The Commission
A.K.A:The Syndicate, Cosa Nostra

To truly track the history of the Commission, one would have to go back all the way back to the last half of the 1800's, back during when immigrant gangs developed to "protect" their neighborhoods. This protection generally consisted of strong-arming shop owners and others in the neighborhoods to pay to keep out the bad elements, when, in fact, that worst element was sometimes the ones collecting the money. One of these gangs was called the Five Points gang. Originally, in the early 1820's the Five Points area of New York was a denizen of crime, covering the wide area around Mulberry, Anthony, Orange, Little Water and Cross streets. The original Five Points gang was ruthless and would often fight to the death, which left room for a high turn over rate of gangland talent. But it was not uncommon to see gangs fighting each other one day and then to see them group together to combat another district the next. By the end of century, though, the disorganization of the Five Points gave way to a more structured goal of leaders like Jonny Torrio and Frankie Yale, tow of the most recognized crime figures of modern day America. Between the two of them they helped educate some other prominent figures: Alphonse Capone and Charlie Luciano. The Five Points gang became more organized and soon provided muscle for businessmen and politicians. Tammeny Hall, under the leadership of Mayor William Tammeny, used several gangs like the Five Points to help win elections by threatening voters or falsifying extra ones. By 1915, though, the gang's prominence began to fade as leaders like Capone and Torrio ventured to Chicago and others, like Luciano went to jail.

As Chicago began to grow and become organized under the helm of "Big Jim" Colosimo with Jonny Torrio as his second in command, New York also began organizing itself, but the territorial warfare would keep each crime family at odds with each other. Instead of working with one another, crime bosses like Joe "The Boss" Masseria wanted to keep his portion separate from everyone else via gunfights, vendettas and death. For each man killed under one crime family, another, or more, was taken from the originators of the conflict. Eventually, the death toll gained recognition of too many people and the younger turks working for Masseria (and Salvatore Maranzano, the other major crime boss of the time) decided that something had to be done. In Chicago, the gangland wars were becoming famous all over the country, gaining Presidential attention: "President Herbert Hoover was constantly asking his top law enforcement officials in Washington: 'Have you got that fellow Capone yet?'" New York wanted to avoid that kind of attention and stop all the useless killing and fighting.

Even before the Commission was officially formed in 1931, a meeting between most of the crime bosses along the eastern seaboard and others across the country took place in Atlantic City in 1929. By this time, discussions of organization were already taking place and the idea was well accepted amongst the younger crime lords.

It should be stated that the whole idea of organized crime did not originate with Charlie Luciano or Meyer Lansky though. Jonny Torrio, who, by the time of the Commission's creation, left Chicago to avoid being killed by the power-hungry Capone, taught them. When Torrio returned, he helped form and plan with the Commission but remained a silent partner along with Lansky and other non-Sicilian members since he was retired after suffering gun shot wounds by the Moran gang of Chicago. Torrio's ideas of organized crime were well embraced by the New York bootleggers and soon, others across the country would join.

After the death of Masseria, Maranzano came into power, instituting what was the beginning of the Commission. He created five families, all of which would answer to him: Joseph, Bonnano, Vincent Mangano, Charlie Luciano, Joseph Profaci and Tom Gagliano. When word went out that Maranzano planned to eliminate some of his new lieutenants (Luciano in particular), a counter plan was created: kill Maranzano before he killed them. They did so, and supposedly by chance, several other older Mustache Petes disappeared that same night, placing the young Turks totally in charge of organized crime throughout the country. After this clean slate was created, Luciano, along with Meyer Lansky, put into place the foundation of the Commission as it exists today. The five families would continue to exist, but they would not answer directly to Luciano (who was at least recognized by the entire syndicate as its new leader, although he never admitted to it or accepted the title). Instead they would act as a board of trusties, just like any other large organization. All other crime organizations would be welcome to join, but only Sicilian members would be allowed to actually make decisions, especially ones regarding executions. Other things decided by the Commission were separation of power and territory and other Mafia interests in legal businesses such as construction (which was not always that legal).

Although the Commission was "national," the power it had truly affected the eastern boarders and was more or less respected amongst the rest of the country. As time wore on, representatives from crime families in Chicago (Giancana was only "semi-interested" since Chicago normally acted as its own crime syndicate, almost like a second union, for parts of the country), Buffalo, Detroit, and Los Angeles were present, but the decisions made at most of those meetings only affected the east. After the Banana war and the Gallo-Profaci conflict and its failure to inflict strict rules to halt it, the Commission has become less powerful as a ruling body than as a counsel for decision making.