Genevose Family

[Richboy17]

I herd this family is the Ivy League of organized crime, why is that, I always thought that the Gambino was the top mob family. Anyways i was watching something and it said that the Genovese family owned docks that pulled in a billion a year and all this other shit. Is this true that this family is extremely richer than the Gambinos?

[thewestside]

I herd this family is the Ivy League of organized crime, why is that, I always thought that the Gambino was the top mob family. Anyways i was watching something and it said that the Genovese family owned docks that pulled in a billion a year and all this other shit. Is this true that this family is extremely richer than the Gambinos?

While the Gambino family has gotten more press over the years, the more quiet and secretive Genovese family has been wealthier and more powerful. The Genovese family has always been the top mob family in the country, going as far back as the 1930's when Charles "Lucky" Luciano was the boss. It was the Genovese family who represented most of the east coast families on the Commission. During the reign of Carlo Gambino, from the 1950's to the 1970's, the Gambino family surpassed the Genovese family slightly in size and rivaled them in many areas such as the waterfront, garbage hauling, construction, and trucking. Traditionally, the Genovese family has controlled the docks in Manhattan, New Jersey, and Florida while the Gambino family has controlled the docks in Brooklyn and Staten Island. The Genovese family had the Fulton Fish Market, while the Gambino family had trucking in the Garment Center. Overall, however, the Genovese family has topped the Gambinos and remains the #1 crime family in the nation today. Law enforcement officials have called the Genovese the "Rolls Royce of Organized Crime" and the "Ivy League of the Underworld," and consider them to be the most stable, well run, best organized, diversified, sophisticated, wealthy, and most powerful Mafia family in the United States.

[thewestside]

It's dated but here is a very good article that Time Magazine did on the Genovese family back in 1990.


Special Report: Organized Crime
By RICHARD BEHAR
Monday, Sep. 03, 1990

"With the unions behind us, we could shut down the city, or the country for that matter, if we needed to, to get our way."

-- Genovese soldier Vincent (Fish) Cafaro, in 1988 Senate testimony


Peter (Blackheart) Savino, an associate of the Genovese crime family, was a man with a mission and a machine gun. As he drove down Scott Avenue in Brooklyn, N.Y., he was furious with PECO Corp., a window manufacturer. The company, which had ties to the Genovese family, had started to succumb to overtures by the smaller Lucchese clan. This was cutting Savino out of his kickbacks. So with the blessing of family higher-ups, Savino and a fellow gangster stormed the company's storage yard, pulled out their machine guns and blew to bits more than 200 windows that were sitting on an open truck. For PECO's owners, happy to still be breathing, it was a pointed lesson that so many businessmen have come to learn: you don't mess with the Genovese gang.

That episode, which took place in November 1983, came to light because Savino later became a rare traitor in the Genovese ranks. In 1987 he wore a concealed microphone to help prosecutors build evidence for an indictment last May of Genovese boss Vincent (Chin) Gigante and other leading mobsters. The charge: controlling a labor union and rigging $143 million worth of contracts for windows in public housing since 1978. The Mob is not taking this act of betrayal lying down, but Savino may. Two weeks ago, a gasoline bomb was found on the seat of his wife's Pontiac Grand Prix in their Brooklyn driveway.

These are difficult times for the 25 families, or "brugads," that make up America's Cosa Nostra (rough translation: our thing). During the 1980s, some 1,200 Mafia operatives were convicted, including the leaderships of New York City's five brugads and 11 smaller Italian gangs in cities ranging from Denver to Kansas City to New Orleans. The bloodletting has decimated two major New York City families (Colombo and Bonanno) and enabled Gambino family boss John Gotti, a flamboyant newcomer, to rise up overnight as America's leading media mobstar.

Yet the underworld's most powerful force is the quieter and more sophisticated Genovese clan, with its entrenched army of more than 1,500 "made" members and associated underworld entrepreneurs. "You keep hearing all this crap about Gotti being the boss of the bosses," says Richard Ross, one of the FBI's leading Mafia experts, "but Genovese has always been the country's most powerful family." Says Joseph Coffey, a top investigator at the New York State Organized Crime Task Force: "The Genovese gang more or less invented labor racketeering. I consider them the Ivy League of the underworld."

Organized crime is an estimated $100 billion-a-year untaxed business operated by groups ranging from motorcycle gangs to Asian drug triads. But the Italian Mafia is still the only group that has infiltrated hundreds of legitimate U.S. industries and labor unions. Despite the wave of new prosecutions, the Cosa Nostra -- and particularly the Genovese branch -- is showing few signs of abandoning these businesses, which today are far more lucrative than such traditional vices as gambling and loan-sharking. "In terms of the Genovese family, I'm afraid we haven't even made a dent," concedes investigator Coffey.

