Do we know of any examples where this actually happened? Pennisi is not asked to clarify this so he doesn't provide anymore details. I'm trying to imagine a scenario like this (outside of a war scenario at least where factions go out looking to kill each other in retaliatory strikes) but I can't come up with any. However, that may be due to my habit of sticking to Philadelphia in terms of research - perhaps there's more of an advantage to have that kind of rule in somewhere like New York where you have hundreds of members from different families interacting with each other all the time. It certainly seems though like a rule that could be easily taken advantage of. I'm not sure how hard it would be to kill someone for another motive and then retrospectively claim they hit you first (though that suspicion would also surely fall on anyone who behaved in that way).He [Matthew Madonna] said that we were -- as a member of the Family, I was never to go after or try to date anybody's wife or another member's wife or girlfriend, for that matter; that I was not to put my hands on any other member, but if they put their hands on me, just kill them and we would sort it out afterwards.
It could be that this rule, if it is common, is specifically for members rather than a rule that crosses between members and associates. I recall Al D'Arco was told one of the advantages to remaining an associate was that one could hit a member and plead ignorance in a way that another member couldn't.
If it is a more recent rule then it could explain how little we (or, at least, I) know about its practice considering the lack of violence since the 90s (therefore not being many chances to see it put into practice). However, it does strike me as being similar to one of Joe Bonanno's anecdotes. Bonanno described a man coming to him seeking permission to kill another man who had an affair with his wife. However, Bonanno did not give his permission, saying the man should have killed his rival immediately if he felt that strongly about it and then handed himself in for judgement. (Obviously taking this with a grain of salt seeing as how much Bonanno liked to big himself up as a wise Don Corleone-type figure).
