Few crews in the history of Cosa Nostra were ever as large or diversified in their activities as the “regime” headed by a tough Joseph Profaci Family member named John (Sonny) Franzese.
Operating from the Greenpoint and Williamsburg sections of North Brooklyn, by the mid-1950s, Sonny Franzese had become a powerful figure within New York’s underworld.
Within a few years after getting “made,” Franzese was elevated to a “capo di decina” status within the Profaci Family and quickly expanded his influence by adding more men as crew “associates” drawn primarily from the Brooklyn and Queens sections of the city.
He and his men then began aggressively taking over various street rackets as well as infiltrating legitimate businesses throughout the boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens.
