The Mafia Commission Trial — RICO Case Against the Five Families

The Case

The Mafia Commission Trial was a federal racketeering prosecution in the Southern District of New York that targeted the leadership of New York's Five Families and the Mafia's governing board, known as the Commission. Brought under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, the case — formally United States v. Anthony Salerno, et al. — ran from February 25, 1985 to November 19, 1986 and ended with sweeping convictions of the most powerful organized-crime figures in the United States. It is widely regarded as one of the most consequential organized-crime prosecutions in American history.

The Crime

Unlike a typical homicide case, the Commission Trial concerned an ongoing criminal enterprise rather than a single incident. Prosecutors alleged that the Mafia Commission — a coordinating body established decades earlier to mediate disputes between families — functioned as the board of directors of a vast criminal organization. Through it, the bosses allegedly approved murders, divided territory, and controlled lucrative rackets across New York and beyond.

The charged conduct included extortion, labor racketeering in the concrete and construction industries, illegal gambling, loansharking, narcotics trafficking, and murder. One specific killing folded into the indictment was the 1979 murder of Bonanno boss Carmine Galante, for which Anthony Indelicato was ultimately convicted. The very existence of the Commission as a criminal entity) was central to the government's theory of the case.

The Victims

Because this was a RICO prosecution, the "victims" were both individuals and entire industries. New York's construction sector was bled by a so-called "concrete club," in which Mafia-controlled firms divided contracts above a certain dollar threshold and skimmed millions. Union members, small businesses paying tribute, and gambling and loansharking customers suffered direct harm. The one named murder victim in the indictment, Carmine Galante, was himself a Mafia boss, killed in a brazen 1979 hit at a Brooklyn restaurant.

Investigation

The case was the product of a five-year federal investigation that combined traditional surveillance with aggressive use of electronic eavesdropping. The FBI obtained 171 court-approved wiretaps and planted hidden listening devices in cars, social clubs, and even the home of Gambino leadership. The bugs captured bosses discussing the Commission's structure and decisions in their own words — evidence that proved devastating at trial. Investigators also drew on informants and years of intelligence collected by the FBI's organized-crime squads.

The prosecution was led by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York under Rudolph Giuliani, who used the RICO statute in a novel way: rather than prosecuting individual crimes, the government charged the Commission itself as the racketeering enterprise. The indictment was announced on February 25, 1985, marking the first time the federal government formally targeted the Mafia's national governing body.

Trial and Verdict

The trial opened in 1986 in federal court in Manhattan before Judge Richard Owen. The defendants included Genovese boss Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno, Lucchese boss Anthony "Tony Ducks" Corallo, Colombo boss Carmine Persico, Bonanno leader Philip "Rusty" Rastelli (tried separately on related matters), Lucchese consigliere Christopher Furnari, Lucchese underboss Salvatore Santoro, and Bonanno figure Anthony Indelicato. Gambino boss Paul Castellano had originally been part of the Commission-era leadership context but was murdered outside Sparks Steak House in December 1985 before trial.

On November 19, 1986, the jury returned guilty verdicts on the core RICO and related charges. The bosses were each sentenced to 100 years in federal prison. Indelicato was convicted in connection with the Galante murder. The verdicts effectively decapitated the leadership of four of the Five Families in a single proceeding.

Today

The Mafia Commission Trial remains a benchmark for federal organized-crime prosecution and a turning point in the decline of La Cosa Nostra's power in the United States. It demonstrated that RICO could be used not just against individual crews but against the very institutional structure of the Mafia. Historical photographs and trial imagery continue to appear in documentaries, books, and museum exhibitions, and the case is studied in law schools and by federal prosecutors as a model RICO action. Its legacy is visible in every subsequent major Mafia case, from the prosecutions of John Gotti to ongoing federal efforts against organized crime today.