Six Families
The Six Families refer to the main crime families in the New York area.
History
For decades, they were known as the Five Families, with the Dracon Family were considered the undisputed head family (with Dominic Dracon serving as Pater Familias to them all... for a time), until Tomas Brod's arrival in 1996 and the turf war he initiated that culminated in the arrests of Tony Dracon and Tomas Brod. ("Turf", "Tale Old as Time")
The current heads of the Six Families are Choi Yingpei, Dominic Dracon, Huracán Sanchez, Izaak Slaughter, Tomas Brod, and Grisha Volkov.
Despite their collective name, the Six Families are not a united front; relatives such as Peter Choy and Rosaria Sanchez are discouraged from interacting with one another, and even when every head (and Jack Dane, representing Brod's interests following his arrest) expressed apprehension of Dino's pending release from Sing Sing, such efforts ultimately devolved into further infighting. ("Miracle Child", "Render Unto Caesar", "Underwater")
Following the apparent death of Dino Dracon, the turf wars ended with the Six Families putting aside their disputes for the good of their businesses. The Dracons ceded territory to Brod in exchange for a ten percent tithe from the other Families. Antoinette Dracon maneuvered her grandfather (whom was respected by all) into, once again, being the Pater Familias of all Six Families; but, in actuality, she controlled her grandfather - and Antoinette had pledged her loyalty and true control of the Six Families to Demona.
Real World Background
The Five Families have historically referred to various New York-based families since the 1930s. The term is also a reference to the crime families featured in Francis Ford Coppola's 1972 film, The Godfather (based on Mario Puzo's crime novel).
See Also
- Six Families at Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
