THE FIVE FAMILIES
What city were the Five Families primarily based in?
New York City
This man was associated with the Bonanno Family.
Who is Joe Bonanno?
This term describes the Mafia's organized system of ranks and leadership.
What is hierarchy?
This was the Mafia's code of silence.
What is Omertà?
This conflict was fought between rival Mafia factions in New York.
What is the Castellammarese War?
Name all five Mafia families.
Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese, and Lucchese.
This man was associated with the Lucchese Family.
Who is Tommy Lucchese?
This person was the highest-ranking leader of a Mafia family.
Who is the boss?
This Mafia member decided to cooperate with authorities and reveal information about the organization.
Who is Joseph Valachi?
These two Mafia leaders were the major rivals during the Castellammarese War.
Who are Joe Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano?
This family was associated with Carlo Gambino.
What is the Gambino Family?
This Mafia leader wanted to take control from Frank Costello.
Who is Vito Genovese?
This position was directly below the boss.
What is the underboss?
Valachi revealed that there were this many major Mafia families in New York.
What is five?
This organization was created to help Mafia families settle disputes and coordinate with one another.
What is the Mafia Commission?
Joe Profaci was originally associated with the family that eventually became known by this name.
What is the Colombo Family?
This man broke the Mafia's code of silence and provided information to authorities.
Who is Joseph Valachi?
This Mafia lieutenant supervised soldiers.
What is a caporegime?
Valachi used this term to describe the Mafia organization.
What is Cosa Nostra?
Why was the Mafia Commission important?
It helped settle disputes between Mafia families and reduce destructive internal conflict.
Put these families in the correct order based on the names of the leaders associated with them:
Bonanno — Gambino — Lucchese — Genovese — Colombo
Joe Bonanno — Carlo Gambino — Tommy Lucchese — Vito Genovese — Joe Profaci/Colombo.
This man was associated with Vito Genovese and was identified as the shooter in the attempted assassination of Frank Costello.
Who is Vincent "The Chin" Gigante?
Put these four positions in order from highest to lowest:
Soldier — Boss — Caporegime — Underboss
Boss → Underboss → Caporegime → Soldier
Valachi's testimony was especially important because he provided law enforcement with information from this type of perspective.
What is an insider's perspective?
Explain how the Castellammarese War, the Commission, and the Five Families demonstrate that the Mafia was an organized criminal system rather than simply a collection of individual criminals.
The conflict showed that Mafia groups competed for power, while the Commission created a system for families to cooperate and settle disputes. The Five Families maintained organized leadership and structure, demonstrating hierarchy, coordination, and long-term organization.