The Five Families War (1946-1955) was a major conflict between New York's "Five Families" of the American Mafia. The war resulted in a decisive Corleone family victory, with the heads of the other families being eliminated, and the Corleones coming to dominate all of New York City's crime.
Background[]
In the winter of 1945, narcotics trafficker Virgil Sollozzo arrived in New York City, intending on spreading the narcotics trade to the United States. He had the backing of the Barzini, Tattaglia, Cuneo, and Stracci families of the American Mafia, but Corleone crime family boss Vito Corleone proved to be an obstacle to Sollozzo. Sollozzo needed the police and political connections that Don Corleone possessed, but Don Corleone refused his business offer due to the negative ramifications that engaging in the drug trade would have upon his allies in politics, who would soon disassociate themselves with him if he entered such a harmful industry. This led to Sollozzo and his Tattaglia backers twice attempting to assassinate Don Corleone, who was hospitalized after a shooting, but survived. Active control of the family passed to his eldest son, Sonny Corleone, and his youngest son, Michael Corleone, decided to end the threat to his father by killing Sollozzo and his police bodyguard, Captain Mark McCluskey. He murdered both of them at the Louis Restaurant in Midtown Manhattan, and he was forced to go into exile in Sicily to avoid the police crackdown. The NYPD searched for the "cop killer", and an emissary from the four other families demanded that the Corleones turn over the killer. However, the Corleones informed the other families that the issue did not concern them, and the Corleones went to war with the rival families.
War[]
The Corleones were outnumbered during the war, and the war was expensive for both sides. It involved several attacks on rackets and fronts owned by the families, as well as several attacks as a part of a war of attrition. The Five Families attempted to bomb the Corleone Compound, and two Corleone button men were gunned down at a restaurant in Greenwich Village. The Corleone gambling operations were also hurt by police raids, and their banks were also raided. Local African-American freelancers took over the Corleone operations in Harlem, and the Corleones' union connections were either murdered or defected. However, the police threat died down after Corleone-controlled newspapers reported on Captain McCluskey's corruption. By 1947, the war had reached a stalemate, as the Five Families' heads went into hiding. Tattaglia pimps were shot to death in Harlem, dock goons were murdered, and rival businesses were extorted. Aldo Trapani was paid to murder key leaders of the rival families, weakening their command structure, and he also extorted several businesses to make money and deprive his opponents of their income. Sonny Corleone and Trapani even conspired to destroy the Cuneo family's racket under Artie Manzanero, crippling them. These actions were avenged when, in 1948, Corleone was lured into a ambush by the Barzinis at the Jones Beach Causeway toll plaza and murdered, and the Barzinis attempted to murder Michael Corleone in Sicily with the use of a car bomb (which instead killed his wife, Apollonia Vitelli). Don Corleone rose from his sick bed to take control of the family once more, and he called a hasty peace at a sitdown.
Don Corleone swore that he would not break the peace established that day, and his son Michael returned safely in 1949. In 1954, Don Corleone went into semi-retirement and made Michael the acting boss. The two conspired to wipe out the other family leaders, and they also allowed for the Barzinis to chip away at Peter Clemenza and Salvatore Tessio's territories to lure the Barzinis into a sense of false security. Tessio began to doubt Michael Corleone's leadership due to his refusal to strike back at the Barzinis, and he decided to make a secret deal with Don Emilio Barzini; in exchange for keeping his territory in Brooklyn, Tessio would bring Michael Corleone to a sitdown at The Embassy Club, where he would be murdered by the Barzinis. Meanwhile, the war continued, with Aldo Trapani taking over more rival businesses and killing key made men, including Emilio Barzini's son, Emilio Barzini, Jr., in 1954.
On 28 July 1955, Vito Corleone died of natural causes, and Michael took over as boss. He had Tessio murdered at the Embassy Club for attempting to betray him, with Trapani killing Tessio and the would-be Barzini assassins at the club. Michael Corleone then had Barzini, Tattaglia, Stracci, and Cuneo murdered on the day of his godson's baptism, giving him an alibi as his opponents were murdered in a swift coup de main. Over the next few weeks, the Corleones continued to attack their rivals, and many Barzini and Tattaglia capos went over to the Corleones. By the year's end, the Corleones were firmly in control of New York, and Corleone decided to move the main family to Las Vegas, Nevada, while Trapani became "Don of New York" following the takeover of the last businesses not belonging to the Corleones.