I got a question for you guys. Why did the family be called Colombo and what was it named prior? I ask this because in 1962 Profaci the boss dies and Magliocco takes over and wants to side with Bonnano to kill Lucchese and Gambino. Colombo informs them of the plot and Magliocco is replaced by Colombo as new boss. Did he as a reward from the commission allow to name the family after himself?

It was named the profaci family before. And i think colombo renamed after himself but im not sure???

It was Profaci but after the first war (1960-1963)i think the Commission wanted a fresh start,so it was named Colombo

ive always wondered why the family didnt keep the profaci name as he was their most successful n legendary boss. i spose the publicity colombo created from those ralleys kinda set his name in stone though. also the comission doesnt name families in that way as far as i know its more of a natural process which the media plays a big part in.

Whenever the FBI made charts for the families they would name them after the current boss. So Colombo was probably the boss when they made the chart.

Magliocco was the boss when they made the charts in 1963. But his time at the top was so fleeting that the family became known by Colombo's name, who took over that same year.

I find the Colombo family fascinating due to the fact Colombo was in power for only 9 years when he got shot and out of commission. Yet the family kept his name all these years. You think it would have been referred by everyone including F.B.I. as the Persico family and not Colombo. Also Colombo had three sons and one went legit and the other two have never really risen to the top of the corporate ladder. Also, I might be wrong here but has there been any real books written about Joe Colombo?

This has been answered numerous of times before. Feel like I have to add however that NO sane boss would have named a Family after himself. That would have had been extremely stupid. I´ve addressed this before, the Mafia was NOT a street gang. It was meant to be a secret society, a honored society of friends, giving its members privileges and advantages in the day to day life by providing a network of connections. This comes clearly through when reading Gentile and Bonanno for example.

The names of the Families were given by the Feds during the Valachi´s Senate Hearings, not by the Mafia. And of course, the names were picked up by the media.

true l.e. and press

I'm currently reading "Five Families" by Selwyn Raab, this is what it says:

"The Gallo brothers' war against Joe Profaci in the early 1960s proved to be a stepping-stone for Colombo's advancement. He remained loyal to Profaci against the insurgent Gallos and, after the old boss's death, seemingly supported Joe Magliocco in his aborted quest for leadership of the borgata. Stellar service as a killer for the Profaci-Magliocco faction earned Colombo a promotion to run a crew as a capo. But in the power struggle between New York's family bosses, he switched sides. Rather than obeying Magliocco, he engineered a double-cross, warning Carlo Gambino of the assasination plot hatched by Joe Bonanno with Magliocco's assistance to murder Gambino and Tommy Lucchese. Gambino outmaneuvered Bonanno to triumph as the reigning personality on the Mob's commission. Impressed by Colombo's chicanery, Gambino, the aging leader of the largest New York family, adopted him as a protégé. Don Carlo's unqualified endorsment in 1964 eliminated any opposition to Colombo's ascending the throne as boss of the old Profaci gang. The borgata of two hundred soldiers and more than one thousand associates was swiftly renamed in Mob circles. It became the Colombo family."



Sounds like the Colombo name was given to the family by fellow mobsters rather than the FBI.

Well, once the damage was done, so to speak, the wiseguys started to refer to eachother by the names given by the Feds during the Valachi Hearings. And the same thing can actually be said about "Cosa Nostra". This wasn´t a cohesive name of the Mafia until Valachi gave testimony in 1963. Many have said, including Mafia members, that they have never heard about "Cosa Nostra" prior to Valachi started talking. The Mafia is a process, constantly in changing. From being a secret, honored society hundreds years ago it has developed into being a, basically, strictly money making machine today.