Here at any time would be found the movers and shakers of the Colombo Family. Carmine, when he was out of prison, his brother Ally Boy, Jerry Langella, Hugh MacIntosh, one of the family�s main enforcers, Carmine Franzese, the brother of Sonny, Greg Scarpa, Anthony, Vincent and Joe, Jr., the sons of Joseph Colombo, anybody who was part of the Persico faction or who had dealings with them.
One of the more remarkable personalities who emerged as a main player in the Colombo family was Michael Franzese, often referred to as the "Hamlet of Organized Crime." Born into the life (his father was John "Sonny" Franzese), Michael at the early age of 25 was inducted into the Colombos as a made man. By the time he was 32, he was capo or crew boss with his own team. His rapid rise to elevation was based on the huge amounts of money he was earning for the family through a gasoline tax extortion scheme he had created with a partner outside the mob. Called a "daisy chain," it involved a complicated series of intercompany transfers, ultimately avoiding the 27-cent excise tax due on each gallon of gas sold at retail in the Northeast. At its peak, it was claimed the scheme was generating at least $5 million each week, and it went on for three years. A straight 20% of this was paid in tribute to the Colombo family bosses. Michael was listed in Fortune Magazine�s "Top 50 Mafia Bosses" as one of the biggest earners in the mob. To draw comparisons, John Gotti, one day to be head of the powerful Gambino family, was estimated to make between $5 - $10 million dollars each year at his peak.
And then Michael fell in love with a beautiful Mexican-American girl called Camille Garcia and did the unthinkable: he walked away from the mob. He did not inform or disclose on his former partners. He simply gave it all up, became a Born Again Christian and, after serving some time in prison, moved to California, where he still lives.
While Michale Franzese was wheeling and dealing, another family member was doing his thing in the family. His name was Gregory Scarpa, a man so fearsome he was known within organized crime as "The Grim Reaper." A viscous killer, he once was involved in a shoot out on the streets of Brooklyn, losing an eye to a bullet. He drove himself home, drank a large whisky and then drove himself to a hospital for treatment. Unknown to his colleges, he was also an informer for the FBI, and would die of AIDS in 1994. A man so tough that on one occasion after he shot Dominick Somma who had belittled his son, he was so mad at his victim he said later, "I�d like to dig him up and shoot him again."
In 1964, three civil rights workers -- Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and black Mississipian James Chaney -- were kidnapped and murdered. After 40 days of fruitless investigation, the FBI called on the services of one of their top informers, Greg. Scarp. They flew him to eastern Mississippi and pointed him towards the most likely weak link in the local Klu Klux Klan. Scarpa apparently stuck a gun in the man�s mouth and the man, without too much preamble, gave up the location of the victims' graves. The murder of these men generated so much interest and controversy that it helped introduce new civil rights laws. It was also the subject of the movie Mississippi Burning.
Scarpa became a major player in the up coming Colombo war and was credited with personally killing at least four men in the savage struggle that would evolve out of the disputed ownership of the title Boss.
In 1930, Giuseppe Peraino, a soldier fighting under Marranzano, and known as "The Clutching Hand," was murdered during the Castellmarese War. Legend has it he was shot dead by Albert Anastasia. He left two young sons, Anthony and Joseph. They grew up into the Profaci family and were eventually to be known as "Big Tony" and "Joe the Whale" because they both weighed in at 300lbs. Their contribution to the Colombo coffers was the profits of their porn business. In fact, they were instrumental in the financing and distribution of the most successful and profitable underground movie ever, Deep Throat. At some stage, a dispute arose among Anthony, Joseph and Anthony�s son Louis " Butchie" Peraino regarding the distribution of profits. Anthony complained to the Colombo top brass that his own family was robbing him.
According to FBI reports, Carmine Persico approved a hit on the Joseph and his son Joe Jr. The Perainos were lured to a meeting in Gravesend, Brooklyn on the night of Jan 4, 1982. The father and son however, sensing a trap, fled from the meeting place on Village Road. It seems they were simply trying to escape their pursuers when they ran up the front stairs of a modest house at 431 Lake Street. As they reached the front door, both were cut down by multiple shotgun blasts. Joseph Sr. survived with wounds to his back and side, but his son Joe Jr. died immediately from wounds to his head. Unfortunately, stray buckshot entered the house and hit the wife of the owner, killing her on the spot. She was Veronica Zuraw, a 53-year-old social worker and former nun for the Brooklyn Catholic Diocese. Her husband Louis, an accountant, died four years later, apparently of a broken heart, having never got over his grief for his wife�s sudden and tragic death.
Throughout the 80�s, the Colombo family was under massive pressure as the FBI and city and state organized crime strike forces attacked them and the other four families on all fronts. In 1986, Anthony, Joseph and Vincent Colombo were convicted for racketeering, conspiracy and narcotic offences and went to prison for varying terms. Carmine and Alphonse Persico and Jerry Langella went down for labor and construction racketeering and extortion for terms of 39, 12, and 65 years respectively. In addition, Carmine and Langella were sentenced to 100 years for crimes under RICO in what became known as "The Commission Trial," effectively removing them from the streets of New York forever. But in removing "the Snake" from his fiefdom, the government was helping to set the stage for the third war in the family.