ABSTRACT
The sketch of the authority structure of Cosa Nostra is based on a variety of sources, most of them having their roots in information released at the time of the 1963 McClellan Committee hearings, including the testimony of Joseph Valachi. The skeletal Cosa Nostra authority structure has outlined by no means the structure of the organization providing America with illicit goods and services. Even the skeleton has more bones than those authors have described, as their comments on unofficial positions suggest. The structure outlined is sufficient to demonstrate, however, that a confederation of "families" exists and that the way the confederation is organized affects the way illicit businesses are conducted. Investigating agencies have, since the 1957 Apalachin meeting, documented the fact that the complete apparatus is tightly knit enough to have a corporate chain of command. The Apalachin conference was a meeting of Commission members and their lieutenants.
