The most interesting of small families?

[aleksandrored]

We usually see people talking and taking more interest in families in NY, Chicago and even Philadelphia, but what about smaller families? for you which of the smaller families is the most interesting and why?

[Moscone65]

New Orleans. Very mysterious yet powerful family. Also St. Louis as there seems to be a very shared underworld with the Italians/Syrians/outfit backed non Italians

[Pogo The Clown]

Rochester. A small family that didn't last long but none the less had a colorful history. You had mob wars, lots of public killings, bombings, tons of informants and indictments and even a taped induction ceremony. It was crazy.


Pogo

[FriendofHenry]

Obviously, Pittsburgh for me

[Adam]

Kansas City. The blatant political ties, the violence of the 70s-80s, big involvement in Vegas. And it was a very small family and active well into the late 80s at least.

[Grouchy Sinatra]

I wouldn't consider KC small at their peak. I saw one of their charts that included associates from the 1950s and it looked like something out of Chicago. Tentacles all over every profitable industry in the region. KC is no small town. It was a wet city during Prohibition which established themselves as a party destination like N.O. and Vegas.

[PolackTony]

For me, the smaller Midwest families -- Rockford, Milwaukee, Madison, Springfield. They all had their unique sets of relationships to Chicago, and in several cases served as refuge for dissident anti-Caponite Chicago mafiosi.

Of all of them, I'd say Rockford. So close as to be practically part of Chicagoland, but with a degree of local autonomy, a very strong Sicilian base, and their own links to other families in both US and Sicily.

[Adam]

I wouldn't consider KC small at their peak. I saw one of their charts that included associates from the 1950s and it looked like something out of Chicago. Tentacles all over every profitable industry in the region. KC is no small town. It was a wet city during Prohibition which established themselves as a party destination like N.O. and Vegas.

Fair point. And yeah, a lot of associates. I may have interpreted the question wrong. But in reading about the 70s-80s and who the top people were and who the suspected hitters were, it's a very small group of people. As in you know these ten names, and you know pretty much everyone involved in the skim, River Quay/Spero brothers and peripheral things going on afterwards. I mean you've got DeLuna as a probable shooter at the Virginia Tavern hit. Small group of really important people. That's all I meant.

[NYNighthawk]

Buffalo still has something going.

[Rat]

The California Families are pretty interesting to me as far as small families go

[OcSleeper]

Buffalo would have to be for me. Its mainly their ties to Canada that interest me. I believe they've always had 30-50 guys but had quite a large area just in the US alone that came under their influence they you had their Canadian activities that are still going on today.

Rochester. A small family that didn't last long but none the less had a colorful history. You had mob wars, lots of public killings, bombings, tons of informants and indictments and even a taped induction ceremony. It was crazy.

Kinda funny I never heard of this family until today and now this is the second time always thought Rochester fell under the Bonannos and Buffalo.

[joeycigars]

The DeCavalcante are small and had a most interesting history ,Still active, Inspiration for the fictional Sopranos

[Dave65827]

Buffalo for me with its Canadian ties and the fact Todaro Jr owns a Pizza restaurant like Gus Fring (and it allegedly it still be active in some way)

[JoeCamel]

San Jose. Cerittos lawsuit. Sal Marino murder case. LA too. Pogo has a good point on Rochester. Apparently Rockford is active still?

[BarrettM]

I was doing research a couple months ago, apparently there were made men on record with the Bonannos living in Rochester.
I never figured out why but the Bonanno name kept popping up when the FBI was trying to figure out how the Valenti family worked and how it was structured.

My answer is Tampa, Pittston, and Marcello.