The Commission, late 1970s

[HairyKnuckles]

From CI (August, 1977):

"The Commission that controls all Mafia activities throughout the United states and Cananda no longer has the nine members from all over the country as it is widely believed. Due to the publicity the Mafia has received and the scrutiny the Mafia has been under from law enforcement agencies, it became impossible to have the Commission conduct their meetings. Therfore, the New York crime leaders control not only their own votes but the votes of the Families from across the country and vote for these Families when the Commission meets in New York City. These meetings are not set at a regular time or at regular intervals, however, do occur approximately every week to ten days. The normal meeting place for the Commission is Rosal´s Restaurant in Brooklyn, New York, which restaurant is owned by Tommy Lombardi [Genovese captain]. CI explained that these meetings are essential since it is only the Commission, and their ability to vote on issues, that holds the Mafia together. Couriers are then sent to variuos crime leaders around the country to advise them on the Commission´s rulings.

The members of the Commission and the votes on the Commission are broken down as follows:

1 - Frank Tieri, who controls the Genovese Family and New England, also control the Chicago vote. This is an extremely powerful vote, since Chicago, in the past represented everything west of and including Illinois and New Orleans. On controling these votes, Tieri represents approximately two thirds of the country.

2 - Paul Catellano, who now controls the Gambino Family, also controls the Philadelphia vote which includes all of Pennsylvania. In addition, Castellano controls the voting power of Georgia and Florida.

3 - [redacted] who controls the Colombo Family, also controls the Detroit vote which includes Cleveland, Buffalo, Utica, Syracuse, Binghamton and Toronto.

4 - [redacted] who controls the Bonanno Family, also controls the Montreal area of Canada.

5 - Tony "Ducks" Corallo who controls the Lucchese Family, is very close to [redacted]. CI knows of no influense that Corallo has outside New York City except through his closeness to Galante."

From Vincent Cafaro: "In the late 1970' s, the Commission changed the rules of membership. A regime or crew had to have at least eight members and a family was allowed to replenish that regime when a member died."

///

Any comments on this? Thoughts?

[Snakes]

Are Persico and Rastelli the redacted names? Persico makes sense since he was still alive but Rastelli died several years before Corallo did, so his name being redacted is odd. Wasn't Persico in prison at this time? Perhaps this name is someone else?

[HairyKnuckles]

Are Persico and Rastelli the redacted names? Persico makes sense since he was still alive but Rastelli died several years before Corallo did, so his name being redacted is odd. Wasn't Persico in prison at this time? Perhaps this name is someone else?

I´m not sure about that. Persico was in jail and not boss until 1980. The redacted names have 16 and 13 spaces (if not misspelled). 13 matches with the number of letters in Phil Rastelli´s name. The Colombo boss could be Tony Abbatemarco who was acting boss for the Colombos briefly in the mid 1970s.

[AlexfromSouth]

From CI (August, 1977):

"The Commission that controls all Mafia activities throughout the United states and Cananda no longer has the nine members from all over the country as it is widely believed. Due to the publicity the Mafia has received and the scrutiny the Mafia has been under from law enforcement agencies, it became impossible to have the Commission conduct their meetings. Therfore, the New York crime leaders control not only their own votes but the votes of the Families from across the country and vote for these Families when the Commission meets in New York City. These meetings are not set at a regular time or at regular intervals, however, do occur approximately every week to ten days. The normal meeting place for the Commission is Rosal´s Restaurant in Brooklyn, New York, which restaurant is owned by Tommy Lombardi [Genovese captain]. CI explained that these meetings are essential since it is only the Commission, and their ability to vote on issues, that holds the Mafia together. Couriers are then sent to variuos crime leaders around the country to advise them on the Commission´s rulings.

The members of the Commission and the votes on the Commission are broken down as follows:

1 - Frank Tieri, who controls the Genovese Family and New England, also control the Chicago vote. This is an extremely powerful vote, since Chicago, in the past represented everything west of and including Illinois and New Orleans. On controling these votes, Tieri represents approximately two thirds of the country.

2 - Paul Catellano, who now controls the Gambino Family, also controls the Philadelphia vote which includes all of Pennsylvania. In addition, Castellano controls the voting power of Georgia and Florida.

