Up next in 10
Everyone knows about omertà, the mafia's famous code of silence. But that's just what they let you know. The REAL rules that govern La Cosa Nostra are far more brutal, far more controlling, and absolutely terrifying.
We're exposing the top 10 most secret mafia rules that control every aspect of a made man's life. These aren't the codes you see in movies. These are the real laws enforced with deadly violence, passed down through generations, and kept hidden from outsiders for over a century.
From rules that control who you can marry, to laws that force you to kill your own family members, to protocols that ensure you can never, ever escape... these commandments reveal the mafia's true nature as a totalitarian organization that destroys lives.
In this deep-dive compilation, you'll discover:
The Forbidden Question that gets men killed
Why made men must live in secret poverty
The brutal "Blood Tax" families pay when someone dies
The horrifying Severed Tongue Protocol
The rule that means there's NO retirement from the mob
We've spent months researching declassified FBI files, court testimony, and interviews with former mobsters to bring you these shocking secrets.
This is the real mafia. No Hollywood glamour. Just brutal truth.
Want to go even deeper? Check out our full 100-episode cinematic series on the complete history of organized crime on our main channel: Global Mafia Universe. The link is in the description.
Subscribe for more mafia secrets, true crime investigations, and hidden histories.
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0:00
Everyone knows about Omera, the code of silence, the sacred vow that no made man
0:06
ever cooperates with law enforcement. No mater. It's the most famous mafia rule in the
0:13
world. It's been in every movie, every documentary, every true crime book ever written about the mob. But here's what
0:19
they don't tell you. Omera is just the tip of the iceberg. It's the rule they
0:25
let you know about because it sounds honorable, almost romantic. A brotherhood bound by silence. But
0:32
beneath that surface, there are rules so brutal, so unforgiving, so absolutely
0:38
terrifying that most mobsters won't even speak them out loud. Rules that have gotten men killed for the smallest
0:44
violation. Rules that have torn families apart. Rules that make Omemerita look
0:50
like a suggestion. We're talking about codes that govern every single aspect of a made man's life. what he can say, who
0:57
he can love, how he must die. These aren't written down in some secret
1:03
handbook. They're not taught in initiation ceremonies, at least not all of them. They're passed down in
1:09
whispers, learned through blood, and enforced with absolute ruthless precision. Break one of these rules, and
1:16
Amerita won't save you. Your own brothers will be the ones to pull the trigger. The families have spent
1:22
centuries perfecting these codes, refining them, making them more vicious. And they've kept them hidden from
1:29
outsiders for one simple reason. Knowledge is power. If you know the
1:34
rules, you understand how the machine works. You can see the cracks. You can
1:39
exploit the weaknesses. That's why when mobsters flip and enter witness protection, these are the secrets the
1:46
FBI wants most. Not names, not locations, but the invisible laws that
1:51
govern the underworld. Today, we're opening the vault. These are the secrets they thought were buried forever. We
1:58
spent months pulling together information from declassified FBI documents, testimony from turncoats who
2:04
broke their sacred vows, and historical records of mafia trials that exposed the inner workings of Lacosan Nostra. What
2:12
we found was shocking. The mafia isn't just a criminal organization. It's a shadow society with its own
2:19
constitution, its own justice system, and its own brutal laws that make civilian legal codes look forgiving.
2:26
These 10 rules represent the darkest, most closely guarded secrets of mob life. Some of them will shock you, some
2:33
will seem impossible to believe, but every single one has been confirmed by multiple sources, enforced with lethal
2:40
violence, and responsible for countless deaths over the decades. These aren't
2:45
the rules they show you in the movies. These are the rules that even Hollywood was too afraid to portray. This is the
2:52
real code of the mafia, the laws written in blood, the commandments that make
2:57
grown men tremble. And you're about to learn every single one. First up, we
3:02
have a rule so dark that it's gotten more men killed than any mob war in history. The rule of the forbidden
3:09
question. You'd think in a secret criminal organization, members would be constantly sharing information,
3:15
coordinating, staying informed. Wrong. Dead. Wrong. In the traditional mafia,
3:22
there's one question you can never ever ask another made man. What do you do?
