In the 1960s-1970s there was a flood of Brooklyn mobsters who wound up being top men in their respective crime families. Most of these men were born around 1940 and they grew up around each other in the Bensonhurst, Dyker Heights area or south Brooklyn. Some gangsters were Sammy Gravano(along with his crew the Rampers), Anthony Casso, Vic Amuso, Michael Franzese, Frankie DeCicco, Roy DeMeo and more. Dominick Montiglio is someone who grew up with some of these guys. Was there more opportunity in Brooklyn during this time? Is that why this era of the mob was to an extent dominated by Brooklyn bred mobsters? Casso and Amuso in particular transferred the power of the lucchese family from Harlem to Brooklyn.

dyker/Bensonhurst had the highest population of Italians at one point back in the day. Black and Hispanics were slowing moving into older Italian and Irish neighborhoods in the Bronx and Harlem. But Bensonhurst was a close knit Italian community since the 50s-60s

Not much Genovese in Brooklyn though did they have crews over there?

Yes they did. Casso’s Godfather was a capo in the Geonvese family. The Genoveses and Luccheses were both historically more powerful in Manhattan though.

That is true. I think there were some New Jersey neighborhoods that may have had the highest population also. That could be why the Brooklyn crews were so tight with the Decavalcantes.

During the 90s to present a lot of the Italians from Brooklyn moved to jersey and Staten Island but your right north jersey did have a lot of Italians as well prior to the transition.

Half of newark was divided between black communities and Italian communities going back to the 40s and 50s which sparked the racial riots of the 60s

Some very tough crews were spawned in Brooklyn and jersey during this time as well. And not just tough, but smart. Many of the people I named were tremendous earners with both traditional blue collar rackets and more sophisticated white collar rackets.

Vito Genovese was originally from Brooklyn right?

Pretty sure he was on the upper west side in Manhattan

He was born in Italy but I think Johnny is right. He might have lived in Brooklyn at one point and moved though. He had some very upscale apartments on the upper Westside believe. Many mobsters like Genovese, Costello, Salerno and Luciano owned apartments in their day that you would probably have to be worth hundreds of millions to own today. Just a guess. All of them are from the same crime family too.

Gigantes townhouse is worth like 10-15 mill now if I’m not mistaken

The Napolis operated in Brooklyn according to this 1975 article. It's also the first time I read James Vincent Napoli was reputed boss of the family, how accurate was this? Frank Tieri was also a Brooklyn guy.

https://www.nytimes.com/1975/05/08/...cy-ring-2-linked-to-mafia-9-held-in.html

I didn’t know much about Jimmy Napoli but after looking him up he was pretty big time. I read that his gambling empire had a gross profit of $150 million.

Another person from Brooklyn who was in the rampers with Sammy was a guy named Gerard Papa. He had quite the reputation as a tough guy.

That crew had a few guys who became top dogs, one who didn’t make it was James Emma, he was murdered by Dominick “Mimi” Scialo crew, they say when Emma was murdered, Gerard Papa became a psychotic murderer.

I read that actually. Gravano, Emma and Papa all in one crew is a tough trio to tango with. Out of the guys who we are talking about during this time period, what crew do you think was the toughest? Gotti’s ozone park crew was tough. But I think Casso’s and Gravano’s crews might have been tougher and smarter. Franzese’s crew might have made the most money but there could have been crews that out earned Franzese and his guys.

Brooklyn had the murder inc guys i thought they were always incharge. I will say this going off topic but the sencond most successful mob boss behind carlo gambino is definitely phill benny squint lombardo . He had a 10yr run. Must have made millions in the 70tys decade as boss and steps down and retires in florida probaly still getting money. Says he died in 87. He names chin boss 81ish

I guess phill was a harlem guy

He was more successful than Lucchese and Accardo? Salerno and Gigante were incredibly successful too but they both went to prison so that might not fit your criteria.

The whole powerhouse of the Luccheses in those days was from Brooklyn. Casso, Amuso, Lastorino and so on. Very feared crew.

19th hole crew

every family had a murderous crew or crews in it..my opinion nobody was more feared than the other..orders came from the top and guys got killed and were told in what manner or message to send.guys flipping made it public info on the crews, so for me they were all equel..

yaeh should have said nyc boss and basically any boss after gambino. cause luchese had a great run and died free. agree with bronx with what he said to. i think alot of guys didnt get to pick there captain to. so a brooklyn guy could be in a bronx capo's crew. didnt bosses always put like 1 stone cold killer in every guys crew to spread out the man power. im sure there were old quite capos who didnt want or need a hot head who was inducted when they open the books in the 70tys.

After ceremonies the new inductees were transferred to crews where their bread and butter was needed. For example if you were good at white collar crimes, they’ll throw you in a Manhattan/Brooklyn crew because those boroughs are the 2 richest boroughs.

Were Brooklyn crews known for white collar crimes? If so can anyone provide examples?

If I’m not mistaking, Michael Franzese’s crew was deep into white collar crimes

Michael franzese crew was based out of long island his father moved them out of brooklyn. I guess his russian gas guys would been more in bk. I remember his first book in the 90tys maybe he didnt want to talk about the brooklyn guys cause i dont remeber him mentioning any persico or any of there relatives . I mean he was letting sleeping dogs lay im assuming he been mentioning them alot in the last few videos hes made after carmine died

I still dont believe his bullshit about bringing carmine 2 million a week in the 1980tys. Thats crazy he says 100k a week which according to my math is 5.5 million a year that seems believable. 2 mill the persicos wouldnt even know were to put that much paper money. Thata like 100mill in 1 yrs get the fuck outta here. The whole 100 colombo family soldiers would have been killing each other over that much dough no way

Agreed I think that was a exaggerated number Franzese threw out there to sell his story, do I think he made millions yeah but not that much. Like you said if he brought that much they woulda been a war between alll the families not just the Colombo’s. Is perisco relatives even loaded like that? I know John gambinos family is loaded to the point his grand kids, grand kids, grand kids are set. They can wipe their ass with $100 bills and not hurt their pockets

i mean hes lying saying hes bringing his boss carmine 2 mill a week, that means hes making 4 and giving carmine half. no way. if he wants to say all the russians and italians circa 1981 were scamming the usa gov out of 2million a week in stolen gas taxes id find that a little more believable. but hes bringing carmine 2 milllion a week in tribute money is strait big nutcase case lies. paul castelanno would have had killed michael and his whole crew and like you said all 5 families would have went to war. the concrete club i think still made more money for the colombos mike just likes the light. i believe he made millions but that shit was cutt up 50 different ways then him and just carmine splitting a few mill everyweek profit