Group,

Besides Whack Whack, who were the other two shooters at the Galante hit? For some reason, that info is not usually mentioned in most retellings of that event.

Anthony "Bruno" Indelicato, Dominick Trinchera, Dominick Napolitano and Louis Giongetti are listed as shooters and are sure. If you want to believe to their books also Kuklinski and Sheeran said that killed Galante.

Ah yes. Thanks Furio.

I read some guy russell mauro. He was a bonanno soldier who massino had whacked in 1991 cause he was a threat think the cosa blog had wrote something on gim and guys said he was the real deal and didnt deserve to get killed. His brother shlwed up at asoros trial and was screaming at one of the witnesses who set his brother up for the hit.

That's interesting pmac.

Furio, I actually did hear/read all the names you mentioned, just coundn't recall them or locate them.

In many retellings of the event, right before Galante is hit, one of the hitmen yell "Get em Sal!"

Could it be that one of the above mentioned hitmen was nicknamed Sal? Or maybe Salvatore was a middle name? Witnesses heard the Get him Sal statement, but that could have been to throw off the audience, since everyone had a mask on.

Furio Sheeran did not claim to have been involved in the Carmine Galante hit.. You're confusing that hit with I believe Joey Gallo.. Check your sources pal... The Iceman did claim credit for this hit I believe, but no one obv buys that he was one of the 4 involved...!

Alfa- Whack Whack was Bruno Indelicato's nickname correct?

Yes Sir.

Mikey I wrote because I don't believe to it,I shortly ended the iceman book and maybe made a mistake with sheeran anyway whack whack is with bruno the nicknames of anthony indelicato.

Right i know you said that Furio, but thats not correct Sheerans book didnt mention him being involved with the Galante hit, i think you were mixing his book up with Kuklinski's book.. The iceman did claim to be involved in the Carmine Galante hit....Frank Sheerans book mentioned him being involved in Joey Gallos hit as the lone gunman.. Thats all i was saying.

Appreciate the clarification on Brunos nick name i thought so its so similar to Ang Ruggieros nickname

Mikey you re right I confused the 2 books. The Galante hit is like the gallo murder, everyone say that was the shooters.

I don't believe very much of what "Iceman" says. As I recall, Cesar Benventre and one other man were dining with Galante and were the ones who set him up for the kill. Caesar was supposed to have gotten up and walked out of the courtyard and maybe waved the other 3 in. Is this correct, or is my ancient memory failing me.

I know Trinchera is often credited with this hit, what evidence is there that supports this? Informers? If so, does anyone have a link to the source? I just have a hard time believing a 42 year old, 350+lbs. capo was part of the hit team, something about that doesn't ring true. Any information would be appreciated.

That might have crossed my mind also.

The accounts given of that day say that the three hitmen jogged into the restaurant. I can see Whack Whack jogging. Not "Big Trin".

Some account I read somewhere said he was standing guard as the other 2 shooters entered the courtyard. As far as who shot who, there are plenty of recent Bonanno turncoats, you think there would be some more information out there.

There really doesn't appear to be much convicting Bruno. Trinchera is listed in one court doc as a member of the conspiracy. "Big Trin" isn't described as a shooter outright. His role isn't really clarified.

According to Selwyn Raab's definitive "Five Families," the Zips Baldo Amato and Cesare Bonventre, who were sitting with Galante at the time, also participated in the assassination. He also says that Joe Massino was stationed outside in a car, to act as a backup shooter.

Think it was in a capeci article massino new it was gonna happen but had no participation with it. Was sonny black and sonny reds. Either sal vitale or massink brought up that guy big trin as a shooter when they killed him and sonny red saying they were making a move against the family like they did galante. Also would guess russell mauro was in the phil lucky camp and another reason massino wanted him dead.

The court doc I read did in fact say that evidence showed that Bonventre joined in on the shooting. I am assuming this was ballistic evidence.

So far from the little I have seen, it seems like there is more to convict the bodyguard Bonventre of the shooting than there is to convict anyone else.



Massino had to know. He was too close to the top. The principal players had to pick a side before the cigar was smoked.

The Cigar was too dangerous. It probably took as long as it did to hit him because the Commission had to find out who was with who.

Therefore all the captains' positions had to be known. I was just wanted to know more about the three masked killers. Most mob hits don't involve men running through the street carrying heavy machinery in broad daylight. The Galante hit was bolder than the Anastasia hit by far.

Massino said on the stand he knew but had no role. Think he said he was bumped to capo after galantes hit. Why would galante have had him as a capo when he was rustys guy. I remeber massino said when he first got made he was directly under galante then phil lucky. Probaly why he didnt have a role. It was sonny reds blacks and that guy phils shooters. Massino said asoro personly gave him money and jewels from the luth. Heist in dec78 but maybe he gave it to him after galantes death and phil rusty re arranged the whole family. He must have broke all galantes capo and put all these younger guys up. Bruno massino and the big trin. Think spero became a capo to.

Surprised galante didnt see it coming. He got the wool pulled rite over his eyes. I read the feds kept telling him his life was n danger. That guy caesar was bumped to capo to.

