The American Mafia’s ranks run boss, underboss, consigliere, caporegime, soldier, associate. The boss runs the family and takes a cut of everything, the underboss is second in command, the consigliere advises and mediates, a caporegime runs a crew of soldiers, soldiers are the initiated members who do the work, and associates work for the family without being members. Only made men hold rank; everyone else is an associate no matter how useful they are.
Romance novels borrow this chart and then bend it, usually by making the boss young and single. Knowing the real shape makes it easier to see what a book is doing on purpose.
The mafia hierarchy at a glance #
| Rank | Also called | What they do |
|---|---|---|
| Boss | Don, godfather, capofamiglia | Runs the family, takes a percentage of every operation |
| Underboss | Sottocapo | Second in command, runs day-to-day business |
| Consigliere | Counselor | Advises the boss, mediates disputes, negotiates with other families |
| Caporegime | Capo, captain, skipper | Commands a crew of soldiers |
| Soldier | Soldato, made man | Initiated member; the family’s working rank |
| Associate | Connected guy | Works for the family but is not a member |
The chart describes the American Mafia as it settled in the mid-20th century. Details vary by family and by decade, and the descriptions below follow Wikipedia’s American Mafia article.
Boss #
The boss heads the family and receives a share of every earning that moves up through it. Historically the family’s captains elected him, though by the 1950s the process grew less formal, partly to avoid the attention a meeting would attract.
The job is mostly insulation. A careful boss gives orders through subordinates so that no instruction can be traced directly to him, which is why prosecutors spent decades convicting soldiers and failing to reach the top. That changed when the 1970 RICO Act let prosecutors charge the enterprise rather than the individual crime.
Underboss #
The underboss is appointed by the boss rather than elected, handles daily operations, and usually oversees the most profitable rackets. He takes a percentage of family income and is the obvious successor if the boss dies or goes to prison.
In fiction the underboss is often written as the loyal best friend. In practice the position was a common source of coups, because the person best placed to take over is the person already second.
Consigliere #
The consigliere is the adviser. He mediates internal disputes, represents the family in talks with other organizations, and traditionally ranks third in the administration. Because impartiality is the whole point of the role, he was meant to stand somewhat outside the earning structure.
Puzo did more than anyone to make the word familiar in English. The Godfather gave Tom Hagen the job and put consigliere, caporegime, Cosa Nostra and omertà into general circulation.
Caporegime #
A caporegime, usually shortened to capo, runs a crew: a group of soldiers who report to him and to nobody above him directly. Crews typically held ten to twenty soldiers plus associates. The capo passes a percentage of his crew’s earnings upward and handles whatever the administration assigns him.
This is the rank that makes the structure work. The boss deals with a handful of capos rather than with hundreds of members, which keeps him distant from the crimes.
Soldier #
A soldier, or soldato, is an initiated member. Soldiers do the extortion, the intimidation and the violence, and they earn for their capo. A soldier cannot be harmed without approval from the family’s leadership, which is the practical meaning of being made: it puts a procedure in front of any decision to kill you.
Associate #
An associate is not a member. He works with the family, earns for it, and may be far more useful than a given soldier, but he holds no rank and no protection. Associates traditionally proved themselves in this position for years before any question of membership came up.
Membership rules were ethnic. The requirement started as full Sicilian descent, later widened to full Italian descent, and later still to half-Italian descent through the father. Anyone outside that stayed an associate permanently, which is why so many well-known figures in the American underworld were never made men.
What is a made man? #
A made man is a full member, inducted through a ceremony. Wikipedia traces the ritual’s form to Roman Catholic confraternities and Masonic lodges in mid-19th-century Sicily. In the version described by informants, the inductee’s finger is pricked, blood is dropped on a card bearing a saint’s image, the card is burned and passed between his hands, and he swears an oath of loyalty and silence.
After the 1957 Apalachin raid, when New York State Police stumbled onto a national gathering of Mafia leaders, the families closed the membership books. They did not reopen them until 1976.
What was the Commission? #
The Commission was set up by Lucky Luciano in 1931 as an alternative to a single boss of all bosses. It seats the heads of the strongest families and votes on disputes, territory and major decisions. It brought a measure of stability after a period of open warfare, and by mid-century around 26 Commission-sanctioned families operated across the United States.
How do the Sicilian ranks differ? #
Sicilian Cosa Nostra uses a related chart with different words and a flatter shape (Wikipedia).
| Sicilian rank | Rough American equivalent |
|---|---|
| Capofamiglia | Boss |
| Sottocapo or capo bastone | Underboss |
| Consigliere | Consigliere |
| Capodecina | Caporegime |
| Soldato, picciotto | Soldier |
Three differences matter. Sicilian clans, called cosche, are smaller, and the boss knows every member personally and takes fewer privileges. The boss and the consigliere are elected annually by the members. And clans in neighboring territory group into a district, a mandamento, which elects a capomandamento to represent it on a provincial commission.
That commission, the Cupola, set up in the 1950s, is not a government. It coordinates, regulates violence, approves significant murders and settles succession, but the clans decide by consensus. Members call themselves uomini d’onore, men of honor, and refer to the organization among themselves as cosa nostra, “our thing.”
What mafia fiction gets wrong about ranks #
Romance novels change the structure in fairly consistent ways, and none of them are mistakes so much as genre requirements.
- The boss is young. Real bosses were usually in their fifties or older by the time they got the job. Fiction needs a romantic lead, so the don is thirty and has just inherited.
- The heir is automatic. Sons did sometimes succeed fathers, but the position was voted on or seized, not passed down like a title. “Heir to the family” is closer to a monarchy than to how these organizations worked.
- The consigliere is an enforcer. The counselor’s job was advice and mediation. Fiction often merges him with the muscle because a strategist in a study is harder to write a fight scene around.
- Women hold rank. They did not, in the traditional structure. The mafia princess and the woman who ends up running the family are inventions the genre needed.
None of this makes the books worse. It does mean the family in a novel is a fantasy dynasty wearing real vocabulary, which is the argument we lay out in is mafia romance realistic. The terms themselves are collected in Italian words in mafia romance.
The interactive story Omerta uses the chart the same way novels do. Its three romance routes are built on positions rather than on real people: the heir, the enforcer, and a man the family was told to forget. You read the fictional family’s messages and choose your replies, which turns questions of loyalty and rank into choices instead of scenes you watch.
Frequently asked questions #
What is the highest rank in the mafia? #
Boss of a family, called the don or capofamiglia. Above that, the Commission in the United States and the Cupola in Sicily coordinate between families, but neither is a rank. The title “boss of all bosses” existed briefly in the early American Mafia and was deliberately abolished when the Commission was created in 1931.
What is the difference between a capo and a consigliere? #
A capo commands a crew of soldiers and earns for the family. A consigliere commands nobody. He advises the boss, settles internal disputes and negotiates outside the family, and his value comes from being trusted and neutral rather than from running an operation.
Is a soldier the same as a made man? #
Effectively, yes. Soldier is the entry rank for initiated members, so every soldier is a made man. Capos, underbosses, consiglieri and bosses are also made men who were promoted out of the soldier rank.
Can someone who is not Italian be a made man? #
Not in the traditional rules. Membership required Sicilian descent originally, then Italian descent, then half-Italian descent through the father’s side. People of other backgrounds could work with a family for decades as associates without ever being eligible.
Do these ranks exist in Russian organized crime? #
No. Russian groups use a different and looser vocabulary, including pakhan for a boss and vor v zakone for the elite thieves-in-law, and they are usually described as networks rather than strict hierarchies. We cover the terms in what is bratva romance.