3:28
Not his legitimate business, not his hobbies, his mafia business, what jobs
3:34
he's working on, what crew he's with at the moment, what orders he's carrying out. This rule exists for a simple
3:42
reason, compartmentalization. The bosses learned early that if everyone knows everything, one rat can bring down the
3:49
entire family. So, they created a culture where curiosity is a death sentence. A made man is told exactly
3:56
what he needs to know for his specific job, nothing more. If you're ordered to drive a car from point A to point B, you
4:04
don't ask what's in the trunk. If you're told to meet someone at a specific location, you don't ask why. If another
4:11
member is suddenly missing, you definitely don't ask where he went. The punishment for violating this rule
4:16
varies depending on the context and the family, but it's always severe. At minimum, you lose respect and trust,
4:24
which in the mafia world can be a death sentence in itself. At maximum, you're suspected of being an informant trying
4:31
to gather intelligence, and you disappear. FBI wiretaps have caught
4:36
dozens of conversations where made men carefully dance around information, speaking in vague code, never directly
4:43
stating what they're doing. In one famous recorded conversation, two mobsters spent 20 minutes coordinating a
4:50
hit without ever saying the word kill, the victim's name, or the location. They
4:55
couldn't, even in private. The rule was so ingrained that even when they thought they were safe, they followed it. Former
5:02
mobster Michael Franes explained in interviews that this rule created a paranoid culture where trust was
5:07
impossible. You could work alongside another made man for years and have no idea what crimes he was committing. You
5:14
could be best friends with someone and not know if he'd just murdered someone an hour ago. This psychological
5:20
isolation is intentional. It keeps everyone focused on their own assignments, prevents conspiracies
5:26
against the bosses, and ensures that if someone gets arrested, they have very little actual information to trade. But
5:33
it also creates a pressure cooker environment of suspicion and fear. Because in the mafia, the things you
5:39
don't know absolutely can kill you. But that's not all. The next secret is even
5:45
more personal, even more controlling. The rule of marriage permission. In civilian life, when you fall in love and
5:53
want to get married, you propose, plan a wedding, and start your life together.
5:58
In the mafia, it's not that simple. Not even close. In traditional Lakosa Nostra
6:04
families, a maid man cannot get married without explicit permission from his captain or boss. And we're not talking
6:10
about a casual blessing or a friendly heads. We're talking about a formal request, an investigation into the
6:17
potential bride and a decision that can be denied for any reason. Why would the mob care who you marry? Control and
6:24
security. Your wife becomes a potential liability. If she's from a law
6:29
enforcement family, she could be a plant. If she's ambitious or talkative,
6:35
she could accidentally expose secrets. if she has connections to rival families. She could create conflicts of
6:41
interest. So before a made man can marry, the family investigates his fiance thoroughly. They look into her
6:48
background, her family, her past relationships, her personality. They
6:53
interview people who know her. They assess whether she can be trusted to live with the knowledge that her husband
6:58
is a criminal, to keep secrets, to accept the lifestyle. And here's the truly brutal part. If the boss says no,
7:06
that's the end of it. The relationship is over. If the mobster defies the order
7:11
and marries her anyway, he's finished. He could be killed or at minimum stripped of his status and exiled from
7:18
the family. There are documented cases of made men being forced to choose between the woman they loved and their
7:23
mafia family. Almost always, they chose the mafia because the alternative was death. But it gets worse. Even if
7:31
permission is granted, the new wife comes with rules. She can never ask about his business. She can never meet
7:38
certain associates. She must accept that he'll disappear for days without explanation. She must host family
7:45
gatherings without complaint. She becomes in effect property of the organization. And if the marriage falls
7:52
apart, divorce is complicated. Some families forbid it entirely, viewing it
7:57
as dishonorable. Others allow it, but only with permission. If a mobster's wife becomes a problem, if she threatens
8:04
to go to the police or knows too much, the solution is sometimes permanent and violent. Former FBI agent Joe Keystone,
8:12
who infiltrated the mob as Donnie, reported that the mobsters he lived among were constantly monitoring each
8:18
other's family situations, looking for weakness or security risks. One mobster
8:23
he knew was ordered to stop seeing his girlfriend because she had a cousin in the police department. He complied
8:28
immediately without argument because he understood the alternative. This rule turns marriage from a personal choice
8:35
into an institutional decision, removing one of the most fundamental human freedoms and replacing it with mob
8:41
bureaucracy and control. Coming in at number eight, we have a rule that sounds
8:46
almost impossible in the modern world. The oath of poverty display, the mafia
8:51
exists to make money. Everyone knows that extortion, gambling, drugs, fraud,
8:59
whatever it takes to generate cash, made men can become incredibly wealthy. But
9:05
here's the paradox. They can never ever show it. This rule mandates that made
9:11
men must maintain a modest workingclass appearance in public, regardless of how
9:16
much money they're actually making. A mobster might have millions in offshore accounts, own multiple businesses, and
9:23
control vast criminal enterprises, but he drives a normal car, lives in a
9:28
middle-ass neighborhood, and dresses like a regular guy. Why? Two reasons.
