Hairy and Frank make the most sense...Frank wrote: ↑Tue Aug 28, 2018 1:01 pmDon't worry Hairy, I believe in your your findings.HairyKnuckles wrote: ↑Tue Aug 28, 2018 11:27 amCorrect. I used to think too that Lombardo was some kind of superboss who secretly ruled his Family, using front bosses in a way that nobody, outside the Family or inside, knew he was the one at top. That´s all exciting in fiction. In reality though, that doesn´t work. He would have to have had a power base consisting of a large group of followers ready to enforce his way if the front boss said no to him. And the bigger the group, the bigger the risk of getting exposed, first to all the members and secondly to LE through informants.Frank wrote: ↑Tue Aug 28, 2018 8:38 amAlso the Lombardo as boss also included the time period before Genovese died. When I first started looking into lcn leadership history Lombardo was listed as acting boss from around 64 till 69. Which I thought was correct till I joined this forum. Now I know it was Catena as acting boss and Eboli as acting Underboss. Also I've seen where some have said he was acting boss before 64 too, all the way back to when Vito was imprisoned. Now it appears that he was only Official Boss for a couple of months and on a ruling panel for a few months. Maybe on a ruling panel few a short time in the early 70s.HairyKnuckles wrote: ↑Tue Aug 28, 2018 7:28 amCapeci, Raab etc based their belief on what Cafaro said. And on this particular topic, front boss and all that crap, Cafaro lied or twisted the truth to make FBI look good. And just like Lenehan, Cafaro may have been an East Harlem fan boy, proud of what mobsters that neighborhood had produced.Wiseguy wrote: ↑Tue Aug 28, 2018 6:25 amActually, it seems most law enforcement and OC journalists (Capeci, Raab, etc) agree with this too, ie Lombardo being the boss, Tieri being underboss/acting boss, etc. It's not a Wiki invention and has been the conventional wisdom for years.JIGGS wrote:Because it's only an online consensus that Phil Lombardo was the boss and Funzi was a front. Which is the most irresponsible assertion made by Wiki editors.
No doubt, Lombardo was powerful and like many of the captains in that Family, he had some pull. But he was also absent a great deal of time in the 1970s. He suffered from a severe stroke in 1975 which kept him sidelined for several years. He was in no capacity to rule the Genovese Family. It seems to me that Lombardo was acting boss or co-boss, right after the Tommy Ryan murder, but sometime before October 1972, Tieri took over. First as acting boss and then as official boss when Catena decided to step down. All evidence, going through the files, seems to point that way,
JIGGS