A report that Coffey's unit recently prepared for New York City police commissioner Lee Brown describes the Genovese family as the "most stable," the "best counseled" and the most diversified business-crime group in the country. Leading the family's extortion list is the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the largest U.S. labor union (1.7 million members). Mostly through unions, the family also has major clout in such trades as construction, food distribution, textiles and garbage hauling. The Genovese clan dominates the ports of New York, New Jersey and Miami, as well as America's biggest fish market.

Many of these industries are vulnerable to racketeering because of their high labor costs. Payoffs to the Mob can assure businessmen of prompt deliveries, labor peace and the ability to use cheaper workers. Following indictments in June involving a painters' union, the Manhattan district attorney's office estimated that an average $15 million-a-year painting contractor saved $3.8 million in costs by paying gangsters. How? The payoff entitled the contractor to use low-wage painters without getting any flak from the mobbed-up union. But in the end, consumers often pay the price. Economists estimate that Cosa Nostra's penetration of industries in New York City alone costs citizens hundreds of millions of dollars annually from inflated prices for everything from fresh fish to new condominiums. The biggest beneficiary: the Genovese clan.

In the entertainment industry, Mob watchers say it is difficult to book an act in Las Vegas or Atlantic City without the Genovese brugad getting its slice. Law-enforcement officials point to superagent Lee Salomon of the William Morris Agency as being linked to a top Genovese captain named James (Jimmy Nap) Napoli. In the late 1960s, at a time when the government was bugging the talent agency's Manhattan office, Salomon was arranging for Napoli's wife Jeanne, an unknown singer, to get star billing for her nightclub act.

Since then, the agent has represented the likes of Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, Julio Iglesias, Tony Orlando and Jackie Mason. "The stars are victims more than co-conspirators," maintains a Mafia investigator. "In order to work, they have to cooperate." Salomon vehemently denies any Mob ties. Says he: "I'm the cleanest, purest person you'll ever meet in your life." Salomon admits knowing "Jimmy Nap" but wonders, "Doesn't everybody?"

While the Genovese family is New York based, its influence has few geographical boundaries. Smaller crime families from Cleveland to Pittsburgh to New England answer to the Genovese gang in various ways. So did Teamster leader Jimmy Hoffa of Detroit, who vanished without a trace in 1975 after pledging to boot his Mob sponsors out of the union. At the time, the family was emerging as a global trader of sorts, in one case allegedly trying to pass $950 million in counterfeit and stolen securities to the Vatican's bank in Rome. In a recent operation, the family shipped counterfeit watches, wallets and clothing from Hong Kong to Florida.

Since 1981 the family has reputedly been run by Gigante, 62, who operates out of a seedy social club in Greenwich Village. Gigante is rarely seen in public without his trademark bathrobe and slippers, which he allegedly wears to feign mental illness and avoid prosecution. Despite such behavior, federal agents portray Gigante as the CEO of a conglomerate-like enterprise. He has been linked to activities as diverse as record-industry extortion, the improper sale of taxicab meters and the defrauding of a credit union.

A point of keen speculation is whether Gigante talks business with his younger brother Louis, a cussing, cigar-chomping, Roman Catholic priest who is celebrated for overseeing the creation of 2,000 low-income housing units. That reputation has been tarnished by accusations that Father Gigante's nonprofit group doled out tens of millions of dollars in government housing grants to Genovese-tied subcontractors. The priest claims he had nothing to do with the selection of these companies. "I purposely stayed out of it," he says. But the priest does commend one contractor, a Genovese captain who is now imprisoned: "If you would talk to work forces in the South Bronx, you would also get a lot of praise for him."

Even the currently troubled Donald Trump has allegedly paid his Genovese dues, perhaps unwittingly. Last month Trump took the stand in Manhattan's federal court to deny that he knowingly hired 200 illegal Polish aliens to demolish a building in Manhattan in 1980 to make way for his glittering Trump Tower. Members of Housewreckers Local 95, who also accuse their own president in the scheme, allege that Trump was able to avoid making payments that would now total $1 million (including interest) into the union's pension funds. % "You can bet there was a wise guy somewhere in the background," says an FBI specialist on the Genovese family. Says labor consultant Daniel Sullivan, an FBI source on the Mob who has testified in the case: "It's a classic Mob relationship. Trump or his people had to have a deal to get such a sweetheart contract."

A Trump spokeswoman calls this speculation "preposterous." Maybe so, but Housewreckers Local 95 was identified in a 1987 government report as being controlled by the Genovese gang. In 1984 the union's three highest officials were convicted of racketeering in an unrelated case.

