New York's Commission voted for admitting new members in 1976

[Antiliar]

For the full document, it's in this file:
viewtopic.php?f=44&t=6268

[Wiseguy]

But I'm not sure if the older generation was more wiser though. We read about stick up guys today and call them wannabes, but everyone starts somewhere. Castellano was first arrested as a stick up guy or something or other. Due to what law enforcement was like back then, Castellano was able to enjoy a 30 year career which is rare for today's emerging members. Not because they're less intelligent but law enforcement has come a long way.

Between 1931 and 1960, it wasn't just bosses enjoy long tenures but captains and soldiers too. The turnover was less frequent. And with law enforcement opposing them by investigating individual crimes rather than as criminal organizations allowed for them to meet and socialize in their private quarters. This was when "the mafia doesn't exist" was still a viable argument... Then Appalachin, then Valachi, the top hoodlum program etc. The 1960's was a headache for most mob members. Law enforcement began following them around, we take that for granted today, but go back to the wiretaps of the 60's and how members were bothered. Bosses and captains stopped meeting with their underlings. The organization had to go from a open-but-quiet organization to having to go underground, it was a gradual and largely unsuccessful attempt. But if the 60's were bad, the 70's were worse as now they had to replace people during federal scrutiny and the 80's is when the FBI got good at what they do. It wasn't so much that law enforcement was ignorant of the mob, they were aware of it since the 1900's, but they had no legal resources to combat it, not until RICO.

There was some face-saving scrutiny, harassment, illegal wiretaps, etc. in the late 1950s after Apalachin, and into the early 1960s under AG Bobby Kennedy, but it was sporadic and fleeting. From then through the 1970s, the heat was off.

RICO goes into law in 1970, and Hoover dies in 1972, but it wasn't really until the 1980s, under the Reagan administration, that there was a sustained, nationwide attack on the LCN. There were still some two dozen or so families recognized by the feds going into the 1980s. Not so by the 1990s.

In a lot of ways, the mob had a 50 year window (1930s through the 1970s) where it enjoyed less law enforcement pressure, less competition from other groups, and attrition was only beginning to take effect.

[mafiastudent]

From Larry McShane at the NY Post - one of the few fair journalists out there. Published May 31, 2020...very interesting story. If you go to the link there's a pic...I have so many subscriptions these days, I don't know what's free and what's not...

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny ... e-20200531

The late, legendary Gambino crime family boss Carlo Gambino saw the future of organized crime — and the threat posed to its illicit empire by mob snitches.

A long-buried FBI document details the 1976 vote by New York’s ruling mob Commission to admit new members for the first time in two decades despite Gambino’s on-the-record worries of informants infiltrating their secret society. The heads of the Genovese, Colombo, Lucchese and Bonanno families overruled the 73-year-old "Boss of Bosses,” whose fears proved quite prescient.

In that same year, FBI undercover agent Joe Pistone slipped inside the Bonanno family under the alias “Donnie Brasco” and the Gambino family inducted Sammy (The Bull) Gravano — who became a government witness 15 years later, bringing down infamous boss John Gotti and another 38 mobsters.

“Source states Gambino adamantly opposed new membership for fear of informant penetration,” says the Feb. 17, 1976, memo sent directly to FBI Director Clarence Kelley about the top-echelon sit-down. "However (he) was outvoted 4 to 1 and reluctantly agreed go along with the proposal of 10 new members each for the five families.

“Source speculated that if Gambino had been able to persuade one other LCN (La Cosa Nostra) boss to oppose the proposal he would have been in a position to delay or prevent implementation.”

The mere existence of the report indicates the the feds already had a mole inside the Mafia. The Daily News received a copy through a federal FOIA request.

Mob experts suggested Gambino, who rose to prominence by orchestrating the 1957 murder of Albert Anastasia and died peacefully at his Long Island estate eight months after losing the 1976 vote, opposed the membership drive due to his skepticism about American-born gangsters and a desire to benefit his own crime family.

“Some of the old-timers didn’t like the new guys, the Americans, when people got made,” said Bruce Mouw, once head of the FBI’s Gambino Squad. “They didn’t trust the new generation. They liked the old paisans. It’s the dinosaur theory: They didn’t like anything new.”

Selwyn Raab, author of the definitive New York mob book “Five Families,” agreed while offering a second, more selfish motive.

“He had the largest family,” said Raab. “What does he care about the Bonannos, the Colombos and the others? But the ‘Mustache Petes’ had to make room. Every generation distrusts the upcoming Mafia members. The idea was Gambino felt the whole school of wanna-bes couldn’t be trusted.”

