Continuing the saga of the Cuneo family...
Part I: Salvatore "Knuckles" Durante, Rise to Power
There was Gaspar Brentano, killed in 1933. Then came Ettore DeMatteo, for a short time, until he was gunned down by a rival faction within the family in 1939. Carmine Cuneo, the leader of that faction, became the boss. He was gunned down by Corleone soldier Willie Cicci in 1955, replaced by his underboss, Joseph "The Mole" Attene. "The Mole" was assassinated in 1965, and there was a short period when the family had no boss, and was in disarray. The Commission finally approved as boss of the family Salvatore "Knuckles" Durante, a former boxer who had become notorious as a killer, and in the forties and fifties, was a member of the infamous execution squad gang the Bones Factory.
"Knuckles" was born Salvatore Francesco Durante in Palermo, Sicily, in 1917. His family moved to Rome in 1919, but fled in 1928 to escape Mussolini's Fascist Italy; they arrived in Canada and were helped across the border by family friends, the Massantinos out of Buffalo. The Durante family, Phillippa, Paolo, Salvatore, and four other brothers, came to St. Louis in 1930. During the Depression, Paolo, a grocery store keeper, struggled to provide for his family, and young Salvatore took to street fighting for money. He found he had a natural talent, and soon was recognized as an up and coming pugilist.
In 1935, at 18, Sal, with his father's blessing, moved to New York to further his boxing career. There, he was taken in by an uncle, Pietro "Hands" Daffino, a prominent underworld figure associated with Don Vito Corleone. With Daffino and Corleone's help, illegal and otherwise, Durante climbed the ranks. He was a fearsome fighter: strong, lightning quick, and with a tremendous jab that perpetually stunned and knocked out opponents. In 1940, he competed for the Middleweight championship, and won with a vicious second round knockout. He defended the title six straight times until he was defeated in 1944; his defeat would be his last bout. Finished with his career in boxing, Durante contemplated his life and his options. His eldest brother, Stefano, had been in New York since 1939 and had joined the murder-for-hire operation The Bones Factory, so called both because aspiring killers made their "bones" there, and the obvious symbolic churning out of dead skeletons from its doors. Stefano offered Sal a job in the operation, and after consulting with Daffino and his adopted godfather Vito Corleone, accepted. He was now a hired assassin.
"Knuckles" Durante was not new to killing, though. As a young street fighter in 1933, he had inadvertently killed an opponent, and had served six months in prison. In 1942, after a domestic dispute (in which he beat a man he accused of having an affair with his wife, Theresa), he served nine months, the man having died of his wounds some time after the incident. He would have served longer if not for Don Corleone, who pulled some strings to get his prison time considerably shortened.
As a member of The Bones Factory, Durante was a key player in a number of infamous hits. Working often with his brother and his crew, which included such Jewish gangsters as "Pistol" Maxwell Gattberg and Aaron "Four Fingers" Goldwin, Durante fired the bullet that killed Philadelphia mob figure Sam Corradino, strangled personally the well-known New York banker Howard Mason, and beat to death Justice Rufus Bellows, a federal court judge. Durante had first whacked Bellows repeatedly with a wooden chair, then punched him until his face was completely disfigured, and throwing him out the sixth story window, while other crew members took care of things outside the office. While proficient with firearms, "Knuckles" enjoyed and preferred using his hands, choking, beating, punching, gouging, and everything else. In 1956, Stefano Durante was killed by Gattberg, and thinking he may be the next target, Sal left the organization and moved to Denver, under the protection of the Boccaccio family there, and lived in semi-retirement, though he dabbled in Mafia doings in Nevada and California.
In 1961, after a visit from Michael Corleone, who had succeeded his father Vito as boss of his family, Durante was persuaded to move back to New York and get in the "action". He was nominally associated with the Corleone family, but had a fair degree of independence as a killer-for-hire. "Knuckles" also in these years became more involved in the business end of things; though he had been in mafia life for twenty years he had known mostly only the enforcement side. He proved to be an adept businessman, and soon acquired a considerable fortune, in both legal and illegal businesses.
His stature grew as a fearsome and vicious killer and businessman, and he was well respected by most members of the Commission. In 1965, after Joseph Attene was removed as Don of the Cuneo family, the Commission deliberated on who to put in the position. The underboss, Nicholas Carelli, was, to them, an unreliable, almost delirious man. The strongest contender was capo William Adecci, but he declined the offer, and so, the Commission, strongly urged by Michael Corleone and Frank Boccaccio, who had a seat, chose Sal Durante to lead the Cuneo family.
