From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Five Families are the major crime families of the Italian-American Mafia based in New York City which have dominated traditional organized crime in New York. The Five Families, under the suggestion of Salvatore Maranzano, were responsible for the establishment of The Commission, a council which demarcated territory between the previously warring factions and governs Cosa Nostra activities in the United States.

The five families are:

• Bonanno
• Colombo
• Genovese
• Gambino
• Lucchese

Some of the families may be known by alternative names. For example, the Colombo family is sometimes called the Profaci family (after Joe Profaci, its long-time boss).

In the 1972 mafia-centered movie The Godfather, five crime families dominate the Cosa Nostra of New York, but the families have different names from their real life counterparts above. The most notable of the film version's families include the Corleones, the Tattaglias, and the Barzinis (the other two being the Cuneos and the Straccis).

In the HBO series The Sopranos, the DiMeo Crime Family of New Jersey have close business connections with the Lupertazzi Crime Family of Brooklyn, one of the five families in New York. Due to its large size, the Lupertazzi crime family likely represents either the Gambino or Genovese crime families.

The Canadian media have nicknamed Montreal's Italian mafia as "the Sixth Family". Historically tied to the NYC Bonanno family, it has been led by the Cotroni (brothers Vic and Frank, whose father Nick was from Calabria) and later by the Rizzutos (father and son Nick and Vito, whose origins go back to Sicily). Together with the Irish West End Gang, and the French-Canadian Hells Angels in East End Montreal, they form the Montreal Consortium, which controls drug traffic in Eastern Canada and from there into the United States.

• Five Families section of Gang Land website
• List of Hierarchies and Known Members of NYC Mafia Families