The Commission (mafia)

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The Commission is the governing body of the Mafia in the United States. ^[1] Although its makeup has changed several times since its 1931 creation, the bosses of the New York Five Families still provide the core membership of The Commission. Upon the Commission's founding, gangster Meyer Lansky allegedly remarked that its influence was "bigger than U.S. Steel."

Contents 1 Reasons for The Commission's formation 1.1 Pre-Commission situation 1.2 Post-formation 1.3 The Commission today 2 Structure 2.1 Executive position 2.2 Judicial 3 Fictional portrayals 4 Further reading 5 References

[edit] Reasons for The Commission's formation

[edit] Pre-Commission situation

The Commission was established in 1931 by Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky in Atlantic City, New Jersey. ^[1] The purpose of the Mafia Commission was to replace the old Sicilian mafia regime and establish rule by consensus among the new crime families.

In early 1931, after winning the bloody Castellammarese War among the New York gangs, New York Boss Salvatore Maranzano divided all the national criminal gangs into several crime families and then assumed the title capo di tutti capi ("boss of all bosses"). Maranzano then proceeded to impose a dictatorial regime on the families. Luciano, then a Maranzano ally, soon chafed under this harsh control and in September 1931 engineered Maranzano's assassination. Luciano now became the top mobster in the country.

Unlike Maranzano, Luciano did not want to become a "boss of all bosses". At the same time, Luciano wanted to avoid the chaos that had led to bloody and self-destructive gang wars in New York and Chicago during the 1920's. Luciano and Lansky realized that the best solution was to let the families run themselves, but establish a central organization for settling their differences without bloodshed. This would preserve family control, prevent warfare, promote their business interests, and keep the mob away from public and law enforcement attention.^[2]

Luciano established a mob board of directors—to be known as "The Commission"— to oversee all Mafia activities in the US and serve to mediate conflicts between families.^[3] Luciano assumed the position of chairman and Lansky served as his chief advisor. The Commission would meet every five years or when needed to discuss family problems. Even though the commission was meant to replace the role of capo di tutti capi, there would be various bosses over the years who would assume the role through the defacto process of controlling other dons on the commission. Vito Genovese, Carlo Gambino, Paul Castellano, John Gotti, Vincent Gigante, and Joseph Massino are examples of influential family bosses who exercised control over the Commission.

[edit] Post-formation

The formation of the Commission did not stop all gang wars, but it did reduce their scale and frequency. When one family declared war on another, the aggressor family usually found itself at war with the Commission and the rest of the families. This provided a powerful incentive to the families to negotiate their disputes.

To settle wars or internal conflicts, the Commission would appoint a new Don of the Family and have the usurper or the previous Don assassinated. An example of this is the case of the Bonanno family in the Bonanno War.

[edit] The Commission today

The Commission is still reported to exist today, though its current membership is only composed of the bosses of the Five Families, the The Chicago Outfit, and the Philadelphia Crime Family leaders. Its activities, like much of the Mafia in general, have receded from public view as a matter of necessity.^[4]

[edit] Structure

The Commission officially comprised seven family bosses: the leaders of New York's Five Families (Lucky Luciano, Joseph Bonanno, Joe Profaci, Vincent Mangano, and Tommy Gagliano) and the "Fathers" from Chicago (Al Capone), representing everything in the Western United States, and Buffalo (Stefano Magaddino). ^[1] However, after the 1957 Apalachin Convention, it was decided that two more leaders of the families were allowed into the Commission. These turned out to be Angelo "Gentle Don" Bruno of the Philadelphia crime family, and Joseph "Joe Z." Zerilli of the Detroit Partnership, although these positions declined much over the 1960s and 1970s.

Non-Italian mobsters such as Louis Buchalter were also allowed membership in the syndicate, but governing (voting) power was strictly limited to Italian members.^{[citation needed]} Lansky, beyond being Luciano's chief advisor, was made the official Financial Advisor to the Commission. Although largely acting in the shadows (which helped explain Lansky's eventual "untouchability"), he was able to exercise a good deal of influence (even talking Luciano and the Commission out of putting out a contract on Bugsy Siegel on two occasions).^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Executive position

There was no "ruler" of the Commission, but there was a nominated Chairman or Head of the National Commission. This was used as a substitute to the role of capo di tutti capi, as that had the connotations of the old Mustache Pete system of one man rule. However, after the Havana Conference, Lucky Luciano took this title anyway so as to solidify his rule after being deported from the United States by the actions of Governor Thomas Dewey.