The Genovese family's quiet, pervasive power is a long-standing tradition. After years of Mob warfare, the family's founding godfather, Charles (Lucky) Luciano, took charge of the entire underworld in 1931. He imposed a panel of bosses, the so-called Commission, that oversaw all the rackets in the U.S. Luciano was considered "first among equals," and few Mob ventures went forward in the 1930s without his approval -- and without his getting a piece of the action.

Luciano drew vast power from his trusting relationships with such non- Italian criminals as Hollywood gangster Bugsy Siegel and moneyman Meyer Lansky, the founders of Las Vegas. Luciano's gang was years ahead of most Mob families in labor racketeering, with tentacles stretching from Detroit's car industry to Hollywood's stagehands' union to textile locals in New York City. His successors -- Frank Costello, the most prominent gangster of the 1940s, and Vito Genovese, whose name the family adopted -- consolidated the empire by taking a page from business-management textbooks: they decentralized control and gave senior members more decision-making authority.

In later years, a key to the family's success has been its ability to shield its true leadership. Beginning in the mid-1960s, the family was secretly run by Philip (Cockeyed) Lombardo, also known as "Benny Squint." Lombardo held power until 1981 -- an astounding fact that until very recently was kept hidden from other Mob bosses, the FBI and even most Genovese members. Under Lombardo, who had a string of "bosses" fronting for him, the family expanded even further into labor unions. In 1987 he died of natural causes in Miami at 79. To date, unlike in most Mob families, not a single Genovese chief has been rubbed out.

When Gigante took over in 1981, he chose comrade Anthony (Fat Tony) Salerno as his front man. Like Lombardo, Gigante has an intense desire for secrecy. In / 1987 he ordered the death of John Gotti because he felt the publicity- conscious Gambino boss was bringing heat on the Mafia. The hit was canceled after the FBI was tipped off. "When we warned Gotti that Gigante had a contract out on him, he believed us," recalls FBI agent Ross. "This guy fears Chin." The bathrobe-clad Gigante has no patience for Gotti's $2,000 Brioni suits and fancy restaurant meals.

The Genovese gang's penchant for privacy has permeated its corporate culture. "You'll catch Genovese guys driving Chevys instead of Cadillacs," says one G-man. They're also more careful about recruiting: two members must vouch for every rookie's trustworthiness with their own lives. Even so, Genovese members are much less trigger-happy than their brethren, perhaps owing to the gang's higher number of high school and even college graduates. "Most other families have the IQ of an ashtray," says investigator Coffey.

The Genovese family has lost a dozen key men since 1986, thanks to tougher racketeering laws, stiffer sentences and a squeal of defectors. This would paralyze the average brugad, but Luciano's clan has always shown remarkable resilience. A prime example is the waterfront. Since the 1930s, the family has had a stranglehold on the 1,500 sq. mi. that constitute the New York-New Jersey harbor, largely through control of the International Longshoremen's Association. In the late 1970s the feds believed they finally loosened that grip through a probe called Operation UNIRAC (for union racketeering), which led to the convictions of more than 130 businessmen, union officials and mobsters.

Yet UNIRAC was only a glancing blow. By 1985 even Gigante's own son Andrew was a union vice president on the docks. Thomas Gleason, president of the I.L.A. until 1987, is reputed to have been a virtual Genovese puppet. Today, at 89, he is paid $100,000 a year as president emeritus and serves on the union's executive council. His successor, John Bowers, was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in several recent prosecutions for taking payoffs and even soliciting a murder. In February, a decade after UNIRAC, the U.S. filed a civil racketeering suit that seeks to have trustees oversee elections and to permanently bar Genovese operatives from the waterfront.

Yet even those measures have failed in the past to rid unions of mobsters. Case in point: the Teamsters, whose officials and lawyers have spent the past year stonewalling three court-appointed officers and bogging them down in % lawsuits. Since the officers began their work in 1989, only 14 tainted Teamsters have been banned or prompted to quit on their own, and many Mob-tied officials remain ensconced.

For the first time in the union's history, the Teamsters rank and file will elect leaders by secret ballot over the next two years, supervised by a court officer who has the difficult task of monitoring more than 650 locals. But even fair elections can be corrupted. In 1988 the government blocked Michael Sciarra, a Genovese mobster, from running for the leadership of the Teamsters' Newark-based Local 560, a violence-torn cabal that was celebrating its first experiment with democracy. With Sciarra sidelined, the Newark membership proceeded to elect his brother Daniel. But Michael was still being greeted in 1989 with hugs and standing ovations by roomfuls of Teamsters.

