Profaci crime family
 Joseph Profaci at a 1959 crime-commission hearing | |
| Origins | |
|---|---|
| Founding Location | Brooklyn, New York City |
| Territory | Brooklyn, especially Bensonhurst, Bay Ridge and Bath Beach Connections in New Jersey |
| Lineage | |
| Predecessor(s) | Palermitani network (hometown and kinship milieu) Transferred elements of Frankie Yale's organization |
| Successor(s) | Magliocco family Colombo crime family |
| Profile | |
| Structure | Sicilian-American Mafia borgata initially built as a fragile coalition with a large Villabate bloc |
| Activities | Mafia governance and territorial control Gambling and loansharking Extortion and protection Legitimate food-import and olive-oil businesses |
| Politics | |
| Leader | Joseph Profaci (c. 1928–1962) |
| Notable Members | Joseph Magliocco (underboss and successor) Salvatore Profaci John “Johnny Bath Beach” Oddo Joseph Colombo Lawrence Gallo Joseph Gallo |
| Activity | |
| Status | Continued through the Magliocco and Colombo leadership phases |
| Years Active | c. 1928–1962 (Profaci-led phase) |
The Profaci crime family was a Brooklyn Mafia borgata led by Joseph Profaci from approximately 1928 until his death in 1962. It was the newest of the five New York families recognized by the end of the Prohibition era and later became the Colombo crime family. David Critchley describes it as a newly formed family whose largest hometown bloc came from Villabate in Palermo province.[1]
The family was Palermitani in origin, but it was not a direct organizational split from Salvatore D'Aquila's family. It developed as a separate coalition drawing on Villabate kinship and Mafia connections, Profaci's authority and some personnel formerly associated with Frankie Yale.
Formation and Palermitani origins
[edit]Profaci was born in Villabate in 1897 and immigrated to the United States in 1921. A federal appellate decision records that he entered the country that year and became a naturalized citizen in September 1927.[2] He had lived in Brooklyn for only about three years when he became head of his own famiglia around 1928.[1]
Critchley interprets the December 1928 Cleveland Mafia meeting partly as recognition or consolidation of a newly formed fifth New York family. The largest hometown bloc in Profaci's organization came from Villabate, and Joseph Magliocco—Profaci's brother-in-law—served as his principal deputy or underboss in later accounts.[1][3]
These relationships justify describing a Villabate-centered Palermitani formation. They do not establish Mafia membership for every Villabate immigrant or every Profaci and Magliocco relative.
Relationship to D'Aquila and Yale
[edit]Profaci's family arose during the Brooklyn power changes that followed the killings of Frankie Yale and Salvatore D'Aquila in 1928. Profaci and Yale operated in overlapping Bensonhurst and Bay Ridge territory, and Critchley states that Yale's removal transferred some of his men to the Profaci family.[1]
That personnel transfer did not make Profaci the wholesale successor to Yale's organization. Nor did the Profaci family split directly from D'Aquila. The D'Aquila–Mineo organization continued along a separate Palermitani lineage toward Scalise and Mangano, while Profaci headed a new and initially fragile coalition.
Leadership and businesses
[edit]Profaci combined underworld authority with substantial legitimate interests in food importing, olive oil, real estate and other businesses. His public commercial position helped provide wealth and social influence, but legitimate employment or family connection is not itself evidence of Mafia membership.
The organization maintained gambling, loansharking, extortion and protection operations during Profaci's long leadership. Later law-enforcement and press accounts identified him as the head of a Brooklyn Mafia family, while Profaci generally avoided major criminal convictions in the United States.[4]
Profaci's 1959 portrait at a crime-commission hearing is a contextual record of official scrutiny. Appearance before a commission does not itself establish guilt for a particular offense.
Internal conflict and succession
[edit]By the early 1960s, a rebel faction associated with the Gallo brothers challenged Profaci's leadership. The conflict included kidnappings and killings and exposed that the family was a contested coalition rather than a perfectly centralized hierarchy.[4]
Profaci died of cancer on June 6, 1962. His brother-in-law and underboss Joseph Magliocco succeeded him, but Magliocco's leadership was brief. After Magliocco became involved in Joseph Bonanno's plan against rival Commission leaders, he was removed and Joseph Colombo was elevated. The surviving borgata thereafter became conventionally known as the Colombo crime family.[5]
The Profaci, Magliocco and Colombo labels therefore represent leadership and coalition phases of one continuing organization—not three unrelated families founded in sequence.
References
[edit]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 David Critchley, The Origin of Organized Crime in America: The New York City Mafia, 1891–1931 (New York: Routledge, 2009), pp. 160–163.
- ↑ United States v. Profaci, 274 F.2d 289 (2d Cir. 1960).
- ↑ Justin Cascio, “The Social Networks of Joseph Profaci”, Mafia Genealogy, February 1, 2023, based on civil, immigration and family records.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 “Profaci Dies of Cancer; Led Feuding Brooklyn Mob”, The New York Times, June 8, 1962.
- ↑ “Magliocco, Cosa Nostra Chief, Buried Quietly on Long Island”, The New York Times, January 1, 1964.