Philip Tattaglia (1887-1955) was the boss of the Tattaglia crime family from 1933 to 1955, succeeding Giuseppe Mariposa and preceding Rico Tattaglia. Born Filippo Tartaglia in Sicily, Tattaglia was known as a pimp and womanizer, and he was not nearly as powerful or as smart as the other leaders of the Five Families. In 1955, he was murdered by the rival Corleone crime family at the end of the Five Families War.
Biography[]
Filippo Tartaglia was born in 1887 in Sicily, Italy, and he emigrated to the US city of New York City during the early 20th century. His surname was erroneously recorded as "Tattaglia" by immigration officials, and this spelling stuck over the years. Tattaglia settled in the Brooklyn neighborhood of New York, and he became a member of Giuseppe Mariposa's family. Tattaglia took over the Mariposa family after the murder of Giuseppe Mariposa by Vito Corleone in 1933, and he became the leader of the Tattaglia crime family. Tattaglia was involved in the pornography and prostitution businesses in Brooklyn, becoming a very wealthy criminal.
Don[]
Don Tattaglia in 1951
During the 1930s, Tattaglia muscled in on the Corleone crime family's territories in Little Italy, becoming the boss of both Brooklyn and Little Italy. He was one of the first supporters of the narcotics business' expansion into New York, giving protection to Virgil Sollozzo. In 1945, Tattaglia twice failed to murder Vito Corleone when he refused to enter the drug trade, denying Tattaglia, Sollozzo, and the Five Families' bosses the political protection that was needed to run a successful narcotics operation. This led to the 1946 murder of Sollozzo and the ensuing Five Families War, which led to the deaths of Tattaglia's sons Johnny Tattaglia and Bruno Tattaglia, as well as the Corleone family's capture of Brooklyn and Little Italy from the Tattaglias. In 1951, he made peace with Corleone during a meeting of The Commission, as both of them agreed that vengeance would not bring back any of their lost sons, and their embrace at the end of the meeting was met with applaud from the other mob bosses. Tattaglia was free to take over Corleone's businesses in Brooklyn as a result of Corleone's peace treaty, as he vowed that he would not break the peace; Tattaglia was free to do as he pleased.
Death[]
Tattaglia after being shot
Don Tattaglia's downfall came in 1955, when Don Michael Corleone decided to kill all the other heads of the Five Families to consolidate the Corleone family's control over New York City. One afternoon, Rocco Lampone and another Corleone hitman barged into a bungalow room where Tattaglia and a prostitute were spending time together, and Lampone and the hitman sprayed them with Madsen M-50 fire. Tattaglia and the prostitute were both gunned down in their bed, and the Tattaglia family was severely weakened.