Colombo crime family
The Colombo crime family is an Italian American crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime in New York City within the criminal organization known as the American Mafia. The Colombo family is the youngest of the Five Families, and has a history of instability and infighting, having been fractured by three internal wars.
The Colombo family traces its roots to a bootlegging gang formed by Joe Profaci in 1928. It was during Lucky Luciano's organization of the Commission after the Castellammarese War, following the assassinations of "Joe the Boss" Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano in 1931, that the gang run by Profaci became recognized as the Profaci crime family. Profaci ruled his family without disruption until the late 1950s, when caporegime Joe Gallo attempted a revolt, but the conflict lost momentum when Gallo was sent to prison in 1961. Following Profaci's death in 1962, his brother-in-law, Joseph Magliocco, succeeded him as boss. Magliocco joined a plot by Bonanno family boss Joseph Bonanno to assassinate the three other bosses on the Commission to take control of the New York Mafia. The coup attempt failed, however, when Joseph Colombo, the hit man assigned by Magliocco to kill his rivals, reported the plot to the Commission. Magliocco was forced into exile, and Colombo was rewarded for his fealty to the Commission with the leadership of the family.
Colombo founded the Italian-American Civil Rights League, using the organization to protest against federal law enforcement efforts targeting the Mafia, which he characterized as anti-Italianism. In 1971, Colombo was shot by a lone gunman during an IACRL rally at Columbus Circle, leaving him paralyzed until his eventual death in 1978. Colombo's shooting left a power vacuum in the family, leading to a second internal war erupting after Gallo was released from prison. Gallo was gunned down at Umberto's Clam House in 1972, and Colombo supporters led by Carmine Persico eventually won the second war after the exiling of the remaining Gallo crew to the Genovese family in 1975. The Colombo family was weakened, however, due to the poor leadership of a series of acting bosses, including Vincenzo Aloi and Thomas DiBella, until Persico took over the family after Colombo's death. Persico returned the family to prominence until he and other senior members of the organization were imprisoned in 1986 following a series of racketeering convictions, decimating the family's hierarchy.
Following the prosecutions which imprisoned the Colombo family's leadership, Persico named Victor Orena as the family's acting boss in 1989. In 1991, the third and bloodiest war erupted when Orena tried to seize power from the imprisoned Persico. The family split into two factions, resulting in two years of mayhem. The third war ended in 1993, with twelve members of the family dead and Orena imprisoned, leaving Persico the victor. Left with a family decimated by war, Persico continued to run the family until his death in prison in 2019, but the organization has never recovered. In the 2000s, the family was further weakened by multiple convictions in federal racketeering cases and numerous members deciding to turn state's evidence. As of 2011, many law enforcement agencies consider the Colombo family to be the weakest of the Five Families.
History
Origins
In September 1921, Joseph Profaci arrived in New York City from Villabate, Sicily, Italy. After struggles with entering the legitimate business community in Chicago, Profaci moved back to Brooklyn in 1925 and became a well-known olive oil importer. On September 27, Profaci obtained his American citizenship. With his importing business doing well, Profaci made deals with friends from his hometown in Sicily, and one of his largest buyers was Tampa mobster Ignazio Italiano.Profaci controlled a small criminal gang that operated mainly in Brooklyn. The dominant Cosa Nostra groups in that area were led by Frankie Yale, Joe Masseria, Nicolo Schirò and capo di tutti capi Salvatore "Toto" D'Aquila.
On July 1, 1928, Yale was murdered by hit men working for Chicago Outfit boss Al Capone. Yale had been murdered in retaliation for refusing to give Capone, a Neapolitan, control over the Unione Siciliana fraternal association. The killing allowed Profaci and his brother-in-law, Joseph Magliocco, to gain territory for their small gang, including territory in Bensonhurst, Bay Ridge, Red Hook and Carroll Gardens, while the rest of Yale's group went to the Masseria family.
On October 10, 1928, D'Aquila was assassinated, resulting in a fight for his territory. To prevent a gang war in Brooklyn, a meeting was called on December 5 at the Statler Hotel in Cleveland, Ohio, which was considered neutral territory under the protection and control of the Porrello crime family. Attendees representing Brooklyn included Profaci, Magliocco, Vincent Mangano, Joseph Bonanno, Ignazio Italiano and Chicago mobsters Joseph Guinta and Pasquale Lolordo. At the end of the meeting, Profaci received a share of D'Aquila's Brooklyn territory, with Magliocco as his second-in-command.
