Five families numbers cap.

[Lupara]

About 70 mafia families in province of Palermo. It is a rule in Cosa Nostra only Palermo city can have more than one mafia family.

I think in Palermo Cosa Nostra used to have between 10 and 15 borgate, in the 1980s and up. Am I right?

I should research but just from memory I can say it is probably not right. Only in recent years two new families were created: Kalsa and Zen by Lo Piccolo and his son who had a friendship with many guys from there.

All other families are the same for at least 50 years I think.

Thanks for your reply. At any event these borgate, whatever the number they are in the city, they are relatively small entities, isn't?

I believe that's true, around 15 members on average I remember. But a whole mandamento can be over a 100 guys.

[Antiliar]

Antonino Calderone, if I recall correctly, said that Brancaccio had 207 members in the 1980s.

[Lupara]

Antonino Calderone, if I recall correctly, said that Brancaccio had 207 members in the 1980s.

They also said Stefano Bontate had over a 100 men, but I'm thinking that may have been the mandamento he had control over.

[Dwalin2014]

Antonino Calderone, if I recall correctly, said that Brancaccio had 207 members in the 1980s.

They also said Stefano Bontate had over a 100 men, but I'm thinking that may have been the mandamento he had control over.

I read Bontate had 200 made members, and it was pointed out that each one of them had non-made associates under control.

Translation from here (sorry if there are mistakes, but the meaning is more or less this):

https://books.google.it/books?id=ik_VtG ... 22&f=false

Politicians always came to us because we have many, a great lot of votes. To have an idea about how much power does the mafia have in the elections, you could think about the Santa Maria di Gesu' family, a 200 member family: a terrifying power, especially considering that every man of honor, among friends and relatives, can have about 40-50 people at his disposal. There are about 1500-2000 men of honor in the Palermo province. Multiply this by 50 and you will have a good "package" of 75-100000 votes to direct at "friendly" political parties and candidates.

[toto]

Francesco Marino Mannoia said it was 120 in 1980 but less than 50 in 1988. So 200 must be for Santa Maria di Gesu mandamento. 40-50 people doesn't only means associates. It really means family and friends because those people can also vote. Santa Maria di Gesu mandamento also includes Villagrazia and Guadagna. Guadagna is much smaller than the other two and Pietro Aglieri was boss of this family.

Same for Brancaccio. No way the family could be that size. Also such a precise figure of Brancaccio (207) is suspicious because I doubt even the boss will know especially that Brancaccio family had a decina in Campania since decades.

The family's are usually larger in the city perhaps 50 but the way to command more men is to enlarge the mandamento. Lo Piccolo did it with Tommaso Natale/San Lorenzo to include the families from Cinisi mandamento and now Camporeale mandamento which is created a couple of years ago and included the families from other mandamenti including Partinico and San Giuseppe Jato is another example of this tactic.

[scagghiuni]

in sicily there are currently about 150 crime families
in the province of palermo there are 70 crime families divided into 15 mandamenti
in palermo city there are 34 families divided into 8 mandamenti
the larger mandamento is san lorenzo (300 members) followed by porta nuova, brancaccio, san giuseppe jato/camporeale and misilmeri (200 members)

[BillyBrizzi]

This article shows all the families and their bosses from the province of Palermo. It's from a couple of years ago, so could've been some changes in the meantime..

http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/b ... milies-and

[Lupara]

The family's are usually larger in the city perhaps 50 but the way to command more men is to enlarge the mandamento.

Then I misremembered, I thought having read that some families in Palermo had only 15 or so members.

[scagghiuni]

Then I misremembered, I thought having read that some families in Palermo had only 15 or so members.

the family of palermo city are larger than the ones in the province they have about 50 members each other

[SonnyBlackstein]

Do Italian families have the same set up?
IE Capodecina, consig, under?

[Dwalin2014]

Do Italian families have the same set up?
IE Capodecina, consig, under?

I think they do, although small families sometimes don't have capi decina, for example the Porto Empedocle family I don't think had any. Speaking of mafia family membership numbers, I am pretty sure I read Buscetta said that at least on a certain point the family of Terrasini had only TWO made members the brothers Girolamo and Calogero D'Anna.

[scagghiuni]

I think they do, although small families sometimes don't have capi decina, for example the Porto Empedocle family I don't think had any. Speaking of mafia family membership numbers, I am pretty sure I read Buscetta said that at least on a certain point the family of Terrasini had only TWO made members the brothers Girolamo and Calogero D'Anna.

they have the same ranks and rituals of american cosa nostra... there are not families with 2 members, buscetta said it? they should have 10 members at least to form a family

[Angelo Santino]

The family's are usually larger in the city perhaps 50 but the way to command more men is to enlarge the mandamento.

Then I misremembered, I thought having read that some families in Palermo had only 15 or so members.

That came from me, but it was in reference to history. Today is probably different. But the average up until the 80's was around 30-40.

[Dwalin2014]

I think they do, although small families sometimes don't have capi decina, for example the Porto Empedocle family I don't think had any. Speaking of mafia family membership numbers, I am pretty sure I read Buscetta said that at least on a certain point the family of Terrasini had only TWO made members the brothers Girolamo and Calogero D'Anna.

they have the same ranks and rituals of american cosa nostra... there are not families with 2 members, buscetta said it? they should have 10 members at least to form a family

The quote is this:

Secondo Buscetta la famiglia di Terrasini e' composta da due soli uomini d'onore; anzi una famiglia puo' essere composta anche da un solo uomo d'onore, perche' dipende dalle dimensioni del territorio della famiglia stessa

According to Buscetta, the Terrasini family is composed of only two men of honor; a family can be composed even of only one man of honor, because it depends from the size of the territory controlled by the family.

Unfortunately, I can't give the link to this anymore, because the text seems to have disappeared from google. Before it did, I saved it on my computer, it contains many quotes from different mafia sources; the other one about the number of members of the mandamento controlled by Bontate, I found the quote also in Calderone's book, although worded a little differently; on the other hand, this one about the Terrasini family, I can't find it in any other online source, maybe it's in some book which don't have an online preview.

Anyway, I uploaded the text file here, maybe it helps...Don't know, hope it's not a fake, but at least it's not one made by me.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/ybrbth

[scagghiuni]

leonardo messina said that to form a family you need 10 members at least...