9:34
First, law enforcement. The IRS and FBI specifically look for lifestyle
9:39
inconsistencies. If you claim you're an unemployed construction worker, but you're driving a Ferrari and wearing a
9:45
Rolex, you're inviting investigation. The government has brought down countless mobsters, not through proving
9:51
their crimes, but through tax evasion charges based on unexplained wealth. Al Capone, the most famous gangster in
9:58
American history, went to prison for taxes, not murder. The mafia learned
10:04
that lesson hard. Second, internal politics. Flaunting
10:09
wealth creates jealousy and resentment within the family. It makes other members feel like they're not getting
10:15
their fair share. It attracts attention from ambitious underlings who might decide you're worth robbing or killing.
10:21
Modesty keeps you safe from both outsiders and insiders. The rule is enforced with shocking strictness. John
10:28
Gota became famous in the 1980s for violating it. He wore expensive suits, threw lavish parties, lived large. The
10:36
traditional bosses hated it. They saw him as reckless and disrespectful to mafia tradition. While Gotti's flashy
10:43
lifestyle made him a media celebrity, it also made him a massive target. The FBI focused enormous resources on him
10:50
specifically because he was so visible and he eventually died in prison. Other families pointed to Gotti as an example
10:57
of what not to do. Contrast that with bosses like Vincent the Chinji who spent
11:02
decades pretending to be mentally ill, shuffling around his neighborhood in a bathrobe appearing helpless and in it
11:08
was all an act. Giganti was running one of the most powerful crime families in
11:13
America while looking like a confused elderly man who couldn't manage his own affairs. That's the rule in action. Hide
11:20
your power. Mask your wealth. Blend in. Former mobsters described the strange
11:25
double life this created. They'd conduct multi-million dollar criminal deals, then go home to modest houses and used
11:33
cars. They'd have secret cash stashes, but shop at regular stores and eat at neighborhood diners. Some even held
11:40
legitimate jobs as cover, actually showing up to work at construction sites or waste management companies they
11:46
secretly owned just to maintain appearances. The rule turned these criminals into actors, constantly
11:52
performing the role of ordinary, struggling workingclass men while secretly controlling empires. It's a
11:59
kind of discipline that requires incredible self-control, and it's one of the reasons the mafia survived for so
12:05
long. The seventh rule on our list is called the law of the made man's immunity, and it's one of the most
12:12
dangerous rules in the entire mafia code. Here's how it works. Once a man is officially made, inducted into the
12:18
family as a full member, he can only be killed with explicit permission from the boss. An associate, someone who works
12:25
with a family but isn't a maid member, can be killed by any maid man for almost
12:30
any reason. But a maidman that requires authorization from the top. This sounds
12:36
like protection, and in theory, it is. It means you can't be murdered by a jealous rival or killed over a personal
12:43
dispute without due process within the organization. But in practice, it creates a terrifying power dynamic
12:49
because while you can't be killed without permission, that permission is often granted quite as the process
12:55
usually works like this. If a maid man is suspected of being an informant, stealing, or violating any serious rule,
13:02
his captain goes to the boss with the accusation. The boss might conduct a brief investigation or he might just
13:09
approve the hit immediately. There's no defense attorney, no formal trial, no appeal. Once the boss gives the order,
13:16
it's done. And here's the truly brutal part. The hit is often carried out by
13:21
the victim's closest friends. The rule creates a system where your best friend might be assigned to kill you and he has
13:28
to do it or he'll be killed for disobedience. E
13:33
surveillance has captured heartbreaking conversations where mobsters discussed being ordered to murder their longtime
13:40
friends. They expressed sadness, even reluctance, but never refusal because
13:46
refusing a hit order is itself a death sentence. The most famous example of
13:51
this rule in action is the murder of Dominic Sunny Black. Napoleano in Mil Noentos Oentayuno. Napoleano had
13:59
unknowingly allowed FBI agent Joe Piston to infiltrate his crew for six years.
