Breaking Down the 5 Mob Families in Netflix's Fear City

The Gambino family was founded in 1910 by Salvatore "Toto" D'Aquila. He oversaw a gang of transplanted Mafiosi from Sicily after their leaders were imprisoned for counterfeiting charges. One of the family's most notorious figure was mobster Albert Anastasia, who was nicknamed "Lord High Executioner." Anastasia's right-hand man was Carlo Gambino. After Anastasia was assassinated, Gambino became the boss of the family. The crime family exerted control over the construction industry as well as Teamsters and unions that managed building materials headed to New York.

Before dying, Gambino appointed his brother-in-law Paul Castellano as the new boss. In 1985, Castellano was infamously assassinated during the Mafia Commission Trial. Fast forward to 2019, reputed boss Francesco Cali was fatally shot outside his home on Staten Island. It is believed that Lorenzo Mannino has taken over his reins as acting boss. The family is likely still active — as of December 2019, several members were arrested on charges of federal racketeering conspiracy, loansharking, and bribery.

The Colombo family is considered the youngest of the five families. It supposedly has roots that go back to a bootlegging gang founded by Joseph Profaci in 1928. Joseph Colombo warned Carlo Gambino of an assassination attempt and was later rewarded as the boss of the family. Over the years, the Colombo family had become known as a vast and violent network controlling unions representing concrete, restaurant, and cement workers. Since the mid-'90s, intrafamily fighting and government crackdowns on illegal activities have weakened the Colombo. Boss Carmine Persico recently passed away in prison in 2019.

The namesake of this family was Tommy Lucchese, who immigrated to East Harlem from Italy in the 1910s and partnered up with organized crime groups in the area. He formed a gang with Charles "Lucky" Luciano and later went into the bootlegging business. He then allied with Tommaso Gagliano during a 1930 gang war, which resulted in the formation of the Mafia Commission overseen by the five families. Lucchese became a boss in 1951, controlling unions in the clothes manufacturing, food distribution, airport, construction, and newspaper industries. The family also influenced local Teamster unions in New York and New Jersey. In May 2017, 19 members were arrested for racketeering and murder.

The family has origins with the Morello gang in East Harlem, beginning with Giuseppe Morello coming to New York from Sicily in 1892. The family as it is now was founded by Lucky Luciano, then later renamed after Vito Genovese when he took over in 1957. While many mobsters have testified against their families (particularly in the '80s), the Genovese have only had eight members turn state's evidence in its history. Vincent "The Chin" Gigante was one of its most notorious bosses, feigning mental illness to get law enforcement off of his trail. As of late 2019, a family member was convicted of racketeering and extortion offenses.

The Bonanno crime family has origins in the town of Castellammare del Golfo in Sicily. When founder Salvatore Maranzano was killed in 1931, Joseph Bonanno received most of his operations. In a failed attempt to overthrow Mafia leaders, Bonanno later lost his power and retired to Tucson, AZ. The family regained status under Joseph Massino, but he later became a government informant. The family has a history of loansharking, gambling, and drug trafficking, though it was hit by convictions and defections in the early 2000s.