The U.S. is seeking to bar Michael from Local 560 for secretly running it from the wings. "This case is a microcosm of how difficult it is to remove the Mob," says Newark prosecutor Michael Chertoff. "Sometimes victims support the guys who are victimizing them. It's very tribal." Along the highways of New Jersey, bridges and signposts are sprayed with graffiti supporting Sciarra and his ironically named party, Teamsters for Liberty.

Sometimes government paralysis is to blame for the Mob's gains. Since Luciano's day, Manhattan's Fulton Fish Market and its union have been Genovese-controlled. Each year upwards of $1 billion worth of seafood passes through this wholesale market, the country's largest. For 20 years, brothers Carmine and Vincent Romano were the family's point men, controlling all parking, loading and unloading.

In 1988 the U.S. succeeded in placing a trustee at the fish market with a four-year mandate to battle racketeering. Carmine and Vincent have been banned forever, yet some crime fighters say this has left brother Peter to call the shots. In reality, little has changed. Earlier this month, the frustrated trustee, attorney Frank Wohl, issued a blistering report about the fish market's "frontier atmosphere." He blames New York City for failing to regulate the market, a charge that has endured for a half-century.

Meanwhile, inside America's most powerful Mob family, any form of government foot dragging can only be good news for Dominick (Quiet Dom) Cirillo, the heir apparent to the family's throne. Cirillo, 61, who lives in a simple house in the Bronx, could prove even more elusive to the feds than his predecessor. Unlike Gigante, who has a criminal record dating back 40 years, "Quiet Dom" has been nailed just once, with a one-year suspended sentence for narcotics sales in 1952.

One of the few things the FBI knows about Cirillo, according to the agency's records, is that he benefited from no-show employment at Olympia & York, the construction giant owned by Toronto's Reichmann brothers. A spokesman for O&Y confirms that Cirillo was employed as a "laborer" for eight months in 1986 at the site of the World Financial Center in Manhattan but was "laid off for lack of work." Cirillo is far from unemployed, crime fighters contend, since Gigante may be bogged down in court for some time. As Cirillo's friends down at the fish market would say, if they were talking: the underworld may soon be his oyster.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/artic ... -1,00.html

[Eld]

I agree with thewestside. The Genovese family has had some smart leaders, such as
Charlie Luciano, Phil Lombardo, Jerry Catena and Vincent Gigante contributing to thier success, even if the gambinos also
had smart bosses in Carlo Gambino and Paul Castellano but they seem to have (in some aspects)
prioritized thier blood family over the crime family. The trucking in the garment center
belonged to the Gambino family but became Tommy Gambinos private domain and he couldn't protect it
when the racketeering cases came. I think the Genoveses would have acted diffrently, putting in key
people so the controll wouldn't not been broken in a racketeering case, such as they did at the Fulton fish market and the NJ waterfront.

Ofcourse the Genoveses where bigger right from the start giving them an advantage thats hard keep up with.
The Genovese seems to have been more carefull whom they make, at least in the last 20 years. Making members that are of higher
"quality" than the for example the guys that where made under John Gotti Sr and Jr, that made alot of people whose only strenght was that they belonged to their crew.

(Please excuse my bad spelling.)

[thewestside]

I agree with thewestside. The Genovese family has had some smart leaders, such as
Charlie Luciano, Phil Lombardo, Jerry Catena and Vincent Gigante contributing to thier success, even if the gambinos also
had smart bosses in Carlo Gambino and Paul Castellano but they seem to have (in some aspects)
prioritized thier blood family over the crime family. The trucking in the garment center
belonged to the Gambino family but became Tommy Gambinos private domain and he couldn't protect it
when the racketeering cases came. I think the Genoveses would have acted diffrently, putting in key
people so the controll wouldn't not been broken in a racketeering case, such as they did at the Fulton fish market and the NJ waterfront.

The Genovese family has always benefited from having the most competent leaders, including the present day. The Gambinos were at their strongest during Carlo Gambino's reign from the late 1950's to the mid-1970's. Castellano was a good boss as well but he made the mistake of creating the situation where a relatively inexperienced, unknown hijacker and heroin dealer from Queens (i.e. John Gotti) was able to take over the family, which suffered as a result.

Law enforcement officials have said that the Genovese family has remained the most active in labor racketeering activities and has the most power remaining with labor unions. Their influence has been the hardest to remove from legitimate industries. It took a complete overhall, with the New York city government actually taking over the Fulton Fish Market and eventually moving it to the Bronx, to get the Genovese family out of that business. The indictment against the Gambino's activities on the waterfront earlier this decade was more successful than the indictment against the Genovese's operations there.