14:04
When Piston's true identity was revealed, Napolitano knew exactly what was coming. He didn't run. He didn't
14:12
resist. He went to a meeting knowing he'd be killed because Runnin would have endangered his family and violated the
14:19
code. He was shot and killed by men he'd known for decades. That's the rule.
14:25
Accept your execution with dignity or make it worse for everyone you love. The
14:30
immunity rule also creates a perverse incentive structure. Made men sometimes
14:36
become reckless because they believe their status protects them. They push boundaries, test limits, disrespect
14:43
people knowing that lower level associates can't touch them. But when they cross the line, the fall is
14:49
absolute. One day you're untouchable, the next you're being killed by your closest friends. Former mobsters
14:57
describe living in constant low-level fear, knowing that any mistake, any accusation could result in a sitdown
15:04
with the boss that ends with your death warrant. And because the accusations don't have to be proven beyond doubt,
15:10
sometimes innocent men are killed. Paranoia, rumors, and internal politics have resulted in made men being murdered
15:17
for crimes they didn't commit. But once the boss decides, there's no reversing
15:22
it. The rule creates a false sense of security that makes the inevitable betrayal even more devastating. Next up,
15:29
we have the rule of no substance weakness. The mafia has always had a complicated relationship with drugs.
15:36
Many families make enormous profits from drug trafficking, but when it comes to their own members using drugs,
15:42
especially hard drugs like heroin or cocaine, the rule is absolute and brutal. Made men cannot be addicts. This
15:52
isn't about morality. It's about reliability. An addict is compromised. He needs money
15:58
constantly, which makes him likely to steal from the family or make desperate, stupid decisions. He's emotionally
16:05
unstable, prone to paranoia and poor judgment. He can't be trusted with secrets because drugs lower in and most
16:13
importantly, an addict is vulnerable to law enforcement pressure. get arrested with drugs, facing serious time, and
16:21
suddenly that code of silence doesn't seem so sacred. A desperate addict will flip to avoid prison and feed his habit.
16:28
Different families enforce this rule differently. But the traditional approach is zero tolerance. If a made
16:35
man is discovered to have a serious drug problem, he's given one chance to get clean. If he fails or if he relapses,
16:43
he's killed, not demoted, not suspended, killed. Because in the mafia's logic, an
16:50
addicted made man with knowledge of family business is too dangerous to leave alive, even if he's kicked out of
16:56
the organization. The rule extends beyond hard drugs to any substance that
17:01
impairs judgment or creates dependency. Alcoholism is viewed with suspicion,
17:06
though it's more culturally tolerated in some Italian-American circles. Gambling
17:11
addiction, interestingly, is also dangerous. A made man with massive
17:16
gambling debts becomes a liability, potentially vulnerable to pressure from
17:21
whoever he owes money to. There are documented cases of mobsters being killed, specifically because their
17:27
addictions made them security risks. In the 1980s, the Banano family murdered several made men who had developed
17:33
cocaine habits during the drug trade boom. The men were generating huge profits selling cocaine, but they'd
17:39
started using their own product, and that was unforgivable. Former mobster Salvatore Sammy the Bulgraano discussed
17:46
this rule in his testimony. He described how the families viewed addiction as a weakness of character that disqualified
17:52
a man from the life. The mafia sees itself as an organization of disciplined, controlled men, and
17:59
addiction is the opposite of control. What makes this rule particularly dark is the hypocrisy. The families make
18:06
hundreds of millions of dollars flooding communities with addictive drugs, destroying countless lives, creating the
18:13
very addictions they prohibit among their own members. They'll sell heroin to teenagers without hesitation. But if
18:20
a made man uses that same heroin, he's executed. It's a twisted moral calculus
18:25
that reveals the mafia's true nature. Profits over people, always with brutal
18:31
internal discipline, maintaining the machine. The enforcement of this rule has led to some mobsters living double
18:37
lives, hiding addictions from their families in terror, knowing that discovery means death. Some have checked
18:43
into rehab under false names, desperately trying to get clean before anyone know. Others have been killed by
18:49
their own sons or brothers who discovered their addictions and reported them to the boss, choosing
18:55
organizational loyalty over family. That's the level of control the mafia demands. Surrender even your own body
19:02
and mind or die. The fifth rule is one that sounds almost medieval in its
19:07
cruelty. The blood tax. When a made man is killed, whether as punishment for
19:12
violating rules or as a casualty of mob warfare, his family, his crew, or
19:18
sometimes his closest associate must pay a literal financial penalty to the
19:23
family. This serves multiple purposes in the mafia's logic. First, it compensates
19:28
the organization for the loss of an earner. A made man generates money through his criminal activities, and
19:35
when he's killed, that revenue stream disappears. The family wants compensation for that lost income.
