Lol that's a good story never heard it before. I heard somewhere that Joe Bonanno was a real mean guy to his troops and even Galante had to take some shit from him, but who knows maybe that was a bullshit story.
"As greedy as joe bananas" was a phrase I'd seen written somewhere.
Although Bonanno has written an autobiography he's an unreliable narrator. and as leader of one of the most insular crime families he was and still is a bit of an enigma. Greed could refer to his lust for more and more territory.
He's one of the few bosses of his generation to have a full-scale rebellion by unhappy capos/soldiers/adim un-seat him. Even if it was supported by outsiders it tells us what some of his people thought of him. One way of seeing it is that he was greedy in screwing over a lot of guys who had been loyal for years out of a shoot for the boss position by trying to put his son in the seat.
Even by his own admission in passages of his book he spent as much time out of town as he could and stayed aloof of affairs on the street, that couldn't have gone down well with blue collar crews and capos.
The Bananas war started with Morales and some captains nominating Bill for the consigliere spot. Gaspar was pissed because he had coveted the position ever since Tartamella no longer was in the capacity to function in that postition so he went crying to his brother in law Magaddino up in Buffalo.
If greed had anyting to do with the start of the Bananas war, it was due to the rebelliuos soldiers and captains who were financially squeezed by the Commission keeping them out from rackets like union jobs, rights to the NY airports etc. I think you have the right slant on the bonanno war. bill bonanno has always said that the war was all of maggadinos idea.
old man bonanno. and Stephan maggadino were cousins. both from castellarese del gulfo. many bonanno soldiers didn't consider bill bonanno as a true Mafioso.
and that resentment spilled over also. you always have great info, HK.
