In this bonus episode, retired police intelligence unit detective Gary Jenkins looks into a fascinating New York Times article from March 21, 1976, that sheds light on a pivotal moment in the Mafia’s history—reopening their membership rosters after nearly two decades. This marked a significant turning point for the five Mafia families, where they were again allowed to induct new members into their ranks. I discuss how this decision was made cautiously, with each family permitted to initiate only ten new members, ensuring that those chosen were proven loyal and financially savvy operatives who could withstand the challenges of Mafia life.

As I analyze the shifts in power dynamics and the emergence of new figures, I point to key players such as Carmine Galante, whose ambitions peaked when he returned to the scene following a lengthy prison sentence. I provide insights into how the old guard of Mafia leadership began to decline, making way for fresh ambition and new strategies, particularly in narcotics. The interplay of rivalry, loyalty, and the ever-present financial machinations within the families illustrates the complexity of Mafia politics as they sought to adapt and thrive amid evolving criminal enterprises.

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Transcript

[0:00] Well, hey, all you wiretappers out there, glad to be back here in Studio Gangland Wire. I’ve got a little bonus episode, I think. I don’t know how long it’s going to be, but not too long. Steve Popkin, the fan of the podcast, sent me a link to a New York Times article. Actually, it was out of the New York Times archives. They have an archive that you can access. It was dated March 21st, 1976, and the title was Five Mafia Families Opened Rosters to New Members. Well, this is back when they opened the books, finally. We hear a lot about that. The books were closed. The books were opened. They opened the books in 1976. There’s a lot of guys who were made right after that.

[0:43] It’s hard to figure out who they all are. It’ll take a lot of time, but you all know who was made in 1976, 1977, during those years would have been right after the books were opened back up. They had to get the commission to approve of that, and there was five families

[1:02] on the commission at the time. I assume Chicago probably was, but since it was a New York deal, they probably just kept it within New York mob bosses to vote on whether they would open up the books again. Now, in this article, I bet when they read this, some of these guys read this article, they were about to shit because here’s their business right down on the street. And I know they read those articles. I’ve got a wiretap where Nick Savella is reading an article or actually Tuffy DeLuna is reading an article to him where the, I believe it was the Wall Street Journal, was saying that Iupa was moving out west and moving into Las Vegas. And Nick Civella says, oh, boy.

[1:49] And anyhow, so, you know, I know they read this stuff and they pay attention to it. And to see this out on Front Street like this, I don’t know. Anyhow, the article said that each family had been given permission to initiate 10 new members.

[2:04] And they were instructed that they had to get these, take these guys from proven moneymakers within their own family, people that they knew. because, you know, they know that they can be infiltrated. So they want to make sure that people that didn’t have any legal problems faced them at that time. Now, you know, you’re going to get some legal problems eventually. So you just have to, you know, people whose family members you know or maybe you’re an extended relative of your own, if you’re a maid guy or you’re a boss, you want somebody that’s proven their loyalty. Somebody’s gone to the joint and kept their mouth shut before. I mean, a guy that goes in, does a tray or five years or whatever. Somebody does 10 years. I know a guy here in Kansas City, my friend, Steve St. John, he did 10 years. Now, he wasn’t involved in a mafia crime, but he didn’t talk. And he’s the kind of guy that, you know, people will look out to, you know, to hold up to this higher standard, to higher and high esteem in that world. And, you know, he does not commit any more crimes. Would he be a guy that you would want to commit a crime with? Bright guy, and he didn’t talk, and he could have. Believe me, he knew stuff, and he could have talked, and he wouldn’t do it. The books were closed in 1957 after Joe Valacci started testifying in 1962.

[3:27] He talked about the different—he described the ceremony for the first time, the whole pricking of the finger, burning of the hand, the loyalty oath, which has been reported by other people that have come in angelo uh leonardo reported it i found that one he really did it in detail and they even taped one in boston area in the patriarchy family here in the last several years so they shut down the books they were so scared of infiltration and.

[3:57] Finally, the heads of the fine families met and they opened them up, given these kind of certain restrictions, if you will. Each guy can get 10 people, select proven moneymakers and that kind of thing. They still take the oath of silence.