Ofcourse the Genoveses where bigger right from the start giving them an advantage thats hard keep up with.
The Genovese seems to have been more carefull whom they make, at least in the last 20 years. Making members that are of higher
"quality" than the for example the guys that where made under John Gotti Sr and Jr, that made alot of people whose only strenght was that they belonged to their crew.

At their peak in the 1950's and 1960's, the Genovese family was slightly larger, having about 450 members while the Gambinos had 400. As I said before, the Gambinos surpassed the Genovese in size in the 1970's. However, their membership began to decline somewhat in the 1990's while the Genovese's membership remained stable. As a result, both families today have about 200 members.

The Genovese family is by far the hardest family to get into. The other families have made guys that couldn't get made into the Genovese organization. Prospective Genovese members often have to wait much longer before becoming made and two members have to vouch for them. That's why the Genovese are the most disciplined family and have had so few informants.

[JohnnyRed]

I agree with thewestside. The Genovese family has had some smart leaders, such as
Charlie Luciano, Phil Lombardo, Jerry Catena and Vincent Gigante contributing to thier success, even if the gambinos also
had smart bosses in Carlo Gambino and Paul Castellano but they seem to have (in some aspects)
prioritized thier blood family over the crime family. The trucking in the garment center
belonged to the Gambino family but became Tommy Gambinos private domain and he couldn't protect it
when the racketeering cases came. I think the Genoveses would have acted diffrently, putting in key
people so the controll wouldn't not been broken in a racketeering case, such as they did at the Fulton fish market and the NJ waterfront.

The Genovese family has always benefited from having the most competent leaders, including the present day. The Gambinos were at their strongest during Carlo Gambino's reign from the late 1950's to the mid-1970's. Castellano was a good boss as well but he made the mistake of creating the situation where a relatively inexperienced, unknown hijacker and heroin dealer from Queens (i.e. John Gotti) was able to take over the family, which suffered as a result.

Law enforcement officials have said that the Genovese family has remained the most active in labor racketeering activities and has the most power remaining with labor unions. Their influence has been the hardest to remove from legitimate industries. It took a complete overhall, with the New York city government actually taking over the Fulton Fish Market and eventually moving it to the Bronx, to get the Genovese family out of that business. The indictment against the Gambino's activities on the waterfront earlier this decade was more successful than the indictment against the Genovese's operations there.

Ofcourse the Genoveses where bigger right from the start giving them an advantage thats hard keep up with.
The Genovese seems to have been more carefull whom they make, at least in the last 20 years. Making members that are of higher
"quality" than the for example the guys that where made under John Gotti Sr and Jr, that made alot of people whose only strenght was that they belonged to their crew.

At their peak in the 1950's and 1960's, the Genovese family was slightly larger, having about 450 members while the Gambinos had 400. As I said before, the Gambinos surpassed the Genovese in size in the 1970's. However, their membership began to decline somewhat in the 1990's while the Genovese's membership remained stable. As a result, both families today have about 200 members.

The Genovese family is by far the hardest family to get into. The other families have made guys that couldn't get made into the Genovese organization. Prospective Genovese members often have to wait much longer before becoming made and two members have to vouch for them. That's why the Genovese are the most disciplined family and have had so few informants.

whose been the geneovese boss for the last 20 years?

[thewestside]

whose been the geneovese boss for the last 20 years?

Vincent "The Chin" Gigante was boss from 1981 until he died in 2005. As of yet, the family has not installed a new official boss, but has continued to be run by a group of senior captains, with one of them stepping up as acting boss from time to time.

[paingod]

whose been the geneovese boss for the last 20 years?

Vincent "The Chin" Gigante was boss from 1981 until he died in 2005. As of yet, the family has not installed a new official boss, but has continued to be run by a group of senior captains, with one of them stepping up as acting boss from time to time.

Was the one who stepped up Dan the Lion Leo?

[thewestside]

Was the one who stepped up Dan the Lion Leo?

Well, as we know, Gigante used Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno has his acting/street boss from 1981 until Salerno was convicted in the Commission case in 1986. After that, Liborio "Barney" Bellomo was made acting/street boss. This could have happened as early as 1988, if not then, then by the early 1990's when Gigante was first indicted. Both Gigante and Bellomo were convicted in seperate trials in 1997. After that, Dominick "Quiet Dom" Cirillo became the acting/street boss. But he suffered a heart attack shortly thereafter and Frank "Farby" Serpico became acting/street boss. Following Serpico's death in 2002, Ernest "Ernie" Muscarella became acting/street boss until he was convicted in 2003. By that time Cirillo had recovered and resumed his position as acting/street boss. Cirillo was eventually convicted in 2006, after which Daniel "Danny the Lion" Leo became acting/street boss. Leo himself pled guilty to charges in May 2007 and received a five year sentence. Of course, even after he was convicted in 1997, Gigante remained the official boss of the family until he died in 2005. Officials claimed that he continued to run the family from prison.

