Feds: We Have New Bonannos, And As Usual, They're at Odds with Each Other

Frank SalernoA potentially bloody dispute over control of the Bonanno crime family is thankfully still in the diplomatic stage, with the family's imprisoned boss using his nephew as a messenger to try to stifle a crew of rebellious Bonanno members, Gang Land has learned.

As Michael (Mikey Nose) Mancuso sits in federal prison serving a 15-year sentence for murder, he has dispatched repeated messages via nephew Frank (Frankie Boy) Salerno, reputedly a newly minted family soldier. The communications have allegedly been routed to "street boss" John Palazzolo who was hand-picked by Mikey Nose to run the crime family in his absence and to help thwart a move by restless members to take control of the family, according to recently filed federal court papers.

Salerno, 41, is identified as a Bonanno crime family soldier by detectives with the NYPD's Organized Crime Investigation Division who tipped off probation officials about the role he was playing between Mancuso and Palazzolo, a veteran 77-year-old capo.

Michael MancusoWithin hours of leaving the Danbury federal prison where Mancuso is slated to remain until 2019, Salerno hooked up with Palazzolo and a crew of wiseguys at the Trattoria Thirty Five, a Bayside Queens eatery that the new "street boss" frequents, according to assistant U.S. attorneys Nicole Argentieri and Alicyn Cooley.

In their court papers, the prosecutors asked Brooklyn Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis to detain Palazzolo as a danger to the community for violating his post prison restrictions against meeting with mobsters. Prosecutors also cited the aging mobster for "agreeing to assume a leadership position in a violent criminal enterprise."

Also attending the restaurant session, prosecutors wrote, were John (Johnny Mulberry) Sciremammano, 68; Pasquale (Patty Boy) Maiorino, 65; Enzo (The Baker) Stagno, 41; and Vincent Caroleo, 71. Except for Caroleo, all have criminal records. But only two attendees, Sciremammano and Maiorino, were on the long list of organized crime figures that the Probation Department, which gets its info from the FBI, ordered Palazzolo to avoid.

John SciremammanoOCID, the FBI, and the U.S. Attorney's office declined to discuss the apparent discrepancy between the respective mob rosters of "made men" cited by OCID and the FBI. Traditionally, the FBI has had more stringent rules about identifying a known associate as a member of an organized crime family.

Gang Land, which has its own high standards on the touchy subject of mob membership, hears from various sources that the Bonannos have made many new members in recent months. Allegedly, as many as 12 new members have been inducted. Sources say Frankie Boy Salerno may be one of them, if only to legitimize Mancuso's use of his nephew as a go-between with other members of the crime family.

In addition to meeting the two mobsters on the "do not associate with" list, on March 23, prosecutors wrote that Palazzolo should be detained for having conducted a lengthy meeting the day before with onetime family consigliere Anthony (Fat Anthony) Rabito in the parking lot of the Nevada Diner in Elmhurst.

John PalazzoloIn recent court sessions Palazzolo attorney Flora Edwards argued that her client "was about two and a half weeks out of surgery." Citing his poor health, the lawyer argued for home confinement rather than detention in the Metropolitan Detention Center. In a court hearing this week, Garaufis declined to remand Palazzolo, but agreed to revisit the issue later this month after Edwards submits evidence that detention at the MDC would be dangerous to her client's health.

But Garaufis has indicated that might be a hard argument to for her to win.

"I am sympathetic, but the fact of the matter is we wouldn't be here except for his alleged conduct," the judge said at a hearing last month. "He goes to lunch for hours on end and meets these people in diner parking lots. So, you can argue that he's sick, but you can also argue that, notwithstanding his medical problems, he's fit enough to engage in social contacts or other contacts with those with whom he has a relationship."