Around when would you say the Gambino Family hit the peak of their power, influence and wealth?

Probably the same time as the mob in general - 1950's.

70tys while carlo alive. Colombos a veggie don vito died his ally ray p is jailed bruno is strong in philly. Bonannos drugs.not stable leader. Tommy luchese died a few yers back think his new boss is busted for drugs.

The 1970's was when they were strongest relative to other families but the not sure they were in a overall better position than in the 1950s. Though not at 1980's level, law enforcement was more on the ball than in the 1950s. You also had the rise of other ethnic groups on the organized crime scene beginning in the 1970s. One reason for the mob being at its peak in the 1950s was it didn't have much competition.

I always figured it was the 70s-around 1982 due to the following:

-Low level of rats overall
-The move of the family toward white collar crime, with associates stretching as far as the Mid East
-Roughly 500 made guys and 26 crews in the 1970s-early 80s, thousands of associates all over the world
-Amazing grand schemes. Virtually controlling all construction in NYC. The car theft ring (DeMeo) which was an international operation.

I always figured 1983 - when the FBI began bugging Paul - was the beginning of the end, really. That from say, 1967 to 1983, it was their time to shine.

I'd guess around the 70s to early 80s as well. While the mob in general was the most dominant group in the 50s and did not have much attention from law-enforcement, did the Gambinos have as diverse range of schemes and money coming in as they did later on?

Seventies in terms of money, from newer and more sophisticated rackets. But, Fifties in terms of safety, security and influence because the FBI was essentially ignoring Cosa Nostra; before RICO gave the Justice Department tremendous power to prosecute top Mob figures, and before large scale drug dealing and double-digit sentences corroded discipline in Families.

One thing is for sure, they didn't have 500 made members then or at any other time. The biggest estimate I've seen (from any credible source) was 400 at their peak and that was in the 1950s and early 1960s I believe.

I say in the 50s before Apalachin because before it the FBI and Hoover was saying that the mafia didnt exist and the bosses can do what they want.

According to Jim Kallstrom former special agent of the FBI the early 70's was the golden age of the mob, when they had the strongest grip on legitimate business in the US. The Gambinos were without a doubt the strongest family in that period, so I think we can fairly certain say that the beginning of the 70's to early 80's was their strongest period..

Then Guiliani and them FEDs had to spoil the awesome party with that damned RICO act

I think "the strongest family" is always a relative concept.

On one hand there are the members, their potential to violence, their earning ability and their head count. Then there's the boss/administration, their ability to make money and their ability to maneuver with other bosses. For example a family interest in a something like the windows case isn't really a family interest, it's the administration that gets the money. It seems that Carlo (with the his alliance with Tommy Lucchese) was able to, if not dictate, at least strongly affect the policies ruled by the commission, and I suppose win a lot of sitdowns. At his prime at least, I guess Castellano took over more and more as he got older. So is the strongest family the one who has the most influential boss in the commission, richest boss, or is it the family with most hitters and earners?

For example the Gambinos would be a weaker family under Junior Gotti than it would be under Carlo Gambino, even if they had the same amount of killers, earners and overall members.

When talking about Carlo himself, I'd say the late 1960s after Lucchese died and he was still relatively healthy. It is said that he held a great deal of influence over the Colombo and Lucchese families. As for the Gambino family as a whole, I'd say their peak was from 1957 to 1985.

I think 400 members even seem inflated. Perhaps the families had that amount of "muscle" around 1930, but it wouldn't suprise me if the Gambinos and Genoveses always had 250-300 members up until the 1990s, when attrition started to take its toll and their numbers went down to 200. As for the three smaller families, their numbers may have approached 200 in the 1950s, but their numbers in the 1970s had already go below 150 members.

the 50s, the mobs heyday, j.edgar hoover giving them a green light to do whatever they wanted,

interesting to speculate on how much power they would have lost, if we would have had an fbi director who would not have turned a blind eye to them.

an fbi that would have been a law enforcement organization, instead of a political one.

They may have had more wealth in the '70s but their time atop the power and influence charts was in the '50s (especially the later part of the decade).

SC is spot on..I think across the board this is true of every mob family..not sure why this was even raised as a topic I mean its pretty clear this subject has been discussed ad nauseam..plus common sense would tell ya that right before LE and society was forced to recognize and deal with La Cosa Nostra would tell u that this was the peak of not only the Gambino family but the 25 other families power... save maybe Chicago in the 70s with their Vegas influence and LA in the 40s with their Hollywood connection

To me the better and less hacky question would've been what families legitimately had the peak of their power/ influence/earnings AFTER the late 50s and early 60s when the government actively started investigating the Mafia? Anyone have any thoughts?? My one guess would be maybe Kansas City as Nick Civella took firm control,their numbers swelled, the development of the River Quay district, and they were deeply involved with the Teamsters and the skimming of LV casinos..that the legit only answer I can come up with AFTER the 50s/early 60s???

I think for about a 25 years period, from the late 1960s to the early 1990s, the Gambinos rivaled the Genovese in many ways. Perhaps even to the point where the Gambinos moved from being #2 to #1A. But they never supplanted the Genovese as the top family in the country, even when Gambino was the single most powerful boss. Massino was the top boss (being the only one left on the street) in the early 2000s but that didn't make the Bonannos the top family. The top family is whoever has had the most powerful and wealth as a whole. And that's always been the Genovese family.


"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)

"I've always felt the Genovese family was the more powerful of the two. It has been able to operate in the shadows while the Gambino family grabbed the attention of law enforcement and the public."
- Ronad Goldstock, Director of New York State Organized Crime Task Force (1992)

"The Genovese family was, I think, in many ways was 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)

After genovese died i think febuary 1969 gambino doesnt have a equal till he dies. Even when hes sick hes still calling shots. I read the colombos son book and he convinced me a little gambino didnt have his dad popd but he also says it wasnt the gallos so who the fuck knows. But he had eboli whacked.