The Genovese family is still active in the 21st century, reportedly engaged in such white-collar crimes as extortion, loan sharking, and gambling. A 2006 raid led to the conviction of as many as 30 members of the family on racketeering charges, and 6 alleged associates were arrested in 2022.
The five major families of organized crime still exist in New York today, and the families continue to operate in illegal business practices similar to those they have engaged in since their creation. The practices of the families include extortion, gambling, loan sharking, and racketeering.
The Genovese crime family is still operating today in New York City, engaging in an array of criminal rackets, including schemes involving Wall Street and the Internet.
The Genovese family is still active in the 21st century, reportedly engaged in such white-collar crimes as extortion, loan sharking, and gambling. A 2006 raid led to the conviction of as many as 30 members of the family on racketeering charges, and 6 alleged associates were arrested in 2022.
Al Capone (estimated net worth in 1929: $100 million)
According to Biography, by 1929 notorious Prohibition-era gangster Al Capone had a fortune of $100 million: or as much as $18.6 billion in today's money.
Charles "Lucky" Luciano was an Italian-American mobster, considered the founder and father of organized crime in America and the most powerful Mafia boss of all time.
Vincent "Vinny Ocean" Palermo (born June 4, 1944) is an Italian American former mobster who was de facto boss of the New Jersey DeCavalcante crime family before becoming a government witness in 1999. Fictional mob boss Tony Soprano, the protagonist of the HBO series The Sopranos, is said to be based upon Palermo.
Longtime Colombo under-boss John “Sonny” Franzese is the living embodiment of the ultimate mob rule — bragging in an interview about refusing to rat despite it making him the oldest federal prisoner at the age of 100.
More than 40 years after Gambino's death, the New York crime family is still named for him. Although decimated by the federal crackdown during the Gotti era, the Gambino family is still involved in various criminal activities in Brooklyn and Staten Island.
The American La Cosa Nostra evolved from the Sicilian Mafia organization that first surfaced in New Orleans in the 1800's and later in New York City in the 1920's. Today, the Sicilian Mafia is a formidable criminal organization in the United States, controlling a worldwide heroin distribution network.
The Lucchese crime family continues to operate today in New York City, with involvement in traditional rackets such as illegal gambling, labor racketeering and extortion.
In addition to the Gran Caffe, the Genovese crime family—through Polito, Macario, Rutigliano, Rubino and others—operated illegal gambling parlors at establishments called Sal's Shoe Repair and the Centro Calcio Italiano Club.
Vito Corleone is based on a composite of mid-20th-century New York Mafia figures Carlo Gambino, Frank Costello, Joe Bonanno, and Joe Profaci. The character's story begins as Vito Andolini in Corleone, Sicily, in the Kingdom of Italy.
Upon his death from a torturous, four-day bout with pneumonia in 1932, Frank McErlane was described by Chicago Police as the “toughest gangster of them all.” His ruthless bootlegging peers in the Windy City feared him so much they reportedly paid him a “pension” of hundreds of dollars a week just to stay out of town.
Crime journalist Herbert Asbury affirmed: "As an organizer and administrator of underworld affairs, Johnny Torrio is unsurpassed in the annals of American crime; he was probably the nearest thing to a real mastermind that this country has yet produced".
The Waltons remain the richest. The descendants of Walmart founders Sam Walton (d.
The Mafia is currently most active in the Northeastern United States, with the heaviest activity in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New Jersey, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and New England, in areas such as Boston, Providence, and Hartford.
Sometimes referred to as 'Black Caesar' or 'Pee Wee', Frank Matthews is one of the most famous Black gangsters in America. He was involved in the large-scale heroin and cocaine drug trade from 1965 until his disappearance in 1973.
The Genovese Family
It is named after its founder, Vito Genovese, who rose to power in the 1930s and 1940s. The Genovese Family is considered one of the most powerful and longest-established organized crime groups in the United States, with its origins tracing back to the early 20th century.