To be a made man in the Mafia you had to be Sicilian;Capones folks were from the Naples area, hence no matter how big he got, Al could never be admitted to the Mafia
They bid me take my place among them In the halls of Valhalla, where the brave may live forever.
I thought you just had to be Italian
shareOriginally you had to be Sicilian but that changed. Later on only the Bonnano family insisted on Sicilian blood. Many of the famous mob bosses were Italian rather than Sicilian. For instance John Gotti was of Neapolitan blood, Albert Anastasia and Frank Costello were Calabrians.
Al Capone though was never in the Mafia. He put one of his puppets in charge of the small Mafia family in Chicago and his Outfit ran things. Later on the Outfit was recognized by others as Chicago Mafia.
The Chicago Outfit and the New Orleans Mob were created independently of the NY mob and Italian mafia. The New Orleans Mob is believed to be the oldest Mafia crime family in the US.
You had to be Italian to be a Made Man but they frequently worked with non-Italian associates