Gangland news 10th august 2017

[bronx]

captains can have nobody in a crew..two guys three guys, not a minimum number.

[Teddy Persico]

It's crazy how these guys continue to stay in the unions. Put these people in the unions, and you'll never get them out.

[gohnjotti]

captains can have nobody in a crew..two guys three guys, not a minimum number.

Would having such small crews help keep law enforcement off their backs? More dispersed, spread out, etc.

[Teddy Persico]

Don't forget that associates are part of a crew too. There numbers factor into a crew's strength.

[SonnyBlackstein]

captains can have nobody in a crew..two guys three guys, not a minimum number.

Would having such small crews help keep law enforcement off their backs? More dispersed, spread out, etc.

It's not a strategy. Its impractical to operate a family structure as such.

Sometimes stripes are given based on performance not necessarily because a crew 'opens up'.

[B.]

The word capodecina translates to head of ten, so seems like there was some significance to the number at least in the beginning. Not necessarily a hard rule but a guideline. There seem to have been fewer captains per family the earlier you go, even in the smaller families, so the number ten may have been easier to fill back then as well. As the bigger families started to have a 12 to 20+ captains and members spread out unevenly I imagine they got loose with some of the old guidelines / rules. Bill Bonanno mentions captains even in the old days who were basically "honorary captains" with no crews, almost like celebrities who get their honorary doctorate from some university for giving them PR. I don't know of many examples of captains without anyone under them and most that come to the top of my head were later given members.

I'm blanking on who said it, but somebody claimed that a family needed 10 members in order to be recognized. I feel like this came from an old time Sicilian source but like I said I'm blanking. The number ten does seem to hold some significance in the history of the mafia even if it was used as a general rule of thumb when establishing different groups, be they families or crews.

I would think if anything there would be a cap on the maximum number of members in a crew, like the cap on family size. Some of those early Genovese captains and probably some Gambinos may have had 50+ members in their crews, not even counting the number of associates. That's bigger than many (most?) of the families throughout the US and Sicily at their peaks. Seems they had to have unofficial lieutenants helping them manage even the other soldiers in the crew, which is what Tony Strollo did by using guys like Vinnie Mauro as messenger to other made members of his crew, almost like the Outfit's crew structure. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if the post-Castelemmarese War Genovese family and Outfit were somewhat similar in that way, with the Outfit becoming more distinctive given their location and different history. Based on what Gentile has said and other pieces out there, we know Capone and Luciano were meeting often around 1930/31 and possibly earlier given Capone's membership with the Masseria family. A lot of this had to do with taking out Masseria and Maranzano, but I have to wonder if they shared some "strategies" for running a family. This, along with the many other ties between these families, leave a lot to the imagination but there is something there.

[bronx]

correct Teddy

[Pogo The Clown]

Was Spinelli in the same prison as Amuso? That could explain how he got close to him.


Pogo

[B.]

Capeci previously reported that Spinelli had an IQ of 63. At his sentencing for the attempted murder of Chiodo's sister, he wept in court and said he was sorry he had listened to his brother and drove in the hit. He told the judge that Chiodo's sister reminded him of his mother.

Vic Amuso was using a borderline retarded guy with no eyebrows to carry orders to the family leadership.

[gohnjotti]

Vic Amuso was using a borderline retarded guy with no eyebrows to carry orders to the family leadership.

Not even borderline. An IQ below 70 is an intellectual disability.

[SonnyBlackstein]

Crea should've usurped Amuso years ago when the dunce appeared on his doorstep.
That he didn't and accepted the situation, makes him complicit in the absurd stupidity.

[Eld]

Why anyone would deal with a guy like Robert Spinelli is big mystery, a conspiracy theorist would probably say that it was a way for Amuso to neutralise Crea and the Bronx faction without killing them.

Here is a more recent photo of Spinelli.

https://patch.com/new-jersey/brick/bric ... cccf16ee11

[SonnyBlackstein]

Wow. Eyebrows really do make a difference.

[joeycigars]

.

Some of those early Genovese captains and probably some Gambinos may have had 50+ members in their crews, not even counting the number of associates.

Over 50 MADE guys in one crew in New York , That Captain would be a threat to every boss,

[bronx]

don Cheech had 50.. look what happened to him