Cuneo family

Cuneo crime family
Founded by Rosario LaConti
Founding location United States New York City, New York
Years active 1910s-Present
Territory Various neighborhoods in New York City, includes The Bronx and Manhattan; Upstate New York in New York; North Jersey in New Jersey; probably Canada
Ethnicity "Made men" are Italians, Italian-Americans, the associates are of other ethnicities
Criminal activities Racketeering, bookmaking, gambling, weapons trafficking, extortion narcotics trafficking, murder, corruption, labor unions, prostitution, fraud, loan-sharking, money laundering, robbery and bootlegging
Allies Barzini, Stracci and Tattaglia crime families
Rivals Some street gang in New York City, and sometimes their allies

The Cuneo family is one of the Five Families of New York in the Mario Puzo's novel The Godfather and the movie of the same name.

History

The family was founded in 1910s by Rosario LaConti, a powerful racketeer, rum-runner and rival of Giuseppe Masseria. After his death in 1933, the family was replaced by Ottilio Cuneo.

One of Five Families, based in The Bronx in New York City and very powerful in Buffalo and upstate New York, the Cuneo family, along with the Stracci, Barzini and Tattaglia crime families decides to invest in the Sollozzo heroin's trade, but when Sollozzo is killed in 1945 by Michael Corleone, Ottilio Cuneo, along with the other families, declares war on the Corleone family, endangering the latter's operations in the Bronx. As part of the war, Don Emilio Barzini sets up the killing of Sonny Corleone, who had been acting as the interim Don of the Corleones while his father recovered from the severe wounds that he had suffered when Sollozzo tried to have him killed. After the killing of Sonny, Vito Corleone meets with Cuneo, Barzini and the heads of the other families and they agree on a truce. However, years later, in 1955, Ottilio Cuneo is killed by Willi Cicci, who traps Cuneo in a revolving door at the Tesla Hotel in Midtown Manhattan and shoots him multiple times, part of Michael Corleone's sweeping plot to kill the heads of all of the other New York Families, while also eliminating the Corleone Family's other enemies, including several traitors within their midst.

Leo Cuneo, the youngest son of Ottilio, takes control becoming an ally of the Corleone family. Leo dies in the Atlantic City's massacre of 1979.

In the novel, Ottilio does not die in 1945, but becomes an ally of the Corleones. He is arrested in 1963 for conspiracy.

In the films, Rudy Bond portrayed Don Cuneo in The Godfather, and Al Ruscio portrayed Leo Cuneo in The Godfather Part III. In the original Godfather film, Don Cuneo is named 'Carmine', rather than 'Ottilio'.

Known members

Influences

The Cuneo crime family is based on the Lucchese and Magaddino crime families. Like the Luccheses, the Cuneos are influential in The Bronx and Harlem, same as in New Jersey, while the Magaddinos, are powerful in Buffalo and Eastern Canada.

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/11/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.