Joe Profaci aka Charlie Chan — Italian American Stories

Aunt Mary

I think almost every Italian family has an Aunt Mary. She was always the life of the party and the first to start singing a chorus of “Che La Luna” or “Mama” when eating stopped and the fun began. She always had something to fun to say and everyone was “frigoli” and the girl cousins were “trampolines” when they dressed, how teens dressed in the 1960’s.

Not to mention the fact that she was a great cook, as most of my aunts were. And of course we had the “who made the best meatballs” discussion.

But I digress.

Profaci

For most of the 1950’s and early 1960’s Aunt Mary worked at the best bakery in Corona, Queens. She worked behind the counter and her brother, my Uncle Frank did the baking. One day, as Aunt Mary tells the story, Joe Profaci walked in with his two sons heading for the back. Apparently Joe was wearing a white fedora at the time.

Never one to miss the moment, Aunt Mary said; “There goes Charlie Chan and his two sons.” On his way out, with the boys cracking up, Profaci answered in Sicilian “You’re a real wise one.”

Andy, Aunt Mary’s boss came running out and said, “Mary, don’t you know who that was that you called Charlie Chan.” “Yeah, Profaci, the olive oil man.” Well, he was that too.

Profaci Family

Now as an interesting side note to this story is that around the same time, my dad was a photographer for the NY Daily News in Brooklyn. For many years one of his top subjects was “Crazy Joe” Gallo, who was a member of the Profaci family. Dad would take Joe’s picture often, usually on the steps of the county courthouse.

One day, probably in the mid 1960’s, Joe was coming down the steps and dad was trying to take his photo. Now Joe loved being in the paper and never had an issue with having his photo taken. This time, there was a guy who kept trying to push my dad’s camera away and not let him take the picture.

Finally, my dad got to ask Joe, “wha’t going on”, Joe replied, “don’t worry Nick, we’re going to take care of it.” The following week the guy was found in the trunk of a car on LI. Dad never knew the reason!

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