Cesare Bonventre Question

I was wondering just how powerful the Sicilian faction Bonventre led was. I take it that Massino must have thought it was a serious threat, enough at least to have him killed.

So do you suppose that Bonventre and the zips under his control had enough muscle to overthrow Massino?

It wasn't about overthrowing Massino, when Rastelli died, the intention was initially to make Catalano the boss, but they couldn't because he was already a made guy in Sicily, apparently you couldn't be a made guy from Sicily and become a boss in NY during that time, as apparently people believed you couldn't pledge allegiance to two sides. So Bonventre couldn't be a boss anyway according to that logic. Massino killed him because he felt that Bonventre was too absorbed in himself, with the fancy watches, expensive clothes and sunglasses and cars. And mostly because when Massino was on the run after becoming boss, he felt insulted by Bonventre because neither he or the other Sicilians sent Massino any money while the rest of the non-Sicilian faction Bonnanno's, did.

Ahh.. Thanks for the heads up.

There were actually three crews, within the Bonanno Family, led by zips. The Montreal crew, Catalano´s crew and the Bonventre crew. Most of the NY zip soldiers were members of Catalano´s crew. By the looks of it, only Baldo Amato and Antonio Aiello Sr were Sicilian born members of Bonventre´s crew. Frank Lupo, Louie "HaHa" Attanasio, Bobby Perretti, Johnny "Green" Faraci, James Genna, Anthony Mirra and others were all American born Bonventre crew members. Although the zips were considered a powerful Bonanno faction, it´s wrong to claim that the zips were all in the same crew.

Pistone said that after the Galante murder, the zips were led by Catalano. He was the most powerful of the zips and served briefly as the acting boss of the Family in the early 1980s. If Rastelli and Massino feared any takeover by the zips, Catalano would had been the one catching a bullet, not Bonventre.

I have no clue if Catalano was made in Sicily before joining the Bonannos. Some say he was, some say he wasn´t. But the fact is that he did serve as acting boss, but stepped down due to language barriers he experienced during sitdowns with other made guys. If he was a Sicilan member, the rule that he could not serve as boss of any American Mafia Family, is therefore not applicable. Bonventre however, was most likely not a member of the Sicilian Mafia. He came over to the US still very young. I believe he and Baldo were 19 at the time.

Bonventre was killed in 1984. That´s 7 years before Massino was made boss. And Catalano was sentenced to 45 years in the mid 1980s. So he was def not a contender for the top spot when Rastelli died.

Guys- Thanks for clearing that up. I was always under the impression that Massino feared a takeover, but to me it didn't seem that thee Sicilians had enough people and power to do so.

Bonventre was made here in the US by Galante, wasn't he?

^^^^ Right. He was made in 1977. Only 26 at the time.

Catalano was released a few years back wasn't he? Is he active now?

He was made a captain in the bonnano family at 28 , one of the youngest captains ever in the American mob

Catalano was released in 09' and is rumored to be semi retired. Since his release he has been low key but has remained in contact with Montreal due to the fact that some of those in the Rizzuto family he grew up with over in Sicily. and has many friends up there. Montreal never viewed Catalano as being with Massino. He was in prison for nearly a quarter of a century, and was never an administration member to the Bonanno crime family during those years. It has been rumored that he told Vincent Asaro and Joe Indelicato both capo's in the Bonanno crime family, that he did not give a fuck who the Bonanno's boss will be as long as the boss didn't fuck with him.

Cesare Bonventre was the fastest rising star in the Bonanno crime family at the time of his death. At that time the Sicilian faction did not trust nor liked Massino and bulked at him when demanded money and visits to him when he was on the run. Rastelli was getting old and talk was he was planning to step down when he got out of prison. I highly doubt he had anything other then giving the O.K. to have Bonventre killed on the Bonventre matter.

massino said on the stand cesare walked out of a sitdown with his boss rusty, and that sealed his fate. he robbed a herion guy who was protected by rusty. massino said he spoke up to rusty cause he wanted baldo dead too but he was just listing to his capo cesare. im sure he reminded baldo about saving his life in the 90tys cause he was a very loyal soldier to massino to the end. they never even bumped baldo to capo in the 90tys either he reported to George from cananda. I think that was georges only soldier in America massino knew wat he was doing. like I said George was rizzuto best friend he never did shit about his murder.

Actually, you're right Knuckles, Massino was underboss after the murders of the capo's, Rusty still had the boss title at the time..As far as everything else though, like Catalano being the acting boss, and the reason for Bonventre being killed is all according to the Sixth Family book, which I've never really seen disputed so, if that information is wrong, forgive me.

No problem at all, SinatraClub.

See I need to read that Sixth Family book now.

Murder inc is a great book also

Author?

pmac, thank you I forgot about that. Bonventre walked out on Rastelli during a sit down, I believe involved Bonventre and a few other zip in an old method of payment by kidnapping other mobsters in the other families. The other families were getting tired of paying the ransoms and found out Cesare was behind the kidnappings and demanded Phil put a stop to it. Bonventre was very arrogant during that sit down. The antics of Cesare and the heavy involvement of drugs by the Bonanno crime family showed the other bosses who sat on the commission, that Phil was not in control of his family. They recognized Rastelli as boss, but denied him a seat on the commission cause he could not get his own men in line.