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John Gotti

From Gotti to Gigante, the names atop today’s Mafia org charts are old ones. But the times have certainly changed for New York’s biggest families—and not for the better. Mob expert Jerry Capeci, who writes the “Gang Land” column for the New York Sun, looks at the state of the four other clans in the city’s infamous Five Families, plus the Newark-based DeCavalcantes. All have bookmaking, loan-sharking, and extortion rackets. The Genovese family and, to a lesser degree, the Luchese family (like the Gambinos) also have viable labor-racketeering endeavors that let them invest and launder their ill-gotten gains in “legitimate” industries. Every clan has declined of late, some more than others.


The Bonanno Family
130 to 145 members
Boss: Joseph Massino, 62
Underboss : Vacant
Consigliere: Vacant
Last year was a bad one for the Bonanno family—probably the worst in its history. Its boss since 1991, Joseph Massino, was convicted of seven murders dating from the eighties, and the Feds decided to try to execute him for a 1999 mob hit. Two dozen family members and associates, including three capos he selected to coordinate things while he battled the law from prison, were all indicted and jailed on racketeering and murder charges. This fall, Vincent “Vinny Gorgeous” Basciano, the capo he chose to replace the convicted trio and serve as acting boss, was himself socked with murder charges. Since November 19, Basciano, 45, has been awaiting trial at the same federal lockup in Sunset Park as his boss and the men he replaced. In the new millennium, more than 40 family wiseguys and associates have been convicted and imprisoned, including a former acting boss, Anthony Spero, 71. On top of all that, Joseph Massino, the Last Don, a wiseguy who surely amassed millions during his decade on top, says he can’t afford a lawyer and has told a federal judge that he needs a court-appointed attorney.
Meanwhile, Massino is expected to tap an old cohort, capo Anthony “Fat Anthony”...