By Andy

THE Colombo Crime Family is the only New York City family to become known by a name other than the one given to law enforcement by Joe Valachi - the first soldier to publicly break the vow of omerta. For many years it was known as the Profaci Family in recognition of the more than thirty year reign of Joe Profaci, who took over the organization in the late twenties.

Most likely the family began around the turn of the century by preying on Italian immigrants in Brooklyn. Prohibition would have greatly increased the geographical scope of the group. An indication of this would be Profaci's presence at a 1928 meeting of Sicilian mobsters in Cleveland that was busted by the police. There are a number of erroneous stories that claimed the Profaci and Bonanno families were formed in 1931 as a result of splitting the Sal Maranzano forces into two pieces. It is clear that the two families began much earlier than that date and have always been separate entities.

Profaci (left) and underboss Joe Magliocco were the only leaders of the five families who survived the Castellammarese War of the early 1930's still in their positions. According to Joe Bonanno, this was because Profaci played no active part in the hostilities. Interestingly, Joe Valachi claimed just the opposite. He related an account in which Profaci was part of a stakeout for an ambush during the war. It is difficult to know which version is accurate, however, it should be noted that Valachi claimed Bonanno was his sponsor for induction into La Cosa Nostra. For the proud Bonanno, this association with the most infamous Mafia informer has always been a sore point. Discrediting his enemies, including Valachi, was one of the underlying themes of Bonanno's autobiography. In any case, both Valachi and Bonanno (below right) agreed that Profaci was a powerful boss.

There are also conflicting reports about Profaci's personal habits. Bonanno said Profaci didn^t care what he wore and would rather spend time with his family and his personal companies than take care of mob business. Profaci's niece, Rosalie, who was also Bonanno's daughter in law, had a different impression. She recalled a flamboyant man who smoked large cigars, drove big, black cadillacs, and bought rows of tickets to Broadway shows. In addition, Profaci had homes in New York and Florida and owned a 328 acre estate in New Jersey. Another mob informer, Joe Cantalupo, was involved in the sale of Profaci's New York residence and told of a table set that was made of hand-polished mahogany and 30 feet long. Cantalupo claims that the set was worth more than $50,000 in the early 1960's. What was clear was that Profaci was wealthy.

Profaci was one of the smarter LCN leaders in that he established thriving legitimate businesses which allowed him to live an opulent life style without fear of the IRS. At one time he was reputed to be the country's largest importer of olive oil and had a number of garment companies. Apparently, one reason for his purchase of the large New Jersey estate was so he could hide some of his soldiers from the World War II draft by claiming they were laborers in an essential farm business.

Profaci, as boss of one of the five families, was a charter member of the Commission. For thirty years he was allied with the dominant group of that body and was thus unchallenged by any dissidents within his family. Based mainly in Brooklyn, the Profaci soldiers ran the gamut of

rackets associated with organized crime. Loansharking, bookmaking, and labor racketeering were prime income producing activities and Profaci was listed as a major drug dealer by federal law enforcement officials.

By the early 1950's, the relative peace in the world of La Cosa Nostra was coming to an end. The Kefauver hearings that brought unwanted publicity were only a minor problem to Profaci. Not so the disappearance of his friend and ally, Vince Mangano, who was the long time boss of what we now know as the Gambino family. Mangano's underboss, Albert Anastasia, engineered this killing but Profaci's role, if any, is unclear. My own opinion is that Profaci was faced with a situation in which it appeared that Anastasia had gathered more strength than the fading Mangano and wisely remained neutral while Anastasia gunned his way to power with the backing of Frank Costello.

But a mere 6 years later it was Anastasia who was in trouble. An alliance of Vito Genovese, Tommy Lucchese and Anastasia's underboss, Carlo Gambino, had outflanked Anastasia. Once again Profaci was faced with a difficult decision. Most accounts of these events have Profaci taking an active part in the anti Anastasia conspiracy, with one of his crews said to have carried out the murder of Anastasia in a hotel barbershop in 1957. There is little evidence supporting that position, however.

