The most interesting of small families?

[Extortion]

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

I’m gonna have to agree here. Marcello was really prominent and powerful. Does anybody know why really he was more prominent than others? Also very mysterious family.

[Pmac2]

if were talking recently its merlino and philly. he has flags all over the place. hands in pies all over. respected across the map and still free. the other 2 small families the decavs and new england. there a snooze. probaly a good thing but seem to me just more of a social status thing

[stubbs]

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

I’m gonna have to agree here. Marcello was really prominent and powerful. Does anybody know why really he was more prominent than others? Also very mysterious family.

He was in power a long time like many bosses of small families of his generation, and also due to the jfk conspiracies there’s a lot of hype and rumors.

I believe the NOLA family wasn’t that powerful, but that’s probably best for a longer discussion in that recent New Orleans family thread.

[RamshackleMan]

Milwaukee or KC - primarily because of Balistrieri and Civella’s strong personalities. To navigate your own family politics and still never run too far afoul of numerous Outfit administrations is no small thing.

[Extortion]

Patriarcas and Rochester for me.

[newera_212]

Patriarcas and Rochester for me.

exact same for me. Always thought it was cool how the Patriarcas arguably “had” an insanely large geographical territory with New England, but traditionally kept the power base centered around essentially a couple streets in one neighborhood in Providence. It’s also fascinating how that family fell apart as fast as it did, considering the roots it had. I know its not what it used to be anywhere in the country, but considering how big Boston is, that has to be the biggest fall off we’ve seen in a LCN family.

Rochester is interesting too for a lot of reasons, but the size of the city plays into that as well. For a city of its (smaller) size, there were a LOT of guys involved in Rochester LCN at one point. Always was and still is a big Italian population up there. The trajectory of that family almost mirrors the city itself. When the Rochester family was the biggest and most active, Rochester as a whole was booming and peaking...and it economically and sizably declined through out the 80s into the 90s. I could only imagine what money those guys were making in the 50s - 70s, they were the only game in town... a town where blue collar jobs couldn't be given away fast enough, everyone had money, and everyone liked to gamble and go out. Even if they didn’t literally kill themselves off, with law enforcement taking down the survivors, the local economy probably would have eventually done the same thing to them.