That's a good observation. By having guys running the family who were actively dealing with legal troubles, it kept the power firmly in Persico's hands. Even Benny Aloi who was one of the constants in the leadership from 1986 onward had his own legal issues on and off. Orena shook it up by staying in power on the streets for years, and look what ended up happening.HairyKnuckles wrote:I have noticed that too. Can´t help to think that Persico Sr sometimes wanted some of these men to get into trouble, although that doesn´t make any sense really. He was an insecure boss and perhaps he sometimes solved his leadership problems by letting some of these men get into a jam. And perhaps, there was on some occasions people within the Colombo Family (not counting Orena) who wanted Persico removed. Who knows...Persico simply may have been suffering from paranoia, seeing signs of conspiracies everywhere he turned. But you know what they say about paranoid people? Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get you,Most of the guys running the family during this period had sentences hanging over their heads and continued in their leadership roles until they were off the streets.
Benny Aloi has become more interesting to me through reading about this era. His brother Vinny obviously was made much earlier (1950s) and had been a family leader before Persico took power, but he was out of the leadership picture completely by the late 1970s and doesn't seem to have been much of a factor through most of the 1980s. Benny got made in the 1970s and became a core part of the Persico faction, first taking over Langella's decina and then joining the admin later. Vinny Aloi seems to have become a player again because of Benny's power. The Persicos were also willing to make peace with the Alois during the war, but seems the Aloi weren't interested or didn't get the message.
Census records show a Frank Aloi who was seemingly an older brother of Benny and Vinny, but I'm not sure the story there. There is no mention in the 1940 census of Sebastian Jr. but he would have been born around 1939 and maybe the information was collected before he was born or he was missed for some other reason. I don't know much about the father Buster. Anyone know how he got involved in the family, early associates pre-1950s, or even where in Italy he was from?
