Joe Profaci, an Italian-born New York City mafia boss and founder of what became the Colombo crime family, died of liver cancer on June 6, 1962, before a violent gang war he had ignited reached its conclusion. By the 1930s, Profaci controlled numbers, prostitution, loan sharking, and narcotics trafficking in Brooklyn. His wealth was estimated in the millions, and he was known for tight control over his family and for public generosity despite his criminal dealings. Born Giuseppe Profaci in Villabate, Sicily, on October 2, 1897, he engaged in petty crime as a child and became involved with the Sicilian Mafia as a teenager.
After spending a year in prison in Palermo in 1920, he emigrated to the United States and arrived in New York City on September 4, 1921. Profaci moved to Chicago and opened a grocery store and bakery, but the venture failed. He relocated to New York in 1925 and entered the olive oil import business, becoming a U. S.
citizen on September 27, 1927. Despite becoming the largest olive oil dealer in his city, he began seeking new opportunities, legal or otherwise, and formed his own gang in 1928. He attended a mob meeting at the Statler Hotel in Cleveland, Ohio, on December 5, 1928, where the agenda included resolving assassination-related conflicts and a vote on recognizing the Profaci crime family in Brooklyn. Although police raided the meeting, Profaci’s business was completed by 1930, leaving him in charge of Brooklyn’s numbers, prostitution, loan sharking, and narcotics trafficking.
During the Castellammarese War of 1930–1931, some sources say Profaci remained neutral while others claim he aligned with Salvatore Maranzano. When Charles “Lucky” Luciano reorganized New York gangs into five crime families, Profaci was recognized as boss of his own family, with his brother Salvatore as consigliere. Luciano also appointed him to the governing board of the national crime syndicate, the Commission. Profaci’s closest ally on the Commission was Joseph Bonanno, and he also had ties to Buffalo crime family boss Stefano Magaddino.
He amassed most of his fortune through protection rackets and extortion but maintained his olive oil business, Mamma Mia Importing Company, partly to shield himself from federal tax evasion charges. The nickname “The Olive Oil King” stuck, and his business thrived after World War II as demand for olive oil increased. Profaci presented himself as a devout Catholic and contributed generously to Catholic charities as a Knights of Columbus member. He would invite priests to his estate to celebrate Mass.
In 1949, the Vatican received a petition from a group of New York Catholics requesting that he be knighted, but the Brooklyn district attorney objected and the Vatican denied the request. In 1953, the U. S. Internal Revenue Service sued Profaci for over $1.
5 million in unpaid income taxes, which remained unpaid at his death nine years later. The U. S. Department of Justice also moved to revoke his citizenship in 1954, alleging he had lied to immigration officials in 1921 about having no arrest record in Italy.
A U. S. Court of Appeals overturned the deportation order in 1960. In 1956, law enforcement recorded a phone conversation between Profaci and Sicilian mafioso Antonio Catania about exporting Sicilian oranges to the United States.
In 1959, U. S. Customs agents intercepted a crate in New York that held 90 wax oranges filled with 110 pounds of pure heroin. Profaci was never prosecuted for the narcotics scheme.
Profaci attended the failed Appalachian conference, a national mob meeting, in 1957. New York state troopers surrounded and raided the farm, and Profaci was one of more than 60 mobsters apprehended. He and 21 others were convicted of conspiracy in 1960 and sentenced to five years in prison, but a U. S.
Court of Appeals overturned the verdicts that November. Many of Profaci’s men resented him for being miserly with money, despite his generosity to family and the church. He demanded each family member pay him a 25 percent tithe each month, an old Sicilian gang tradition intended to support imprisoned members’ families. It amounted to about $50,000 monthly, but Profaci kept the majority for himself.
He tolerated no opposition, and those who voiced displeasure were killed. On February 27, 1961, the Gallo gang, led by Joe Gallo, kidnapped four of Profaci’s top men. Profaci evaded capture and fled to Florida. Larry and Albert Gallo sent Joe Gallo to California while holding hostages to demand a more advantageous financial plan.
Joe Gallo intended to kill one hostage and demand $100,000, but his brother Larry intervened. After weeks of negotiations, Profaci’s consigliere, Charles LoCicero, reached a peaceful resolution and secured the hostages’ release. Profaci had no intention of abiding by the truce. On August 20, 1961, he ordered the killing of Larry Gallo and Joseph Giuli.
Giuli was allegedly invited to go fishing before being killed by gunmen. Carmine Persico and Salvatore D’Ambrosio tried to strangle Larry Gallo at the Sahara Club in East Flatbush, but a police officer intervened. By 1962, Profaci’s health was failing. Tommy Lucchese, head of the Lucchese crime family, and Carlo Gambino tried to persuade him to resign to end the gang war.
Profaci suspected they wanted to take over his family and were secretly working with the Gallo brothers. He adamantly refused and threatened to start a larger gang war if anyone attempted to force him out. Lucchese and Gambino backed down. Profaci died on June 6, 1962, at Southside Hospital in Bayshore, New York.
Joseph Magliocco succeeded him as head of the family, but in late 1963 the Commission forced Magliocco out and installed Joseph Colombo as boss. From that point, the Profaci crime family became the Colombo crime family.