Whats your opinion?...

At the height of their respective underworld power and influence, in your opinion, which Family was more active in the rackets, operated better illegal rackets, and brought in more money for their bosses and membership? Was it...

The Lanza Family (San Francisco, CA)

or

The Zammuto Family (Rockford, IL)

Which Family was larger?

Which Family was richer?

San Francisco had limited membership, a former boss turned CI (Lima) and an official boss that discouraged his only captain to refrain from any illegal activities (Lanza & Infusino) - on top of that, the family was so small that his position was mostly honorary, with all soldiers formally reporting to the underboss

Rockford was more active for a longer period of time and also just generally had more members

Rockford had more members, better connections to Chicago, Madison, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Dallas, Colorado, Detroit, New Orleans, San Jose, Los Angeles, New Jersey, Bonanno, Genovese, Luchese crime families. They were still active longer than San Francisco, had better associates in key places around the country as well as the Caribbean, Sicily, and France. More influence than San Francisco. They also had Joe Licari in Las Vegas, Thomas Pendergast cousin in Cuba. Which was more than San Francisco was able to do.

San Francisco for all intent purposes began to isolate itself in the early 1950s, and Jimmy Lanza really accelerated it once he took over.

You make some very good points, JoeP. And frankly, I tend to agree with you. Thinking about the two families, Frisco was essentially defunct by the late 1960s era, and before that Jimmy Lanza made sure to damp-it-down, forbidding his remaining soldiers from engaging in street activities. Whereas the Rockford family under Zammuto, and his successors, continued street rackets for years to come.

And I think you're also right when you say that, the fact that Lima was later exposed as an FBI informer, definitely weakened that family. Whereas Rockford, off the top of my head, never had such a highly-placed informer within their midst.

You made some very logical assessments.

I agree with this also. I think Jimmy Lanza's "strength" (if we can call it that) was the fact that he descended from royalty, in the sense that his father had been an old-time mafioso who for all intents and purposes founded the San Francisco Family. So Jimmy was well respected in that sense (having come from a Mafia blood lineage.) But after thinking about it, I have to agree that Rockford was probably more powerful and better connected...to both American families as well as Sicilian-born members which they continued to "import" into their ranks for years to come.