Made man

• 1. Introduction

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  A made man is a fully initiated member of the Mafia, in both its Sicilian and American forms. One version of his oath is spoken over a burning picture of a saint. The words run: "As burns this saint, so will burn my soul. I enter alive and I will have to get out dead." Few organizations ask for a promise that final. Who was allowed into that room? Who was turned away after years of loyal service, and why? What did a man have to do before anyone offered him the chance? And once he was in, what exactly did the oath give him?

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• 2. A Vocabulary of Belonging

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  Mafia members have never relied on a single word for one of their own. In Italian, the proper term is uomo d'onore, a man of honor, and in Sicilian it becomes omu d'onuri.

  Another phrase is uomo di rispetto, a man of respect. Members also say uno di noi, one of us, or amico nostro, a friend of ours. All of them mark a person as inside the circle rather than near it.

  The street offers its own words. Good fella and wiseguy are the best known, yet they stretch wider than the others. Both can describe an associate who works closely with the Mafia without ever being formally initiated.

  Becoming a member has slang too. Men speak of being straightened out, being baptized, or earning a badge.

  The word mafioso, with its plural mafiosi, is common in newspapers and universities. Italian-American and Sicilian members themselves generally avoid it. The first test for earning any of these names was ancestry.

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• 3. Bloodlines

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  Henry Hill, the Lucchese family associate portrayed in the 1990 film Goodfellas, never became a made man. His Mafia career was extensive, and his mother was Sicilian. His father, however, was Irish, and that was enough to close the door.

  The rule had once been stricter still. In the American Mafia, an inductee traditionally had to be male and of full Sicilian descent. The requirement later widened to full Southern Italian descent. Eventually it allowed men who were half Italian, provided the Italian half came through the father.

  According to Salvatore Vitale, a Commission meeting in 2000 decided to bring back the older standard. Both parents would again need to be of Italian descent.

  Exceptions still turn up. John A. Gotti, son of the mobster John Gotti, was made even though his maternal grandmother was Russian. Frank Salemme of the New England Patriarca family had an Italian father and an Irish mother.

  Some men simply hid their backgrounds. Andrew Thomas DelGiorno, of Polish and Italian descent, concealed his mother's Polish side. He was inducted into the Philadelphia Mafia and became a soldier in the Scarfo family.

  Geography mattered as well. Men of Northern Italian descent were historically unwelcome, because the Sicilian Mafia and its related groups came out of Southern Italy. Gregory Scarpa, a Colombo family capo, nearly lost his chance because his family came from the Veneto province. His talent for making money, and his readiness to use violence, persuaded the leadership to induct him anyway.

  Scarpa's case shows that leaders could bend on ancestry. One past, though, was usually unforgivable.

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• 4. Closed Doors

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  Henry Borelli, a member of the DeMeo crew, learned that a single exam could end his hopes. In the early 1970s he had taken the New York City Police Department entrance exam. For that alone, he could never become a made man in the Gambino family.

  The bar is broad. An associate who has worked in law enforcement in any capacity usually cannot be made. The same applies to one who has merely applied to a police training program, or attended one.

  Salvatore Vitale, who rose to underboss in the Bonanno family, had worked as a corrections officer. He was made only because his brother-in-law, the future boss Joseph Massino, managed to cover that history up.

  Ron Previte of the Scarfo family is the notable exception. He had served on the Philadelphia police force, though corruptly, and still became a soldier.

  Two corrupt New York detectives, Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, never became official members. For the Lucchese family, they nevertheless did the work of a soldier.

  Other men failed on character. "Mad Sam" DeStefano was a mentally unstable loan shark who enjoyed torture and murder. The Chicago Outfit put up with his ability to earn, but they never made him. They feared his bizarre behavior would draw too much publicity.

  Joseph "Joe Pitts" Conigliaro, an associate of the DeCavalcante family, was paralyzed by a shooting and relied on a wheelchair. His disability made him ineligible. According to Anthony Capo, he was otherwise "treated... as a made guy."

  For those who cleared every hurdle, a darker requirement often waited.

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• 5. Making Your Bones

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  A contract killing was often the price of admission. The associate was frequently expected to carry one out before he could be considered for induction.

  Traditionally, the murder proved his loyalty to the organization. In modern times it carries a second purpose, since a man willing to kill on orders is unlikely to be an undercover law enforcement agent.

  The rules also say which killings count. Any murder committed for personal reasons cannot satisfy the requirement.

  The first contract killing has its own names. It is called making one's bones, or earning one's button. The man who does it becomes a button man. Those phrases are usually treated as synonyms for becoming made.

  Even a man who had done everything asked still needed someone to speak for him.

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• 6. The Ceremony

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  Joe Pistone described the sponsorship process in two books, The Way of the Wiseguy and Donnie Brasco: Unfinished Business. By his account, a candidate now needs at least two sponsors. One of them must have known him for 10 to 15 years.

  The sponsor vouches for the associate's reliability and abilities. A capo or other senior members weigh the candidate's credibility. The final decision belongs to the boss of the family he would join.

  When the family is ready to take in new men, the associate receives a phone call telling him to get ready and dress properly. He is then picked up and driven to the room where the ceremony will happen. He may arrive alone or alongside other accepted candidates.

  There he takes the oath of omertà, the Mafia code of silence. Details differ from family to family. Typically, the inductee's trigger finger is pricked, and his blood drips onto a picture of a saint, often St Francis of Assisi or the Virgin Mary.

  The picture is then set alight in his hand. It must keep burning until he has sworn loyalty to his new "family."

  The call could come only when a family was accepting new members, and for years that was in doubt.

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• 7. Opening the Books

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  Inside the Mafia, "opening the books" means a family is ready to accept new members. "Closing the books" means it is unwilling or unable to do so.

  The Apalachin meeting changed the calendar. As a result of it, the books were thought to have closed in 1957. Law enforcement did not know them to have reopened until 1976.

  Whether that was really so is unclear. Some Mafia members appear to have been made during those years. The gap may reflect missing information among police and the press rather than a true freeze.

  Whenever a man was made, the reward was a standing few criminals dared to challenge.

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• 8. Untouchable

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  The newly made man holds the rank of soldier, or soldato. Only made men can climb from there to caporegime, consigliere, underboss, and finally boss.

  With the rank come responsibilities and benefits. A made man enjoys the full protection and backing of the Mafia establishment. That lasts only while he stays in favor and earns enough, since a percentage of his money must be passed up the hierarchy.

  Among other criminals, he is traditionally seen as untouchable, someone to be respected and feared. Striking him, let alone killing him, without permission from the family leadership is punishable by death. A legitimate grievance makes no difference.

  Permission is the key word. A made man can be killed if the family's leadership agrees that the reason is good enough.

  The book Wiseguy describes the rule in action, and the 1990 film Goodfellas dramatizes it. Both follow Henry Hill, a Lucchese associate who became an FBI informant. They cover the disappearance of Tommy DeSimone, a fellow Lucchese associate who was allegedly killed by the Gambino family.

  His offense was the murder, without permission, of the made man William "Billy Batts" Bentvena. Bentvena was a close friend of John Gotti, a man destined to become a boss himself.

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