Most of the stuff we always hear about are 70s and 80s, but who were the big players in the 90s?

It's been discussed a trillion times you drunk. Tony Spero, Wild Bill, Chin, Jimmy Brown..

Tipsy not drunk.

Massino, Vitale, Spero, Coppa, Lino

Wild Bill/Orena/Scarpa

Chin/Eggs/The Lion/Barney

Various Gottis, D'Amico, Corozzo, Squitieri, diLeonardo

Good summary, I would just take away D'Amico , and definitely DiLeonardo does not belong IMO. Scarpa was at the end of his run, but his war with Orena may have been the biggest mafia story of the 1990's.

I'll admit I wasn't sure about diLeonardo myself, but given that he was a close friend of the putative street boss and a capo in his own right by the late 90s I thought he might be worth a mention representing the new generation.

I always thought D'Amico was a fairly important part of the family admin at that time so I'm more puzzled that you would object to his inclusion.

Scarpa was indeed at the end of a GLORIOUS run and those days in the early 90s were maybe his glory years as Perico's enforcement. Can't not include Scarpa - he's basically still operating as if it's the 50s in the 90s. Simply amazing.

. DiLeonardo was definitely a successful mobster on the street during that time.

Nothing wrong with a few drinks as long as your responsible and don't drive

He wasn't' he was given things to run, and screwed them up. . If not for his friendship with Gotti, he is a nobody.

I don't object to D'Amico that strongly, it is just that I think he was not that big or influential as the others you listed. He also seems to have just been in the right place at the right time to wind up as acting boss. You may have it right, maybe I am underestimating him.

Good question. It's an era many people forget about. Perhaps because it's rather recent, but Chin was probably the most powerful player of that era. Massino was up there. Others worth mentioning are Barney, Danny Marino, Spero, Allie Boy

D'Amico and Mikey Scars were definitely heavyweights, but I agree they were nowhere near people like Barney or even the Corozzos.

. Agreed

Guys who were on the administration for the five families in the 1990s:

Bonanno family

Philip Rastelli remained boss until he died in prison in 1991, at which point underboss Joseph Massino was elected to replace him despite being incarcerated. On the street, the family was being run by a panel consisting of consigliere Anthony Spero, and Salvatore Vitale, then a captain. (Despite both men being identified as acting boss at various times in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it appears neither Spero nor Vitale actually held the position). In 1992, Massino was released from prison and promoted Vitale to official underboss. When Spero got indicted a couple of years later, a panel was set up to help Vitale run the captains. The first two members of the panel were Louis Attanasio and James Tartaglione. When Attanasio went to prison, he was replaced by Gerlando Sciascia. Tartaglione was also locked up shortly after and Sciascia was obviously murdered in 1999. Frank Coppa was then put on the panel after the Sciascia murder until he was arrested in 2000.

Colombo family

Official boss Carmine Persico and official underboss Gennaro Langella retained their positions despite their incarceration, though it's unclear how long Langella remained the official underboss after war broke out within the family. At the beginning of 1990, Victor Orena was acting boss, William Cutolo was acting underboss, and Benedetto Aloi was acting consigliere. When Aloi was arrested, he was switched to the underboss position because Persico did not want to have the family's consigliere in prison. Carmine Sessa was made the official consigliere and Cutolo was taken off the administration. However, it seems Aloi wasn't acting underboss for long. Pasquale Amato held the position for about six months and then it went to Joseph Scopo.

When the war started, the family split into two factions. Scopo and Aloi backed Orena. Sessa backed Persico. Vincent Aloi may have been made acting consigliere for Orena. The Persico faction was run by Sessa, Joseph Tomasello, and Joseph Russo, and by early 1992 Tomasello was made acting boss and Russo the acting underboss. These administrations didn't last long though. Orena, Russo, and Benny Aloi went to prison. Sessa flipped. Tomasello went on the lam for several years. Then Scopo was murdered. After the Scopo killing, the Orena faction was run by a panel consisting of Cutolo, Vinny Aloi, and Joel Cacace. Cutolo however was incarcerated for a year shortly after and was replaced by Joseph Campanella. In 1994, Andrew Russo was releaaed from prison and made acting boss of the Persico faction.

Later in 1994, the other families decided to officially back the Persico faction to end the war. Some Orena guys like Cacace and Aloi came in, while others like Cutolo and Campanella were broken down to soldier and only came in later. Cacace was either consigliere or acting underboss under Russo. If he was underboss, Vinny Aloi was consigliere. In 1996, Russo was locked up again but it appears Alphonse Persico didn't take over until a couple of years later. With Persico as acting boss, he filled out the rest of the administration with Cutolo as acting underboss and Cacace as consigliere (if he wasn't already in the role). This was the set-up until Cutolo was murdered in 1999. After Cutolo's killing, Cacace briefly held both the official consigliere and acting underboss positions.

When Persico was arrested that same year, the family was run by a panel consisting of Cacace (as consigliere) and captains Benjamin Castellazzo, John DeRoss, and Thomas Gioeli. At some point between 1999 and his death in 2000, Salvatore Fusco was made street boss. DeRoss also was serving as acting underboss by 2000.


Gambino family

At the start of 1990, John Gotti was the boss, Joseph Armone the incarcerated underboss, Frank Locascio the acting underboss, and Salvatore Gravano the consigliere. Gotti then switched Armone and Gravano and moved Locascio to acting consigliere. Gotti, Gravano, and Locascio were all then locked up in late 1990.

