the situation really was?

Pogo The Clown wrote:

HairyKnuckles wrote:Ardito was the official consigliere atleast until 1977.

So Ardito was Consiglieri for most of the 70s? So Tony Salerno was never the Consiglieri during this period? Thanks.


Pogo

HairyKnuckles wrote:Ardito was the official consigliere atleast until 1977.

HairyKnuckles wrote:

rayray wrote:I didn't think that the Genovese purposely "hid" the identity of the "boss" of the family, I just thought they ran their family in a way that it became confusing to those not in the know, escalating false info in who was boss or not.

It´s confusing to us because we haven´t poked our noses into it that much. Perhaps out of laziness, we chose to believe what´s on Mafiawiki and what other dubious sources say. And I´m sorry to say, but Cafaro´s testimony doesn´t help that much. In fact, it only confuses us even more. Considering our lack of overall knowledge, the Genoveses are actually not that hard to figure out. Please ask youselves...for example, who were Castellano´s captains when he took over? Not many of us could name all of them or even name half of them. You could also ask yourselves to name the Lucchese Family´s captains during the 1970s. Will we be able to name ten of them? This doesen´t mean that the Gambinos and the Luccheses were run in a special way impossible for us to figure the captains out. So our lack of overall knowledge is not only restricted to the Genovese Family who we sometime see as crime overlords, crimainal masterminds with bosses so "insulated" it´s impossible to figure them out. But they are NOT impossible to figure out. We need some extensive research on them. That´s all. Thanks to JD and his incredibly amazing research on the Colombos and the Bonannos, we now know a lot on these groups. If some similar research on the Genoveses gets launched, in a while we would know the what, when and who in regards to the Genovese Family too.

rayray wrote:I didn't think that the Genovese purposely "hid" the identity of the "boss" of the family, I just thought they ran their family in a way that it became confusing to those not in the know, escalating false info in who was boss or not.

Dwalin2014 wrote:

Antiliar wrote:What I recall about Eli Zeccardi is that he owed Carlo Gambino money and apparently showed him disrespect. Gambino contacted the then boss of the Genovese and it was considered a serious breach in protocol, which they took seriously. For all of the above he was killed.

Just to note, this is what I read and I cannot vouch for its accuracy. Others may have better info.

Gambino was a charistmatic criminal from a "fans of evil characters" point of view, but he was a real motherf#$ker to be honest imo....Didn't respect other families at all and put his long nose into others' business all the time: whacked Joe Colombo who was another family's boss (although not 100% it was him, but possible); whacked Mimi Scialo who wasn't a Gambino member either; he was a violent scumbag, ok, but the reason for killing him was stupid: a couple of drunken insults and laughing at his hat; now this, Zeccardi's killing was his doing too and again, Zeccardi was the n.2 of ANOTHER family. And maybe other such cases, don't have them in mind right now...

It would have been so much better if Bonanno succeeded in his failed plan to whack Gambino, Lucchese, Magaddino and all those others who at the end were never harmed neither by law enforcement nor by mafia rivals. Would have been an interesting turn of events, seriously, like in the movie from the 70s called "The stone killer" about an alternative mafia history, where the conservative Sicilian mafia groups in America take revenge on the former Luciano allies for taking over from the Moustache Petes in 1931 etc (although that film incorrectly takes for granted the legend that Luciano had killed a big number of old bosses at the same time as Maranzano).