Also Known As: Giuseppe Profaci
Born: Saturday October 2nd 1897
Died: Thursday June 7th 1962
Age: 64
Cause of Death: Liver Cancer
Crime Family Association: Profaci Crime Family
About Joe Profaci
Giuseppe “Joe” Profaci was a New York La Cosa Nostra boss who was the founder of what is today known as the Colombo crime family. Established in 1928, this was the last of the Five Families to be organized. He was the family’s boss for over three decades.
Joseph Profaci was born in Villabatein the province of Palermo, Sicily . In 1920, Profaci spent one year in prison in Palermo on theft charges.
Rise to Family Boss
On December 5, 1928, Profaci attended a mob meeting in Cleveland, Ohio that would make him an organized crime boss in Brooklyn. In October 1928, Brooklyn boss Salvatore D’Aquila had been murdered during the Castellammarese War then raging among the New York gangs. An important part of the Cleveland meeting, attended by mobsters from Tampa, Florida, Chicago, and Brooklyn, was to appoint Profaci as Aquila’s replacement so as to maintain calm among the Brooklyn gangs.
Given Profaci’s lack of experience in organized crime, it is unclear why the New York gangs gave him power in Brooklyn. Some speculated that Profaci received this position due to his family’s status in Sicily, where they may have belonged the Villabate Mafia. Profaci also may have also benefited from contacts made through his olive oil business. Cleveland police eventually raided the meeting and expelled the mobsters from Cleveland, but Profaci’s business was accomplished.
By 1930, Profaci was controlling numbers, prostitution, loansharking, and narcotics trafficking in Brooklyn. In 1929, the Castellammarese War broke out in New York City. Some sources say that Profaci remained neutral, while others say that Profaci was firmly aligned with Castellammarese boss Salvatore Maranzano. When the war finally ended in 1931, top mobster Charles “Lucky” Luciano reorganized the New York gangs into five organized crime families. At this point, the Profaci crime family was born, with Profaci as boss, Magliocco as underboss, and Salvatore Profaci as consigliere.
When Luciano created the National Crime Syndicate, also known as the Mafia Commission, he gave Profaci a seat on the governing board. Profaci’s closest ally on the board was Bonanno, who would cooperate with Profaci over the next 30 years. Profaci was also allied with Stefano Magaddino, the boss of the Buffalo crime family.
Legal Problems
In 1953, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service sued Profaci for over $1.5 million in unpaid income taxes. The taxes were still unpaid when Profaci died nine years later.
In 1954, the US Department of Justice moved to revoke Profaci’s citizenship. The government claimed that when Profaci entered the United States in 1921, he lied to immigration officials about having no arrest record in Italy. In 1960, a U.S. Court of Appeals reversed Profaci’s deportation order, ending the legal action.
In 1956, law enforcement recorded a phone conversation between Profaci and Antonio Cottone, a Sicilian mafioso, about exporting Sicilian oranges to the United States. In 1959,US Customs agents intercepted one of those orange crates in New York. The crate contained 90 wax oranges containing a total 110 pounds (50 kg) of pure heroin. Smugglers in Sicily had filled the hollow oranges with heroin until they weighed as much as real oranges, then packed them in the crate. Profaci was never prosecuted for this crime.
In 1957, Profaci attended the Apalachin Conference, a national mob meeting, at the farm of mobster Joseph Barbara in Apalachin, New York. While the conference was in progress, New York State Troopers surrounded the farm and raided it. Profaci was one of 61 mobsters arrested that day. On January 13, 1960, Profaci and 21 others were convicted of conspiracy and he was sentenced to five years in prison. However, on November 28, 1960, a United States Court of Appeals overturned the verdicts.
First Colombo War
In contrast to Profaci’s generosity to his relatives and the church, many of his soldati considered him miserly and mean-spirited. One reason for their rancor was that Profaci required each family member to pay him a $25 a month tithe, an old Sicilian gang custom. The money, which amounted to approximately $50,000 a month, was meant to support the families of mobsters in prison. However, most of this money stayed with Profaci. In addition, Profaci did not tolerate any dissent from his policies. People who expressed discontent were murdered.
At the end of the 1950s, Profaci received the first challenge to his authority from capo Joe Gallo and his brothers Larry and Albert, perhaps with encouragement from the Gambino crime family boss Carlo Gambino, Profaci’s main rival on the Mafia Commission. In 1959, Profaci bookmaker Frank Abbatemarco stopped paying tribute to Profaci and owed him $50,000. Profaci allegedly promised Joseph Gallo, who worked with Abbatemarco, his lucrative rackets if Gallo killed him. After the murder Profaci split the bookmaking business, but left nothing for Gallo and his crew.
Infuriated by Profaci’s duplicity, the Gallos struck back. In February 1961, the Gallos and their ally Carmine Persico kidnapped Magliocco, Frank Persico, and capo Joseph Colombo. Profaci himself barely escaped capture, being forced to flee his New York mansion in his pajamas. Profaci then flew to Florida and took refuge in a hospital there. For the next few weeks, the two sides negotiated a hostage release. In return for financial concessions from Profaci, the Gallos finally released the four hostages. However, while negotiating with the Gallos, Profaci made a secret deal with Persico to switch sides. In August 1961, Persico lured Larry Gallo to a bar in Brooklyn, where he and his men attempted to strangle him to death. However, Gallo avoided death when a passing policeman interrupted the assassination. The war with the Gallo brothers would continue.
Mob Standoff
By 1962, Profaci’s health was failing. In early 1962, Carlo Gambino and Lucchese crime family boss Tommy Lucchese tried to convince Profaci to resign to end the gang war. However, Profaci strongly suspected that the two bosses were secretly supporting the Gallo brothers and wanted to take control of his family. Profaci vehemently refused to resign; furthermore, he warned that any attempt to remove him would spark a wider gang war. Gambino and Lucchese did not pursue their efforts.
Death
On June 6, 1962, Profaci died in South Side Hospital in Bay Shore, New York of liver cancer. He is buried at Saint John Cemetery in the Middle Village section of Queens.
After Profaci’s death, Magliocco succeeded him as head of the family. In late 1963, the Mafia Commission forced Magliocco out of office and installed Joseph Colombo as family boss. At this point, the Profaci crime family became the Colombo crime family.