The Mob Board of Directors
Luciano and Lansky maintained the basic structure of Maranzano's Commission. The other East Coast boys were Joseph Bonanno, Vincent Mangano, Joseph Profaci, Tom Gagliano, and Stefano Magaddino of Buffalo. While the bigwigs were from New York's five families, there were also representatives from Philadelphia and Chicago. The families in larger cities controlled families in smaller cities. For example, the Chicago boys controlled all the Midwest families in Kansas City, St. Louis, Milwaukee, and Detroit (though some say that Motor City boss Joe Zerilli was a Commission member for a time).
The last known meeting of the Commission took place in 2000 and was led by Bonanno boss Joe Massino as well as representatives from the other New York families. Although that was the last one that the feds know about, there may have been some since then. It's supposed to be a secret after all.
Also there were various side meeting, like the La Stella meeting in Queens in the 1960s that featured Tampa boss Santo Trafficante Jr., New Orleans boss Carlos Marcello and his underlings, and some of the New York Commission members.
In the early years, the Commission was made up of mostly Italian and Jewish gangsters. The “Big Six” included Frank Costello, Joe Adonis, Meyer Lansky, Tony Accardo, Jake Guzik, and Longy Zwillman. However, the Jewish influence faded over time as the sons of the Jewish gangsters, for the most part, did not follow in the family business. The next generation went into legitimate careers. Lansky even saw one of his sons go to West Point. The sociocultural phenomenon of Jewish gangsterism lasted just a single generation in America, although there are still some active Jewish associates of the Mafia.
There is a supposed tell-all book by Luciano. Entitled The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano, by Martin A. Gosch and Richard Hammer, it is an account of the legendary gangster's exploits he relayed to the authors before his death. Be forewarned, however, that many experts on the Mafia doubt the truthfulness of many of the authors' claims that this information was all from Luciano's mouth.
One of the reasons that the Commission was a long-lasting success was because it was structured as a board of directors, each with equal power and no one man in charge. There were men who came to be regarded as the “Boss of Bosses” from time to time, but all major decisions were voted on, and no one man had veto power. This also made is easier to try and smooth over differences before they erupted into all out war. This, of course, did not always happen.
Mediation and Murder
Much of the role of the Commission was to mediate and settle disputes between rival families in the United States, and to keep things running smoothly with the Sicilian Mafia in the old country. When things could not be worked out over a discussion, the problem was taken care of with a gun or garrote. At its height, the Commission represented about 1,700 made Mafia members in over two dozen families nationwide, not to mention all the associates that were under the made members.
The Dream Is Over
The legacy Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky had left behind suffered an irrevocable blow in 1986 when the heads of the five families were successfully prosecuted and convicted for their crimes by U.S. attorney Rudy Giuliani. Of course, that wasn't the deathblow to the Mafia, but it was finally official proof that the Commission existed and made decisions regarding the Mafia's activities.
Lucky Luciano, at the end of life, had this to say about his legacy: “I learned too late that you need just as good a brain to make a crooked million as an honest million. These days you apply for a license to steal from the public.”
