10 Bloodiest Gang Wars of All Time

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at the most violent clashes between antagonistic criminal enterprises.

The Colombo Crime Family Wars

It would be a jockeying for power that defined instability within the Colombo Crime Family. Three separate internal conflicts erupted after the sect once known as the Profaci[a] Crime Family shifted to leadership under one Joseph Colombo. The latter was shot and paralyzed in 1971, leading to the rise of Carmine Persico as family head, taking over for the hospitalized Colombo. Finally, the 1990s ushered in yet another chaotic upheaval, as acting boss Victor Orena attempted to capitalize upon Persico’s imprisoned status. The end results lasted two years and totaled twelve corpses, yet it would be Persico that would remain boss, running the family until his death in 2019.

Nigerian Bandit Conflict

Gang wars don’t necessarily need to be contained solely within criminal enterprises. The Nigerian Bandit Conflict has been ongoing since 2011, as gangs of Fulani[b] and Hausa bandits continually clash with Nigerian police. Local law enforcement agencies have struggled to deescalate the conflicts between Nigerian farm and herding populations. Meanwhile, environmental concerns have hampered both industries to the point where armed militias and bandits have engaged in bloody battles with vigilante groups as well as armed forces. Over twelve thousand people have been killed in nearly fifteen years of instability, while four-hundred-and-fifty thousand people have been displaced from their homes.

Honduran Gang Crackdown

The situation of gang violence in Honduras was a problem that became too dangerous to ignore back in 2022, when the country’s government effectively “cracked down” on dangerous activity within its borders. This became known within Honduras as the Régimen de Excepción[c], whereby certain constitutional rights were suspended, in support of public safety. Armed security forces, including military, were deployed to assist local police in the streets, while Honduras’ prison system was expanded in order to house more inmates. It remains up for debate how effective these policies have been in curbing Honduras’ notably high crime rate, although statistically the crime rate has dropped since the crackdown was initiated back in 2022.

Patriarca[d] Takeovers

Organized crime in the northeast United States doesn’t only reside within New York City. New England also possesses an infamous history, including the Patriarca Crime Family of Providence, Rhode Island. Raymond L S. Patriarca was a powerful and feared man within the criminal underworld who kept Providence a stronghold against out-of-state crime influences. That said, the 1960s saw Patriarca shed a lot of blood from local challenges to his power. His son, Raymond, Jr., however, was unable to live up to his father’s legacy. The latter was eventually forced out of his position, resulting in yet more bloodshed for the heir apparent to the Patriarca throne. State police, in the meantime, have referred to the family’s current state as “a shell of itself.”

The Irish Gang War

We’ve all been to parties that got a little out of hand, but none of them probably escalated to the point of gang warfare. The impetus of the Irish Gang Wars arose from a drunken dispute over Labor day weekend in 1961, but it wound up costing many New England mobsters their lives over the next six years. One of those associated with this initial incident was the actor Alex Rocco, who appeared in “The Godfather,” among many other high profile productions. The main conflict between Charlestown’s McLaughlin[e] Gang and Somerville’s infamous Winter Hill Gang ultimately resulted in over sixty mob associates in the New England area placed six feet underground.

Crips-Bloods Gang War

The conflict between these L.A. founded gangs has been going on, in one form or another, since the early 1970s. The Crips are slightly older, having been established in 1969 via an alliance between leaders Raymond Washington and Stanley "Tookie[f]" Williams, while the Bloods formed largely in response to violent Crip activity during this era. Truces have come and gone over the years, with some factions of both Crips and Bloods uniting against local police crackdown against their illegal activities. These have included everything from robbery and prostitution to murder, while the number of dead was estimated in 2014 to be around twenty thousand.

The War Against Gangs

The case of 2022’s crackdown against Salvadoran gang violence is similar to the situation in Honduras, specifically with its régimen de excepción. This state of emergency has effectively authorized both local and governmental forces in El Salvador to widen their net of arrests and prosecution for suspected gang activity. This includes members of the infamous MS-13 and 18th Street Gangs, who have dominated the Central American criminal landscape for years. Nearly eighty-four thousand people have been arrested under El Salvador’s régimen de excepción at the time of this writing, resulting in the country’s prison system substantially swelling under the pressure.

Gang War in Haiti

The numbers don’t lie, and in fact speak a terrible, troubling fact about Haiti’s crisis of gang violence. It was estimated back in 2023 that approximately ninety percent of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince[g], was under the control or dominating influence of gangs. A vigilante opposition, dubbed the bwa kale, has emerged in an attempt to stem this tide, alongside armed support from other countries, such as Kenya. There have been over ten thousand casualties as a result of the Gang War in Haiti, with a further seven hundred thousand others being displaced over this chaotic and violent conflict.

