Colombo crime family

The Colombo crime family (/kəˈlɒmboʊ/; Italian: [koˈlombo]) is an Italian American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime in New York City within the criminal organization known as the American Mafia. The Colombo family is the youngest of the Five Families, and has a history of instability and infighting, having been fractured by three internal wars.

The Colombo family traces its roots to a bootlegging gang formed by Joe Profaci in 1928. It was during Lucky Luciano's organization of the Commission after the Castellammarese War, following the assassinations of "Joe the Boss" Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano in 1931, that the gang run by Profaci became recognized as the Profaci crime family. Profaci ruled his family without disruption until the late 1950s, when caporegime Joe Gallo attempted a revolt, but the conflict lost momentum when Gallo was sent to prison in 1961. Following Profaci's death in 1962, his brother-in-law, Joseph Magliocco, succeeded him as boss. Magliocco joined a plot by Bonanno family boss Joseph Bonanno to assassinate the three other bosses on the Commission to take control of the New York Mafia. The coup attempt failed, however, when Joseph Colombo, the hit man assigned by Magliocco to kill his rivals, reported the plot to the Commission. Magliocco was forced into exile, and Colombo was rewarded for his fealty to the Commission with the leadership of the family.

Colombo founded the Italian-American Civil Rights League (IACRL), using the organization to protest against federal law enforcement efforts targeting the Mafia, which he characterized as anti-Italianism. In 1971, Colombo was shot by a lone gunman during an IACRL rally at Columbus Circle, leaving him paralyzed until his eventual death in 1978. Colombo's shooting left a power vacuum in the family, leading to a second internal war erupting after Gallo was released from prison. Gallo was gunned down at Umberto's Clam House in 1972, and Colombo supporters led by Carmine Persico eventually won the second war after the exiling of the remaining Gallo crew to the Genovese family in 1975. The Colombo family was weakened, however, due to the poor leadership of a series of acting bosses, including Vincenzo Aloi and Thomas DiBella, until Persico took over the family after Colombo's death. Persico returned the family to prominence until he and other senior members of the organization were imprisoned in 1986 following a series of racketeering convictions, decimating the family's hierarchy.

Following the prosecutions which imprisoned the Colombo family's leadership, Persico named Victor Orena as the family's acting boss in 1989. In 1991, the third and bloodiest war erupted when Orena tried to seize power from the imprisoned Persico. The family split into two factions, resulting in two years of mayhem. The third war ended in 1993, with twelve members of the family dead and Orena imprisoned, leaving Persico the victor. Left with a family decimated by war, Persico continued to run the family until his death in prison in 2019, but the organization has never recovered. In the 2000s, the family was further weakened by multiple convictions in federal racketeering cases and numerous members deciding to turn state's evidence. As of 2011, many law enforcement agencies consider the Colombo family to be the weakest of the Five Families.