The Castellammarese War
Months after the D'Aquila murder, Masseria began a campaign to become capo di tutti capi in the United States, demanding tribute from the remaining three Mafia groups in New York, including the Profaci family, the Castellammarese clan and the Reina family. Castellammarese boss Maranzano began his own campaign to become "boss of bosses", which started the Castellammarese War.Masseria, along with his ally Manfredi Mineo, the new boss of the D'Aquila family, ordered the murder of Gaetano Reina, whom he believed to have sided with Maranzano. Following Reina's murder on February 26, 1930, Masseria appointed Joseph Pinzolo as the new boss of the Reina family. Profaci maintained a neutral stance, secretly supporting Maranzano. The war ended when Charles "Lucky" Luciano, a Masseria lieutenant, betrayed him to Maranzano by setting up Masseria's murder on April 15, 1931. Maranzano then declared himself the new capo di tutti capi in the United States.
Within a few months, Maranzano and Luciano were plotting to kill each other. On September 10, 1931, Luciano had Maranzano killed. Rather than claim the title of capo di tutti capi for himself, Luciano retired the title and instead created the the Commission, the American Mafia's governing body. This established five independent Cosa Nostra families in New York City and twenty-one additional families across the U.S., all of whom fell under the Commission's authority. Profaci and Magliocco were confirmed as boss and underboss, respectively, of what was now known as the Profaci crime family.
First Family War (1960–1963)
Profaci had become a wealthy Mafia boss and was known as "the olive-oil and tomato paste king of America". One of his most unpopular demands was a $25 monthly tribute from every soldier in his family. In the late 1950s, Frank "Frankie Shots" Abbatemarco, a caporegime under Profaci, became a chafed at the boss' tribute. Abbatemarco controlled a lucrative policy game that earned him nearly $2.5 million a year with an average of $7,000 a day in Red Hook. In early 1959, Abbatemarco, with the support of the Gallo brothers and Carmine Persico's Garfield Boys, began refusing to pay the tribute.By late 1959, Abbatemarco's debt had grown to $50,000. Profaci allegedly ordered Joe Gallo to murder Abbatemarco in exchange for control over Abbatemarco's policy game. However, other versions of the story indicate that Gallo played no part in Abbatemarco's murder.
On November 4, 1959, as Abbatemarco walked out of his cousin's bar in Park Slope, he was shot and killed by Joseph Gioielli and another hit man. Profaci then ordered the Gallo brothers to hand over Abbatemarco's son Anthony. When the Gallos refused, Profaci refused to give them the policy game. This marked the start of the first war within the family, putting the Gallo brothers and the Garfield Boys against Profaci and his loyalists.
On February 27, 1961, the Gallos kidnapped four of Profaci's top men: underboss Magliocco, Profaci's brother Frank, capo Salvatore Musacchia and soldier John Scimone. Profaci himself eluded capture and flew to sanctuary in Florida. While holding the hostages, Larry and Albert Gallo sent their brother Joe to California. Profaci's consigliere, Charles "the Sidge" LoCicero, negotiated with the Gallos and all the hostages were released peacefully.
Profaci, however, had no intention of honoring this peace agreement. On August 20, 1961, he ordered the murders of Larry Gallo and Gallo loyalist Gioielli. Gunmen allegedly murdered Gioielli after inviting him to go deep sea fishing. Larry Gallo survived a strangulation attempt by Persico and Salvatore "Sally" D'Ambrosio at the Sahara Club in East Flatbush after a passing police officer intervened. Persico's betrayal of the Gallos earned him the nickname "The Snake". The war continued, resulting in nine murders and three disappearances.
In late November 1961, Joe Gallo was sentenced to seven to fourteen years in prison for murder. The next June, Profaci died of cancer, leaving longtime underboss Magliocco as the new boss. The war continued on between the two factions. In 1963, Persico survived a car bombing and his enforcer Hugh McIntosh was shot in the groin as he attempted to kill Larry Gallo. On May 19, 1963, a Gallo hit team shot Persico multiple times, but he survived.
In 1963, Joseph Bonanno, the head of the Bonanno crime family, made plans to assassinate several rivals on the Mafia Commission—bosses Tommy Lucchese, Carlo Gambino and Stefano Magaddino, as well as Frank DeSimone. Bonanno sought Magliocco's support, and Magliocco readily agreed. Not only was he bitter due to being denied a seat on the Commission, but Bonanno and Profaci had been close allies for over thirty years prior to Profaci's death.
Bonanno's audacious goal was to take over the Commission and make Magliocco his right-hand man. Magliocco, assigned the task of killing Lucchese and Gambino, gave the contract to one of his top hit men, Joseph Colombo. However, the opportunistic Colombo revealed the plot to its targets. Realizing that Magliocco could not have planned the hits himself, and knowing of the close ties between Bonanno and Magliocco, the other bosses concluded Bonanno was the real mastermind.
The Commission summoned Bonanno and Magliocco to explain themselves. Fearing for his life, Bonanno went into hiding in Montreal, leaving Magliocco to deal with the fallout. Badly shaken and in failing health, Magliocco confessed his role in the plot. The Commission spared Magliocco's life but forced him to relinquish leadership of the Profaci family and pay a $50,000 fine. As a reward for his fealty to the Commission, Colombo was awarded control of the family.