19:41
Second, it creates collective responsibility. If you know that your friend's mistakes will cost you money,
19:48
you're more likely to keep him in line to intervene before he does something that gets him killed. It turns every
19:53
mobster into his brother's keeper. Not out of love, but out of financial.
19:59
Third, and most cynically, it generates revenue from death itself. The mafia
20:04
monomis is everything, even the execution of its own members. The amount of the blood tax varies based on the
20:10
dead man's position and earning power. For a major earner or captain, the tax
20:15
could be tens of thousands of dollars or more. For a lower level soldier, it might be less, but it's still
20:21
significant. The payment is usually demanded within a specific time frame, and failure to pave has severe
20:27
consequences, potentially including death. In Somas, the dead man's family,
20:33
his actual blood relatives are expected to pay. A mobster's widow and children might find themselves suddenly owing the
20:40
family a fortune with no way to pay except by turning over their husband and father's hidden assets, selling their
20:46
home, or going into debt. This creates a horrifying situation where a woman who just lost her husband to mob violence is
20:54
then victimized again by being forced to pay for his death. Former FBI agents who
20:59
investigated mafia finances discovered evidence of these payments in wiretaps and financial records. They found cases
21:06
where Cruz pulled money to pay the blood tax for a murdered member, taking out loans or pulling from collective funds.
21:13
In one case, a mobster's widow was forced to turn over her husband's legitimate business to the family as
21:18
payment, leaving her with nothing. The rule also applies when a maid man is killed by a rival family. If a mobster
21:25
dies in a sanctioned hit approved by the commission, the ruling body of mafia families, his own family might still
21:31
demand a blood tax from his crew or associates. It's a way of recouping losses and maintaining the flow of money
21:37
even in wartime. What makes this rule particularly brutal is that it punishes people for circumstances often beyond
21:43
their control. If your friend violates a rule you didn't know about and gets killed, you still owe the tax. If your
21:51
captain is murdered by a rival you've never met, you might still have to pay. It creates a system where death
21:56
generates profit for the organization, turning tragedy into a business opportunity. Some mobsters have
22:02
described the blood tax as one of the most psychologically devastating rules because it prevents proper mourning.
22:09
When a fellow mobster dies, you can't simply grieve. You immediately have to
22:14
start calculating costs, gathering money, protecting yourself from financial ruin. It reduces human life to
22:21
a monetary value and makes every death a transaction. And because the rule isn't widely known outside the mafia, families
22:28
of deceased mobsters often don't understand why they're suddenly being ext. They think they're being targeted
22:33
unfairly, not realizing its standard procedure, a rule as old as the organization itself. Number four on our
22:40
list is the severed tongue protocol, and it's exactly as horrifying as it sounds.
22:46
This rule governs what happens when a mobster is suspected of talking to law enforcement, not as a full informant
22:52
with a cooperation deal, but just talking, answering questions, maybe
22:58
slipping up during an interrogation. The protocol is simple. If a made man is strongly suspected of having spoken to
23:04
the FBI or police, even if there's no proof he gave up actionable intelligence, he's killed and the method
23:10
of killing sends a message. His tongue is cut out either before or after death
23:16
and sometimes it's stuffed into his mouth or left with the body as a warning to others. The symbolism is brutal and
23:22
clear. This is what happens to people who talk. The rule exists in a gray area
23:27
of mafia justice. Full informants, rats who testify in court or wear wires are
23:33
obviously killed if the family can reach them. That's understood. But the severe tongue protocol applies to men who might
23:39
have just made a mistake. said too much under pressure, answered one question they shouldn't have. The mafia doesn't
23:46
require proof beyond reasonable doubt. Suspicion is enough. If your behavior
23:51
looks questionable, if you were arrested and released too quickly, if you're seen talking to someone who might be law
23:57
enforcement, if your name comes up in certain contexts, the family starts watching you. And once suspicion hardens
