In the modern day iv'e heard numerous reports from books, documentaries and ex-mobsters that the 5 families have a number cap for memberships, from what iv'e heard today's roughly are: Gambino's and Genovese 250 max (sometimes seen Genovese listed as 300), Lucchese 130, and Bonnano and Colombo 120.
However its often discussed on here how in say the 50s, the membership caps were in some cases much higher, reports vary greatly but I have seen some say Gambino's and Genovese at 400-500 made members.
When did the commission, or just in general, was it decided to cap the numbers at much lower? I would say up to the end of Castellano, the Gambino's for example may have had more than 300 made guys. Seems, from the 90s the caps were lowered fairly significantly, is this so?

Not that I'm much of a historian but I personally doubt either of the G's had 500 buttons.

It was D'Arco who, in his book, talked about the max memberships Luciano and the other bosses at the time put on the families in NY. Genovese and Gambinos were 300 each. Colombos were 150. Luccheses and Bonannos were 125-140 each.

I've seen some estimates for the two larger families in the 400-450 range. Valachi may have cited those kind of figures if I remember right. But they may have been inflated. 500 certainly seems so.

Even if we go by the relatively lower figures D'Arco cited, the cap does seem to have changed at some point. The Genovese and Gambinos have each been around 200 members for sometime now. The other families around 100 or a little more for sometime now. One would think they could reach those old max figures, at least the smaller families.

Things may have changed during those years when the books were supposedly closed and few new members were made. A lot of guys died off before they started making a bunch of new ones in the 1970's. Perhaps it was too much to replace so they lowered the cap? I don't know.

Thanks Ivy, one thing I wondered about is, under Massino at the turn of the century, some were quoting the Bonnano's as 150 members (seems high), however it could be possible they exceeded their cap?
Also do you think you could make a case for the Genovese having 50 more members than the Gambino's? Iv'e seen the Gambino's listed by sources as low as 150 members at times while the Genovese as high as 275.

jack falcone said in 2005 there was 200 made guys

There actually a thread about this "across the street" at the moment. I've always had a hard time believing the Bonannos went as high as 150. Possibly 135 or so by the early 2000's before the indictments and defections started. But 150 seems like a stretch to me, let alone even bigger claims I've seen. But there is conflicting info.

I've seen both the 150 for the Gambinos and 275 for the Genovese. But I think both figures are ouliers. Family totals wI'll fluctuate of course but those figures seem extreme. The feds had the Genovese at about 200 members during the 2007 Leo case and the Gambinos at about 200 members during the 2010 Marino case.