Word: profaci
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Joey took pleasure in breaking the arm of one of his clients who was sluggish about paying protection money. He punctured an enemy with ice picks. He had gained his status by serving as one member (Colombo was another) of a five-man execution squad of Mafia Boss Joe Profaci in the late '50s. Police claim they had scored 40 hits. By then he and his brothers had carved out a chunk of the Brooklyn rackets; they turned against Profaci, touching off a gang war in which nine mobsters died and three disappeared...
...roots in Sicily. There is no indication that Bill ever seriously thought of doing anything else but go into his father's business. Such an attitude was a sign of love and loyalty that undoubtedly pleased Joe Bonanno as much as his son's marriage to Rosalie Profaci, a daughter of the Brooklyn Mafia family whose patriarch, Joseph Profaci, provided Novelist Mario Puzo with a model for the "Godfather." Still, the strain of serving the old while being conditioned by the new showed in obvious and dramatic ways. Young Bill, reports Talese, had an ulcer...
Remaining loyal to Profaci but keeping as quiet as possible, Colombo escaped from the wars unscathed?but only just. On July 4, 1963, the Gallos planned to ambush him on his way home from the country club where he regularly played golf. Somehow, he got word and took another route...
According to police, the group performed efficiently, disposing of some 15 troublesome victims until in 1959 they were ordered to murder one of their own gang. They obeyed their instructions, but afterward they thought it over. If Profaci could eliminate one of them, what about the rest? The Gallos committed the unthinkable: they rebelled against their Mafia boss. Not only that, they kidnaped five Profaci henchmen, holding them captive until the boss agreed to give them a bigger piece of the action. The solemn agreement lasted until the hostages were released. Then a fierce three-year gang war broke...
...given command of the Profaci family. At 40 he was the youngest of the Mafia chieftains. Until then, his virtue had been his caution. Except for law-enforcement agencies, hardly anyone knew who he was. Though he had been arrested a dozen times on minor charges, he had been convicted only three times. He was fined twice for gambling, and he was jailed for 30 days in 1966 because he refused to tell a grand jury what he knew about mob infiltration of legitimate business. His bigger operations were largely untouched by the law or publicity: gambling in Brooklyn...