Pogo The Clown wrote: ↑Tue Aug 11, 2020 7:57 pm
I remember several years back some MF documents were posted that went deep into the process of how Madison disbanded. I'm going from memory so some of my details may be off.
But they had about 10 members left with a Boss and UnderBoss. They got to the point that their level of activity got so low that they got together to vote to disband the family. My memory may be playing tricks on me but I seem to remember that about 2 members (still criminally active?) wanted to continue so were allowed to transfer to the Milwaukee family. I think the formality of the remaining members getting together to vote to disband (or asking NY to do like Birmingham) has gone by the wayside like so many other traditions.
My take way from it was they viewed criminal activity as the basis for their existence and that without it there was no point in being a family so they got together to officially disband. This seems to have been Angelo Lonardo's view when he said there was no family in Clevleand but added that it could come back if some of the members got out of prison and they inducted new members.
Awesome, that's a great example. Totally slipped my mind.
I can only find an online write-up about it, but the source was Milwaukee member informant Augie Maniaci:
This was all perhaps for naught on the part of the FBI as federal informants continually pointed out that although Caputo was the undisputed boss, he was a boss of a family that was more or less inactive since the 1940s. Interestingly, a May 21, 1973 FBI report detailed a conversation that a Milwaukee informant (made member Augie Maniaci) had with Rockford members Charles Vince, Frank Correnti, Phil Emordeno, Sebastian Gulotta, Joe Maggio and Phil Priola regarding the Madison LCN. Charles Vince, who was Rockford’s capo, told Maniaci that the Madison family had recently disbanded by vote. Two of the members voted to keep the family intact while the rest voted against it. The family did indeed disband and the two who voted in favor ended up joining the Milwaukee family. Maniaci then told his FBI handlers that the dissolution of the Madison family didn’t surprise him because, “they haven’t had anything but bad breath and armpits going for them for more than ten years.”
I've seen similar accounts of Madison being mostly criminally inactive basically since post-prohibition period. I'm sure lack of criminal activity played a role, as we know that is a large part of what these families do, though it doesn't say what the exact motivation was for a formal break-up. Maniaci heard it second-hand from the Rockford member and this excerpt doesn't say anything specific about Madison's internal reasoning. Maybe there is more in the original report if we find it.
Things to consider:
- The same informant, Augie Maniaci, told the FBI in 1965 that Frank Balistrieri told him he now had "authority" over the Madison family, but Maniaci felt this would require Chicago's approval.
- In 1968, Maniaci told the FBI that Balistrieri had tried to take over the Madison family in 1966, was unsuccessful, and that Madison was now under the Chicago family while still remaining a standalone family with their own boss.
- The Chicago connection in both accounts makes sense, as in other reports Maniaci told the FBI the Madison leadership were originally Chicago members in the 1920s.
I'm sure lack of activity played a role, though Madison may have voted to disband to avoid Balistrieri's attempts to meddle with them. The two Madison members who went with Milwaukee wouldn't have required Milwaukee's approval to engage in criminal activity, so it's more likely they supported Balistrieri's earlier attempts to influence Madison. Typically outside attempts to influence a family also have some support from the inside, so without deeper info this is one possibility. There were issues between Madison and Milwaukee, so it makes sense why most members wouldn't have been assigned to them.
Because only two members transferred to Milwaukee, where did the other members go? No affiliation? Birmingham was allegedly placed under Tom Gagliano decades earlier, then retired Frank Valenti was placed with LA by the Commission over a decade later. The other ex-Madison members would still need formal assignment regardless of their activity level and we know two members were re-assigned. It's likely they belonged to Chicago, who Maniaci said already controlled the family in 1968 and where Caputo, Aiello, and others had already been members in the 1920s.
A decision to formally disband a family would be a political decision. On a practical level, Madison had been "inactive" for many years and no sources disagree, so it doesn't make sense that they would suddenly decide to disband because of no criminal activity. If we look at the years leading up to Madison's break-up, we see they wanted to be left alone but were part of a political struggle between Milwaukee and Chicago. Breaking up ensured they'd be left out of it.
Another reason could be by 1973 there had been over a decade of intense FBI scrutiny, media coverage, and it was well-known that the US mafia had been infiltrated by informants. The Godfather had also come out the year previous. Bosses of similarly low-key families like San Francisco and San Jose had nervous breakdowns in the years leading up to this. Given Madison had little interest in the operational side of mafia activity for decades, they may have decided all of this external scrutiny wasn't worth it.
- It's surprising San Francisco didn't vote to disband. James Lanza ordered his members not to engage in criminal activity and he refused to meet anyone but his underboss. This continued throughout the 1970s and there was virtually no activity but they remained a family. Anthony Lima did want to become boss again and resume inducting members, though he was also an FBI informant.
- Joe Cerrito behaved similarly to Lanza in San Jose. San Jose still had more influence from other US families, though, which likely influenced them to stay together and remain slightly more "active" than SF.
Super glad you remembered Madison. It shows that the process of disbanding from within was a formal process that was voted on and resulted in at least some re-assignments. I suspect it had to do with Balistrieri, the politics between Milwaukee and Chicago, and LE/public scrutiny, though again maybe the original report has more on their internal reasoning.
I don't know that we can assume what various families have done or didn't do without similar reports. We have Madison taking a very formal approach to disbanding, while San Francisco remained a family even though they were in a similar state to Madison. Five years earlier New Orleans may have had as few as five members but decided to induct new members rather than disband or die out. There doesn't seem to be one single motivation or set of circumstance that motivates a small, dwindling family to disband vs. stay together or even induct new members.
