Carlo Gambino's Aborted Plan to Consolidate The Five Families Into One Gambino Family
“Carl wants to swallow up everybody." -- Unnamed Mafia boss via surveillance recording At the end of 1972, Carlo Gambino, boss of the Gambino crime family, was working on a "dramatic reorganization" of New York's Five Families, the likes of which had not been seen since 1931. As radical as this sounds, it is not unbelievable considering some events leading up to it. Gambino Gambino wanted to rid New York of hundreds of Mafia members, then rebuild by inducting only select men who'd proved their loyalty. (He was preparing to open the books in 1973.) Gambino, 70 at the time, believed the "Mafia must retreat to the past in order to survive," law enforcement officials said. The first two crime families on the block were to be the Luchese and Colombo crime families. Then the Bonanno crime family. "Twenty percent of known Mafia members in New York are currently under indictment in cases developed by the Federal Bureau of In...