As of yet, a new acting/street boss has not been identified. A reason for that could be the fact that a number of top Genovese guys have gotten out of prison last year or are set to be released both this year and next year - at least 11 captains or acting captains, including Cirillo, Bellomo, and Matthew "Matty the Horse" Ianniello. The family could be waiting to install a new acting/street boss until after these guys are released. One guy that is currently free and has been considered as a possible successor to take over is long time family captain Tino "The Greek" Fiumara. He is very respected and has the clout to take over the organization but he and his crew are from New Jersey. For over the past 25 years, every boss or acting/street boss in the Genovese family has come from either the Greenwich Village crew in lower Manhattan or the East Harlem/Bronx crew. So, needless to say, someone from New Jersey taking the top spot would be a major change.

[Richboy17]

anybody have info on the capo Ralph Coppola? He supposbly was wacked and his body was never seen again.

[thewestside]

anybody have info on the capo Ralph Coppola? He supposbly was wacked and his body was never seen again.

Ralph Coppola was a former Carpenter's Union official and Acting Captain who ran the Genovese family's operations at the Javits Center where trade shows are held. From the beginning, the Javits center had been a cash cow for the mob. When plans to build it began in 1980, only two bids were submitted because the mob controlled the bidding process. Both were highly inflated, one being $30 million and the other $40 million on a job that was expected to cost no more than $18 million. The state had to award the bid to S&A Concrete, which was owned by Genovese Acting/Street Boss Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno", for $30 million. When the Center opened in 1986, the mob controlled the hiring process for laborers, electricians, carpenters, etc. Many of these were no-show jobs given to mobsters that paid more than double the averge wages. Ralph Coppola was eventually put in charge of the rackets there. However, in October 1997 he was indicted on fraud and money and money laundering charges. And less than a year later, in September 1998, he disappeared. Both law enforcement and underworld sources said that he had been killed because he was found to be skimming proceeds from the family's rackets. The order to kill Coppola came from both Liborio "Barney" Bellomo, who's crew Coppola was in, as well as the Acting/Street Boss at the time Frank "Farby" Serpico, who was also in Bellomo's crew. Several years later, after a multicount indictment on dozens of Genovese family members and associates, Soldier Pasquale "Scop" Deluca admitted in his plea deal that he had set up a meeting with Coppola in the Bronx, where he was killed.

[Richboy17]

anybody have info on the capo Ralph Coppola? He supposbly was wacked and his body was never seen again.

Ralph Coppola was a former Carpenter's Union official and Acting Captain who ran the Genovese family's operations at the Javits Center where trade shows are held. From the beginning, the Javits center had been a cash cow for the mob. When plans to build it began in 1980, only two bids were submitted because the mob controlled the bidding process. Both were highly inflated, one being $30 million and the other $40 million on a job that was expected to cost no more than $18 million. The state had to award the bid to S&A Concrete, which was owned by Genovese Acting/Street Boss Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno", for $30 million. When the Center opened in 1986, the mob controlled the hiring process for laborers, electricians, carpenters, etc. Many of these were no-show jobs given to mobsters that paid more than double the averge wages. Ralph Coppola was eventually put in charge of the rackets there. However, in October 1997 he was indicted on fraud and money and money laundering charges. And less than a year later, in September 1998, he disappeared. Both law enforcement and underworld sources said that he had been killed because he was found to be skimming proceeds from the family's rackets. The order to kill Coppola came from both Liborio "Barney" Bellomo, who's crew Coppola was in, as well as the Acting/Street Boss at the time Frank "Farby" Serpico, who was also in Bellomo's crew. Several years later, after a multicount indictment on dozens of Genovese family members and associates, Soldier Pasquale "Scop" Deluca admitted in his plea deal that he had set up a meeting with Coppola in the Bronx, where he was killed.

I herd he was supposbly a rat. That is the main reason why they killed him. He tried to leave the mob life and steal money before he got out.

[thewestside]

I herd he was supposbly a rat. That is the main reason why they killed him. He tried to leave the mob life and steal money before he got out.

I've never heard that before but anything is possible. Like I said, he was recently indicted before he was killed. Either scenario would be a sure death sentence for him. Nothing gets you killed faster in the mob than being a suspected informant or skimming money.

[paingod]

How many rats have the Genovese had thruogh the years? I can recall only one off the top of my head,the guy Fat Tony Salerno had brought in.

[paingod]

How many rats have the Genovese had thruogh the years? I can recall only one off the top of my head,the guy Fat Tony Salerno had brought in.

