Hey everyone, newbie here. There's a thing that has been puzzling me about the American Mafia. Generally when we think of the typical mob organization and traditions we don't think earlier than 40's or 50's. Even the old fashioned traditional bosses such as Masseria, Maranzano or Johnny Torrio didn't apparently make men as mobsters such as Luciano or Al Capone weren't made. When Luciano established the Commission he didn't agree with the traditional ways of doing business so I guess he didn't bother with the made man ceremonies either. So, when was it become custom to make men and who made it happen?

Also, when were the structure and ranks we know today brought in? I don't think Luciano cared about that stuff either, but earlier bosses led what we usually call simply gangs and not families so I wonder when were those organizations started being called families?

Thank you.

Maranzano created the structure with boss underboss and capos like the roman army , luciano created the position of consigliere and the commission . The Chicago outfit never used the traditional making ceromony , they used to have a meal and shake hands and u were in , it was only very much later they adopted the traditional making ceromony

Dom, did Capone have a traditional ceremony or the meal?

I don't even think Capone was even made in the traditional sense

In his biography Joe Bonanno says that Capone refused to adopt the making ceremony for Chicago, unlike the other families. So from the book I got the impression that the making ceremony became the official way either by Maranzano or Lucky.

Boss, underboss, consigliere, captains and soldiers is the norm and been so since the first day the Mafia arrived in America. And that´s way before Maranzano became boss. Nicolo Gentile (google him if you haven´t heard of him) for example talks about the structure of the Mafia, naming captains, consiglieres and underbosses. Masseria´s consigliere was Saverio Pollaccia. Soldiers were inducted in pretty much the same way back then as they are now. Valachi for example tells about it when he was made in 1930 and that´s before Luciano became boss.

One big misconception about the American Mafia is that it was formed, or started by Maranzano or Luciano. But we know now that this is really not the case. In New York, at the very beginning, there were three Families based there. The New York Mafia became five Families when Reina and Profaci/or DiBella became bosses of their Families in the 1920s.

I don´t know how many times I must have said this on here. At least a couple of times. And obviously some people don´t get it for some reason. (This is not me throwing insults at anybody, just want to help out).

Welcome to the forums DonKostic! (Another Serb???) :-)

Was nicolo gentile not made in Italy ?? He wasn't an American mafioso

He was very much part of the American Mafia. Member in Kansas, Pittsburgh, Cleveland and New York. Fled to Sicily in mid 1930s and died there.

Cheers hairy , I've just read he came to New York at a young age , was he an original member of the black hand ?? I don't think they were as organised as wen masseria maranzano and then luciano came along

I always thought consigliere was invented by Mario Puzo and then later on used by gangsters. New thing learned.

And yes, another Serb.

It was a long time ago I read Gentile so sorry I can´t recall if he was a black hander or not before joining the Mafia. He may have been.

There is much more info on Nicolo Gentile in Italian than English. There was no mention if he was in the Black Hand from what I have read thus far.

He was all over the place just like HK mentions add Houston to the list. When he went back to Sicily he became a key player in drug trafficking working with Giuseppe Settecase along with the Luciano and Mangano (Gambino) families.

Lucky wanted the ceremony to go the way of the Mustache Petes, he saw it as a relic of that culture, he was a modernizer and wanted a new look Mob fashioned on his own ideals.

Meyer Lanksy convinced him to keep the tradition, to keep the guys loyal and to feel that they belonged to something, a family. Also taking the oath of Omerta meant something in those days, to have to swear it in a formal ceremony in the company of your peers copper fastened the pledge.

I'm reading Gentile's memoirs, well bits and pieces of it. It's in Italian so it's been taking me quite some time to get through it. If half of what he mentions is TRUE then this has to be the MOST detailed account on how the whole business structure of organized crime played out in North America and Sicily and how they are interlinked.

HK you are The Man. Thanks for mentioning Gentile. I feel like I have access to some REAL accurate information which is rare in the world of organized crime.

Nicola Gentile is often forgotten. He gives great accounts of the mafia in both America, Sicily, and some of mainland Italy. HK, I looked over Gentile as being the source of information about that article published, that some think that Joe Doto was the source, but Nicola was in Sicily at the time and not on the mainland. Gentile did talk to the KGB, but nothing mob related, just political rivals who opposed Nicola's own picks for those positions of public power. He gives great details of the Prohibition years throughout the 20's.

The Mafia Structure can be traced back to the 1860's with the execption of the positions of Consiglieri and Capo. Three positions that existed around that time are, Giudice meaning judge, don't really know what he did as is was the Mafia bosses that sorted most of the problems out for their own families or civilians. Messaggero, someone who was direct with the boss and traveled to the other cities, villages, or provinces in Sicily with a message from their boss. Tenente, this position best describes by the role of Capo, with whatever the person is in charge of such as cattle or orchards would be attached to that title.

I have the English (translated) version of the manuscript that was used for the book. It was translated into English by American agents, if memory serves. Sometimes keywords or original thoughts of the author (any author and on any topic) gets lost in translations. Especially in this case which is about the Mafia, a phenomenon that was pretty new and at that time still something that was hard to grasp and understand for outsiders. AG, It´s impressive that you are reading the book in Italian.




My favorite part is the one when he talks about the Castellammarese war and the politics that was going on in connection with the war. For example, he talks about how Maranzano rejected the idea of a Commission and how "pissed" he was when some mafiosi suggested Vincenzo Troia (I think it was) taking over the boss of bosses position. Vigorous as Maranzano was, he managed to win the political side of it as soon as he won the war. But he must had gained some powerful enemies in the process, not only among those who shortly after killed him.