Joe Profaci, born Giuseppe Profaci, is considered the first mafia boss of the Colombo mafia family of New York. Giuseppe Profaci was born in Villabate in the province of Palermo on October 2, 1897. He soon became a man of honor of the local clan. Joe Profaci entered the United States in New York clandestinely in 1921 with Vincent Mangano. The two were childhood friends, both took refuge in America to escape the regime and the repression wanted by Mussolini in the twenties against the mafia in Sicily. Profaci had already served a year in prison in Italy for theft. In 1927, he assumed American citizenship. Joe Profaci had six children with his wife Ninfa. One of his granddaughters, in 1956, married Salvatore Vincent Bill Bonanno, son of Joseph Bonanno, while his two daughters married one the son of William Tocco and the other the son of Joseph Zerilli, mafia bosses of Detroit.