24:04
into belief, the protocol is activated. There are documented cases of this throughout mafia history. Bodies have
24:10
been found with their tongues cut out, sending an unmistakable message to anyone who understood mob symbolism. In
24:17
1976, the body of a suspected informant was found in a car trunk with his tongue and genitals severed, a double message
24:24
about talking and betrayal. Law enforcement uses these symbolic killings as evidence of mob activity because the
24:31
methodology is so specific. What makes this rule particularly cruel is that it creates an environment where even
24:38
innocent men can be killed. Paranoia runs deep in the mafia and sometimes mobsters are falsely accused of
24:44
cooperating. Maybe a rival wants them dead and spreads rumors. Maybe they were in the
24:50
wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe the FBI deliberately creates the appearance of cooperation to turn the family
24:57
against them. Once the suspicion takes hold, defending yourself is nearly impossible. Denying it makes you look
25:04
guilty. Protesting too much suggests you have something to hide. The decision is
25:10
often made in secret and the accused man doesn't know he's been sentenced until the moment of execution. Former mobster
25:16
Henry Hill, whose life was dramatized in Good Fellas, described the constant fear of being suspected of talking. Even
25:23
before he actually became an informant, he was terrified that someone would think he was cooperating and activate
25:29
the protocol. That fear eventually became part of why he did flip. A self-fulfilling prophecy. The severed
25:36
tongue protocol also serves as psychological warfare against law enforcement. FBI agents trying to flip
25:42
mobsters have to overcome not just the code of silence, but the visceral terror of this specific punishment. Agents have
25:50
reported that when they show mobsters evidence and offer deals, the men sometimes touch their own mouths
25:55
unconsciously, thinking about what'll happen if they talk. It's a form of control through fear that goes beyond
26:01
simple murder and enters the realm of symbolic terror. The rule remains in effect in traditional mafia families
26:08
today, though it's enforced less publicly due to increased law enforcement scrutiny. Modern mobsters
26:14
are more likely to simply disappear if they're suspected of talking. Their bodies never found, but the old-timers
26:21
remember the protocol and the fear it generated, and they use that fear to maintain discipline. Even now, the third
26:28
most brutal rule, and one that reveals the mafia's absolute control over its members, is the unmarked grave mandate.
26:36
When the family decides to kill one of its own, especially for a serious violation like informing, stealing or
26:42
unauthorized violence, the body is often disposed of in a way that prevents proper burial. No funeral, no
26:49
gravestone, no closure for the family. The body is buried in an unmarked
26:54
location, dissolved in acid, fed to pigs, dumped in the ocean, weighted down
26:59
with concrete, or otherwise completely erased. This serves multiple practical
27:05
purposes. Without a body, there's no murder investigation, or at least a much
27:10
weaker one. No forensic evidence, no autopsy, no witnesses to a crime scene.
27:16
But the real purpose is psychological and cultural in Italian-American culture
27:21
and particularly in the Catholic tradition. Many mobsters were raised in proper burial is sacred. The funeral
27:28
mass, the gathering of family, the marked grave where relatives can visit
27:33
and pray. These are essential rituals. Denying a man this final respect is a
27:39
profound insult. A statement that he's unworthy even of death's basic dignities. It's a form of damnation. The
27:47
mandate is also a punishment for the family left behind. A mother who will never know where her son is buried. A
27:53
wife who has no grave to visit. Children who have no place to mourn their father. The mafia uses this rule to inflict
28:00
suffering beyond the individual to make examples that reverberate through generations. If you betray the family,
28:07
not only will you die, but you'll be erased and everyone who loved you will
28:12
suffer forever. There are hundreds of cases of mobsters who simply vanished. Jimmy Hawa is the most famous example.
28:19
The Teamsters leader had deep mafia connections and when he disappeared in 1975, his body was never found. Decades
28:27
of investigation, excavation, and searching have turned up nothing. He
28:32
exists in a permanent state of missing, and his family has never had closure.
