All in all I've always been somewhat amazed by Carlos Marcello and the crew he headed. By all accounts they were a tiny Family. Yet, he wielded enormous power, over such a wide arc of territory. His control over politics, business, and the overall underworld was as much, and actually more than most crews.

How he did it is beyond me. He ruled as one of the most respected old-timers for many decades. I know his borgata was supposedly the "first" in America. If not the first, then certainly one of the first. But still, that does not explain how he held such vast control and power.

Even Trafficante ran a crew with many more members than Marcello. Either that, or his absolute control over the judiciary allowed him to keep his membership cloaked for decades. But with the feds, the FBI, they would have discovered, uncovered, his members. So I have to think he truly had a small membership.

Yet they did some serious damage for over 50 years. Until his jailing in the mid 1980's the man was an untouchable.