It seems that he got overrated as a gangster since he's been portrayed in movies and shows. Also who are your top 5 mafia bosses of all time? Mine would be:
1. Carlo Gambino
2. Lucky Luciano
3. Tommy lucchese

Everything after that I really don't know who I would put.

It all depends on what criteria you're using. In terms of pure name recognition, Capone is certainly the most famous gangster ever.

1. Luciano
2. Accardo
3. Gambino
4. Luchesse
5. Salerno

I feel like a idiot for doin this but.....

1.Gambino
2.Vito Genovese
3.Frank Costello
4.Benny Squint
5.a&b- Chin and Salerno

1.Gambino
2.Gigante
3.Bruno
4.Luchesse
5.Costello

Sure most people throw their hat to original commission members and/ or their successor but lest we forget...

The job was easier back then IMO. Things are a lot harder now a days. The way I look at it anyone who can stick around today balancing indictments, rats, FBI, AND profits all the while keeping things in check for longer than a fleeting moment has my vote.

Good points! Such a lightning rod now

It's why I've always given Chin a lot of credit. He became boss at exactly the time the feds really started going after the mob. And he lasted on the street, as a NY boss, for 16 years in the 1980's and 1990's. Of course, he certainly had to go to extraordinary lengths to do it.

If Al Capone were around today and acted like he did back then, he would last about thirty seconds against today's careerist prosecutors and feds. He was way more public, open, and flamboyant than John Gotti, and we all know where those traits got him. Capone wouldn't stand a chance today.

I do think that in the context of his own era Capone was a great boss.

True,Capone was a great boss in his own era,no doubt about it.I see a lot of ppl compare todays era with the old bosses and every1 is sayin that they wont last a min with todays prosecutors and feds...yea but if you put todays mobsters in the Capone era maybe they wont be prosecuted but they gonna get whacked in a sec for sure....so its same shit but in different package

Me too lol.

1.Gambino
2.Accardo
3.Lucchesse
4.Gigante
5.Luciano

Gambino was everything a mafia don is supposed to be and then some. Chin Gigante, a firm believer in the "tradition", lived by the rules and disciplined the ones who broke them. Ray Patriarca Sr., a gangster's gangster, a true boss. Tony Accardo/Paul Ricca,both extremely powerful and influential even at the times they weren't official sitting bosses, higher-ups ran to them for advice including Accardo to Ricca. And Lucky Luciano, just because.

1.Carlo Gambino
2.Vincent Gigante
3.Ray Patriarca Sr.
4.Tony Accardo/Paul Ricca
5.Charlie Luciano

Think everyone is forgetting the detroit bosses old-joe zerilli and current jack tocco. zerilli created such a family that has only had 1 turncoat. amazing.

Carlo Gambino
Accardo
Gigante
joe zerilli/jack tocco
Luciano (for innovation only! but he does have to be in the list)

When Capone was boss they really only needed one racket, bootlegging. He grew it into an organization making up to $100 million a year from 1925-30, or more than a billion dollars annually in today's dollars.

He basically founded the Chicago mob and successfully ran, at that time, an organization that involved thousands if not tens of thousands of people. And he ran it so successfully that the only way the government could finally get him was by blindsiding him on tax evasion, which was something that had only been used sparsely at that time, and from what I've read the trial was pretty much a sham and he should not have been found guilty.

Overall I think he was pretty successful, although his management style was much more blunt and simple than the extremely cunning bosses who would follow him like Accardo and Humprhies.

In terms of body counts he must have one of the highest in terms of the number of hits he ordered.

And in terms of pure numbers of the organization it probably also reached its peak at that time.

On a personal level he wasn't very successful as he contracted syphilis and his life was essentially over by the time he was 40. But I imagine Al Capone never expected to live very long anyway. I remember some quote where someone asked him about the dangers, or overall negatives, of his job and he said, "That's true, but if I wasn't doing this what would I be doing? Shining shoes in Brooklyn."

When Capone was boss they really only needed one racket, bootlegging. He grew it into an organization making up to $100 million a year from 1925-30, or more than a billion dollars annually in today's dollars.

He basically founded the Chicago mob and successfully ran, at that time, an organization that involved thousands if not tens of thousands of people. And he ran it so successfully that the only way the government could finally get him was by blindsiding him on tax evasion, which was something that had only been used sparsely at that time, and from what I've read the trial was pretty much a sham and he should not have been found guilty.

Overall I think he was pretty successful, although his management style was much more blunt and simple than the extremely cunning bosses who would follow him like Accardo and Humprhies.

In terms of body counts he must have one of the highest in terms of the number of hits he ordered.

And in terms of pure numbers of the organization it probably also reached its peak at that time.

On a personal level he wasn't very successful as he contracted syphilis and his life was essentially over by the time he was 40. But I imagine Al Capone never expected to live very long anyway. I remember some quote where someone asked him about the dangers, or overall negatives, of his job and he said, "That's true, but if I wasn't doing this what would I be doing? Shining shoes in Brooklyn."

I wouldn't say Capone was overrated. He led a fairly large group of about 400 core members ( associates not included ) and was respected and even liked by all of his men. As a leader he was succesful.

New to forum.

Gambino
Luciano
Accardo
Lucchese

Toss up for 5 and beyond

1. Carmine Galante
2. Carmine Galante
3. Carmine Galante
4. Carmine Galante
5. Carmine Galante

Yes, it's a joke. It's hard making a top 5. Guys like Gambino, Costello and Luciano would def be there, though.

I would certainly put Bonanno among my top 5 bosses. Became boss at the extremely young age of 26, stayed on as boss for almost 40 years, organized the Sicilian connection, wrote a book and lived to be 97 while surviving three heart attacks.

Honorable Mention: Charles Binaggio. Didn't have the power but had more vision than Luciano.

This is kind of a nitpick, but in his era that wasn't extremely young for a crime boss; it was more "young-ish".

It's hard to imagine someone today being that young as a boss though. Remember everyone flipping out over Montagna being a 35 year old acting boss? And I think someone just being made today at 26 would be fairly uncommon.

Well back then, you were considered a man when u were 13. Today, look at The Situation, he must be 30 and i still consider him a child.

I agree about accardo. I would put him in my top 10. Top 5 idk because there were some bosses that were more powerful, influential, and made more money than him. But his ability to dodge the Feds was uncanny. Him and Carlo gambino were the 2 best at staying out of the limelight. Both never spent one day in prison.

I saw carlo supposedly spent 22 months in prison but wikipedia said that and it doesn't say that anywhere else but wiki. So I don't trust Wikipedia on this particular case. If he did then thats really little to no time. But the fact that he could be that strong and powerful without the Feds being able to put him away is just unbelievable. He was in NYC where everyone is going to be watching him. The biggest city in the US. Not Philly or Connecticut. The boss of NYC. He's probably the only person who could ever pull that off in NYC.

I know it's a little bit of a childish post on my part but I just wanted to see what everyone had to say.

Vito Genovese wasn't really a great boss. He was a lunatic, and didn't last that long. He had made so many enemies Costello and Luciano set him up and off he went to prison. To be a great boss you have to be liked. That's why guys like Galante got whacked.

He did spend 22 months in Lewisburg State Prison back in the early 1940s for conspiracy to violate internal revenue of liqor laws (I think it´s called). In another seperate charge (in relation to the first charge), Gambino was sentenced to one year and one day to be run concurrently with the first conviction.
At the time, Gambino was a skipper.

Yeah. "He never spent a day in jail" is just yellow journalism by the media, much like Gotti was "the boss of all bosses". Untrue, but it sells.

I gave him credit due to what he left behind.

Some one has a boner for little carmine