Louis Cafora – The Mafia member who carried out legitimate business

Louis Cafora was a member of the Colombo Crime Family and his activities included that of being an agent of loan sharking. Furthermore, he also was indulged in activities of that of a drug trafficker, working for the Lucchese Crime Family. Cafora was popularly called in the circle as ‘Fat Louis’ or ‘The Whale’. His parents had migrated from Italy’s Campania region of Senerchia to the US.

His name

A small difference is present in the surname of Louis’. It is said to have been either used by his parents in this manner or misspelled by the INS, or there could be a possibility of Louis trying to have his name modified a bit for protecting and to hide the family’s name, since he got popular notoriously because of his dangerous criminal and illegal activities that he undertook. But, he did not maintain any kind of relations with The Genovese Crime Family capo, Vincent Cafaro.

Characteristic features

When it came to his physical appearance, Louis Cafora was very tall and quite fat even during his childhood days and he is said to be conscious about the same. He was often noticed to prepare Italian dishes for the gang members as he just loved cooking variety of things and experimenting new things.

His criminal activities

Louis was involved actively in the different Mafia activities. It was with the joining of the Lucchese Crime Family that his criminal life started. However, he did not go into performing those street crimes for his boss. Rather, he preferred working towards pursuing different legitimate deals on behalf of Lucchese Mafia Family. He had managed to have a lease on the parking lot at Downtown Brooklyn. It was through its management that Louis got to influence several officials within the State Transportation Department of New York. Paul Vario, his official Capo is known to have several meetings with subordinates at the parking lot that was leased out by Louis. This way, they could stay safe and ensure that all their meetings and the discussions that are held here are kept a top secret and not recorded by the law enforcement officials in any manner. This parking lot was used by Louis for storing those stolen cars on behalf of Henry Hill. With his income on the increase, he was able to derive a powerful position within the Mafia Family.