Head of the Family: The Life of Joe Colombo

By Don Capria and Anthony Colombo

The long-untold story of legendary New York mob boss Joe Colombo--by his son, Anthony

The original ""Dapper Don"" Joe Colombo remains the most paradoxical figure in the history of organized crime in the United States. On the one hand, he was a villain who betrayed the boss of the Profaci family to the Mafia Commission, which gave Colombo control of the family and renamed it after him. On the other, he was a hero to Italian-Americans, the passionate activist who founded the Italian-American Civil Rights League and garnered more popular support than most elected officials at the time. Split between the criminal world and the legitimate one, the life and death of Joe Colombo have remained shrouded in secrecy. Now, at long last, Colombo's son Anthony and co-writer Don Capria lift the veil on the father and the godfather. First comprehensive biography of mafia kingpin Joe Colombo, godfather of one of New York's Five Famiilies and Italian-American civil rights championSurprising revelations about Colombo's life and death, including why it is believed the US government may have been behind Colombo's assassination at the second Italian American Unity Day RallyDozens of photographs, many published here for the first time

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1118141075
• ISBN13: 9781118141076
• Release Date: April 2013
• Publisher: Wiley
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.74 lbs.