Died: 7th January, 1992

On this day in 1992 Nicholas Grancio, who was a Colombo soldier, was killed in a drive-by-shooting.

In the early 1990’s an internal war broke-out in the Colombo crime family when capo Vittorio Orena challenge imprisoned mob boss Carmine Persico for the leadership of the family. “Nicky Black” sided up to the faction led by Orena making him a prime target for the Persico loyalists.

Nicky pulled up at a set of red lights in his Toyota, at the same time Colombo hitmen pulled up by the side of him. Larry Mazza, one of the Colombo hitmen stuck his shotgun out the window and blew Nicky’s face onto the windshield from point blank range. In the car was also Greg Scarpa, but contrary to popular belief he wasn’t the assassin, Scarpa was fumbling around with his jammed gun while Mazza completed the job.

On the 7th January 1992, Nicholas "Nicky Black" Grancio, a soldier in the Colombo crime family, was gunned down in a brutal drive-by shooting that perfectly encapsulated the savagery of one of the most violent internal mob wars in American organised crime history.

Grancio met his end at a set of red lights when a car carrying Colombo hitmen pulled up alongside his Toyota. Larry Mazza, a ruthless killer who had carried out numerous murders on behalf of the family, thrust a shotgun out of the window and fired at point-blank range, killing Grancio instantly. Also present in the hitmen's vehicle was the notorious Greg Scarpa, a feared enforcer whose FBI informant status made him one of the most controversial figures in Colombo history. Contrary to popular belief, however, it was Mazza rather than Scarpa who delivered the fatal blast — Scarpa's weapon had jammed at the critical moment, leaving Mazza to complete the gruesome task.

The killing was a direct consequence of a bloody power struggle that had torn the Colombo family apart in the early 1990s. The conflict erupted when acting boss Vittorio "Vic" Orena made a bold move to wrest permanent control of the family away from its imprisoned godfather, Carmine Persico, who had been running the organisation from behind bars as was common practice among the Five Families of New York. Persico, whose grip on power dated back decades through a lineage of bosses that shaped the very structure of American organised crime following Lucky Luciano's reorganisation of the underworld in the 1930s, had no intention of surrendering his throne. The result was open warfare on the streets of New York, with both factions carrying out murders, ambushes, and reprisals in a conflict that claimed numerous lives and drew intense law enforcement scrutiny.

Grancio had firmly aligned himself with the Orena faction, a decision that painted a target squarely on his back. Persico loyalists, emboldened and well-organised, systematically hunted down Orena supporters throughout the conflict, and Nicky Black was simply the latest casualty in a war of attrition that would ultimately see the Persico faction emerge victorious.

The Colombo war remains one of the most destructive episodes in the modern history of the American Mafia, a stark reminder of what happens when loyalty fractures within a criminal organisation. Grancio's killing on that cold January morning stands as one of its most viscerally brutal moments.