3 - [redacted] who controls the Colombo Family, also controls the Detroit vote which includes Cleveland, Buffalo, Utica, Syracuse, Binghamton and Toronto.

4 - [redacted] who controls the Bonanno Family, also controls the Montreal area of Canada.

5 - Tony "Ducks" Corallo who controls the Lucchese Family, is very close to [redacted]. CI knows of no influense that Corallo has outside New York City except through his closeness to Galante."

From Vincent Cafaro: "In the late 1970' s, the Commission changed the rules of membership. A regime or crew had to have at least eight members and a family was allowed to replenish that regime when a member died."

///

Any comments on this? Thoughts?

Where in Brooklyn was this Rosal´s Restaurant that Lombardi owned? Is there a address?

[HairyKnuckles]

From CI (August, 1977):

"The Commission that controls all Mafia activities throughout the United states and Cananda no longer has the nine members from all over the country as it is widely believed. Due to the publicity the Mafia has received and the scrutiny the Mafia has been under from law enforcement agencies, it became impossible to have the Commission conduct their meetings. Therfore, the New York crime leaders control not only their own votes but the votes of the Families from across the country and vote for these Families when the Commission meets in New York City. These meetings are not set at a regular time or at regular intervals, however, do occur approximately every week to ten days. The normal meeting place for the Commission is Rosal´s Restaurant in Brooklyn, New York, which restaurant is owned by Tommy Lombardi [Genovese captain]. CI explained that these meetings are essential since it is only the Commission, and their ability to vote on issues, that holds the Mafia together. Couriers are then sent to variuos crime leaders around the country to advise them on the Commission´s rulings.

The members of the Commission and the votes on the Commission are broken down as follows:

1 - Frank Tieri, who controls the Genovese Family and New England, also control the Chicago vote. This is an extremely powerful vote, since Chicago, in the past represented everything west of and including Illinois and New Orleans. On controling these votes, Tieri represents approximately two thirds of the country.

2 - Paul Catellano, who now controls the Gambino Family, also controls the Philadelphia vote which includes all of Pennsylvania. In addition, Castellano controls the voting power of Georgia and Florida.

3 - [redacted] who controls the Colombo Family, also controls the Detroit vote which includes Cleveland, Buffalo, Utica, Syracuse, Binghamton and Toronto.

4 - [redacted] who controls the Bonanno Family, also controls the Montreal area of Canada.

5 - Tony "Ducks" Corallo who controls the Lucchese Family, is very close to [redacted]. CI knows of no influense that Corallo has outside New York City except through his closeness to Galante."

From Vincent Cafaro: "In the late 1970' s, the Commission changed the rules of membership. A regime or crew had to have at least eight members and a family was allowed to replenish that regime when a member died."

///

Any comments on this? Thoughts?

Where in Brooklyn was this Rosal´s Restaurant that Lombardi owned? Is there a address?

248 Avenue X.

[AlexfromSouth]

Thanks HK. So acording to this The Lucchese fam was the weakest in terms of national power?

[willychichi]

http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/rosals/

[Angelo Santino]

Both, very interesting and a little odd. Paul Castellano controls Georgia, the Colombo's Toronto. Also surprised to read that Corallo was close to Galante, never heard that before, not saying it's false.

It's not as widely known as the Commission but originally, since at least 1908 if not before, existed the General Assembly. Allegedly they could amount to 150-500 member meet-ups of national bosses and underlings. The CDC chaired these meetings until 1931. Once the CDC was replaced by the national Commission, general assembly meetings went from informal meets to meetings every five years. As it stands, 1957 Appalachin was the death of a 50 year tradition. According to B. Bonanno, very early on in the '30's each family was assigned to a member on the commission. I've read LA being with the Luccheses, Chicago and Bonanno so the information is either contradictory or Families switched commission reps which is a totally plausible scenario also. They relied more on this method post-App. Personally I think Appalachin furthered Chicago's power for the short term, once the national meets ended, NY pretty much allowed Chicago to administer west of the Mississippi. And there's talk of Chicago forming their own Commission but that's irrelevant as it was pretty much defunct by the mid 1980's the same time as the Commission became defunct.

I've never considered Gotti or Massino's meetings to qualify as Commission meets, I'm sure if Joe Bonanno were alive today he'd agree. The power of these men vs those who sat on Joe Bonanno's coined "legitimate" Commission body just cannot be compared.

