Hi,

I thing the Subject says all.

I have a lot of questions

For my imagination:

Front-Boss: The Boss is not in jail (Vincant Gigante) and the Front-Boss is for example Fat Tony Salerno.

Acting-Boss: If the Boss is in jail, he gets reprised by his Acting-Boss.

Is there a difference between Front-Boss and Street-Boss?
Whats the role of the Underboss?
Who has more power? The Underboss or the Front-Boss?


Thanks in advance

I interpret the Front Boss as being someone who needs to appear to be the boss to the public and law enforcement to draw attention away from the actual boss. The Street Boss is not necessarily trying to cover up the boss but takes a more active role in running the family on the streets, while the actual boss may be recognized but is less in the spotlight.

Couldn't of answered any better , that's your answer right there . Cheers snakes

The street boss deals with the day to day running of the crime family on the street he deals with the captains , the street boss is said to hold the same power and in some instances more power than the underboss

It's very confusing. When I joined the forum and started reading the posts I became more confused, especially about Chicago. I started doing research, reading books, FBI files, making telephone calls ,etc, etc. I slowly but surely started developing a picture of how things work / worked during certain eras. Also, one of our members was kind enough to explain to me in a pm how it worked. His explanation was very similar to what you state here. He just went into a little more detail.

But this is a topic that is, in my opinion, long overdue. Probably no two OC families operate the same, but it appears what you state here is consistent with everything I've been told.

somebody would need to be stupid as a fuck to want the job of a front boss. Salerno was not stupid. There is no extra layer within the ranks of a Family, designating a front boss. An official boss can appoint an acting boss if he wish for a number of reasons but it´s not because he wants somebody to front for him and take the rap. You are confusing all these terms. I guess an acting boss could be called a street boss, because he handles the daily stuff on the street. Just like a normal official boss would do. These are the ranks within a Family: Boss, Underboss, Consigliere, captain and soldier. There are no ranks like street boss, acting boss, front boss, side walk soldier, toilet cleaner in social clubs or whatever rank a kid just invented while playing Mafia games on SP...or read om MafiaWiki.

At a guess I'd saw LE and mob-watchers use all these terms more than OC guys use them themselves.


IE and a side note, I seriously doubt Salerno within the Family was referred to, or designated by Chin as 'Front-boss'. LE most likely just had the wrong guy pegged.

Yes! That´s it SB. The term front boss was invented by FBI when they realized that they had made a blunder. Finally somebody that gets it!

Absolutely.

Guess I should have clarified more in my initial post; "front" and "street" are just different ways of saying "acting".

So basically Salerno served offically as Underboss, but was pegged as an Acting Boss by Law Enforcement?

No, guys like Salerno and Tieri were front bosses. It wasn't the FBI that made it up. It was Fish Cafaro who pointed it out. It was John Gotti on tape who said Phil Lombardo was the real Genovese boss in the 1970's. Yet it was Tieri and Salerno who attended the Commission meetings and represented themselves as bosses

So while Gotti was raping someone he gave them the lowdown on the Genovese family? Was he like whispering threateningly in their ear "If you go to the cops about this, I, me, John Gotti will go to Phil Lombardo and he will sever your fucking head off!"?

Acting is more of a temp role like taking over while the real boss or whoever is serving a prison sentence. Front and street boss seem to be the same. Those guys run the day to day activities but leave important decisions up to the boss