28:39
That's the mandate in action. Former informants who entered witness protection have revealed locations of
28:45
some unmarked graves leading to recoveries of remains decades after the murders. In Somass's families finally
28:51
got to bury their loved ones properly, even if those loved ones were criminals. The relief and grief those families
28:58
expressed shows how powerful this punishment is. The unmarked grave mandate also creates a lasting tool for
29:05
law enforcement leverage. FBI agents investigating cold cases will sometimes approach aging mobsters and offer them a
29:13
deal. Tell us where the bodies are buried. Give these families closure and
29:18
we'll consider leniency or reduced charges. Some old mobsters facing death
29:23
themselves and perhaps feeling some remnant of conscience have accepted these deals. They've led authorities to
29:29
burial sites in remote fields, beneath construction sites, in landfills. Each
29:35
recovery is a small victory against the mandate, a restored dignity for the deceased, but countless bodies remain
29:41
hidden, and the locations died with the men who buried them. The rule is still enforced today. Modern mafia killings
29:49
often result in bodies never being found. The organization has perfected disposal methods using industrial
29:56
equipment, remote locations, and sophisticated techniques to ensure the disappeared stay disappeared. It's a
30:03
rule that transcends death itself, extending the family's power even over a man's final rest, making the punishment
30:11
eternal. Coming in at number two, we have one of the most psychologically devastating rules in the entire mafia
30:17
code, the family first commandment. This rule states that loyalty to the mafia
30:22
family must supersede all other loyalties, including and especially loyalty to your actual blood family. If
30:30
ordered to kill your brother, your father, your son, you must do it.
30:35
Refusal is not an option. This sounds impossible, like something out of a
30:41
nightmare rather than reality. But it's real, and it's been enforced throughout mafia history with devastating
30:47
consistency. The logic behind the rule is absolute control. The bosses need to
30:53
know that when they give an order, it will be carried out without hesitation, regardless of personal feelings or
30:59
family ties. If made men could refuse orders based on family relationships, the entire command structure would
31:05
collapse. So, the rule makes the unthinkable mandatory. There are documented cases of this rule being
31:11
enforced in the most horrific ways. Sons have been ordered to kill their fathers.
31:16
Brothers have murdered brothers. In Sumicasis, the family deliberately tests
31:22
loyalty by giving these orders, not necessarily because the family member needs to die, but to prove the maidman's
31:28
absolute commitment. Refuse, and you prove you're not truly loyal. Comply,
31:35
and you've severed your last connection to anything outside the organization. You belong to them completely. One of
31:41
the most famous cases involved a mobster who was ordered to set up his own brother for execution. His brother, also
31:48
involved in organized crime, had violated a rule and the family decided
31:53
he had to die. The mobster was told to bring his brother to a specific location under false pretenses. A de his brother
32:02
was killed there, not knowing until the final moments that his own flesh and blood had betrayed him. The mobster who
32:08
lured him lived with that for the rest of his life. But in the mafia's eyes,
32:13
he'd proven his loyalty. The psychological damage this rule inflicts is almost incomprehensible. Mobsters
32:20
who've complied with these orders often show signs of deep trauma. Former FBI agents who've interviewed these men
32:26
describe them as hollow, disconnected, unable to form genuine emotional bonds because they've been forced to destroy
32:32
the most fundamental bonds humans have. Some turn to alcohol or drugs to numb the pain, which then violates other
32:39
rules, creating a spiral. The rule also weaponizes family relationships. If you
32:44
have a brother, a son, a close relative in the life, they become both a source of strength and a potential tool for
32:51
your destruction. The bosses can control you by threatening them or by ordering you to harm them. Every family
32:57
relationship becomes a liability. Another lever for the organization to pull, former mobster Michael Franace,
33:04
has spoken about how this rule made him reconsider everything about being in the mafia. He realized that the organization
33:11
he'd joined, thinking it was about family and loyalty, was actually the opposite. It destroyed families and
33:18
demanded loyalty only to itself, a parasitic entity that consumed every
33:23
genuine human connection. When Franzis eventually left the life, this rule was a major factor. He refused to let the
33:30
organization force him to harm his loved ones. But escaping wasn't simple. The
33:35
rule meant that other members, including people he considered friends, were obligated to kill him for leaving. He
33:42
survived through a combination of luck, high profile that made killing him risky, and changed circumstances in the
33:48
mafia, but countless others haven't been so fortunate. The family first commandment reveals the mafia's true
33:55
nature. It's not a family in any real sense. It's a cult, a totalitarian
34:00
organization that uses family terminology to mask complete control.
