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MAFIA: HELP WANTED
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
MAFIA: HELP WANTED
By AL GUART
May 19, 2002 -- Faced with damaging defections and the demise of longtime leaders, local Mafia families have begun opening their arms to a new generation of willing hoods, The Post has learned.
The ranks of New York's five organized-crime families dropped from 634 soldiers to 570, a loss of 64 wiseguys, between January 2000 and January 2001, according to confidential FBI reports.
The loss of mob muscle came as jailed bosses failed in their attempts to curb a series of defections and undercover operations in recent years that fueled the prosecution of scores of wiseguys.
In response, the Genovese and Luchese crime families "opened the books" to induct new members, sources said.
"You have to inject blood into the family," one source said.
Many of the inductions into the underworld have included the traditional Mafia initiation, sources said.
The "ceremony" includes burning a saint's picture in the bleeding palm of an inductee as he takes the oath of omerta - a vow to never divulge details of the family's business.
According to the most recent FBI reports, the Genovese clan inducted nine new soldiers in the year to January 2001, bringing their ranks to 152 and making them the strongest in the city in terms of manpower.
Evidence of the recruitment was confirmed when mob turncoat Michael "Cookie" Durso secretly recorded talks with Genovese bigs through a watch fitted with a transmitter, sources said.
Durso's defection resulted in 15 wiseguys pleading guilty last March to extortion, robbery and other charges. It also helped indict Genovese boss Vincent "Chin" Gigante.
The Gambinos, led by cancer-stricken mob boss John Gotti, seem the hardest hit - losing 33 soldiers between 2000 and 2001, but still leaving them second in manpower with 130 soldiers.
The Lucheses added three more goodfellas last year after losing a dozen in 2000, bringing them to 113 and placing them third, according to the FBI reports.
The new members were recruited just in time to hear former Luchese acting boss Joseph "Little Joe" Defede begin singing for the feds last February.
Defede, 68, has revealed the clan's long-standing extortion of Howard Beach restaurants and helped the feds nail a soldier for a 1995 murder.
The small, New Jersey-based DeCavalcante family, which some believe is the inspiration for television show "The Sopranos," added eight soldiers, topping off last year at 36.
The Colombos lost 26 soldiers in recent years, dropping to 90, while the Bonannos lost five, falling to 85, according to the FBI figures.
Getting approval for the new recruits also has been time-consuming, sources say.
Normally a boss can only give the nod to a wannabe mobster after his name is circulated among other families, usually at a "commission" meeting involving crime bosses, underbosses and consiglieres.
"With every mob boss behind bars, getting the OK and passing names around had to be tricky," one lawman said.
http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/48175.htm
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
By AL GUART
May 19, 2002 -- Faced with damaging defections and the demise of longtime leaders, local Mafia families have begun opening their arms to a new generation of willing hoods, The Post has learned.
The ranks of New York's five organized-crime families dropped from 634 soldiers to 570, a loss of 64 wiseguys, between January 2000 and January 2001, according to confidential FBI reports.
The loss of mob muscle came as jailed bosses failed in their attempts to curb a series of defections and undercover operations in recent years that fueled the prosecution of scores of wiseguys.
In response, the Genovese and Luchese crime families "opened the books" to induct new members, sources said.
"You have to inject blood into the family," one source said.
Many of the inductions into the underworld have included the traditional Mafia initiation, sources said.
The "ceremony" includes burning a saint's picture in the bleeding palm of an inductee as he takes the oath of omerta - a vow to never divulge details of the family's business.
According to the most recent FBI reports, the Genovese clan inducted nine new soldiers in the year to January 2001, bringing their ranks to 152 and making them the strongest in the city in terms of manpower.
Evidence of the recruitment was confirmed when mob turncoat Michael "Cookie" Durso secretly recorded talks with Genovese bigs through a watch fitted with a transmitter, sources said.
Durso's defection resulted in 15 wiseguys pleading guilty last March to extortion, robbery and other charges. It also helped indict Genovese boss Vincent "Chin" Gigante.
The Gambinos, led by cancer-stricken mob boss John Gotti, seem the hardest hit - losing 33 soldiers between 2000 and 2001, but still leaving them second in manpower with 130 soldiers.
The Lucheses added three more goodfellas last year after losing a dozen in 2000, bringing them to 113 and placing them third, according to the FBI reports.
The new members were recruited just in time to hear former Luchese acting boss Joseph "Little Joe" Defede begin singing for the feds last February.
Defede, 68, has revealed the clan's long-standing extortion of Howard Beach restaurants and helped the feds nail a soldier for a 1995 murder.
The small, New Jersey-based DeCavalcante family, which some believe is the inspiration for television show "The Sopranos," added eight soldiers, topping off last year at 36.
The Colombos lost 26 soldiers in recent years, dropping to 90, while the Bonannos lost five, falling to 85, according to the FBI figures.
Getting approval for the new recruits also has been time-consuming, sources say.
Normally a boss can only give the nod to a wannabe mobster after his name is circulated among other families, usually at a "commission" meeting involving crime bosses, underbosses and consiglieres.
"With every mob boss behind bars, getting the OK and passing names around had to be tricky," one lawman said.
http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/48175.htm
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Comments
-Charlie the hood
"It's the stuff dreams are made of Angel"NRA Certified Firearms InstructorMember: GOA, RKBA, NJSPBA, NJ area rep for the 2ndAMPD. njretcop@copmail.com