# Five Families Canonical: https://mobfiles.org/families/five-families/ The five New York families and the Commission, as a section: six pages with empty charts, forty-eight person pages that quote federal records by kind, and the records themselves, from the 1963 Valachi hearings to the Commission appeal of 1989. This section covers the five New York families and the Commission. Each family page keeps an empty chart and lists the person pages for that family, with one cited line each, sorted by the kind of statement: a court's finding, what the government established as a court summarizes it, a charge, sworn testimony, a staff chart, an Attorney General's statement, an FBI file, or a Justice Department release. A chart entry never fills a role. A seat is filled only by a separate, cited decision. ## The six pages - [Genovese family](/families/genovese/): Luciano, Costello, Genovese, Eboli, Catena, Miranda, Strollo, Valachi, Lombardo, Salerno, Gigante, Venero Mangano. - [Gambino family](/families/gambino/): the Manganos, Anastasia, Carlo Gambino, Scalice, Biondo, Castellano, Dellacroce, Bilotti, Gotti, Locascio, Gravano. - [Lucchese family](/families/lucchese/): Reina, Gagliano, Lucchese, LaSalle, Corallo, Santoro, Furnari, Amuso, Casso, D'Arco. - [Colombo family](/families/colombo/): Profaci, Magliocco, Colombo, Persico, Langella. - [Bonanno family](/families/bonanno/): Joseph Bonanno, Galante, Rastelli, Indelicato, Massino, Urso, Basciano. - [The Commission](/families/commission/): the Second Circuit's account of the body, the district docket as a related opinion prints it, and the defendants. ## Before the five families The 1963 hearings describe a war in 1930 and 1931 between two groups. Subcommittee staff described "the Joseph Masseria group made up of a number of gangs" on one side and "Salvatore Maranzano, head of the gang" on the other ([Exhibit No. 8](/items/valachi-exhibit-8-masseria-maranzano-chart/)). Valachi called Masseria "the boss we were fighting" and testified that Maranzano declared himself "the boss of all bosses." See [Joseph Masseria](/people/joseph-masseria/) and [Salvatore Maranzano](/people/salvatore-maranzano/). A 1931 Bureau of Investigation report in the [Maranzano file](/items/fbi-vault-salvatore-maranzano-final/) concerns papers found in the office where he was killed. The section [The Castellammarese War, 1930–31](/castellammarese-war/) files the hearing pages one passage at a time. The New York police records that Sergeant Ralph Salerno read into the 1963 hearing date the killings and give the street of each: Tom Reina at 1522 Sheridan Avenue in the Bronx on 26 February 1930; Peter Morello at 362 East 116th Street on 15 August 1930; Joseph Pinzolo in the Brokaw Building at 1487 Broadway on 9 September 1930, where Thomas Lucchese was the lessee, was arraigned, and was not indicted; Stephen Ferrigno and Manfredi Mineo on Pelham Parkway on 5 November 1930; and Joseph Catania at 647 Crescent Avenue on 3 February 1931 ([1930 records](/items/mcc-1963-10-01-pp174-179-salerno-police-records-1930/); [Catania](/items/mcc-1963-10-01-pp188-192-joseph-catania-joe-baker/)). Masseria was shot in a restaurant at 2715 West 15th Street, Coney Island, on 15 April 1931 ([police record](/items/mcc-1963-10-02-pp210-213-masseria-killing-coney-island/)), and Maranzano in rooms 925 and 926 at 230 Park Avenue on 10 September 1931, by "four unknown men posing as police officers," where the FBI's history page says five ([police record](/items/mcc-1963-10-02-pp227-233-maranzano-killing-salerno-record/)). Valachi's account of what followed is testimony, not a finding. He said Maranzano announced "the boss of all bosses, which is myself" at a meeting on Washington Avenue in the Bronx and named bosses for the groups ([pp. 214–218](/items/mcc-1963-10-02-pp214-218-score-washington-avenue-meeting-banquet/)), and that after Maranzano's death the "boss of bosses" system "was abolished" ([pp. 236–239](/items/mcc-1963-10-02-pp236-239-boss-of-bosses-abolished-books-closed/)). A 1974 FBI memorandum states that Bureau information "indicates" Luciano "created the concept of the La Cosa Nostra ruling Commission in 1931" ([memorandum](/items/vault-luciano-02-1974-10-02-memo-last-testament/)). These are the Bureau's later summary and one witness's memory. None of the names they give is placed in a seat on this archive: the family pages and the [Commission](/families/commission/) keep every seat "Not filled." ## The main records The [1963 Valachi hearings](/items/valachi-hearings-part-1-1963/) are the earliest record here that names a boss for each family. They are testimony, staff charts and an Attorney General's statement, not findings. [United States v. Salerno, 868 F.2d 524](/items/us-v-salerno-868-f2d-524/), the Commission appeal of 1989, states what the government established about each defendant's role. That account stays on the opinion's page and on the person pages, labelled; it is not copied onto the charts. The [1988 hearing, "Organized Crime: 25 Years After Valachi,"](/items/psi-1988-25-years-after-valachi/) compares the 1963 charts with the FBI's of 1987. Chicago is a separate section: the [Chicago Outfit](/families/chicago-outfit/) family page, the [Al Capone](/capone/) hub, and the [Chicago](/regions/chicago/) region. Other families are filed the same way, with every seat empty until a citation on the page supports a name: [Buffalo](/families/buffalo/), [Pittsburgh](/families/pittsburgh/) and [Milwaukee](/families/milwaukee/). This page is a stub. It is marked noindex and is not a finished article.