I'm sorry, I'm sure this has been discussed before but the search function isn't very good.

So in the Castellamarese war the present day Bonannos and Genovese were at war. My assumption is that they were somewhat equal in manpower to go to this war and not one side crushing the other one before Luciano got involved.

So considering that apparently the families can make new members to replace the dead ones plus a couple a year more (remember reading that), at what point did the Bonannos become a small family and why? I would imagine that after Maranzano won, he would make sure his family is the most powerful. Of course he wanted Castellamarese members, maybe that's the reason?

I would have still expected that after the killing of Masseria and Maranzano and the beginning of the "modern mob", the Bonannos would have been the second most powerful. I'm obviously expecting wrong...

Cuz maranzano made himself capo de tutti.capo w his own palace guard as valachi describes it. So the bonanno family was new not maranzanos family. Although it was mostly castallamarese maranzano before the war ended had reina luchese and others w him His own family was never that big

Donnie Brasco fucked it up.

Too much in fighting from the 1960's-1980's. The Bonannos and Luciano crime families were evenly matched after the Castellamarese war and were the two most powerful New York crime families numbers wise. Joe Bonanno believed that only those from the providence of Trapani could be trusted and loyal so the family had a majority from that providence, which hurt that family in recruitment, while the other New York families made members from all over Sicily as well as from southern Italy. The Profaci/Colombo family has always been the smallest of the five families. The Donnie Brasco incident did more to help the Bonanno crime family, rather then to hurt it.

vacari, how in the world did an f.b.i. agent undercover help the bonnano family?

Cause Brasco helped kick the Bonanno family off the Commission, which The Commission Case weakened both the Colombo and Lucchese families, the Genovese escaped that fate, but lost Salerno in the trial, The Gambino's lost Dellocroce before the trial and Castellano was killed before the trial began, thus the Gambino's had their own problems with the Genovese and Lucchese crime families after that. Also the Bonannos were excluded from taking part in any joint family operations, which law enforcement always went after cause it was easier to bust a whole group on RICO charges. No one was really going after the Bonannos, other crime families or the FBI cause they thought they put the final nail in the coffin for the Bonannos.

Note to all board members,

Listen to Giacomo as the above is spot on.

The Bonannos had close to 300 members in 1931. The Genoveses may have had 500 or more. Power cannot always be counted on the number of members a Family has. It´s in the leadership abilities with the boss and how strong the captains are. This is not street gangs we are talking about here where guns matters, but the ability to win negotiations and sitdowns. Micheal Franzese for example (who was very powerful) did not have to use guns but he mastered the negotiation techniques to perfection. Do you understand what I´m trying to say? Now, when it comes to war, sheer numbers certainly helps but more helpful is the motivation and cunning of the shooters that matters. Maranzano was a master of motivating his soldiers, more so than Masseria.

Most of the Maranzano members were Castellammarese, but the Family also had a faction of Palermitanos and other Sicilians. When the books reopened in early 1950s, the Bonannos also had mainland Italians within their ranks. So it´s wrong to say that Joe Bonanno only prefered Castellamarese people. But yes, the number of Bonanno members dropped with time. This has to do with not enough recruits to replace the ones who had died prior to when the books were reopened.

Thank you HairyKnuckles and all. Very good info. So basically the answer is, the Maranzano/Bonanno family was always smaller. Yes, I remember reading in the Bonanno biography that the family had a smaller group of Sicilians outside of Castellamare del Golfo.

What you say about mob war is true of course. A small portion of the families driving around the city looking for certain people to shoot. I suppose a great majority of each family stays out of the killing altogether.

Bill Bonanno in Honor thy Father claimed the Bonanno's had 400 members in 1965, not exactly a small family. In 1961 the F.B.I. counted 2700 made members in the 5 New York families. That would make an average family of 540 members each at that time. Certainly some of the families had more than 500, while some had less.

Until the 1964-1968 Banana War the family was strong with crews in Tucson and Montreal,but Bonanno preferred to made only sicilian guys.
From the 1968-1979 there were 4 boss and in the early 80s the family was so desperate to made anyone,this helped Pistone and the family downfall.
With Massino that stabilized the family,there are new made men to fil the ranks.

The Bonannos were already one of the smaller NY families before Brasco.



Keep in mind that membership estimates prior to the 1980's are rather suspect. In hindsight, there's no way there were that many members in NY, even back in the early 1960's. According to Al D'Arco, the maximum membership for the Genovese and Gambino families was 300, the Colombos 150, and the Luccheses and Bonannos 125-140. But even if you go with the bigger estimates we've seen, it's nowhere near 2,700.