Lucchese Family size

[brianwellbrock]

The Luccheses are seen as the number 3 family but from what I have seen that until the 70's they were the least important and smallest family. It looks like Gagliano was the least important of the first bosses and they didnt have any alliances except the East Harlem and Bronx connections with the Genovese. They also seeseeo be the "junk" family back in the French Connect days.

The Profaci and Bonnano families having Gambino play a part in their dysfunction shows they were bigger fish where as Gambino made an alliance with Lucchese to get apart in some of their good rackets. Rackets which were the exception as at they seemed to be mostly blue collar.

An MF doc I read where someone says in the late 60's that the Lucchese may be small and fu of junk people but they have the most shooters of any family is what sparked my interest. While the Colombos and Bonnanos had instability from the 60's through the 90's the Luccheses didnt have any instability and Corrallo had some good rackets developed under his reign.

So after all that my question is were the Lucchese more or less the weak second cousin to the Genovese pre 1970's and were viewed how we see the Bonannos and Colombos today? Are they the smallest family in terms of size? And were Gagliano and Lucchese not as important in the commission as Bonnano and Profaci were?

[HairyKnuckles]

The Lucchese Family was small in size. But don´t understimate Tommy Lucchese. He had an enormous clout and was an integral part on the Commission. Size dosen´t always matter.

[InCamelot]

Hey cool topic.

I think the Lucchese's have often been the ones on the fence via all New York mob politics. Going back to Gagliano, they were also sort of leaning towards being businessmen. They might have been less sophisticated and secretive than the Genovese, but the Luccheses always seemed to be about business.

I've read speculation about Gagliano and his ice business I think it was, and that he wanted to be more of a legit guy than a mobster. Tommy Lucchese was very entrenched in judges, politics, the legit world, and even figuring out how to infiltrate it with rackets. He was thinking white collar and behind "street" stuff.

Tony Ducks is seen as an innovator and leader in bringing mob rackets to a new white collar level I believe. Even Gaspipe, despite how bullshit that Carlo book was, is described as a guy who just wanted to make money more than deal with administration, mafia rules, etc. I think the book even says he chose the Luccheses over Chin and the Genovese because they were a little looser, more independent.

But back to being on the fence, if you look at it, Tommy Lucchese was the one consistently opposing Bonnano and Profaci. He aligned with Gambino and Vito Genovese at different times back when they were just number twos. He seemed to have been quietly maneuvering Commission politics, possibly because of the size and nature of the family as a unassuming number three spot.

I think even back to the war in the late 20s early 30s, Gagliano and Lucchese were often staying neutral, jumping on both sides. And when the Commission started Gagliano didn't even come to meetings at some point? I may be remembering wrong here.

[InCamelot]

Sorry I made some mistakes typing there. I meant to say "He was thinking white collar and not just street stuff"

[InCamelot]

It seems like the Genovese value sophistication and the Americanization of the criminal organization, but also secrecy, structure, rules, and a relative selflessness as well. Such as the duty to step up and help with ruling panels.

With the Lucchese's their leaders always struck me as folks who were good with purely business. For the most part at least. Even consigliere's like Vincent Rao, it was noted that he was particularly good with money laundering. Its interesting.

[InCamelot]

Sorry I forgot to also add, I thought that the Bonannos were more of a junk family.

[Wiseguy]

I always read people on the forums saying the Luccheses are the "number 3 family," and that has been the case (including at present), but I think the three smaller NY families have shifted in their positions over the years and haven't necessarily always been the same like the Genovese and Gambinos being #1 and 2, respectively. And while the 3 smaller families have always been similar in size, their numbers have shifted too. I've read at times the Luccheses were the smallest, while at other times they were slightly bigger than the Colombos and Bonannos. As far as the present day, most estimates put those three families very similar in size, each with around 100 (or slightly over) members.

The Luccheses were always heavy in the drug trade but they were involved in the garment center early on and later the airport. Of course their construction and garbage interests really grew under Corallo.

[brianwellbrock]

The Lucchese Family was small in size. But don´t understimate Tommy Lucchese. He had an enormous clout and was an integral part on the Commission. Size dosen´t always matter.