34:05
Real families love unconditionally. The mafia demands unconditional obedience
34:11
and calls it love. Real families protect their members. The mafia forces its
34:17
members to destroy each other. The terminology is camouflage for something much darker. And finally, the number one
34:23
most brutal secret rule of the mafia. More devastating than Omemer, more controlling than any other code. The
34:30
rule of perpetual obligation. This is the rule they never tell you about. When you're initiated, you take the oath, you
34:37
become a made man, and you think you understand the deal. But here's the truth. There is no retirement from the
34:44
mafia. There is no resigning, no quitting, no peaceful exit. Once you're
34:49
made, you're in until you die. And it gets worse. Even if you somehow manage
34:55
to leave, which is almost impossible. The organization can call you back at any time for any reason, and you must
35:03
comply. You could have been out of the life for 10 years, 20 years, living
35:08
quietly, causing no problems. Then one day, you get a message. The family needs
35:15
you for a job. You're expected to drop everything and comply. Refuse and you've
35:20
violated your oath. And the penalty for violating your oath is death. This rule
35:26
creates a prison without walls. You can't move to another country because the mafia has international reach. You
35:33
can't change your identity without entering witness protection, which requires becoming an informant, which
35:39
violates Omera and also results in death. If they find you, you're trapped
35:44
for life. Former mobsters described the crushing weight of this realization. Many didn't understand it when they were
35:51
young and first joined. They thought it was exciting, powerful, lucrative. Then
35:57
years later, when they wanted to leave, when they'd started families and wanted different lives, when they'd seen too
36:03
much violence and couldn't take it anymore, they discovered the truth. There's no escape. The perpetual
36:10
obligation extends even to prison. If you're serving a sentence, you're still expected to follow orders from the
36:16
family. You're expected to earn to maintain your connections to do what's asked of you. Prison is just another
36:23
location where you fulfill your obligations, and when you get out, you're expected to resume your position
36:29
immediately. The rule also means that the family owns your future. Any money you make, any business you start, any
36:37
success you achieve, the family can claim a piece of it. Even if you're technically out of active crime, you owe
36:43
a tribute, a percentage. You're a permanent resource to be exploited. What makes this rule the most brutal is that
36:50
it's invisible. It's not negotiated upfront. Most made men don't fully understand it until it's too late. The
36:56
initiation ceremony focuses on honor, brotherhood, the code of silence. They
37:02
don't clearly explain that you're signing away the rest of your life with no possibility of escape. It's a
37:08
contract with terms that aren't fully disclosed until you're already bound. The few who have escaped have done so
37:14
through extraordinary means. Entering witness protection, which means betraying everything, living in hiding
37:21
forever and hoping the family never finds you. faking your death convincingly, which is nearly
37:27
impossible, or in rare cases, getting permission from the bosses to retire,
37:32
which is granted so infrequently it's almost mythical. And even those who get permission are never truly free. They're
37:39
still expected to keep Omeita, to never cooperate with law enforcement, to return if called. Former FBI agents
37:46
estimate that hundreds of aging former mobsters are living in limbo. technically retired, but still bound by
37:52
their oaths, unable to fully exit the world they joined decades ago. Some are in their 70s and 80s. Still looking over
38:00
their shoulders, still refusing to cooperate with law enforcement despite having nothing to gain from continued
38:06
silence. Because the rule isn't just about obedience. It's about identity.
38:11
Once you're made, that becomes who you are permanently. The mafia doesn't just
38:17
recruit criminals. It creates them and then it owns them forever. So there you
38:23
have it. 10 rules that make Omera look like a guideline. These aren't the codes
38:28
of honor Hollywood shows you. These are the mechanisms of control, fear, and absolute power that have allowed the
38:35
mafia to survive for over a century. Rules that destroy families, eliminate
38:40
choice, and trap men in a life they often desperately want to escape. rules
38:45
enforce with brutal violence and psychological warfare. Rules that reveal the mafia's true nature. Not a
38:52
brotherhood, but a machine that consumes human beings and converts them into obedient assets. Every single one of
38:59
these rules still exists in traditional mafia families today. Some are enforced less publicly due to law enforcement
39:06
pressure, but they're still there, still binding, still terrifying to the men who live under them. And now you know. You
39:13
understand the codes that govern the underworld, the invisible laws that have resulted in thousands of deaths,
39:20
destroyed countless families, and maintained one of the most successful criminal organizations in human history.
39:26
Knowledge like this doesn't come easy. We've synthesized years of research,
39:31
hundreds of court documents, testimony from informants who risked everything to expose these secrets, and analysis from
39:38
law enforcement experts who've spent their careers fighting organized crime. If you want the full cinematic story of
39:45
the groups behind these secrets, check out our 100 episode master series on our main channel, Global Mafia Universe. The
39:53
link is in the description. Go deep. Understand the full history. The
39:59
families, the wars, the rise and fall of empires built on these brutal codes.
40:05
Because this is just the beginning. The mafia's secrets go far deeper than 10
40:11
rules. And we're going to show you all of