[4:15] And there’s no doubt that it was going to be tightly controlled by these mob families. As the FBI at the time said, they reported in this article says they’ve been holding initiation ceremonies in New York for the past month. My boss reads that. He said, come on, what’s up with this? This agent said that these ceremonies have been held in the homes of underbosses and selected family captains, not in the homes of the bosses because they think they have too much surveillance on them. Apparently, he said, the initiation ceremony they were using at that time was still really close to what Bellacci had described. The guns, knives laying there, the oaths of silence, the whole thing. And some of them that were initiated at the time, and I’d be curious, you know, get a hold of me or comment on the Facebook or on the YouTube. Who all was made during this time? This report indicates a guy named John Russo, who was a driver and a bodyguard for Frank Thierry, who was supposedly the boss of the Vito Genovese family at the time. He would have been kind of a new boss. It’s another thing. There were some new bosses at the time. I think that’s one reason they got this through. Benaro Magano. He was the guy known as Benny eggs. I’ve heard of him. He’s a very successful bookmaker and loan shark Salvatore franchise. He was, uh, He ran all the gambling operations for Sonny Franchise, who was a captain in the Colombo family.

[5:38] Kind of the article surmised, and probably they got this from an agent, this kind of shows the decline of Carlo Gambino, his lessening of his influence in some of the newer mob, like I said, some of the newer mob bosses were coming in at the time.

[5:55] It also kind of showed the emergence of Carmine Galante. He had come back out of jail and he had like assumed he was going to be the boss of the Bonanno family uh just spent 15 years in jail kept his mouth shut you know he felt like he was owed and he was owed and of course we had time Rusty Rustelli was inside at the time and and he was supposedly the heir apparent I believe but he really led the fight to open the books now if you remember he was trying to bring in the zips he was bringing these Sicilians to pump up his family and get into narcotics. He knew those guys, you know, first of all, they didn’t really speak the language. And if he brought them over, they would be so loyal to him that he could trust them to be loyal to him. And he wanted to be able to make those guys, you know, at the time they had a pretty new boss, the Lucchese family and Tony Duck, Tony Ducks, Anthony Corralo was a new boss. He came from Queens, the Queens faction of that family, Carmine Persico. So he was in jail at the time, prison for a period of time during this time. But he had just come through the Columbo Wars and taken over. And, you know, he orchestrated the hit on Joey Gallo and finally ended that whole mess there. And everybody got out the mattresses and went back home, I guess. Now, he was in prison. He had appointed his brother, Alphonse, to run the family.

[7:17] Galante’s argument, according to the article, was all the mafia families were declining. And the old guys were getting older that’s what happened here in kansas city when everything went to shit on them after the skim trials but they were all like 80 years old all the main guys except for a couple were 80 years old gotta get some new blood in we gotta get some money makers in we got people get into new rackets of course what he was thinking about was getting into narcotics being made is you you guys are all students of this and most of you know probably more about it than i do And there’s like real deal made guys out there, people who have been or people in witness protection. I hear from different people that obviously are a lot better, more connected than what you might believe. They wouldn’t pay attention to a podcast like this. But, you know, they call themselves a good fellas, you know, the book title, good fellas. And they have the right. One thing you get is a good fella. You have the right to a sit down. If there’s no disagreement, you can have a sit down with another boss or maybe a boss of another family or some respected consigliere or somebody who would settle this dispute.

[8:30] Now, if a dispute was with a non-member, somebody that’s close enough that can get this sit down, he has to be represented by somebody who’s made. And he really doesn’t have a very good chance of getting the decision in his favor.

[8:43] Made members do not trust people outside the family and particularly gangsters, probably more than gangsters, other gangsters than anything. Old P, old Mustache Pete’s like Pete, Carlo Gambino, not a Mustache Pete. I’m just kidding about that. But the older guys realized that this special relationship was really important. And if you were to induct somebody who was an informant already, it really makes all the families vulnerable. Because then they get in on the whole structure and can testify firsthand, which eventually they got people to do. But at the time they hadn’t testified firsthand you know as to the structure and who does what there had been a few initiations during the last 20 years when they were closed but only when they were absolutely necessary one of them i mentioned uh the persicos well and the colombo wars so there’s all kinds of colombo wars so many people were wounded and in prison and hiding and and And they needed a boss during that time, and they made Alphonse Persico was made just to lead the Colombo family in that war, particularly against the Gallo guys, Gallo boys, Joy.