Cafaro was the one, and of course Valachi,but who else.

[thewestside]

How many rats have the Genovese had thruogh the years? I can recall only one off the top of my head,the guy Fat Tony Salerno had brought in.

Cafaro was the one, and of course Valachi,but who else.

The Genovese family has had three members flip, all soldiers -

Joseph Valachi - 1963
Vincent Cafaro - 1986
George Barone - 2003


By comparison, the Bonanno family has had 11 members flip, the Colombos 9 members flip, the Gambinos 8 members flip, and the Luccheses 13 members flip. All of the New York families, except for the Genovese, have had Captains or members of their administrations turn informant.

In the thread below is a list of all the LCN members that have flipped over the years -

viewtopic.php?f=91&t=40112

[paingod]

That's why the Genovese are Ivy League. They take only the smartest,cagiest,standup mafiosi as family. Do they have a connection to the Mafia in Italy,or a sicilian group within the family like the Bonannos and Gambinos?

[thewestside]

That's why the Genovese are Ivy League. They take only the smartest,cagiest,standup mafiosi as family. Do they have a connection to the Mafia in Italy,or a sicilian group within the family like the Bonannos and Gambinos?

They have some connections to Sicilian mafiosi but not to the same extent where there is an entire Sicilian faction of the family like the Gambinos and Bonannos. The Genovese family is considered to have the strongest ties to other crime groups like the Russians, Cubans, etc.

[paingod]

Do the other 2 families of NY(Colombo,Lucchese),or any other mafia family in America have a strong Sicilian,Calabrian,etc. prescence?

[thewestside]

Do the other 2 families of NY(Colombo,Lucchese),or any other mafia family in America have a strong Sicilian,Calabrian,etc. prescence?

All five of the New York families have ties to Sicilian mafiosi but the Gambinos and Bonannos are the only ones that have ties strong enough where there is actually a Sicilian faction in the family.

[paingod]

What about the others? Chicago.Philly,Detroit,NOLA,L.A.,ETC.?

[thewestside]

What about the others? Chicago.Philly,Detroit,NOLA,L.A.,ETC.?

The DeCavalcante family in New Jersey has some Sicilian members and associates. As does the Philadelphia family. If you'll recall, Philadelphia was briefly taken over by a Sicilian - John Stanfa - back in the 1990's with the backing of New York. Sicilian mafiosi in the U.S. has their biggest presence in the New York-New Jersey-Philadelphia area. Some are members of the Sicilian Mafia, and so are technically separate from the American LCN, although they may have personal and business ties. Others have been made into American LCN families. Chicago, Detroit, and a few other Midwestern families also have some ties to Sicilian mafiosi. Tommy Gambino, not Carlo Gambino's son, but a relative of the Sicilian Gambinos that operated in New Jersey back in the 1970's and 1980's was actually made into the Los Angeles family.

[thewestside]

"The Genovese family is the most secretive, criminally diverse, and powerful family in the country. Their power stems from control of unions and major industries." - Michael Campi, FBI Organized Crime Dept. (2006)

"The Genovese crime family is still the best organized and has the deepest bench." - Daniel Castleman, Chief of Investigations - Manhattan District (2006)

"The Genovese family's members and rackets surpass all others." - Jerry Capeci, Gangland News columnist (2006)

"The Genovese crime family is the the most organized, most powerful, largest organized crime family existing today." - Eric Snyder, Assistant U.S. Attorney (2006)

"The Genovese crime family is widely considered by law enforcement as the most powerful of the mob families in the New York Metropolitan area, if not the entire country." - Jim Kouri, National Association of Chiefs of Police (2005)

"It has the most sophisticated operations. The Genovese family has always been considered the Ivy League of the Mafia." - Selwyn Raab, New York Times columnist (2005)

"Still the most powerful and influential is the Genovese family." - Bruce Mouw, Former FBI Supervisor (2005)

"While centered in the New York metropolitan region, the Genovese family also maintains a presence in portions of New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Florida, Nevada, and California. The family has strong connections with other traditional and non-traditional organized crime groups throughout the United States. Of all the traditional LCN families, the Genovese has the most contact with non-traditional criminal organizations and the money and power they command. Not only is the Genovese family the strongest LCN group in the nation, but it also is the most unique." - New Jersey Commission of Investigation on Organized Crime (2004)

"Organized crime experts say the Gambinos are less sophisticated than the Genovese family, and less eager to expand their operations outside the New York area." - Brad Dunn, Author - New York: The Unknown City (2004)

"The Genovese family is the Rolls-Royce of organized crime." - Loretta Lynch, U.S. Attorney-Brooklyn (2003)