Tell that to my ex gf

Yeah I was going to come on here and correct my posts. I did some further reading on what I have and it seems Lucchese actually did a lot of expanding after he took over. It still seems to me that pre-1950's the Gagliano Family was more or less a Bronx-East Harlem Family with a Jersey crew that kept to themselves other than dealing with their Genovese cousins in said territories.

The things that seemed to push them past the Colombos and Bonnanos is that They didnt have the 1960's turmoil that the other two had and continued to have. Which during that time they expanded into more white collar rackets. They seem to be post 1930's the only family that didnt have internal strife barring the Buddy Luongo indicent and the early 90's.

So than what was their scope during Gaglianos time? Im not saying the weakest but the least active or involved in the grand scheme of things?

[brianwellbrock]

It seems like the Genovese value sophistication and the Americanization of the criminal organization, but also secrecy, structure, rules, and a relative selflessness as well. Such as the duty to step up and help with ruling panels.

With the Lucchese's their leaders always struck me as folks who were good with purely business. For the most part at least. Even consigliere's like Vincent Rao, it was noted that he was particularly good with money laundering. Its interesting.

Yeah a reason why I brought this up is because it seems the Luccheses had evolved the most. The Colombos were primarily a Brooklyn family that only decreased in power since the 60's. The Bonnanos never got into the white collar rackets amd have stayed very insular. The Gambinos and Genovese have always been powerful and its stayed that way.

Corallo and Santoro were junk guys in their younger days and became big into labor. The family also seemed to have expanded their territory into Queens and Brooklyn and L.I. post war maybe. Seems like at some point they were what the Colombos are now as far as spheres of influence and the Bonnanos are, a family with not much sophistication and left them in their rearview.

[InCamelot]

Yeah a reason why I brought this up is because it seems the Luccheses had evolved the most. The Colombos were primarily a Brooklyn family that only decreased in power since the 60's. The Bonnanos never got into the white collar rackets amd have stayed very insular.

In fact didn't Joe Massino say about the labour rackets something to the effect of "let's not do anymore of that. we don't need to get into that"

[Rocco]

I think they are small but they are a very wealthy family always have been. Think that they have profited in clout and wealth due to their longstanding close relationship with the Genovese Family. The Bronx area crews and the little Italy area crews of these two families... going back 50yrs have always been close. I think allot of Genovese people were angry when Buddy Luongo got hit. Especially the Bronx guys.

[Wiseguy]

In fact didn't Joe Massino say about the labour rackets something to the effect of "let's not do anymore of that. we don't need to get into that"

He said that about the Bonannos not getting into the gas tax scam. But he also said at another time "We really have nothing to do with the unions" or something to that effect.

[brianwellbrock]

Ironically Massino went to prison for labor racketeering.

Re the Lucchese Family Defede said that the Luccheses were only pulling in 6 mil a year when he was AB. Was that the money that was turned in to the administration?

[Pogo The Clown]

Re the Lucchese Family Defede said that the Luccheses were only pulling in 6 mil a year when he was AB. Was that the money that was turned in to the administration?

I'm sure that was only the money that was kicked up to them (adjusted for inflation that would be about 10 million now). The family really imploded in the early/mid 90s with most of their active members going away and them losing most of their big money rackets (garment center, garbage, airport). Their construction rackes also took a big hit. So it is believable that their earnings were in the toilet during this period.


Pogo

[Rocco]

Yeah a reason why I brought this up is because it seems the Luccheses had evolved the most. The Colombos were primarily a Brooklyn family that only decreased in power since the 60's. The Bonnanos never got into the white collar rackets amd have stayed very insular.

In fact didn't Joe Massino say about the labour rackets something to the effect of "let's not do anymore of that. we don't need to get into that"

Bonanno's, Colombo's and Lucheses's all moved into white collar crime. Stock Fraud , Mortgage Fraud , Gas Tax etc Even the DeCAv's were big into white collar stuff. Only family that hasn't evolved is the Philly Fam. They are a small family and is probably why the limited income from the Bookmaking, joker machines , loan sharking and drugs has been enough to sustain them.