Yama-Ichi[h] War

It was a gang war that almost felt cinematic, the sort of bloody violence one might’ve witnessed in one of Japan’s notable yakuza films from the 1970s. The Yama-Ichi War took place in the ‘80s, however, and left over thirty-six members of the country’s criminal underworld dead. The Ichiwa-kai was a splinter offshoot group from Kobe’s Yamaguchi-gumi gang, one that defiantly made its mark with the assassination of the latter’s leader, Masahisa Takenaka. Japanese journalists were said to have routinely written about the recurring series of deadly gun battles between forces of the Yamaguchi-gumi and the Ichiwa-kai. This war would ultimately end in favor of the Yamaguchi-gumi, although the numbers of both gangs were decimated by deaths and arrests.

Castellammarese[i] War

Bullets, bodies and widows all lay strewn amongst the wreckage of the Castellammarese War. This bloody mafia conflict also resulted in a birth, however - specifically that of what’s now known as the Five Families. Salvatore Maranzano’s forces would end up seizing control of mafia operations from its former leader, Giuseppe Masseria, in just under a year. Maranzano wouldn’t be able to enjoy his self-appointed status as capo di tutti i capi, a.k.a. “boss of all bosses,” for very long, however, as his associate Lucky Luciano would soon lead a new, younger generation of mafioso, orchestrating Maranzano’s death and establishing a new structure for organized crime.

Which gang conflict do you feel had the longest lasting effects? Let us know in the comments!

[a](pro-FAW-tchee)

https://youtu.be/GCvOJZmSCr8?si=Nt3ORyg6EoEVrTcj&t=356
arena https://youtu.be/kP4FOWn0ZgI?si=5Gtghr873R38IZcy&t=58 https://youtu.be/owhJ99msCYQ?si=DUbZLYt20ShJkm0f&t=31
[b]FOOLA-nee https://www.dictionary.com/browse/Fulani
HOUSE-ah https://www.dictionary.com/browse/Hausa
[c]ray-hee-men day'ecks-sept-SYONE https://youtu.be/-KCOpSlmjZ0?si=hALDPsxSKtpUNHgQ&t=6 https://translate.google.ca/?sl=es&tl=en&text=R%C3%A9gimen%20de%20Excepci%C3%B3n&op=translate
[d]pay-tree-ARR-cuh https://youtu.be/80OMrlm9vnc?si=I0_8b_To9pA9Qy-E&t=116
[e]muh-GLOFF-lin https://youtu.be/2sop4uvYh2M?si=mUP4oufBwsKSzKf3 https://youtu.be/Gc9eFrPU2Ck?si=fXzohe3JIcCPRF7u&t=31 https://youtu.be/rZAWFNvvbeY?si=-LltAe-J197jK4co&t=36
https://youtu.be/qyXxxXO4RkA?si=tJuUBYTq9TBLPeUk
[f]TOOK (not toque) https://youtu.be/FkLB9m-BR-o?si=wVm217gZnsLm02qO&t=138
https://youtu.be/oKy89O3k844?si=qh6VUgXawvgCxVck&t=4
[g]porto prince https://www.dictionary.com/browse/Port-au-Prince
bwah cah-LAY https://youtu.be/HNvEiH5AP3A?si=tFlxElVlpcs7Czqj&t=50
[h]yaw-muh ee-chee
EE-CHEE-WAH-kye https://youtu.be/3nOu0r5NHEE?si=4upLGRPmigW73llx&t=1733
yawmma-GEU-chee goo-MEE https://youtu.be/3nOu0r5NHEE?si=3sm0dBdM1lfDXDtP&t=1741
mawssa-HEE-suh tawkay-NAW-kuh https://youtu.be/3nOu0r5NHEE?si=toI13BSYu1w3DrgJ&t=1681
[i]castella-muh-REE-SEE https://youtu.be/WACvACqlGtk?si=2mljvEDHS-fSKiX9&t=24
salva-tore mawr-awn-ZAW-noh https://youtu.be/WACvACqlGtk?si=z5idzopJE8oO6M34&t=6
joo-SEPPY massa-REE-uh https://youtu.be/J9E7TqtJUyY?si=4sHJkOWyySO-P5Zr&t=8
https://forvo.com/search/Capo%20di%20tutti%20capi/