Once-strong Colombo crime family crumbles
June 10, 2008
Anthony M. DeStefano - NewsdayIssue date: 6/5/08 Section: Real News
Once powerful in the garment district and labor unions, the Colombo family appears to be scratching out a living with relatively small scale crimes like extortion. Last week's indictment accused some reputed Colombo crime family members and associates of a shakedown in 2003 involving a pizzeria in Albertson and a 1991 robbery of a fur store in Syosset.
To some extent, McDonald said the Colombo group suffered the same loss of clout with unions that other families did after the federal government got tough with labor racketeering. But he said it wasn't helped by the constant warfare since the 1960s when a mob war led to more than two years of killings.
Colombo assumed leadership of the old crime family of Joseph Profaci, who died in 1962, and stabilized the family until he was gravely wounded in 1971.
Persico, known as "The Snake," eventually took over the family but was convicted in 1986 in the famed federal Commission Case, when the bosses of five crime families were jailed. Law enforcement officials said Persico retained control of the family even though he was sent to prison for life.
However, in the early 1990s, a war broke out between his factions and those backing Vic Orena, who wanted to take over. The violence resulted in numerous murders and attempted murders in New York and Long Island. Among them, federal prosecutors said last week, were the slaying of Colombo soldier John Minerva and his friend Michael Imbergamo in North Massapequa in 1992.
The turmoil prompted the other New York families for a time to bar the Colombo group from admitting new members. According to Salvatore Vitale, a former Bonanno family underboss who turned cooperating witness, mob bosses considered abolishing the family and placing the names of its members in a hat for the remaining four families. That idea was ultimately rejected, said Vitale, according to government records.
To some extent, McDonald said the Colombo group suffered the same loss of clout with unions that other families did after the federal government got tough with labor racketeering. But he said it wasn't helped by the constant warfare since the 1960s when a mob war led to more than two years of killings.
Colombo assumed leadership of the old crime family of Joseph Profaci, who died in 1962, and stabilized the family until he was gravely wounded in 1971.
Persico, known as "The Snake," eventually took over the family but was convicted in 1986 in the famed federal Commission Case, when the bosses of five crime families were jailed. Law enforcement officials said Persico retained control of the family even though he was sent to prison for life.
However, in the early 1990s, a war broke out between his factions and those backing Vic Orena, who wanted to take over. The violence resulted in numerous murders and attempted murders in New York and Long Island. Among them, federal prosecutors said last week, were the slaying of Colombo soldier John Minerva and his friend Michael Imbergamo in North Massapequa in 1992.
The turmoil prompted the other New York families for a time to bar the Colombo group from admitting new members. According to Salvatore Vitale, a former Bonanno family underboss who turned cooperating witness, mob bosses considered abolishing the family and placing the names of its members in a hat for the remaining four families. That idea was ultimately rejected, said Vitale, according to government records.
Be the first to comment on this story