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Part II: Salvatore "Knuckles" Durante as Boss
Durante was selected as Boss of the Cuneo family in mid-December, and made a number of quick moves to shore up support and rid himself of potential threats. Nicholas Carelli was replaced as Underboss by Frankie Daffino, cousin to Sal and only son of Pietro. The story goes that Carelli's chopped-up body was found in a soup kitchen serving Christmas dinner, and some even say that Durante did the deed personally. He kept Adecci as a capo, thinking him to be loyal and unambitious for the top job (after all, who would be after seeing the fates of the previous bosses of the family!!!), but he had capo Sonny Valenti, who had been loyal to Carelli, whacked, and installed his younger brother Silvio Durante in his place.
The other positions he left the same, including consigliere Paul Tremonte. Durante, though, ruled the family with an iron fist, and ran it much more like a business enterprise than a 'family', if that concept still had any meaning. Durante steadily increased the percentage of the earnings he and the top men of the family would get: by 1970, Durante was making 50% more than Attene had made in his best years.
Through the 1970's, Durante involved his family in increasingly intricate yet lucrative dealings, mostly in drugs. By 1974, the family was importing and trafficking in heroin and cocaine almost as much as the other New York families combined. This brought ever growing media and law enforcement attention: Durante was charged nine times for various drug-related offences, beating them all, until the tenth, when he was finally nailed on counts of obstructing justice. In 1977, Sal Durante entered prison, where he lived like a king, and managed to still rule his family, though Frankie Daffino did the day-to-day work.
In 1979, Durante was released at the age of 62, but he did not return to New York, opting for an extended 'vacation'. He returned to Sicily, taking in a performance by the son of the now 'legitimate' Michael Corleone, and visiting old family and friends. He spent the next few years going from one tropical island to another. All this high living did not go over too well with the 'boys' back home, though.
Durante's relationship with his inferiors was often strained, and Paulie Tremonte was at times almost magical in his ability to keep the soldiers, lieutenants, and occasionally, capos on side. While he demanded more and more from their criminal enterprises, he himself appeared to be aloof, not the same 'bloody knuckle' hood who had been an infamous member of the Bones Factory. As well, the old Sicilian concepts of family and tradition were quickly fading, and it was nowhere more noticeable than in the Cuneo family under Durante; the undying loyalty to Don and family that had once been an engrained concept had whithered in the minds of many street-level soldiers. While the post-jail rompings were to become the last straw, Durante had done this kind of thing before: he spent almost the entire year 1971 'inspecting' the drug operations in South America, when in reality, he spent, at the most, a week in Colombia.
So, in the early 80's, as the family began having major and constant battles with police and lawyers, Underboss Frankie Daffino met with the consigliere and the caporegimes to determine a course of action. The capos, including Adecci and Silvio Durante reluctantly, and the consigliere unanimously agreed that Sal Durante, who was in Tahiti at the time, would have to be removed one way or another. Daffino, a blood relative, voiced his opposition, and argued for more time. This fateful decision would pave the way for Daffino's demise, as well as, of course, Durante's. The meeting ended with a tenuous agreement to give Durante six months, but as they left the living room of Daffino's Long Island mansion, everyone knew what would happen next.
Though Silvio was, of course, Sal's brother, he had not been especially close with him, having been born in 1930. Stefano and Salvatore had been the close-knit duo as they worked their way into organized crime and murder. Silvio was exceptionally smart and shrewd, and had made his own way into organized crime, through Las Vegas and Florida; he was running several casinos succesfully by 1965. So, perhaps it is not too surprising that Silvio would go along with the plan, and indeed, be the catalyst. Though he had reservations, all hesitation and meaningful links to his older brother were cut when their mother Phillippa passed away in 1982 at the old age of 83; Paolo Durante had died many decades earlier.
After securing approval from the Commission, Silvio Durante took action, sending a group of button men led by Johnny Caccarone to Tahiti on August 13, 1982. What followed was almost farcical. As Sal Durante lay on the beach, face down, one of Caccarone's men attempted to sight him with a sniper rifle. Just as he got Durante in the crosshairs, Durante's eight year old grandchild, Antonia, stepped in the way. She lingered, and Caccarone finally sent a man to discreetly remove her from her position (not killing her, just getting her to move). This man had succeeded in doing so when he stumbled on a log and fell to the sand, where he was noticed by the few men Durante had with him and, seeing the gun in his hand, pumped him with bullets. Caccarone's men, watching from a distant hill, were in disbelief, as they watched Durante's men approach them. The sniper let off a shot that grazed Durante's leg, and was riddled with lead a moment later. A fierce gunfight ensued, and when the sand settled, all of Caccarone's and Durante's men were dead, as well as a few civilians.
Sal Durante got the message, though, and headed back to New York, where, in October 1982, he agreed to a plan with his brother and the other officials of the family. Sal would retire to Sicily, and never set foot in the US again; in return, he was assured there would be no more attempts on his life by the family. Power in the family passed to Silvio Durante, and Sal quietly and unceremoniously left for Sicily, where he died of a heart attack in 1989. "Knuckles" was knocked out.