While reports at the time indicated the opening of the books was approved by a national mob board, the FBI memo indicates the decision was made strictly by the heads of New York’s five families at a meeting convened by Gambino.

The Colombo family, on the rebound from a long internecine battle pitting its leadership against the insurgent “Crazy Joey” Gallo faction, quickly inducted 10 men on Feb. 5, 1976, the report indicated. Among the new recruits was Thomas (Shorty) Spero, killed four years later by a Genovese family associate who would eventually testify against his boss Vincent (Chin) Gigante.

“All of the above-named individuals are now ‘good-fellows’ (members of LCN) and recognized as such by all ‘families,’” the memo added.

A handwritten note with the paperwork describes the content as “extremely sensitive and not to be disseminated outside Bureau under any circumstances at this time to prevent compromise of sources.”

[mafiastudent]

*Daily News --- It's late...Larry McShane from the NY Daily News...

[JMAN723]

Well in retrospect it’s absolutely. A lot of those guys made in 1976-77 really sunk the mafia interns of how powerful they once were. I’m not just talking about those who cooperated but those who rise to powerful positions they had no business being in

[mafiastudent]

The link that goes directly to the story ---

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny ... story.html

[mafiastudent]

Also did not see this was previously posted earlier....apologize...please delete.....I don't always check all the way down. I just checked in various articles...

[Villain]

Perhaps Gambino's idea was indeed for the mob, as a large criminal organization, to die out and some of the more well connected to become more or less legitimate.

Similar as DiFronzo maybe?

Why did he have that intention with the Chicago Mafia? has anything to do with chicago's gangs today?

DiFronzo possibly had the same fear as Gambino, meaning too many rats and constant pressure from the government

[furiofromnaples]

When you think about it the decision to close the books and keep them closed for so long really damaged the 5 families. If they had consistency inducted new members since the say the early 1960s guys like Gotti, Amuso, Caso, Gravano, D'Arco, the Persics, Vitale and most of the others guys who caused so much damage in the 1980s and 1990s never would have risen to those high level positions when they did. The whole recent history of the 5 families would be completely different.


Pogo

It was a national trend that most couldn't recover from, it was pretty much the east coast that was able to fill 40 slots in a short amount of time. Also, 1970's was pretty much when the 1920's died, you had alot of members who were active in that era that went on to lead long lives before dying in that time. You can compare membership estimates from the 1960's with the 1980's and see the drop off, it's not 100% accurate to the exact number but it factored into their decline significantly.

In the FBI Agent's Boss of Bosses book, they quoted themselves discussing how the Castellano wing had people of different generations whereas in Dellacroce's there was a 30 year gap between him and Gotti et al.

The narrative in the 1980's was about how all of these "young guys" were coming up that didn't listen. Pistone, Lonardo even Buscetta alluded to this, it was Cafaro who offered a different take. He was asked about Scarfo-Bruno racketeer-gangster comparison and he responded: "We're all gangsters. If there's a young guy out there doing something he shouldn't it's up to his skipper to pull him in, teach him right from wrong." Cafaro seemed more "in tune" than other people, he didn't lay anything off on anything or conjure up excuses. He even flat out stated if he had to do it all over again he would except he'd rather just run a nightclub and not be so close to the boss. He also predicted the state of the commission in the coming years- "autopilot, Chin's a boss and Gotti's a boss and they're do their own thing but the respect will still be there." Despite the murder plots he's more of less right- the families didn't go to war and seem to just coexist without a formal body meeting regularly.

Could it have just been the 1980's? Cocaine, Gordon Gecko etc? In terms of "mafiosi in good standing with the rules" I'd offer up Philadelphia or the Gambinos post Gotti.

I think that would be the same even there wasntvthe young guys as bosses. The second or third generation mobsters was more americanized,forget or never learned the italian and dont have the force to spend many years of their life in prison plus in the 1970s-1980s the mobsters doesnt had the power in the prison that had in the past years and with the Rico was more easy to go in federal prisons.
They wanted the money,the women and for sure had the balls to pull a triage but not had the "Cosa Nostra till I die" mentality.

I don't agree with that. The entire Americanization concept is overstated. The "older guys" faced the legal system in its infancy where sentences weren't very long (Scarfo did a year for stabbing someone in public) whereas in the 1980's is when the FBI received additional funding from Reagan combined with long sentences for RICO convictions... I would argue that if we took any successful boss in history- Gambino, Accardo, Bonanno and magically placed them in charge of their Families in 1985, things would have probably went down the same way as it did in reality. The average wiseguy hasn't gotten dumber, law enforcement has just gotten much more sophisticated.