[10:02] And Albert, Kid Twist, and the whole Gallo family, the Gallo brothers. During this meeting, that newspaper report said that Stefano Magadino had died and other ally who was a member of the commission, Joseph Zarelli, was the boss in Detroit, and those two didn’t even come. So it turns out, I guess I was wrong when I said it to start, that only New York guys are there, but they would have had the biggest stick in that. It was in deference to Gambino that they limited this to 10 people per family. Once they get 50 new members of the five families get 10 each.

[10:44] Then they can maybe kind of ease up for a while or at least not make anybody for a while. But if this starts working out, they may want to make some more. Again, Valachi described this, gun and knife are placed on a table in front of him. And he said in front of him, and that’s what Angelo Leonardo told him. Said that this represents that you live by the gun and the knife and you die by the gun and knife. You don’t live by the gun, live by the sword, die by the sword. That came from somewhere. Then you got to make a cup of your hand and put the paper in it, set it on fire. Said this is the way I will burn if I betray any of the secrets of this Cosa Nostra.

[11:25] And then they’re assigned kind of a godfather to, you know, a mentor, a sponsor during recovery.

[11:34] Assign somebody to watch over for you and kind of introduce you in and and it’s usually the guy that sponsored your membership in the first place now have you ever heard i did a story on this from the book peter diapolis who was pete to greek he was a bodyguard at joseph gallo he was sitting there the night that gallo got killed and uh because he and and his woman had been out with joy gallo and his wife and kid i think and celebrating his birthday he claimed that the Joy Gallo told him that the burning paper custom wasn’t anymore. He just said that the new member just swears an oath of silence. You know, it won’t burn like the saint’s card. So I don’t know. Pete the Greek said that the godfather of the sponsor is really important in new members’ life. He said, because until a new guy establishes his own trust, his own relationships, he has to go through his sponsor and all dealings with any family bosses.

[12:29] Peter Greek claims that when a mob member makes his first big score, the first one after becoming a member, he’s got to take it to his sponsor and lay it out and then let the sponsor divide it up and then cut him back a little bit. And he said the sponsor would usually cut out a third for the boss and a fifth for himself and give the rest back. The more money a new member brings in, the stronger his position is. I mean, money talks and bullshit walks. He also said in in regards to the sit-downs i mentioned a big money maker rarely loses a decision in a sit-down way you know like i said money talks and bullshit walks if he’s bringing bringing in a lot of money the boss ain’t gonna make him unhappy he said he he gave for example matthew ainello matty the horse who had all the horn and all that stuff down around 42nd street, and was a huge moneymaker. And he said, really, nobody liked the guy. Nobody had any respect for him, but he’s strong because he has so much money and he earns so much money.

[13:35] He said, money is power in the mafia, just like everywhere else, like I said. So there’s a little story about when they opened up the books, and I’d be curious to hear who was made during that time.

[13:47] It’s kind of hard to figure that out but i got this whole huge big cadre of people out there that like i said no more than i do know so much especially about the new york families that in the comments below may well make a list of all the people were made right after the books were opened back up it seemed like uh gas pipe castle was i remember reading something about that but anyhow so thanks a lot guys uh don’t forget i like to ride motorcycles and i uh if you have a problem PTSD, be sure and go to that VA website and get that hotline, drugs or alcohol, get hold of Anthony Ruggiano. He’s down in Florida, former Gambino guy who’s not in witness protection because he’s using his own name, drug and alcohol counselor down there. I see this 1-800-BETS-OFF. If you got a gambling problem, there’s that wait at 1-800-BETS-OFF.

[14:40] I’d like to do some public service announcement before I sell something. If you would like to read the inside story about how we got on to the skim from Las Vegas and read the transcripts and listen to some of the audio from that investigation, well, get my book, Leaving Vegas, and get the Kindle version because I have links to the actual audios in that. I’m working on another book. I’m going to start doing some short books, I believe. I’ll see how this first one goes of podcast episodes. I’ll just take the transcripts and convert them into more of a story and then go back and rewrite that so it’s a little more readable and throw it out there in a Kindle book.

[15:25] It’s a little more work than I thought, but I’m getting there. So it’s kind of what I’m up to. What are you all up to? Let me know join the gangland wire podcast facebook group or join the subscribe to the podcast of course subscribe to the youtube channel and make some comments there and keep coming back and keep coming back so thanks a lot guys.