Lucchese Acting Boss Reveals How Much He Really Made

[Little_Al1991]

My opinion, these numbers are bullshit. They don't make sense.
The average mobster took in 50k a year? But that doesn't take into account Vics cut. Or the admins. So Defede gets 1m over 4 years? Vics going to get.... less? No. So Vic gets 2. Conisg? UB? that's another 1.6m (does anyone really think the consig is on less than 200k A YEAR?) so now we've gone from 6 to 5 to 3 to 1.4.

That puts the average annual income of a button at 14k a year.

Bullshit.


The Bonannos were only a little bigger and in the same time frame they took 10mil in restitution from Massino and he kept 6.
That's 16m just for the boss, let alone admin, let alone buttons.

So, Joe, Bullshit.

Vic put a hit out on DeFede because he believed that he was skimming.Vic receives less nowadays.His family receives over 100k a year during Pennisi’s time.
I’m not sure about these numbers but it was during a time when the Lucchese’s took major losses as a result of D’Arco,Gaspipe and Chiodo’s cooperation

Wasn't he getting around $150,000 in Christmas tributes alone?

It’s around that number, something like 180k

[Little_Al1991]

Avellino is a billionaire?

I've heard it several times. I thought it total nonsense, but I heard it enough times where I had to question my own knowledge on it, cause I don't actually know.

I mean, the biggest one I heard of was Ponte, I think....

Millionaire. He paid Vic Amuso 4 million dollars to get him of the shelf

[outfit guy]

My opinion, these numbers are bullshit. They don't make sense.
The average mobster took in 50k a year? But that doesn't take into account Vics cut. Or the admins. So Defede gets 1m over 4 years? Vics going to get.... less? No. So Vic gets 2. Conisg? UB? that's another 1.6m (does anyone really think the consig is on less than 200k A YEAR?) so now we've gone from 6 to 5 to 3 to 1.4.

That puts the average annual income of a button at 14k a year.

Bullshit.


The Bonannos were only a little bigger and in the same time frame they took 10mil in restitution from Massino and he kept 6.
That's 16m just for the boss, let alone admin, let alone buttons.

So, Joe, Bullshit.

The numbers are accurate. There's just not a lot of money out there. Most guys were happy when they got a union book and regretted not working prior. A good crew with bookmaking and large numbers (rare) and a coke distribution is a good example. A few guys at the top made a few million each - mostly from coke. Most of the guys below them made a grand week - without their own scores. These are the real numbers of a well-known crew. I'd say 5 of them made any real money - yes millions over the course of years; the rest made their money in scores - maybe moving blow or weed on the side - that separate from their share of gambling, loansharking, numbers. The acting Capo would make sure everyone ate and were given a thousand a week.

[Wiseguy]

While one needs to remember to adjust for inflation to give a good idea, D'Arco's figures may well be accurate for him and his situation. Doesn't mean it's necessarily indicative of other people and situations.

Money is often the hardest and most futile thing to gauge in OC. But traditionally figures have long been inflated. And that goes for everyone - the LCN, the cartels, etc.

The Operation Heat sportsbook (which was pretty much a Lucchese operation) figure of $2.2 billion was an estimate of the amount of money wagered based on the size of bets coming in over the course of the 16 month investigation.

And I don't know who's claiming it but no American LCN mobster, including Avellino, has sniffed anywhere near a billion.

[Adam]

Yeah it's really hard to get a full and accurate picture of how much money some of these guys make or made. I research Detroit stuff and there are a couple quotes from Detroit mobsters that give some insight in the 1960s and 1970s. In the early 1960s Michael Polizzi gets caught on a bug complaining that he's making around $50,000 a year from his take on gambling/numbers/barbut. And that he was actually making a little more money from his legitimate businesses. So he was pulling in around $100,000 per year in the early/mid sixties. And in 1976 Vito Giacalone was caught on tape complaining that he since he was put in charge of Detroit's numbers operation he was only allowed to earn from that and he was only getting $10,000 a month. But he was sending around $40,000 a mon th to other Detroit mobsters as their stake as members in the partnership. So he was making $120,000 a year in 1976 dollars, but that's is from illegal activities. He was upset because he wasn't able to earn from his loansharking operation once he got give the numbers operation.

[Little_Al1991]

I wonder if these numbers still apply today to the family?

[Ivan]

While one needs to remember to adjust for inflation to give a good idea, D'Arco's figures may well be accurate for him and his situation. Doesn't mean it's necessarily indicative of other people and situations.

DeFede's take was half a million a year in today's money. And this is just as the acting boss when the family was extremely destabilized and in total disarray. It's not that bad.

The $50K/year figure comes out to $100K now, which seems kind of low but this is for guys who don't work a nine to five job, which as I've asserted many times is the real point of being a mobster, not getting rich. Some of them do get rich, but that's not the main objective.

That said, not sure if I buy that $6 million figure. That does seem way too low. Was the family in that bad shape at the time? I wouldn't be surprised if it's quite a lot higher now as the family has stabilized relative to where it was in the immediate post-Gaspipe era.

[CabriniGreen]

Avellino is a billionaire?

I've heard it several times. I thought it total nonsense, but I heard it enough times where I had to question my own knowledge on it, cause I don't actually know.

A BILLIONAIRE!?! I highly doubt it. Show me anything that says he’s got a billion dollars and I’ll bite my tongue.

From what I know he’s in the tens of millions but billionaire is a different stratosphere.

This is what I always thought.... we just need the more knowledgeable guys to put it to bed.....

[johnny_scootch]

Avellino is a billionaire?

I've heard it several times. I thought it total nonsense, but I heard it enough times where I had to question my own knowledge on it, cause I don't actually know.

A BILLIONAIRE!?! I highly doubt it. Show me anything that says he’s got a billion dollars and I’ll bite my tongue.

From what I know he’s in the tens of millions but billionaire is a different stratosphere.

This is what I always thought.... we just need the more knowledgeable guys to put it to bed.....

Hey it happens you hear something maybe someone exaggerates or misconstrues some facts whatever. I’d put Avellino in the tens of millions and Ponte in the hundreds of millions (because of real estate) but neither had a billion.

[Little_Al1991]

Avellino is a millionaire.Major earner back in Pennisi’s time. He sold his carting companies which is what made him so wealthy.
12 million he made if I remember correctly

[Uforeality]

It seems a bit of a stretch to think mobsters are honest about their earnings. In fact, it serves them well to say they're broke. If they're broke then what are they gonna kick up?

[Little_Al1991]

He was testifying in court about it

[B.]

Richard Cantarella testified that he made around $500,000 during his entire time in the life and Sal Vitale guessed he made around 2 to 3 million during his time. Both were roughly referring to a 30 year period.

What's hard to gauge is exactly how they're measuring it. They couldn't have been referring to their total income so they may have been talking about explicitly illegal/criminal activity or being given money opposed to generating it themselves, hard to say without deeper inquiry. Also possible of course they were downplaying their income but as Wiseguy was getting at I do believe the public has an inflated idea of what mafia members and even leaders made during the so-called peak of Cosa Nostra.

[Pmac2]

Wonder how much interest you make on them 12 million a year

[Pmac2]

In the market must be 200k probably more. Good foe that guy