I think the main reason he got whacked was because he didn't want to share his Sicilian heroin pipeline with the other families. "Follow the money" is always a good bet when diagnosing Mob hits.

Absolutely. He thought his pipeline was his personal property because he was probably one of the main principals who set it up, if not the main principal. Now why he thought he was stronger than the other four families could be chalked up to mental instability, or treachery. Maybe he had secret backing from some bosses who then pretended to know nothing of him when he became persona non grata.

Someone pretended to be on his side behind the scenes. Obviously the Sicilians did. I suspect some from New York also.

In the end he came off looking like a psychopath who flipped off the entire Commission and thought the Sicilians would side with him against all of New York. That makes no sense and I highly doubt that scenario.

pmac, that's just more circumstantial proof to me that Galante had friends on the Commission, friends who disowned him when the going got rough.

If he was going head to head against the entire Commission, he should have been rolling in full military formation at all times. Heavily armed guards, bullet proof cars, maybe even vests, you name it.

This was a good thread on topic......




http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/ubbthr...4861#Post884861

Thank you for that Cabrini.

I read through it. I saw the opinion there that Galante thought that some subsidiaries of the Bonanno family up in Canada were enough to give him the muscle needed to bully his way in NY. I can't say that sums it up for me.

You know Cabrini, Galante's situation reminded me of the Caponigro fella who took out Angelo Bruno after being misled by Funzi Tieri who pledged false support for Caponigro's ambitions. I did a routine check of who were the bosses at the time of Galante's elimination....Tieri was the boss of the Genovese.

Could Galante have been misled by Tieri?

I'm not sure, but from Ive read they were rivals, and Tieri wasn't really threatened by him at all, some obscure article, I'll try to dig around for it....

With the amount of time Galante bullied the Bonnanos into submission (5 years), one could almost get the idea he was being used as a chess piece by another family to take over their heroin pipeline, meaning, Galante's intention might not actually have been to hog everything for himself.

I just don't buy the lunatic theme. This guy spoke several languages and was internationally sophisticated.

@Alfa

Aaah, I get where you are going, but there's a couple things you gotta remember;


The heroin trade was controlled from the other side of the Atlantic, from Sicilian mafia families. Tieri was Neapolitan, plus the Genovese, and heroin, at this point in time? I'm not sure about that, it was kinda the Bonnanos out front, Gambinos close behind, you had Gas and Vic in the Luchesses running narcotics. But I've always read Casso had his own direct connect to the French connection, as well as importing his own weed.

Also that thread wasn't about Galante counting on Bonnano muscle or Canadian muscle. Guys were confused as to WHY he was able to muscle them, as well as how large a crew he MUST HAVE HAD to be able to pull it off.


What I countered with is that he wasn't so much as feared as he was TOLERATED, until he wasn't needed anymore. The families, I think feared losing access to the heroin market. He was too easy to kill. He had no super large army of killers. His source of power was his link in the heroin chain, I don't think the Sicilian families wanted their business disrupted.

That was also my other main point, I don't think it was the Bonnano families heroin operation, so much as the Sicilian mafias heroin operation, in PARTNERSHIPS with the NY families. Kinda like what is most likely occurring now with the NY families and the Calabrians....

@ Alfa

You might like The Sixth Family, or Business or Blood, they pretty much cover all this, including the Galante shooters, Napolitano, and Indelicato (they got his palm print right? Only non- boss locked up on Commision case right?)


It explains how the heroin trade in the 80s was kinda a Sicilian thing, 50s, yeah that's all American LCN.

@Cabrini, I'll definitely be reading 6th Family. How could I resist?

I get the idea that Galante may have been merely tolerated, because somehow he kept his business networks exclusive. Tolerated until his business networks could be stolen out from underneath him. But I still am not quite buying the idea he was profiting from his H pipeline all by himself. That's as bad as declaring yourself Capo Dei Capi. Is there any record that Lilo Galante demanded all bosses pay him tribute? And let's face it, if he was actually bucking the entire Commission, he might as well demanded tribute from them too. I'm not buying it. His narcotics ambitions are directly at odds with the purported suicide mission he was supposed on to buck the entire Commission.

I know this is an unscientific thing to say: but I am going to suspect treachery and duplicity on Funzi Tieri's part until he is proven innocent.

Let me add this: For Galante to try and disrupt the order that was the Commission before he took over the Bonannos meant that he had to have strong backing he could trust in. The Bonnanos were/are one of the smaller families. So are the Luccheses and Colombos. Backing from those families would have meant little. Carmine had to have been falsely assured that he was backed by either 1. Paul Castellano (who in the words of Sal Gravano was a "massive guy with massive connections", someone connected to Sicilian mafia) or 2. Funzi Tieri. I doubt it was Paul because Paul had his own zip connections and obviously they differed from the zips who assisted Galante, or so it seems. Paul's zips just could not have been Galante's zips. The Sicilian mafia families connected to Paul could not have been the same clans assisting Galante.

Even look at who whacked the Cigar, or who was was accused of whacking him. Bonannos, Bonannos being congratulated in front of the Ravenite by Gambinos. Where is the Genovese (Tieri) presence?