The Commission (mafia)
After Maranzano's murder in 1931, the Mafia families called a meeting in Chicago. The purpose of the meeting was to replace the old Sicilian Mafia regime of "boss of all bosses" and establish a rule of consensus among the crime families. Charlie Luciano established a Mafia board of directors to be known as "The Commission" to oversee all Mafia activities in the United States and serve to mediate conflicts between families. The Commission consisted of seven family bosses: the leaders of New York's Five Families: Charlie "Lucky" Luciano, Vincent Mangano, Tommy Gagliano, Joseph Bonanno, and Joe Profaci; Chicago Outfit boss Al Capone; and Buffalo family boss Stefano Magaddino. Charlie Luciano was appointed chairman of the Commission. The Commission agreed to hold meetings every five years or when they needed to discuss family problems.
Joseph Civello
One year after Civello ascended to power, he made a fateful trip that would shed a glaring light on him and "La Cosa Nostra" in Dallas for years to come. Following the assassination of Albert Anastasia, chief of one of the Five Families of New York, a meeting of mob leaders from cities throughout the United States and Canada was called in order to install Carlo Gambino as Anastasia's successor. A suspiciously large number of black Cadillacs and Lincolns in and around Apalachin, New York, the tiny Upstate New York town where the mob conference was gathering, alerted local law enforcement to investigate. Over 60 underworld bosses were detained and indicted at the Apalachin Meeting, including Civello. Noted federal judge Irving R. Kaufman presided over the 1960 trial in which Civello was sentenced to five years for a conspiracy charge stemming from the Apalachin meeting. Civello retained Houston defense attorney Percy Foreman, and the conviction was reversed on appeal in 1961.