The only Americanization issue I could see would be perhaps the decline of the Italian neighborhood, which at one time was a strong immigrant colony. The Bronx Tale where Palmintieri shoots someone and no one speaks up, that was quite common in the 50's. But there's really no immigrant Ital neighborhoods like this anymore nor is the culture as intimidated by them as they once were.

As far as prison sentences, I reiterate back then the guidelines weren't very long, 15 years was a very rare thing. Now it's quite common. It's easier to keep your mouth shut when facing 5 years as opposed to 50. As far as the penal experience as a man's man bonafide, there's examples of members who served time and when faced with the possibility of going back in decided to flip. Natale is just one example there's many others.

Sonny Franzese get 50 y in 1967 and don't flip while Angelo Lonardo flips in 1983 for drug trafficking because doesn't want to die in prison,they was both the old time guys but while Franzese understood that would put the crime family above the blood family,not so did Lonardo.
A second things was that before the mobsters prefer to die than flips like Frank Bompensiero that despite know that was market accept that he would die while Pete Chiodo and other preferred to flip for save their life or frank gioia jr for don't kill his dad.After all there are some made men like Tommy Pitera,Fabrizio deFrancisci ecc that accepted long sentences or life but for the other guys,they have n't the "Cosa Nostra till I die" mentality.
For the fact that the most of the crime families was disbanded in 1980s that was because they was small at its peak and the bosses prederred to don't made new blood like Cleveland,Pittsburgh,New Orleans or had a bloody internal feud like the ABC war in Rochester or the conflict in Buffalo between Magaddino and Pieri or was just too weak like all the California families.

[Lupara]

Also did not see this was previously posted earlier....apologize...please delete.....I don't always check all the way down. I just checked in various articles...

Actually, thanks for posting the whole article since there are restrictions for readers outside America.

[Angelo Santino]

When you think about it the decision to close the books and keep them closed for so long really damaged the 5 families. If they had consistency inducted new members since the say the early 1960s guys like Gotti, Amuso, Caso, Gravano, D'Arco, the Persics, Vitale and most of the others guys who caused so much damage in the 1980s and 1990s never would have risen to those high level positions when they did. The whole recent history of the 5 families would be completely different.


Pogo

It was a national trend that most couldn't recover from, it was pretty much the east coast that was able to fill 40 slots in a short amount of time. Also, 1970's was pretty much when the 1920's died, you had alot of members who were active in that era that went on to lead long lives before dying in that time. You can compare membership estimates from the 1960's with the 1980's and see the drop off, it's not 100% accurate to the exact number but it factored into their decline significantly.

In the FBI Agent's Boss of Bosses book, they quoted themselves discussing how the Castellano wing had people of different generations whereas in Dellacroce's there was a 30 year gap between him and Gotti et al.

The narrative in the 1980's was about how all of these "young guys" were coming up that didn't listen. Pistone, Lonardo even Buscetta alluded to this, it was Cafaro who offered a different take. He was asked about Scarfo-Bruno racketeer-gangster comparison and he responded: "We're all gangsters. If there's a young guy out there doing something he shouldn't it's up to his skipper to pull him in, teach him right from wrong." Cafaro seemed more "in tune" than other people, he didn't lay anything off on anything or conjure up excuses. He even flat out stated if he had to do it all over again he would except he'd rather just run a nightclub and not be so close to the boss. He also predicted the state of the commission in the coming years- "autopilot, Chin's a boss and Gotti's a boss and they're do their own thing but the respect will still be there." Despite the murder plots he's more of less right- the families didn't go to war and seem to just coexist without a formal body meeting regularly.

Could it have just been the 1980's? Cocaine, Gordon Gecko etc? In terms of "mafiosi in good standing with the rules" I'd offer up Philadelphia or the Gambinos post Gotti.

I think that would be the same even there wasntvthe young guys as bosses. The second or third generation mobsters was more americanized,forget or never learned the italian and dont have the force to spend many years of their life in prison plus in the 1970s-1980s the mobsters doesnt had the power in the prison that had in the past years and with the Rico was more easy to go in federal prisons.
They wanted the money,the women and for sure had the balls to pull a triage but not had the "Cosa Nostra till I die" mentality.

I don't agree with that. The entire Americanization concept is overstated. The "older guys" faced the legal system in its infancy where sentences weren't very long (Scarfo did a year for stabbing someone in public) whereas in the 1980's is when the FBI received additional funding from Reagan combined with long sentences for RICO convictions... I would argue that if we took any successful boss in history- Gambino, Accardo, Bonanno and magically placed them in charge of their Families in 1985, things would have probably went down the same way as it did in reality. The average wiseguy hasn't gotten dumber, law enforcement has just gotten much more sophisticated.