In any event, with Anastasia (right) gone and Gambino in his place, Profaci was about to face the greatest crisis of his leadership. Gambino, Lucchese and the Genovese leaders began to secretly support a revolt within the Profaci Family by the Gallo brothers from the Red Hook section of Brooklyn. They were using the Gallos - Albert, Larry and Joe - to undermine Profaci and Bonanno. Ultimately, the latter two were weakened severely. Profaci died of cancer and his underboss Magliocco was unable to solidify his hold over the family after getting involved in a Bonanno plot to kill Gambino and his friends. The Gallos, their usefulness now gone, were quickly dropped as favorites.

When Magliocco died in 1963, Gambino supported capo Joe Colombo (left) as boss, expecting the young, inexperienced gangster to be his puppet. However, Colombo became enamored with being famous after starting a pro Italian civil rights organization which captured the imaginations of many. The unexpected success of these activities soon had Colombo speaking in public denying the existence of the mafia. On one memorable occasion, he appeared on the Dick Cavett television show to promote his cause. It was at this time that the media began referring to the Profaci Family as the Colombo Family.

All this publicity eventually unnerved the other bosses, especially Gambino, (right) and coincidentally the volatile Joey Gallo was released from a long prison sentence. Gallo, sensing that Colombo had fallen from favor, began stirring the pot. It was a situation ready to explode.

At that moment in 1971, Colombo was shot and severely wounded by a lone black gunman as he was about to preside at a large Italian American Civil Rights League rally. It was widely - and incorrectly - assumed that Gallo had hired the would-be assassin to take out Colombo. It was further assumed that Gallo had received the support of Gambino. Both of these assumptions were false. It is true that Gallo had been trying to kill Colombo, but that had nothing to do with the shooting that took place. In turn, while Gambino was not sorry to see the troublesome Colombo go, he was not part of the plot to kill him.

With the incapacitation of Colombo, a crew headed by capo Carmine (Junior) Persico ruled the family for the next 20 years. During much of this time Carmine was in jail but surrogates such as Tom Dibella, Gennaro (Jerry Lang) Langella and Andrew Russo, a cousin, carried on his policy. Like most of the other families, the Colombos had become very active in drug dealing along with their assorted other illegal activities. Associated with three of the other New York families, the Colombo leadership was also becoming rich with labor racketeering.

It all began to unravel with the full court press of the federal and state governments in the mid 1980s. Persico was handcuffed with numerous legal problems, convicted in two racketeering cases, and sentenced to 139 years in prison. In late 1991, when Persico's hand picked acting boss, Victor (Little Vic) Orena , decided he wanted to take over the family permanently, open warfare broke out between Persico loyalists, who backed Carmine's intention to have his son Alphonse take over the crime family. During a bloody two-years-long war, 12 persons, including two bystanders, were killed. A key player on the winning Persico side, was a  controversial capo Gregory Scarpa, a murderous capo who, while being loyal to Persico, had been a top echelon informer for the FBI for more than 30 years. Scarpa, who died from AIDS in 1994, contracted the HIV virus during a blood transfusion eight years earlier.

As the shooting war ended, it was clear that Persico (left) had won when his choice, Andy Russo, became acting boss, only to be jolted by federal convictions for labor racketeering and jury tampering and imprisoned. As the 20th Century wound down, Persico's son Alphonse was anointed acting boss but by time the new Millennium rolled around, Alphonse and his hand-picked acting underboss, John (Jackie) DeRoss were cooling their heels in federal prison for racketeering, with Alphonse not scheduled to be released until 2012. And then it got worse. Alphonse (right) and DeRoss, whose prison stretch was due to end in 2008, were charged with the 1999 murder of former underboss William (Wild Bill) Cutolo. Their first trial ended in a hung jury in 2006. Their retrial began in November 2007, with both facing life if convicted. Being boss of the Colombo family is not as appealing as it once was. Many of its members are jailed, the internal war created great and lasting mistrust, and the loss of significant income from major labor racketeering rackets has crippled the organization.