Claiming Associates

[Etna]

So, I was reading some articles written by GohnJotti regarding Anthony Preza who was being shaken down by the Bonannos but paid protection to the Colombos. In the same article, Gohn (if you are reading this) states that Amato was reclaiming the rest of the pieces on the street.

As a hypothetical - if one crew has all of its made men locked up, can other families move in and claim those associates or are those guys just on record with their original group and just reach out to the guy who is in jail? Just from this one incident it seems like it's open season if there's no one on the street to protect them.

[TallGuy19]

The only specific examples I can think of would be Donnie Brasco who was on record with Anthony Mirra until Mirra went to prison, and he then transferred to Lefty Ruggiero. When Mirra got out he tried to reclaim Brasco, but lost.

The other one I can think of is Nick Caramandi and Charlie Iannece. After they murdered Pat Spirito they were given control of his crew, but they were still only proposed members and weren't placed on record with anyone else. During the time between Spirito's murder and them being made about a year later, Faffy Iannarella and Tommy DelGiorno tried to move in on their territory, and they didn't have anyone to turn to for protection.

I guess the associates could be placed directly with the captain until the soldier they're with gets released. Like most things in the mob it depends on the situation.

[johnny_scootch]

So, I was reading some articles written by GohnJotti regarding Anthony Preza who was being shaken down by the Bonannos but paid protection to the Colombos. In the same article, Gohn (if you are reading this) states that Amato was reclaiming the rest of the pieces on the street.

As a hypothetical - if one crew has all of its made men locked up, can other families move in and claim those associates or are those guys just on record with their original group and just reach out to the guy who is in jail? Just from this one incident it seems like it's open season if there's no one on the street to protect them.

Once you're on record as an associate with someone that's it you belong to them, jail does not break that bond and shaking down other members associates is against the rules. If someone was trying to shake you down and your guy was in jail you'd reach out to him and he would reach out to one of the members of his family on the street to help you. Usually this is done ahead of time so the associate already knows who to call while their guy does his time and sometimes if the associate is important enough they'd be able to reach out directly to their guys skipper. They call it being serviced.

[NYNighthawk]

Tony Mirra never went officially on record with Donny Brasco. It was only when he got out of the can and saw Brasco was making money for Lefty - he wanted in on the action.