Emilio Barzini (1887-1955) was the don of the Barzini crime family of the American Mafia. For years, he was the boss of the most powerful of New York City's "Five Families", but this ended with his assassination by the Corleone crime family during the Five Families War.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Emilio Barrese was born in Bari, Apulia, Italy in 1887, and he immigrated to the United States during the early 20th century. Barrese's name was changed to "Barzini" due to a clerical error at Ellis Island, and he henceforth became known as "Emilio Barzini". He would become involved with Giuseppe Mariposa's criminal organization, rising to the rank of caporegime by the early 1930s. However, Mariposa's murder of his friends on the suspicion of treachery and Mariposa's failure to murder family rival Vito Corleone led to Barzini betraying Mariposa and assisting Corleone in murdering Mariposa in 1934.
Don[]
Barzini in 1936
Barzini took over what remained of Mariposa's organization and renamed it to the "Barzini crime family", rebuilding the family into the second-most powerful Mafia family in the United States after the Corleone crime family. Barzini had interests in markets such as narcotics, gambling, and prostitution, and he had interests in Las Vegas and Cuba, Wall Street politics, and the Mafia in Sicily.
Barzini in 1955
The rest of the 1930s saw Barzini, Corleone, Carmine Cuneo, Victor Stracci, and Philip Tattaglia absorb or destroy the other major criminal outfits in New York City, reducing the several Italian mobs to the "Five Families". These families had strange relationships, with the Barzinis being known as good allies, but also as terrifying enemies. In 1936, Barzini assassinated Corleone soldier Johnny Trapani after bombing his bakery, retaliating against Trapani's sabotage of Barzini's businesses. Trapani left behind a son, Aldo, who would rise in the ranks of the Corleones during the 1940s.
Five Families War[]
Barzini was respected enough by Don Corleone to be invited to his daughter Connie's wedding to Carlo Rizzi in August 1945. Barzini had an interest in making drug trafficking a major business in New York City, and he introduced Virgil Sollozzo to Tattaglia crime family underboss Bruno Tattaglia. The Barzinis used the Tattaglias as a pawn to approach Vito Corleone, and the Tattaglias attempted to murder Don Corleone after he refused Sollozzo's offer of a business partnership; Corleone's son Sonny showed interest in the deal. After the Tattaglias again tried to murder Corleone in the hospital, the Tattaglias and Corleones went to war, and Sollozzo and police captain Mark McCluskey were both murdered by Vito's son Michael Corleone at the Louis Restaurant in Midtown. Barzini encouraged the other Five Families to go to war with the Corleones, sparking the Five Families War.
Aldo Trapani, the son of the late Johnny Trapani, played a key role in the street warfare between the Corleones and the Barzinis. Since August 1945, he had engaged in a series of business takeovers on behalf of the Corleones, and he muscled in on Barzini business from Brooklyn to New Jersey, leading to numerous mob wars. The Barzinis were weakened during the war, but the Corleones also suffered heavy losses. Barzini approached Carlo Rizzi, Sonny Corleone's brother-in-law, to lure Corleone into a trap. Rizzi beat his wife, Connie Corleone, and an enraged Sonny drove out of the Corleone Compound alone and towards a toll plaza. There, he was murdered by Barzini gunmen, and Vito Corleone agreed to make peace. At a meeting of The Commission at the Hotel Alioto in 1950, Barzini gave Philip Tattaglia permission to make peace with Corleone, and Corleone swore that he would do nothing to break the peace established that day. However, the Barzinis and Tattaglias began to chip away at the Corleone territories in New York, and Barzini also failed in an assassination attempt on Michael Corleone in Sicily.
Downfall[]
The scene of Barzini's death
Following the death of Vito Corleone on 29 July 1955, Michael Corleone became the new boss of the Corleone family. Corleone had allowed for Barzini to chip away at Corleone territories to lull him into a false state of security, and he plotted the downfall of the bosses of the other Five Families as he attended his nephew's baptism.
Corleone sent his hitman Al Neri, a former policeman, to don his old uniform and assassinate Barzini at the Foley Square courthouse. Neri gave Barzini's chauffeur a parking ticket, creating a distraction for Barzini. As Barzini walked down the steps of the courthouse, Neri shot the driver and Barzini's bodyguard, and he proceeded to shoot Barzini twice in the back as he tried to run up the steps, causing Barzini's body to tumble down several steps. Barzini's death led to Paul Fortunato taking over the family, and the war was brought to an end.