Which mob is/was more powerful and more effective? Which is/was stronger? Meaning now and in the past when they were both at their peak. I always thought al Capone was overrated as a mob boss. And accardo was a very effectove boss but couldn't hold a candle to the New York bosses. But idk that's my opinion. Post away guys:)
Talk about drudging up one of the oldest and most hotly-debated topics on these OC forums.
You're making two separate comparisons - the families as a whole and the bosses invidually.
In terms of competency as a boss, Accardo was the equal of any of the NY bosses, i.e. Gambino, Lucchese, etc. And a good argument could be made that the Outfit at it's peak in the 1950's, when he was the boss, rivaled some of the NY families in power. Of course, it's not fair to compare the Outfit to all the NY mob, i.e. all 5 families.
Nowadays, the Outfit is closer in size and scope to the other remaining small families outside NY than any of the 5 families.
Well New York City had 5 families. In Chicago if there were 5 families accardo wouldn't have been making as much money. But that's beside the fact. Accardo was a great boss. One of the greatest but there were better bosses than him definitely. Chicago outfit was as strong as new yorks weakest families but I don't know if I would say stronger than new yorks weakest families. The Gambino's and genovese were a lot more powerful than the outfit. And I never really knew this was a big debate. I always thought everyone just assumed NYC was the most powerful. Which they were in my opinion.
