Hey guys, enjoy reading the posts here alot so i figured i should finally register. My question is which familyis next to be completly defunct, pittsburg, cleveland, la, tampa, stlouis ect? I know these arent viable organizations any longer but im more curious about these smaller crews since constantly only hearing about new york/notheast and chicago families. thanks guys.

pittsburgh tampa cleveland l.a. are pretty much defunct now....

Of the remaining families that could be considered as such, I'd say the DeCavalcantes.

agreeded. i know that u and i are the same waive length with detroit and kc but for shits and giggles for those people that wanna argue about their activities. i would also say them.

thanks for the input guys. seems like a great site you all have going on here.

how many made guys do the decav's have that are active? the same amount as in philly?

i think around 25-30.

so decav's=philly? thats pretty interesting i think, decav's are def much lower profile than philly that's for sure

i dunno....they just don't seem to be as solid as philly...they are just i dunno man. i mean there acting boss was involved in the phyiscal shakedown of a two bit pizza parlor...what kinda of hierarchy puts themselves in that kind of position? i don't think i could ever see uncle joe doing that.

thank you and welcome to the boards!

very very true, i agree with you on that. BUT they have other made guys in that fam who are active and i assume are earning out on the street so besides that episode of that shakedown we just dont know much about their activities since vinny ocean flipped.

remains to be seen

Like I've said before, I'm not willing to completely write them off yet. But the DeCavalcantes seem to have been running on fumes over the past decade. In only a few years, from about 1999 to 2001, their boss, 3 acting bosses, consigliere, 5 captains, and at least 7 soldiers and several associates were indicted. That's devastating for a small family like that.

Of course, around that same time Philly was down to about a dozen active made guys on the street and they rebounded. So we'll see.

What do you think of Detroit, Ivy? Do you think it's possible they're as functional as McScott makes them out to be on RD? Or are they more akin to Buffalo? Ie. somewhat high number of members, but not doing too much. No unions, no real source of power.

makes you wonder if the guys that were bumped up after the administration was dismantled can learn from thier mistakes or if they lack leadership and longevity and were luckey and bumped up by default.

buffalo with high number of members? how many? that fam is basically non-existent i saw todaro jr last month at the pizzeria he def looks like he aint involved lcn is the furthest thing away from his mind, besides buffalo is a dying city

bumped up by default

kind of like the guys who have been running the colombo borgata recently

detroit seems to me to be a small but stable family but with the economic downturn and urban blight reducing that city to a pile of crap it makes you wonder if the money-making opportunities will still be there in the future. the same can be said about buffalo. some areas of those cities look like war zones and detroit if i remember correctly has one of the highest illiteracy rates in the country, approaching 45%!

me and the most hated user of this forum were just talking about this the other day. i just don't see how detroit lcn can be of any thing of any kind of significaice. look at every other family...what do they do? they take advantage of their environment. that's how they live and thats what they do. whether it be thru unions, loan sharking this or that....google detroit michigan or flint michigan or any surrounding places around detroit and tell me what is there really there to take advantage of?

detroit and buffalo also suffer from a severe case of white flight, ie most of the cacasian or affluent citizens are getting out of there at alarming rates leaving lcn without a pool of recruits and customers for thier illicit services, and since lcn usually isnt involved in STREET LEVEL open air drug markets it seems to me that thier main sources of revenue are drying up.

the mafia will extort anyone or anything...really dosen;t care what color you are...the point is there is really nothing left in those places to extort

Pittsburgh and Cleveland are both apparently down to one active made guy (Sonny Ciancutti and Russell Papalardo, respectively - the former is about 80 and the latter is like 67). There is a handful of other made guys in those two cities but they are apparently retired. Once those two guys are dead, both families will be completely extinct.

What seems to be the case with Buffalo and Detroit is that, although they both still have like 20 members left, the membership got old and rich. So the families have stopped doing much (if anything) even though they have a lot of made guys left. In my opinion (and I hope this doesn't "offend" anyone, haha), the Chicago Outfit also seems to be in the process of turning into this kind of family.

That's kinda what I was thinking. Buffalo lost their union. Whoever had enough money to get by went legit (the owners of a certain pizza chain). Those who didn't probably scrape by, day to day. That's the impression I get with Detroit too.

I've said it many times. While I appreciate the insight mcscott does give on Detroit, he does tend to exaggerate the family's size and scope. It's not an uncommon thing for authors to do with their subject. As I've pointed out before, back in the mid-1990's, the family was estimated to have 30 made members at most. Now, according to mcscott's latest chart, it's doubled in size. Not likely. And I don't buy the lame, wishful thinking argument that the Detroit family is somehow smarter and sneakier or better connected so they can avoid law enforcement scrutiny unlike all the other families. So, yes, in my opinion the evidence shows the family is closer to Buffalo at this point.

I totally agree with Ivy. I'm from the suburbs of Youngstown, OH and now live outside of Boston. When I moved up here, I had kept hearing how the New England Family was so active and in such great shape, but it was the FBI and other media sources blowing it out of proportion. When u walk down Atwells Ave on Federal Hill, there are still some nickel dime wiseguys around and the same goes for Boston's North End, but the family is now being decimated by indictments. Over the last year, the hierarchy of the organization has either been indicted, cooperated with the FBI or has gone to prison. Luigi Manocchio was one of the most powerful bosses in the country with a lot of support from NY and Chicago. Now that he is awaiting trial, and with his top hierarchy cooperating, I think New England will begin the attrition process that so many other smaller families inevitably go through...just like Detroit and Buffalo. Besides NY and Chicago which are both truly on the decline, la cosa nostra's lifespan may be 20 years "at best." There will always be gambling and extortion, but the structure of the families will suffer immensely. Law Enforcement has too much money, time and knowledge and have been decapitating mafia organizations all over the World. Although I love discussing the topic, it will eventually go away and never be like it was in its heyday.

Lately, I've been very interested in reading about some of the smaller, obscure families. Does anybody know if there has been any books written on Nick Civello in Dallas or the Smaldino brothers in Denver? I am also looking for good books on Milwaukee in regards to Frank Balistrieri. Any recommendations would be appreciated!

me too, that was the point of me starting this thread but others were quick to change the topic to the next viable family to be gone. i have a big interest in the smallest of crews even if there are only a handful of guys left, but the problem is almost no current info on any of them, which one might expect. however its still very interesting to me so anybody that has any info please share.

As a matter of fact, there will be a book out soon on the Milwaukee Mafia. A lot of stuff on Frank Balistrieri will be presented. The author´s name is Gavin Schmitt. And what I heard, the book is well researched.
I´ll let you know when it hits the shelves!

Only 11 months left...Well 21.12.2012 is near Joke ofcourse,i give them more than 20 years if they reorganize somehow,less rats well much more than 20 years.

About shortage of members,well that's not problem too since there are more Italians in New York than in Rome.But interesting thing is i read somewhere how most of new members are junkies.

probably true,but i never really believed these fairy tales of the old timers being somehow a cut above the rest. These guys have been involved in everything from drugs to child porn. I even think there was a luchese capo who was convicted of gang raping a 16 year old.