The Commission (American Mafia)
The Commission is the governing body of the American Mafia, formed in 1931 by Charles "Lucky" Luciano following the Castellammarese War.
[4][1][5] Although there would have been few objections had Luciano declared himself capo di tutti i capi, he abolished the title, believing the position created trouble between the families and made himself a target for another ambitious challenger.
[1] The Commission would consist of a "board of directors" to oversee all Mafia activities in the United States and serve to mediate conflicts between families.
[1] The Commission allowed Jewish mobsters Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel, Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, Dutch Schultz, and Abner "Longie" Zwillman to work alongside them and participate in some meetings.
[8] The group's first test came in 1935, when it ordered Dutch Schultz to drop his plans to murder Special Prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey.
[9] Murder, Inc. leader Albert Anastasia approached Luciano with information that Schultz had asked him to stake out Dewey's apartment building on Fifth Avenue.
In preparation for the 1943 Allied invasion of Sicily, Luciano allegedly provided the US military with Sicilian Mafia contacts.
[21] On January 3, 1946, as a presumed reward for his alleged wartime cooperation, Dewey reluctantly commuted Luciano's pandering sentence on condition that he did not resist deportation to Italy.
The liberal faction was supported by those who were also open with working with non-Italian organizations and drugs, namely by Vito Genovese, Tommy Lucchese and Carlo Gambino (was opposed to drugs),[16] while the conservative faction were more reserved with an older Italian tradition of honor and loyalty, namely by Joe Profaci and Stefano Magaddino.
[1] A year later, on November 14, 1957, the Apalachin meeting was called by Genovese at the Upstate New York estate of Joseph Barbara to discuss the future of Cosa Nostra.
[38][39] In 1963, Joe Bonanno made plans to assassinate several rivals on the Commission—bosses Tommy Lucchese, Carlo Gambino, and Stefano Magaddino, as well as Frank DeSimone.
[41] Magliocco was assigned the task of killing Lucchese and Gambino, and gave the contract to one of his top hit men, Joseph Colombo.
[43] On July 1, 1985, the original nine men, with the addition of two more New York Mafia leaders, pleaded not guilty to a second set of racketeering charges as part of the trial.
[46] According to Colombo hitman and FBI informant Gregory Scarpa, Persico and Gambino boss John Gotti backed a plan to kill the lead prosecutor, and future New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani in late 1986, but it was rejected by the rest of the Commission.
[47] In the early 1980s, the Bonannos became the first New York family to be expelled from the Commission, due to the successful infiltration of FBI agent Joseph Pistone, also known as Donnie Brasco.
[55] According to Salvatore Vitale, a Commission meeting was held in early 2000 to restore the rule requiring both parents to be of Italian descent in order to become a made man.
[58] 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.
