Even Chin was caught talking to either his wife or mistress (don't recall which) on the phone in a normal demeanor; i.e. not playing crazy.

No kidding.

I know it sounds overly simplistic, Sonny. But you know as well as I do that it wasn't all that long ago that pleas deals by wiseguys were unheard of, and I just think that the Genoveses were a little bit quicker to see the benefits of said deals.

The Gambinos certainly took their sweet time in seeing the light. Don't you think that guys like John Carneglia and Gene Gotti curse John while they sit in their jail cells today? Those guys were offered very generous pleas back in '89 which would have had them on the street years ago.

There's a big difference between coming out of jail at 55 and coming out at 75. They could have had a few prime years ahead of them. Now they'll be old men when they're released. And if not for John Gotti's insane anti-government mindset, they might have had those years on the street.

Any Boss who enjoys media attention is bat-shit crazy. The two most famous gangsters of the 20th century were also two of the worst.

Very true and it shows you the shift in landscape of LCN over the years. You would never have caught Carlo giving quotes and smiling for the camera.

The two most famous gangsters of the 20th century were also two of the worst.

Both Neapolitans.

Both Neapolitans.

I'd pay to hear that tap.

Very true .

The Genovese family is now dominant. They remain a very powerful group. The Gambinos have dropped to Number 2. In the Genovese family, you really don't have that many defectors. They're still very entrenched in the unions and construction industry."
- Jack Garcia, former FBI agent (2011)

"The Genovese family is a very, very strong family. They're the most efficient family because they're so secretive. People within the family don't even know who each other are. They are very disciplined in their criminal plots and they keep their hit teams small. Infilatration by law enforcement is very difficult. They continue to use violence to ensure compliance. We haven't had widespread disruption of the Genoveses like we had with the other families. Gigante's secrecy permeated the ranks and it still exists. If someone in the Genovese family slips up, they're dead before you know it. - Dave Shafer, Head of FBI Organized Crime Program (2009)

The crime family formed 80 years ago and named after Vito Genovese has endured like no other.
- NY Daily News article (2009)

"The Genovese family is the most secretive, criminally diverse, and powerful family in the country. Their power stems from control of unions and major industries."
- Michael Campi, FBI Organized Crime Dept. (2006)

"The Genovese crime family is still the best organized and has the deepest bench."
- Daniel Castleman, Chief of Investigations - Manhattan District (2006)

"The (Genovese family's) members and rackets surpass all others."
- Jerry Capeci, Gangland News columnist (2006)

"The Genovese crime family is the the most organized, most powerful, largest organized-crime family existing today."
- Eric Snyder, Assistant U.S. Attorney (2006)

“The Genovese family is the most prolific and most powerful of New York’s five organized crime families.”
– Mark J. Mershon, Assistant Director FBI’s New York Office (2006)

"The FBI's Joint Organized Crime Task Force, which includes members of the New York police department, had little luck with conventional surveillance of the Genovese family."
- ZD Net article (2006)

"The Genovese Crime Family is widely considered by law enforcement as the most powerful of the mob families in the New York Metropolitan area, if not the entire country."
- Jim Kouri, National Association of Chiefs of Police (2005)

"It has the most sophisticated operations. The Genovese family has always been considered the Ivy League of the Mafia."
- Selwyn Raab, New York Times columnist (2005)

"Still the most powerful and influential is the Genovese family."
- Bruce Mouw, Former FBI Supervisor (2005)

"While centered in the New York metropolitan region, the Genovese family also maintains a presence in portions of New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Florida, Nevada, and California. The family has strong connections with other traditional and non-traditional organized crime groups throughout the United States. Of all the traditional LCN families, the Genovese has the most contact with non-traditional criminal organizations and the money and power they command. Not only is the Genovese family the strongest LCN group in the nation, but it also is the most unique. Elements of this group persist in the solid waste industry, on the waterfront, in organized labor and in public construction. It runs the largest bookmaking and loan sharking rings in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area. The family’s other major criminal enterprises include extortion and labor racketeering in the construction, demolition, asbestos removal, carting, recycling, trucking, and waterfront industries; theft and kickbacks from pension funds; insurance fraud; narcotics trafficking; infiltration of legitimate businesses; and public corruption. Its influence is particularly strong on the Port Newark/Elizabeth and Hudson County waterfronts. While the organization continues to commit traditional crimes such as murder, extortion, racketeering, loan sharking and illegal gambling, it has evolved into committing more sophisticated crimes, such as computer fraud, stock/securities fraud and health-care fraud. Many of these crimes are committed with the assistance of non-traditional organized crime groups, such as those with Russian and Cuban members. Of all the traditional LCN families, the Genovese group has the most contact with non-traditional criminal organizations, and the money and power they command. The Genovese family has a proven record of resiliency that has enabled it to maintain a grip on lucrative segments of the legitimate economy despite repeated assualts by law enforcement."
- New Jersey Commission of Investigation on Organized Crime (2004)