[edit] Judicial

The enforcement arm of The Commission was the notorious Murder, Inc. operation out of Brooklyn. This service had to be authorized by the Commission by vote first, along with the number of targets. Even then the number of targets was usually limited to one or a few individuals. This way the Commission avoided a confusing situation that could result in a war, and minimized possible press exposure.

[edit] Fictional portrayals

The Commission played a prominent role in both The Godfather and The Godfather, Part III.

In the Godfather universe, the Five Families are known as the Corleone, Barzini, Tattaglia, Stracci, and Cuneo crime families. A Commission meeting occurs after the murder of Vito Corleone's son, Sonny, in order to broker a peace between the warring Corleone and Tattaglia families. Don Barzini appears to hold the executive position on The Commission. At the meeting, Vito realizes that the Tattaglia, Stracci, and Cuneo families had secretly aligned themselves with the Barzini family in order to force the Corleone family into sharing its political protection with the rest of The Commission, which was involved in a burgeoning drug trade that Vito was opposed to. Vito reluctantly agrees to share his political influence to promote the drug trade, thus avoiding further bloodshed and ending the war. The film ends with Vito's youngest son and successor, Michael, exacting revenge by having Dons Barzini, Tattaglia, Stracci, and Cuneo assassinated in dramatic fashion, effectively wiping out The Commission and consolidating the now-hegemonic power of the Corleone family.

By the start of The Godfather, Part III, The Commission had reformed while the Corleone family had receded from criminal activity in an effort to become "legit" through corporate endeavors. Michael still appeared to exercise de facto control over the body, as he was personally responsible for blocking Joey Zasa's progress through The Commission. As a result, Zasa is believed to have organized a helicopter raid during a Commission meeting at an Atlantic City hotel, but it is later revealed in the film that the person who was trying to whack Michael was in fact his temporary ally, Don Ozzie Altobelo who asked for the meeting in the first place. Most of the bosses were killed, but Michael was able to escape.

Another fictional depiction of The Commission is the movie Mobsters starring Christian Slater as Lucky Luciano. During the movie Luciano is caught between the conflict of rivals families, and ultimately arrives at the idea to start The Commission to end the bloodshed, setting himself up as the "chairman of the board".

[edit] Further reading

• Bernstein, Lee. The Greatest Menace: Organized Crime in Cold War America. Boston: UMass Press, 2002. ISBN 1-55849-345-X
• Bonanno, Bill. Bound by Honor: A Mafioso's Story. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999. ISBN 0-312-97147-8
• Bonanno, Joseph. A Man of Honor: The Autobiography of Joseph Bonanno. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2003. ISBN 0312979231
• Capeci, Jerry. The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Mafia. Indianapolis: Alpha Books, 2002. ISBN 0-02-864225-2
• Downey, Patrick. Gangster City: The History of the New York Underworld, 1900-1935. Barricade Books, 2004. ISBN 156980267X
• Jacobs, James B., Coleen Friel and Robert Radick. Gotham Unbound: How New York City Was Liberated from the Grip of Organized Crime. New York: NYU Press, 2001. ISBN 0-8147-4247-5
• Jacobs, James B., Christopher Panarella and Jay Worthington. Busting the Mob: The United States Vs. Cosa Nostra. New York: NYU Press, 1994. ISBN 0-8147-4230-0
• Maas, Peter. Underboss: Sammy the Bull Gravano's Story of Life in the Mafia. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1997. ISBN 0-06-093096-9
• Mannion, James. 101 Things You Didn't Know About The Mafia: The Lowdown on Dons, Wiseguys, Squealers and Backstabbers. Avon, Massachusetts: Adams Media, 2005. ISBN 1-59337-267-1
• Milhorn, H. Thomas. Crime: Computer Viruses to Twin Towers. Boca Raton, Florida: Universal Publishers, 2005. ISBN 1-58112-489-9
• Raab, Selwyn. Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires. New York: St. Martin Press, 2005. ISBN 0-312-30094-8
• Reppetto, Thomas A. American Mafia: A History of Its Rise to Power. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 2004. ISBN 0-8050-7798-7
• Saggio, Frankie and Fred Rosen. Born to the Mob: The True-Life Story of the Only Man to Work for All Five of New York's Mafia Families. New York: Thunder Mouth Press, 2004. ISBN 1-56025-559-5
• Schatzberg, Rufus, Robert J.Kelly and Ko-lin Chin, ed. Handbook of Organized Crime in the United States. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1994. ISBN 0-313-28366-4

[edit] References