Timeline: Decline of families

[SonnyBlackstein]

Can we compile a historical list of all recognized/functioning families in the US. Can we then put year/s on when it is commonly accepted as to when, as a functioning family, they went defunct.

IE New Orleans, Trafficante, Cleveland, Buffalo, LA. Etc.

When did these and more, families cease to function as such.

My thanks in advance.

[phatmatress777]

Pittsburgh I would say they totally went down in 98/99 after strollo flipping or totally done done in 2006 when Genovese died. I would lean more towards 1999.

Cleveland would prob be somewhere from 1983 to 1989 somewhere


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[Pogo The Clown]

Here is what I got. Some of these are being generous as for certain families I'm listing the year when the last recognized Boss died. Some of these years also do not preclude some LCN activity continuing after these years.


Cleveland - 1991 (you can even say 1983 or 1989 like Phat said)
Pittsburgh - 2006 (probably earlier like Phat said)
New Orleans - 1994
Milwaukee - 1997
St. Louis - 1997
LA - 2000s
Buffalo - 2000s
Kansas City - 2006
Tampa - 2000s
Bufalino - 1990s (though Boss Billy D'Elia continued to be active until 2006)
Rochester - 1988
Denver/Pueblo - Mid/late 1980s
San Jose - Mid/late 1980s
San Francisco - Late 1970s/early 1980s.
Rockford - Late 1980s
Springfield - 1974
Madison - 1973
Dallas - 1970?

[B.]

Philadelphia - 2999

[willychichi]

Here is what I got. Some of these are being generous as for certain families I'm listing the year when the last recognized Boss died. Some of these years also do not preclude some LCN activity continuing after these years.


Cleveland - 1991 (you can even say 1983 or 1989 like Phat said)
Pittsburgh - 2006 (probably earlier like Phat said)
New Orleans - 1994
Milwaukee - 1997
St. Louis - 1997
LA - 2000s
Buffalo - 2000s
Kansas City - 2006
Tampa - 2000s
Bufalino - 1990s (though Boss Billy D'Elia continued to be active until 2006)
Rochester - 1988
Denver/Pueblo - Mid/late 1980s
San Jose - Mid/late 1980s
San Francisco - Late 1970s/early 1980s.
Rockford - Late 1980s
Springfield - 1974
Madison - 1973
Dallas - 1970?

Thanks Pogo much obliged

[Angelo Santino]

Here is what I got. Some of these are being generous as for certain families I'm listing the year when the last recognized Boss died. Some of these years also do not preclude some LCN activity continuing after these years.


Cleveland - 1991 (you can even say 1983 or 1989 like Phat said)
Pittsburgh - 2006 (probably earlier like Phat said)
New Orleans - 1994
Milwaukee - 1997
St. Louis - 1997
LA - 2000s
Buffalo - 2000s
Kansas City - 2006
Tampa - 2000s
Bufalino - 1990s (though Boss Billy D'Elia continued to be active until 2006)
Rochester - 1988
Denver/Pueblo - Mid/late 1980s
San Jose - Mid/late 1980s
San Francisco - Late 1970s/early 1980s.
Rockford - Late 1980s
Springfield - 1974
Madison - 1973
Dallas - 1970?

Thanks Pogo much obliged

Birmingham - 1930's.
Newark - 1930's

Pueblo/Denver is an interesting case as Denver was originally a crew of Pueblo which "retired" itself in the 1960's leaving Denver as the power. Similar to if say, Philly died out while it's North Jersey crew carried on.

[Wiseguy]

From a 1992 Washington Post article -

The federal government's hit list for the Mafia once included nearly 20 cities, but officials say they are close to crossing off Cleveland; Denver; Los Angeles; New Orleans; Pittston, Pa.; Rochester, N.Y.; San Francisco; San Jose; St. Louis and Tampa. 'We still have powerful La Cosa Nostra families in New York City, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston and south Florida," said Paul Coffey, who heads the Justice Department's organized crime division. He added that no major Mafia family 'has been completely eradicated.'" (Washington Post, 1992)

Interesting that they list the same families that are still around today, nearly 25 years later - New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, and South Florida (where the NY families are active).

Obviously Dallas was already written off by that point. As well as most of those areas where it's not clear if there was an a family there. Some of those other families hadn't had significant activity for a decade or more by that point. There was some residual activity by some of those families almost ready to be written off after 1992 but not much. Probably the most significant were the cases where remnants of the Tampa and New Orleans families partnered with the NY families.

That leaves Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Milwaukee, and Kansas City.

In hindsight, you can write off Milwaukee by the early 1990s. The last case I'm aware of was in the mid-1980s. Kansas City had some resididual activity in the 1990s, as well that relatively small bookmaking bust in 2006. I think the last significant cases involving Buffalo (Local 210) and Detroit (GamTax) came down in 1996. Some residual activity by those families into the 2000s. The 1990s also for Pittsburgh, with some residual activity into the next decade.

[Ivan]

Philadelphia - 2999

They will definitely be the last to go outside New York.

[SonnyBlackstein]

Good stuff gents.

Great work pogo, wiseguy.

Sure gives perspective on the 'decline of the American mafia'.

[SonnyBlackstein]

Pogo and others:

Could we put estimated membership numbers next to each family?

I'd love to see how many members, functioning crews/capos etc there were for the various families IE Bufalino, Trafficate, NO etc etc

[Pogo The Clown]

Some numbers/estimates I recall for the families at their peak. Some of these I'm going off memory so they could be off.


Cleveland -50
LA - 70 (or maybe it was 60)
Pittsburgh -33
San Jose - 36
San Francisco - 15-25
Rochester - 40-45
Kansas City - 40?
Milwaukee - 60? (This could be wrong)
Madison - I believe like 10 or 11
Tampa - 30?
New Orleans - 25
Rockford - 20


I don't recall the peak number for the Bufalinos but they were down to 11 by 1990. St. Louis was down to 17 members by 1980. Not sure on their peak number. I forgot Buffalos peak (I believe it was north of 60 or 70) but they were down to about 40 in 1996.


I don't recall ever seeing numbers for Denver/Pueblo, Dallas or Springfield but I doubt they amounted to much.


Pogo

[B.]

I would guess New Orleans was larger than 25 early on in their existence since a lot of early members came through there before settling elsewhere. So much of that depends on how families dealt with affiliation in the early days with Sicilian members coming to the US and moving around, though.

Philly isn't really part of this conversation since we're mainly talking defunct families, but at their peak they may have had up to 90 members spread around eastern PA and Jersey.

[Pogo The Clown]

I checked my files and in 1968 the Feds had New Orleans at 33 members.


Pogo

[cavita]

I checked my files and in 1968 the Feds had New Orleans at 33 members.


Pogo

Do you have the names of those members in 1968?

[Wiseguy]

San Jose had 26 members in 1967 according to the FBI.

St. Louis 35 members in the 1960s, 17 members in 1980, less than 10 by 1989. Little Al on the old RD forum was only able to identify 2 or 3 living members by that point and that was almost a decade ago.

For Buffalo I saw 45 members in 1989. By 2006 the feds had 23 members left - a boss, underboss, consigliere, 4 captains, and 16 soldiers. Since then several have died.

The Pennsylvania CC had the Bufalino family at 45 members at its peak.

What's interesting is, you often see that figure of 5,000 members at the mob's peak floating around. But if you add up all the maxes by family, it's closer to about half that.