1. Joe Profaci was the family's boss for over three decades.
36 Facts About Joe Profaci
1. 2.
Giuseppe Profaci was born in Villabate, in the Province of Palermo, Sicily, on October 2,1897.
3.
In 1920, Joe Profaci spent one year in prison in Palermo on theft charges.
4.
Two of Joe Profaci's daughters married the sons of Detroit Partnership mobsters William Tocco and Joseph Zerilli.
5.
Joe Profaci's brother was Salvatore Joe Profaci, who served as his consigliere for years, and is known to have been heavily into dealing of pornographic materials.
6.
One of Joe Profaci's brothers-in-law was Joseph Magliocco, who would eventually become Joe Profaci's underboss.
7.
Joe Profaci was a flamboyant man who smoked big cigars, drove big black Cadillacs, and did things like buy tickets to a Broadway play for us cousins.
8.
Joe Profaci settled in Chicago, where he opened a grocery store and bakery.
9.
However, the business was unsuccessful, and in 1925, Joe Profaci relocated to New York, where he entered the olive oil import business.
10.
On September 27,1927, Joe Profaci became a United States citizen.
11.
At some point after his move to Brooklyn, Joe Profaci became involved with local gangs.
12.
On December 5,1928, Joe Profaci attended a mob meeting in Cleveland, Ohio.
13.
The 1963 McClellan hearings introduced some erroneous facts about the origins of the Joe Profaci family, one being that it was an offshoot of Maranzano's crime family.
14.
Cleveland police eventually raided the meeting and expelled the mobsters from Cleveland, but Joe Profaci's business was accomplished.
15.
Some sources say that Joe Profaci remained neutral, while others say that Joe Profaci was firmly aligned with Castellammarese boss Salvatore Maranzano.
16.
Joe Profaci was allied with Stefano Magaddino, the boss of the Buffalo crime family.
17.
Joe Profaci obtained most of his wealth through traditional illegal enterprises such as protection rackets and extortion.
18.
However, to protect himself from federal tax evasion charges, Joe Profaci still maintained his original olive oil business, known as Mamma Mia Importing Company, leading to his nickname as "Olive Oil King".
19.
Joe Profaci owned 20 other businesses that employed hundreds of workers in New York.
20.
Joe Profaci owned a large house in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, a home in Miami Beach, Florida, and a 328-acre estate near Hightstown, New Jersey, which previously belonged to President Theodore Roosevelt.
21.
Joe Profaci's estate had its own airstrip and a chapel with an altar that replicated one in St Peter's Basilica in Rome.
22.
Joe Profaci was a devout Catholic who made generous cash donations to Catholic charities.
23.
Joe Profaci sent his men to recover the crowns and reportedly kill the thief.
24.
The taxes were still unpaid when Joe Profaci died nine years later.
25.
The government claimed that when Joe Profaci entered the United States in 1921, he lied to immigration officials about having no arrest record in Italy.
26.
In 1957, Joe Profaci attended the Apalachin Conference, a national mob meeting, at the farm of mobster Joseph Barbara in Apalachin, New York.
27.
Joe Profaci was one of over 60 mobsters arrested that day.
28.
One reason for their rancor was that Joe Profaci required each family member to pay him a $25 a month tithe, an old Sicilian gang custom.
29.
On February 27,1961, the Gallos, led by Joe Gallo, kidnapped four of Profaci's top men: underboss Magliocco, Frank Profaci, capo Salvatore Musacchia and soldier John Scimone.
30.
Joe Profaci himself eluded capture and flew to sanctuary in Florida.
31.
However, Joe Profaci had no intention of honoring this peace agreement.
32.
In early 1962, Carlo Gambino and Lucchese crime family boss Tommy Lucchese tried to convince Joe Profaci to resign to end the gang war.
33.
However, Joe Profaci strongly suspected that the two bosses were secretly supporting the Gallo brothers and wanted to take control of his family.
34.
Joe Profaci vehemently refused to resign; furthermore, he warned that any attempt to remove him would spark a wider gang war.
35.
On June 6,1962, Joe Profaci died in South Side Hospital in Bay Shore, New York of liver cancer.
36.
Joe Profaci is buried at Saint John Cemetery in the Middle Village section of Queens, in one of the largest mausoleums in the cemetery.