"I consider the Genovese family to be the Ivy League of the underworld. They more or less invented labor racketeering." - Joe Coffey, New York Police Dept. (2003)

"The Genovese family is the most powerful and most secretive crime group." - Barry W. Mawn, FBI New York Office (2001)

"Despite a two-decade-long crackdown on organized crime that had decimated other Mafia families, the Genovese family has flourished. It is the largest and most financially successful crime family in New York." - U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White (2001)

"The Genovese crime family is widely known in law enforcement as the Ivy League of the underworld. The family that gets it right." - John Miller, FBI media spokesman (2001)

"The Genovese family has probably been the most powerful La Cosa Nostra family of the last hundred years." - Ask Andy, Gangland News (1996)

"The Buffalo, Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit, New England, New Jersey, New Orleans, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh families are represented on the Commission by the Genovese family." - LIUNA RICO indictment (1995)

"If anybody survives it will be the Genovese." - Anthony Accetturo, Lucchese LCN family Captain (1994)

"If there is a major trend, it is the consolidation of power by the Genovese family." - William Y. Doran, Head of the FBI's New York Criminal Division (1994)

"I have always considered the Genovese family to be the most powerful LCN family in the United States." - Al D'Arco, Lucchese LCN family Acting Boss (1994)

"The Genovese family is the most stable, the best counseled and the most diversified business-crime group in the country." - Lee Brown, New York City Police Commissioner (1990)

"You keep hearing all this crap about Gotti being the boss of the bosses, but the Genovese have always been the country's most powerful family." - Richard Ross, FBI (1990)

"The Genovese family is the most sophisticated, cautious, secretive, and powerful Cosa Nostra family in the United States." - Phil Leonetti, Philadelphia LCN Underboss (1989)

[paingod]

But are they as secretive and politically powerful as Chicago's Outfit?

[thewestside]

But are they as secretive and politically powerful as Chicago's Outfit?

The Chicago Outfit is the only family that can really rival the Genovese family in terms of of how well organized, disciplined, and secretive it is. The Outfit probably has the most political influence remaining, albeit on a local basis within Chicago itself. The Genovese will be second in terms of political connections, in both the New York and New Jersey area. That's really the only area where the Outfit surpasses the Genovese, and it's not by much.

[LoveTheMafia]

Where are some of the hangouts/clubs/resturants that these wiseguys visit? (In the Manhattan area)

[thewestside]

Where are some of the hangouts/clubs/resturants that these wiseguys visit? (In the Manhattan area)

A few off the top of my head -

Genovese Captain Matthew "Matty the Horse" Ianniello owns Umberto's Restaurant in Manhattan. Another Genovese Captain, Pasquale "Patsy" Parello owns Rigoletto's Restaurant in the Bronx. And another Genovese Captain, Anthony "Tough Tony" Federici owns the Parkside Restaurant in Queens.

Check out this thread -

viewtopic.php?f=91&t=40122

[LoveTheMafia]

Do you know of any other hangouts about the Genoveese? (resturants, rackets, clubs, ect..........name as many as you can please.)

Also, do you know of anyother hangouts from other families?

[thewestside]

Do you know of any other hangouts about the Genoveese? (resturants, rackets, clubs, ect..........name as many as you can please.)

Also, do you know of anyother hangouts from other families?

There are people on the Real Deal forum (link below) who could answer that question better than I could. At least in regard to current clubs and hangouts. Same for the New England area.

http://www.realdeal-forum.com/forum/index.php

[LoveTheMafia]

Do you know of any other hangouts about the Genoveese? (resturants, rackets, clubs, ect..........name as many as you can please.)

Also, do you know of anyother hangouts from other families?

There are people on the Real Deal forum (link below) who could answer that question better than I could. At least in regard to current clubs and hangouts. Same for the New England area.

http://www.realdeal-forum.com/forum/index.php

for some reason, i cant register....i put in all my information yesterday and still havent gotten an email conformation that will except me into the website....has that happened to you?

[thewestside]

Do you know of any other hangouts about the Genoveese? (resturants, rackets, clubs, ect..........name as many as you can please.)

Also, do you know of anyother hangouts from other families?

There are people on the Real Deal forum (link below) who could answer that question better than I could. At least in regard to current clubs and hangouts. Same for the New England area.

http://www.realdeal-forum.com/forum/index.php

for some reason, i cant register....i put in all my information yesterday and still havent gotten an email conformation that will except me into the website....has that happened to you?

Others in the past have also had a hard time registering for some reason. Contact Kenny the administrator at the link below -

realdeal_forum@hotmail.com

[crackalacking]

There is also this forum http://s14.invisionfree.com/Gangstersin/index.php Also allots of info on his site
www.gangstersinc.nl