I always thought it'd be interesting to chart what Families each Commission member represented but it would be incredibly patchy and not all the information would correlate.

[HairyKnuckles]

According to B. Bonanno, very early on in the '30's each family was assigned to a member on the commission. I've read LA being with the Luccheses, Chicago and Bonanno so the information is either contradictory or Families switched commission reps which is a totally plausible scenario also.

The Bonannos representing San Francisco and San Jose at one point is very plausible. There are several cases of members and/or associates of the Bonanno Family switched to/moved their activities to northen California. Bill Bonanno also claimed Dallas was represented by the Bonannos. But who knows how true that is. It appears that these smaller Families were represented by different Commission Families at various times. LA was probably represented by the Luccheses early on.

[Angelo Santino]

According to B. Bonanno, very early on in the '30's each family was assigned to a member on the commission. I've read LA being with the Luccheses, Chicago and Bonanno so the information is either contradictory or Families switched commission reps which is a totally plausible scenario also.

The Bonannos representing San Francisco and San Jose at one point is very plausible. There are several cases of members and/or associates of the Bonanno Family switched to/moved their activities to northen California. Bill Bonanno also claimed Dallas was represented by the Bonannos. But who knows how true that is. It appears that these smaller Families were represented by different Commission Families at various times. LA was probably represented by the Luccheses early on.

Trains on a track. Frank Lanza of SF was a Bonanno member in the 1910's and Jack Dragna of LA was Corleonese of Harlem and affiliated with them when it was still one network. But there's always exceptions and you'd expect Dallas to have been represented by either the Luccheses or Genoveses as they share Corleonesi heritage. B. Bonanno also claimed Birmingham's remaining members would be overseen by Bonanno. Given their lineage you'd have expected it would have been the Gambinos. It'll never be an exact science as there are just too many factors but this is at least one important factor.

[AlexfromSouth]

Very Interesting topic. Thans Hk. Tieri controled two thirds of the commission vote in 1977, that's impresive. The part where the colombos controled that much teritory is new to me, guess it goes back all the way to Profaci.

[Snakes]

Wasn't Profaci arrested at that Cleveland meeting in 1928? That probably explains the connection there.

[HairyKnuckles]

Very Interesting topic. Thans Hk. Tieri controled two thirds of the commission vote in 1977, that's impresive. The part where the colombos controled that much teritory is new to me, guess it goes back all the way to Profaci.

Alex, Tieri represented two thirds of the country. That means that two thirds of all Cosa Nostra Familys had Tieri as their representative on the Commission. If they had any problems or issues they would bring it to him and he would bring it up with the Commission. He would vote in their interest. He did not control two thirds of the Commission. Only Commission members voted.

Dominick Bretti is based in Utica, New York. The Colombos representing Utica back in 1977 could be why Bretti, as a result, ended up with them.

Snakes, Profacis had very close ties with Detroit. Profacis and Zerillis were related by marriage. That could explain why Detroit, and thereby Cleveland, was later represented by the Colombos.

[OlBlueEyesClub]

Georgia? What family had a foothold, even in the slighest, in Georgia?

[AlexfromSouth]

Very Interesting topic. Thans Hk. Tieri controled two thirds of the commission vote in 1977, that's impresive. The part where the colombos controled that much teritory is new to me, guess it goes back all the way to Profaci.

Alex, Tieri represented two thirds of the country. That means that two thirds of all Cosa Nostra Familys had Tieri as their representative on the Commission. If they had any problems or issues they would bring it to him and he would bring it up with the Commission. He would vote in their interest. He did not control two thirds of the Commission. Only Commission members voted.

Dominick Bretti is based in Utica, New York. The Colombos representing Utica back in 1977 could be why Bretti, as a result, ended up with them.

Snakes, Profacis had very close ties with Detroit. Profacis and Zerillis were related by marriage. That could explain why Detroit, and thereby Cleveland, was later represented by the Colombos.

Understood Hk, I thought it was in turn of power or whatever that Tieri controled two thirds of the commission vote. My had. I've been thinking about what it says in the rest of your first post HK, about how there must be at least 8 members in one crew. How can that be right when you had crews like Robert DBs and Robert Amuso that had one or two soldiers?