Joe Profaci, The Mafia Boss Whose Tyrannical Rule Kicked Off A War
Public DomainSome believe that Joe Profaci also helped inspire the character of Don Corleone.
A Mafia boss who oversaw one of the original Five Families, Joe Profaci is another gangster who some cite as inspiration for The Godfather‘s Don Corleone.
Born in Sicily in 1897, Profaci was allegedly involved with the Italian Mafia from a young age. In the 1920s, he made his way to New York City, where Profaci used his old ties to make new connections with the burgeoning New York mob. By the 1940s, he became head of the Profaci Family (later called the Colombo Family) which was one of the five original crime families.
The Mob Museum/FacebookFor three decades, Joe Profaci oversaw the Profaci Family, which eventually became the Colombo Family.
Profaci was especially known for his successful olive oil business, which he used as a legitimate front for his more illicit activities (similar to how Corleone operated in The Godfather). But Profaci wasn’t as adept at keeping the peace as Corleone. His insistence on collecting a monthly fee from his fellow gang members led to the bloody Profaci-Gallo war in 1960, with the rebel faction spearheaded by the infamous “Crazy Joe” Gallo. The war resulted in murders on both sides, and is similar to the conflict between the Rosato brothers and the character of Frank Pentangeli in The Godfather II.
Profaci died of natural causes in 1962 as the Profaci-Gallo war continued to rage. He thus didn’t live to see the Profaci Family become the Colombo Family when Joseph Colombo became boss in 1963.
And eight years after Profaci died, the power of the American Mafia began to do the same. The U.S. government passed the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act in 1970, which greatly expanded and intensified the ways in which prosecutors could convict mobsters, especially Mafia bosses.
Though the American Mafia continues to exist today, it’s nowhere near as powerful as in the days of mob bosses like Lucky Luciano, Carlo Gambino, and Vito Genovese, powerful kingpins whose names will remain infamous in the annals of crime lore.
After reading about some of America’s most notorious Mafia bosses, meet some of the most feared Mafia hitmen to ever live. Then, discover the story of Philadelphia mob boss Joey Merlino.