The only Americanization issue I could see would be perhaps the decline of the Italian neighborhood, which at one time was a strong immigrant colony. The Bronx Tale where Palmintieri shoots someone and no one speaks up, that was quite common in the 50's. But there's really no immigrant Ital neighborhoods like this anymore nor is the culture as intimidated by them as they once were.

As far as prison sentences, I reiterate back then the guidelines weren't very long, 15 years was a very rare thing. Now it's quite common. It's easier to keep your mouth shut when facing 5 years as opposed to 50. As far as the penal experience as a man's man bonafide, there's examples of members who served time and when faced with the possibility of going back in decided to flip. Natale is just one example there's many others.

Sonny Franzese get 50 y in 1967 and don't flip while Angelo Lonardo flips in 1983 for drug trafficking because doesn't want to die in prison,they was both the old time guys but while Franzese understood that would put the crime family above the blood family,not so did Lonardo.
A second things was that before the mobsters prefer to die than flips like Frank Bompensiero that despite know that was market accept that he would die while Pete Chiodo and other preferred to flip for save their life or frank gioia jr for don't kill his dad.After all there are some made men like Tommy Pitera,Fabrizio deFrancisci ecc that accepted long sentences or life but for the other guys,they have n't the "Cosa Nostra till I die" mentality.
For the fact that the most of the crime families was disbanded in 1980s that was because they was small at its peak and the bosses prederred to don't made new blood like Cleveland,Pittsburgh,New Orleans or had a bloody internal feud like the ABC war in Rochester or the conflict in Buffalo between Magaddino and Pieri or was just too weak like all the California families.

Ok.
Franzese and Lonardo are two individuals, we're talking trends. Put it another way, had 1980's law enforcement been transplanted back to 1900's and set loose on the Mafia, the organization likely wouldn't have made it past the 1920's and if they did, they would have existed in a far diminished state. And you would have had plenty of informants as you already did. It's a misconception that "Omerta" was adherred to until the 1960's, what really changed was law enforcement's utilization of them to maximum potential.. Regarding your second, Frank Bompensiero did flip, maybe Sonny Black would be a better example for the point you're making?.. Yes, the points you made all do factor into smaller families' demises.

[Wiseguy]

For the fact that the most of the crime families was disbanded in 1980s that was because they was small at its peak and the bosses prederred to don't made new blood like Cleveland,Pittsburgh,New Orleans or had a bloody internal feud like the ABC war in Rochester or the conflict in Buffalo between Magaddino and Pieri or was just too weak like all the California families.

About half the families were basically finished by the 1990s. You still had the 5 NY, New Jersey, Buffalo, New England, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Chicago.

[Angelo Santino]

For the fact that the most of the crime families was disbanded in 1980s that was because they was small at its peak and the bosses prederred to don't made new blood like Cleveland,Pittsburgh,New Orleans or had a bloody internal feud like the ABC war in Rochester or the conflict in Buffalo between Magaddino and Pieri or was just too weak like all the California families.

About half the families were basically finished by the 1990s. You still had the 5 NY, New Jersey, Buffalo, New England, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Chicago.

You know what I found very interesting was the agita these guys experienced with the new-found pressure from law enforcement. SF was one example where the boss just stopped meeting with everyone. And this guy, like Lonardo, like DiLeonardo, Castellano, Gambino etc came from a Mafia background with lineage in his bloodlines. Yet as we can see, many couldn't handle it. This maybe explains Pueblo and how the Sicilians there just gave it up, their relatives are all successful today and they don't talk about it. I think it's possible before the 1960's there might have been more of a "softer" element that existed, members like Mineo or Tommy Gambino or other Sicilian descendant members who weren't really seasoned criminals but became members due to their bloodlines. I would think with the onslaught of pressure in the 1960's that may have diminished that small but interesting element, leaving it open to more hardened criminals like Gotti, Amuso, Gravano and the other examples you mentioned. It should also be noted that these examples, some may have had a relative or twoo in the mob, didn't come from a mafia background like Bonanno, DiLeonardo or Gambino etc.

[Confederate]

Franzese and Lonardo are two individuals, we're talking trends. Put it another way, had 1980's law enforcement been transplanted back to 1900's and set loose on the Mafia, the organization likely wouldn't have made it past the 1920's and if they did, they would have existed in a far diminished state. And you would have had plenty of informants as you already did. It's a misconception that "Omerta" was adherred to until the 1960's, what really changed was law enforcement's utilization of them to maximum potential..

Very well stated & I believe to be a very accurate assessment, especially the last sentence. However, in addition, I would also add the increase in drug usage by more these younger members doesn't help either.

[DPG]

The whole “these young guys coming up” argument has being going since the Stone Age, and is in no way specific to the Mafia. It’s obviously basic human nature.