"The Genovese family is the Rolls-Royce of organized crime."
- Loretta Lynch, U.S. Attorney-Brooklyn (2003)

"I consider the Genovese family to be the Ivy League of the underworld. They more or less invented labor racketeering."
- Joe Coffey, New York Police Dept. (2003)

"The Genovese family remains the richest, most powerful, most secretive, and least damaged crime group."
- Barry W. Mawn, FBI New York Office (2001)

"Despite a two-decade-long crackdown on organized crime that had decimated other Mafia families, the Genovese family has flourished. It is the largest and most financially successful crime family in New York."
- U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White (2001)

"The Genovese crime family is widely known in law enforcement as the Ivy League of the underworld. The family that gets it right."
- John Miller, FBI media spokesman (2001)

"The Genovese family was in many ways, I think, the most powerful family in the country in terms of it's domination and exploitation of labor unions and legitimate businesses."
- Michael Chertoff, former NY federal prosecutor (2000)

Federal authorities said the Genovese family is the most powerful and diversified in the United States. While investigators have dealt crippling blows to the city's four other major crime families, including the Gambinos, the Genovese remained intact partly by sticking to construction and labor racketeering schemes and avoiding drug dealing, authorities say.
- Associated Press article (1996)

The Genovese concern, long held by many mob watchers to be the wealthiest and most powerful of New York's five families, has maintained sophisticated construction and labor racketeering schemes as others dumbed down to drug dealing and street rackets.
- NY Daily News article (1996)

"This was a family that for many years we did not have as great success in hurting as we did with the other families. Historically they have been a very guarded and careful family, and Gigante represents that approach to the ultimate degree."
Lewis Schiliro, Head of FBI NY Criminal Division (1996)

"The Genovese family has probably been the most powerful La Cosa Nostra family of the last hundred years."
- Ask Andy, Gangland News (1996)

"The Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, New England, New Jersey, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh families are represented on the Commission by the Genovese family."
- LIUNA RICO indictment (1995)

"The Genovese family survives because it stayed out of the drug trade. Now they control all the traditional businesses of La Cosa Nostra and they're getting stronger."
- Joe Coffey, New York Police Dept. (1995)

"The Genovese family has become dominant among New York's Italian Mafia."
- Peter Maas, Author (1995)

"If anybody survives it will be the Genovese."
- Anthony Accetturo, Lucchese LCN family Captain (1994)

"If there is a major trend, it is the consolidation of power by the Genovese family."
- William Y. Doran, Head of the FBI's New York Criminal Division (1994)

"I have always considered the Genovese Family to be the most powerful LCN family in the United States."
- Al D'Arco, Lucchese LCN family Acting Boss (1994)

"The Genovese family is the most stable, the best counseled and the most diversified business-crime group in the country."
- Lee Brown, New York City Police Commissioner (1990)

"You keep hearing all this crap about Gotti being the boss of the bosses, but the Genovese have always been the country's most powerful family."
- Richard Ross, FBI (1990)

"The Genovese family is the most sophisticated, cautious, secretive, and powerful Cosa Nostra family in the United States."
- Phil Leonetti, Philadelphia LCN Underboss (1989)

i wonder how kick ups work for them considering there are so many made guys, like does bellomo get anything from newark/ elizabeth ports? maybe everything is divided evenly on the panel like one guy on the panel gets money from jersey one from the westside, conn, brooklyn etc.

would be really nuts if bellemo is the sole guy on top that would clearly make him the biggest wiseguy around by a long shot i imagine

i wonder how kick ups work for them considering there are so many made guys, like does bellomo get anything from newark/ elizabeth ports? maybe everything is divided evenly on the panel like one guy on the panel gets money from jersey one from the westside, conn, brooklyn etc.

would be really nuts if bellemo is the sole guy on top that would clearly make him the biggest wiseguy around by a long shot i imagine

When eight members of the Genovese family were murdered on Galante's orders for trying to muscle in on his drug operation, the other families decided he had outlived his usefulness at the head of the Bonanno family.

Anybody know if there's much truth in that and if so what happened? Who were the Genovese who were killed?

(sort of unrelated but thought I'd ask anyway.)

That seems to have been some kind of Mafia urban myth. It's been brought up a few times on the forums, all quoting the one source that originally claimed it but I forget who that was. I've never seen it substantiated anywhere.