Chronicles of Events and Biographies Related to the American Mafia
If there was ever a living example of the resiliency and pervasiveness of organized crime in America, it had to have been John “Sonny” Franzese Sr. Franzese, who died in February of this year, lived to be over 100 years old. Throughout his entire adult life, he was involved in organized crime and other criminal…
On March 7, 2019, Carmine Persico died at the Duke Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. At the time of his death, Persico had spent over 30 years in prison for crimes committed as the head of the Colombo Crime Family. However, despite the fact that he’d been behind bars for decades, Persico had remained…
The youngest of the “Five Families” and the creation of Joseph Profaci in 1928 is the Colombo crime family. Profaci was one of the longest serving mafia bosses in history and ruled virtually unchallenged from 1928 until the late 1950’s. Beginning in 1959 the Colombo family started an internal strife that lasted through three wars…
Joseph “Crazy Joe” Gallo was born in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, New York on April 7, 1929 and is one of three sons to Prohibition bootlegger Umberto Gallo. His brother’s Larry and Albert “Kid Blast” Gallo were never deterred from entering a life of crime from their parents. Subsequently each of the brother’s…
Greg Scarpa, Sr., was born on May 8, 1928 near Venice, Italy and immigrated to the United States with his parents and brother Salvatore at a young age. The 1950’s were a busy time for Scarpa. He married Connie Forrest and had four children, maintained a relationship with girlfriend Linda Schiro having two more children,…
Giuseppe “Joe” Profaci was born on October 2, 1897 in Villabate a province Palermo, Sicily. His life as a child is mostly unknown but he is suspected of having been associated with the Sicilian mafia and spent one year in a Sicily prison on theft charges. On September 4, 1921 Profaci boarded ship bound for…
Giuseppe “Joe” Magliocco was born in Castellammare del Golfo in Sicily in 1898. Magliocco was related by marriage to consigliere and underboss Salvatore Mussachio, Buffalo crime family boss Stefano Magaddino, Bonanno crime family founder Joseph Bonanno, and his closest confidant, Profaci family founder, Joseph Profaci. When he arrived in the United States he quickly took…
William Cutolo was born Guglielmo, in Basilicata, Italy. His family was related to the Italian Camorra mob boss Raffaele Cutolo. His father was involved in loan sharking and illegal gambling that eventually earned him a prison sentence. As an adult living in the United States Cutolo aligned himself with the Colombo crime family based out…
Joe Colombo was born in Brooklyn on June 16, 1923. Much of his early life is unknown; he lived with his parents, and had no other siblings. His father was a member of the American mafia until his murder in 1938. In his younger years Colombo held several legitimate jobs. He spent time in the…
Frank “Frankie Shots” Abbatemarco had no idea when he left his favorite watering hole at 8 p.m. on Nov 4, 1959 that he was walking into an ambush. Frankie Shots was born in 1899 and grew up in Red Hook Brooklyn with the Gallo family. Not much is known about his early childhood, but by…
Benedetto “Benny” Aloi was born on October 6, 1935 and had one sibling, a brother named Vincenzo “Vinnie” Aloi. His father, Sebastian “Buster” Aloi was a soldier in the Profaci crime family and is responsible for bringing his sons into the La Cosa Nostra. Aloi spent much of his childhood like any other child hanging around his…