The Mafia's Golden Age: Who are the Five Families?
Learn more about the Five Families, who were at the heart of organised crime in New York during the Mafia’s Golden Age.
Image: John Gotti is one of the most famous bosses of the Gambino crime family | Public Domain
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If you want to learn about organised crime in New York, you need to know about the Five Families. These powerful Italian American organisations were at the heart of organised crime in the city for several decades, including the period known as the Mafia’s Golden Age. In this article, we look at how the families rose to power and how the authorities curbed their activities.
The origins of the Five Families
The Mafia in New York has its roots in the Sicilian Mafia (Cosa Nostra) and the wave of Italian migration to the US in the late 19th and early 20th century. However, the story of the Five Families really began in the early-1930s following the bloody culmination of the Castellammarese War.
The war ended when the head of the Castellammarese organised crime family, Salvatore Maranzano, ordered the assassination of Joe Masseria, the head of the rival Masseria family. Maranzano then reorganised the Mafia in the city, making himself ‘boss of all bosses’ over the original Five Families: Luciano, Gagliano, Mangano, Maranzano, and Profaci.
When Maranzano was killed in a hit ordered by his lieutenant Charles ‘Lucky’ Luciano, it led to the creation of the Commission, essentially a governing body for the Mafia.
The Five Families later became known as the Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese, and Lucchese. Each organisation had a boss, a hierarchy, and defined territories.
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Bonanno
The Bonanno family operates in areas of Manhattan, The Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and Long Island, as well as territories outside New York. Previously known as the Maranzano family, in 1976, it was infiltrated by Joseph Pistone, an FBI agent who worked under the alias ‘Donnie Brasco’.
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Colombo
The Colombo family operates mainly in areas of Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island. It was originally known as the Profaci family, which began as a bootlegging gang during Prohibition. The youngest of the families, it was reorganised as the Colombo family in the 1960s. It is considered by law enforcement to be the weakest of the Five Families.
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Gambino
The Gambino family operates in territories across Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, Staten Island, and Long Island. Originally known as the Mangano family, in the late 1950s, under Carlo Gambino, it became one of the most powerful crime organisations. Arguably its most famous boss over the years was John Gotti. Called the 'Teflon Don’ due to his knack for avoiding punishment for his crimes, Gotti was eventually jailed for life in 1992.
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Genovese
The Genovese family operates across parts of Manhattan, The Bronx, Brooklyn, and New Jersey, among other territories. It was originally headed by Lucky Luciano and known as the Luciano family. Vito Genovese became boss of the family in 1957. The organisation was particularly active in trafficking narcotics. The oldest and largest of the Five Families, according to the FBI, the Genovese family remains the country’s most powerful organised crime organisation.
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Lucchese
The Lucchese family mainly operates in parts of The Bronx, Manhattan, Brooklyn, and New Jersey. Anyone familiar with the film Goodfellas will recognise some of the real-life members of the Lucchese family. They included Henry Hill and James ‘Jimmy the Gent’ Burke, who organised the infamous $ 5 million Lufthansa Heist at New York’s JFK Airport.
The impact of the Five Families
The Five Families were most active in the 1940s and 1950s, but their dominance continued into the 1960s. They wielded power over politicians and labour unions, as well as various industries, including entertainment, construction and waste disposal.
Their criminal activities included loan-sharking, gambling, and prostitution. They also extorted ‘protection’ money from business owners and were active in drug dealing and other types of racketeering.
Attempts to shut down the Five Families
The main tool the authorities used to combat the Five Family’s activities was the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. It was enacted in 1970 to target organised crime.
RICO essentially allows law enforcement to link the various individual crimes carried out by Mafia organisations to a single criminal enterprise. It includes both criminal punishments and civil penalties.
One outcome of RICO was to turn lower-level Mafia members (a.k.a. ‘wiseguys’ or ‘goodfellas’) into informants. They provided evidence against the higher-ups in return for lesser sentences and witness protection.
Despite a concerted effort to shut down the Five Families, they are still very much active in New York City and elsewhere, with high-profile arrests made as recently as 2023. However, they are significantly less powerful than during their heyday in the Mafia’s Golden Age.