On the street, a panel was set up to help John Gotti Jr. run the family. This first panel consisted of John D'Amico, Peter Gotti, James Failla, and Louis Vallario. While never actually being given the acting boss position, Gotti Jr. was still de facto in charge of the family. Other guys who served on the panel at different points through the 1990s were Anthony Ciccone, Nicholas Corozzo, and Stephen Grammauta. Joseph Arcuri was also on the administration, possibly serving as acting or official underboss after Gravano flipped and later as acting consigliere. By 1998/ 1999, the panel was disbanded in favour of a traditional administration. Peter Gotti was made acting boss, Arnold Squitieri the official underboss, and Joseph Corozzo the official consigliere.

Genovese family

At the beginning of 1990, Vincent Gigante was the boss, Venero Mangano the underboss, and James Ida either the official or acting consigliere (depending on when he officially took over from Bobby Manna). When Gigante and Mangano were indicted, Liborio Bellomo and Michael Generoso were made acting boss and acting underboss, respectively. A few years later, Bellomo, Generoso, and Ida were all locked up at the same time. Dominick Cirillo held the acting boss position for about a year until he stepped down and was replaced by Frank Serpico, who may have held the position until his death. Cirillo, Serpico, and the other acting bosses in the late 1990s and 2000s were assisted by a panel of high ranking captains that included the likes of Lawrence Dentico, Alan Longo, and Frank Illiano among others.

Lucchese family

Vittorio Amuso was the official boss and Anthony Casso the official underboss. They went on the lam to avoid being arrested and in 1991 made Alfonso D'Arco the acting boss. Anthony Baratta was acting underboss and Steven Crea acting consigliere. The acting administration was only in place briefly before being taken down in favour of a panel consisting of D'Arco, Baratta, Frank Lastorino, and Salvatore Avellino. D'Arco flipled shortly afterwards and Lastorino was serving as official consigliere by the end of 1991. Eventually, Joseph Defede was given the acting boss position, Crea succeeded Casso as underboss, and Louis Daidone replaced Lastorino as consigliere. Crea then took over from Defede as acting boss, and Eugene Castelle was serving as acting underboss by 2000.

Thanks my friend!

Such a great time everybody was free topless women on the beaches everywhere.

You actually went outside? Haha I'm just playing. Hard to picture you at the beach..or anywhere lol

I'd add Wonder Boy to the list. He was a heavy hitter with Luchese's in the 90's.

Tino "the Greek" Fiumara his heyday was also in the 90s after his release in '94.

Agree with that 100% - I neglected to name anyone in the Lukes in the 90s as it was such a f**king shitshow in that family in those years, but certainly rising from the ashes were Little Joe, Louis Daidone along with Crea and Madonna with DeSantis and Dellorusso coming up too.

I know Madonna wasn't made til the late 90s but thats kind of a technicality, he'd been a heavyweight in the Lukes since the 70's.

I've been thinking about this a while and I have to give Hollander credit as the OP - this is a really fascinating era of the Mob to look at. It was sort of the hangover that followed the big 80's and early 90's crackdowns and was an era I think "The Sopranos" captured well; a mix of old time guys dealing with a new generation with a whole mix of young and old and different values.

The Gambino's, Luccheses and Colombos were all still coming out of some very dark times. Genovese and Bonannos were still doing well, and yet Chin's downfall and Massino's betrayal were just around the corner...

These days the mob must be looking back on the mob of the '90s like it was the golden era!

Yeah from some of the recent busts I'm just not getting the sense of a very strong mob, I need to see some HUGE dollar figures, and that's what the 1990s still provided. As much of a shit show they were in the 90s a lot of those busts showed big money figures and they were still powerful in the unions.

In the mid to late 90’s stretching into the early part of the 2000’s
LCN’s cash cow was WALL-STREET.

Each family had different firms that they controlled.

The scams were enormous sometimes as high as $100MM

This was the biggest earning racket since the Gas Tax Scheme.

One of the reasons was the FBI didn’t know how the scam was being done.
The truth is Jews have been scamming for many, many years and were virtually untouched.

So at the beginning they couldn’t figure out how to tie into a RICO case, the guys out in the front were getting charged with BS and seeing small jail sentences, hardly a deterrent.

Some of the guys getting off:

Persico/Wild Bill
Coppola/Robert Lino
Allie Shades
Mikey Scars/Jr
Phill Abramo

Each family has their own firms where they placed their associates to work the scam for them.

I just can’t remember who from the Luke’s had a presence.

There were so many "major" players (from all six NY/NJ families) operating within NYC at the peak of the 1990s that its almost impossible to name them all here. Both guys who were publicly notorious, and the more shadowy guys, who ran multiple rackets with many of them earning very well before they were either nabbed by the authorities or (smartly) backed up on their own.

I agree the 90’s was the last of the old school cosa nostra.

The end of the 80’s well into the 90’s the gov’t strategy of cutting off the head of the organization worked very well.

Wasn’t the knock out blow they thought however, was VERY SIGNIFICANT.

Towards the end of the 90’s the feds started turning their RICO, guns towards all members of Cosa-Nostra not just the Hierarchy.

Those RICO cases decimated them

Which created an avalanche of turn coats.

After they "DECAPITATED" the bosses the Feds started using RICO to go back and charge crimes from 10, 15, 20 years ago.
Which really was not done before.

RICO if there is an on going conspiracy you can be charged with crimes from 30 years ago.

When Gravano flipped he laid the ground work for a way out.
Than anyone that had a gripe because of whatever, had the excuse they needed to flip.

2,3,5 10 murders you get to keep all your money, walk and start over... Remember the deal Gravano cut he did not testify against he own crew.

That seemed very attractive to many.

LCN never recovered from and never will recover from the onslaught of RICO, trials.

Anyone can say what they want....

RICO- came for everybody-

Whether you were on "FRONT-STREET" with all your captains.
In a Bathrobe Drooling on yourself.
In a White House far out in Staten Island.
If you used your car as your social club.