Tattaglia family

Tattaglia crime family

Founded by	Salvatore Maranzano
Founding location	New York City, New York
Years active	1920s-Present
Territory	Various neighborhoods in New York City, includeds Brooklyn and Manhattan; Long Island in New York; North Jersey in New Jersey and Miami in Florida
Ethnicity	"Made men" are Italians, Italian-Americans, the associates are of other ethnicities
Criminal activities	Racketeering, prostitution, counterfeiting, murder, narcotics trafficking, extortion, gambling, fraud, robbery, loan-sharking, corruption, bookmaking, bootlegging, money laundering, fencing and skimming
Allies	Barzini, Cuneo, Stracci, Corleone and Drago crime families
Rivals	Some street gang in New York City, and sometimes their allies

The Tattaglia family are fictional Mafia family in Mario Puzo's 1969 novel The Godfather and its 1972 film adaptation.^[1] In the universe of the series, they are one of New York City's Five Families.

Tattaglia family

The family, founded as Maranzano crime family, was founded by Salvatore Maranzano in 1920s. After his death in 1933, Philip Tattaglia took over the family, renaming it as Tattaglia crime family.

The Tattaglia family are known to be involved in prostitution run from the Tattaglia Hotel in Brooklyn. They are the first family to begin working with narcotics sometime in the 1930s. In the 1940s, the Tattaglias begin to gain power after being supported by drug kingpin Virgil Sollozzo, even managing to gain a vital toehold into Little Italy, Manhattan, crippling the Corleone family's empire. They are also behind the attempted assassination of Don Vito Corleone.

Their luck would not last for long, however; Bruno Tattaglia is killed by Corleone enforcers, and Sollozzo is murdered by Don Corleone's son Michael. Don Tattaglia declares a state of mob war against Don Corleone, having been secretly backed up by Emilio Barzini.

After being forced into a stalemate, Tattaglia and his allies set up Sonny Corleone for assassination, avenging Bruno's death. Vito, having recovered, calls a meeting of The Commission. At the meeting, Tattaglia demands assurances from Vito that as time goes on and the Corleones become more powerful, they will not attempt "an individual vendetta" against him for having had Sonny killed. Vito says that after the deaths of their respective sons, he and Tattaglia "are quits," or even, and rhetorically asks whether further acts of vengeance will bring either of their sons back to life. He swears that he will not fight Tattaglia as long as Michael remains safe and the two men ceremonially embrace and exchange kisses, to the applause of the other Mafia chieftans in the room, as Barzini looks on approvingly. However, despite his flowery words and their embrace, Corleone still secretly harbors contempt and animosity towards Tattaglia. On the car ride back from the meeting, Corleone tells his consigliere, Tom Hagen, that "Tattaglia is a pimp. There's no way that he could have out-fought Santino (Sonny)," revealing his sudden realization that Barzini, not Tattaglia, was the mastermind behind the other Families' war against the Corleones.

This peace arrives just in time, as the Tattaglia family have been crippled by the war. However, after Vito Corleone dies of a heart attack, Michael — the new Don of the Corleone family — sends Rocco Lampone to the Saint Sebastian Hotel, where he and another Corleone soldier surprise Don Tattaglia while he is in bed with one of his prostitutes and murder him in a hail of machine-gun fire, as part of Michael's sweeping and ultimately successful plan to kill the heads of all of the other New York Families as well as all of the Corleones' other enemies and traitors within their midst.

The new regime

The Godfather Part III explains that, by 1980, the Tattaglia Family had gone bankrupt and become property of consigliere Osvaldo Altobello, who became a strong ally to the Corleone Family.

In 1979, Altobello betrays Michael Corleone to Don Licio Lucchesi and the corrupt members of the Vatican Bank. As retribution, Michael's nephew and successor, Vincent Corleone, orders both Lucchesi and Altobello killed, thus leaving the fate of the Tattaglia Family unknown.

Historical Leadership

Bosses (official and acting)

• 1920s–1933 – Salvatore Maranzano (murdered)
• 1933–1955 – Philip Tattaglia (murdered)
  • Acting 1940–1945 – Bruno Tattaglia (murdered)
  • Acting 1945–1955 – John "Johnny" Tattaglia
• 1955–1962 – Riccardo "Rico" Tattaglia
  • Acting 1961–1962 – Osvaldo "Ozzie" Altobello
• 1962–1980 – Osvaldo "Ozzie" Altobello (murdered)
• 1980-unknown – ?

Underbosses (official and acting)

• 1920s–1933 – Philip Tattaglia (became boss)
• 1933-unknown – John "Johnny" Tattaglia

Consiglieres (official and acting)

• 1920s–1955 – Unnamed consigliere (seen in The Godfather)
• 1955–1962 – Osvaldo "Ozzie" Altobello (became boss)
• 1962-unknown – ?

Notable associates

• Virgil Sollozzo (drug trafficker)
• Mark McCluskey (police chief)
• Licio Lucchesi (Italian politician)
• Paulie Gatto (Corleone's made man)
• Mosca da Montelepre (Altobello's hitman)

Influences

The Tattaglia crime family is based on the Gambino and Bonanno crime families. Like the Bonannos, the Tattaglias were founded by Salvatore Maranzano, gambling's boss and rum-runner during the Prohibition, while the Gambinos were a powerful crime family, strongly involved in the narcotics trafficking and with a lot of connections in Sicily, with the politics of la Cosa Nostra.

References

1. "The Godfather". The New York Times.