What are the biggest unanswered questions you have?

[B.]

How exactly did the position of Consiglieri comme about?


How exactly did the Rochester family come about?


How did the Newark family come about and why did NY decide to disband them and how was that implemented?


Pogo

I wish Joe Bonanno had talked about the Newark situation, as it would have been one of the first major issues he dealt with as a Commission member and he was close to Profaci who apparently was responsible for managing the situation. He could have told us a lot about it.

[Hailbritain]

How exactly did the position of Consiglieri comme about?


How exactly did the Rochester family come about?


How did the Newark family come about and why did NY decide to disband them and how was that implemented?


Pogo

Lucky Luciano created the consigliere role

The Rochester family came about wen the valenti's broke off from the Pittsburgh family with the help of valenti's father in law and Pittsburgh capo angelo ripepi

[Pogo The Clown]

That is some of the theories but the Genovese family had a Consiglieri postion (held by Saverio “Sam” Pollaccia) long before Luciano took over.


As for Rochester it has also been speculated that they were a Crew in the Buffalo family that broke off. It's also possible they were their own family from the beginning.


Pogo

[Hailbritain]

Yeah I've heard the buffalo theory aswel pogo , prob a mixture of both . I've been after the book the hammer conspiracies for years but it's mega expensive

[B.]

Despite what all of the books and movies say, Lucky Luciano didn't create anything. The only thing he arguably may have had a hand in was the Commission, but there was something very similar in place before that and they just tweaked it and gave the chairman less power. The positions, structure, traditions, and everything else about Cosa Nostra existed before Luciano was alive.

What's funny about him being credited with creating the consigliere position is that we don't know who his consigliere even was... which I guess is another one of those unanswered questions I'd like to know.

[Chicago]

.

[Pogo The Clown]

What's funny about him being credited with creating the consigliere position is that we don't know who his consigliere even was... which I guess is another one of those unanswered questions I'd like to know.

According to Bill Bonannos latest book it was Frank Costello. Since he got that from his old man it is probably accurate. The big mystery is who was Frank Costellos Consiglieri.


Pogo

[Lupara]

Despite what all of the books and movies say, Lucky Luciano didn't create anything. The only thing he arguably may have had a hand in was the Commission, but there was something very similar in place before that and they just tweaked it and gave the chairman less power. The positions, structure, traditions, and everything else about Cosa Nostra existed before Luciano was alive.

What's funny about him being credited with creating the consigliere position is that we don't know who his consigliere even was... which I guess is another one of those unanswered questions I'd like to know.

Meyer Lansky was his de facto consigliere, officially it might have been Frank Costello, which makes sense for obvious reasons.

[Lupara]

Not suprisingly I have questions on Montreal:

* Was Nick Rizzuto originally inducted into the Sicilian Mafia or the Bonanno family?
* Where members of the Montreal crew inducted in Montreal or New York and when did these ceremonies take place?
* Who pulled the trigger on Violi and who pulled the trigger on Nick Rizzuto?
* Was it really Gerlando Sciascia who replaced Vic Cotroni as caporegime of the Montreal crew? If so, when did he replace Cotroni and why him instead of Nick Rizzuto?
* What was the exact relationship between the Montreal organization and the Bonanno family after the murder of Gerlando Sciascia and what is their relationship today?

Questions on the Mafia in general:

* Who killed Bugsy Siegel?
* Who ordered the murder of Joe Colombo?
* What was exactly discussed at the 1957 meetings in Palermo and Apalachin?
* Are there any surviving pictures of Salvatore D'Aquila and Salvatore Maranzano?

[B.]

I get that Meyer Lansky was an elite business advisor to Luciano, but not sure de facto consigliere really describes him. The idea of consigliere has gotten distorted through pop culture but really it's a position designed to handle internal organization matters and "Tom Hagen" is mostly myth.

That makes sense about Costello having it before he became boss. For as famous as Costello is and the length of time he was a player, it's surprising we don't know more about what he did within Cosa Nostra. Or maybe we do? Any idea if he was a captain before becoming part of the admin? A story that's been told is that Luciano, Genovese, and Costello all came up together, possibly even being in the same crew, but like a lot of stories about those three it seems more unlikely to me now.

As for the Montreal questions... based on what Violi said, it sounds like Cotroni got permission from NYC to induct members and then made guys in Canada. Some wiretaps from the 60's indicate that Joe Bonanno was allowing members to be made there after the books were closed which was one of the many complaints people had. I'd be willing to believe that Sciascia was made in NY by Galante and maybe some of the other guys who were rising in the 70's and 80's. Didn't someone find info suggesting that Vito Rizzuto wasn't made until the early 80's sometime after the 3 capos hit?

[rayray]

1). Why would the Outfit all of a sudden supposedly start having a few "Making Ceremonies" in the 1980's when they never had any previously???
It had always been done in the past by having a man being put in charge of something and running a sub crew.
2). Why would Al Tocco supposedly be "Made" in a Ceremony in 1983 when he already was the Boss of the Chicago Heights Crew?

I don't know why, but for some reason I thought I read it was an Auippa move to bring the more traditional making ceremony into the outfit.

[Chicago]

.

[Antiliar]

When you're the boss you make the rules. If that's what Aiuppa wanted then it happened. Accardo at that point probably didn't care one way or the other. I'm also sure that there was probably pressure from the other Families, esp. the Genoveses, which is close to the Outfit. Who knows? Maybe Aiuppa met with Catena or Salerno and they convinced him. I don't think we'll ever know for sure, but the fact is that multiple source report a ceremony at least from the 1980s forward.

[Chicago]

.

[Lupara]

Didn't someone find info suggesting that Vito Rizzuto wasn't made until the early 80's sometime after the 3 capos hit?

As far as I know know, no info about that is available. I'm inclined to think that he was already made when he attended the Bono wedding. But then again the 1970s were very chaotic in Montreal and I doubt there were any making ceremonies there at the time, espcially when the books were reopened. So if any Montreal guys were inducted, they probably were in New York at the earliest in 1978.