Joe Bonanno's underboss and consigliere in 1960

Can anyone tell who Joe Bonanno's underboss and consigliere was in 1960?

In 1964 he made His son Salvatore "Bill" Bonnano Consigliere and that is what caused the Bannana war, before that im not so sure.

The Banana War
Meanwhile a war had erupted in the Bonanno Family. DiGregorio forces and Bonanno loyalists, led by Salvatore Bonanno, erupted in war when Salvatore retaliated after his father's kidnapping. Eventually, DiGregorio promised a peace meeting on whatever territory Salvatore wanted. It was an ambush. DiGregorio's men opened fire with rifles and automatic weapons on Salvatore and his associates, who were armed only with pistols. The police estimated that over 500 shots were fired but remarkably, no one was hurt. The war lasted for over two years. The Commission originally thought they could win, but when Joseph Bonanno returned, their hopes were dashed. Joseph Bonanno sent out a message to his enemies saying that for every Bonanno loyalist killed, he would retaliate by hitting a caporegime from the other side. The Bonanno loyalists were starting to see victory when Bonanno suffered a heart attack. He decided that he and his son would retire to Tucson, leaving his broken family to Paul Sciacca, who had replaced DiGregorio.

John Tartamella was Bonanno's consigliere in 1960. Johnny Morales was his underboss. Son Salvatore (Bill) became consigliere in '64 after Tartamella became disabled--probably stroke or heart attack.

Didn't Joe Bonanno also appoint Carmine Galente as his underboss along with his own son?

Thank you for answering my question, Turnbull.

Probably. But it's hard to confirm for the reasons you and I are familiar with, DC:
I try to sift info on Mob stuff selectively. I got the Tartamella and Morales dates from Bonanno's autobio, "A Man of Honor" [sic]. No reason to think he'd lie about anything that circumstantial. But then he says that, in '64, when Tartamella became disabled, he told his senior people that he had no interest in appointing a new consigliere, and then to elect one. According to Bonanno, they chose Bill, unanimously. Yeah, right, sure, Joe--if you think I believe that, you probably think I believe in the Great Pumpkin and the Tooth Fairy!

As for Galante: He is nowhere mentioned in Bonanno's book--nowhere. In a TV interview Bonanno gave shortly before he died, he claimed that any drug dealing in his family was initiated by Galante, "without my knowledge." I guess he didn't know that Lilo was sitting next to him in that 1957 Sicilian meeting with Luciano.

DeStefano's KING OF THE GODFATHERS goes into some detail about that, TB.

That was no heat attack.......wait, wrong thread, sorry.

You know tb thats the thing that i cant understand in Joe Bonnanos book he never metions Galante but in nearly any other write up or book about the Bonnano Family he is always mentioned in a big way and im sure i read he was joes man in cannada

Sure. But in his autobio, Bonanno would have you believe that, after Prohibition, he never again broke a single law--not even jaywalking. Of course he wasn't going to mention any association with a certified dope kingpin, killer and pazzo like Galante.

Bosses of the Bonanno crime family
1925–1930 — Nicola "Cola" Schiro
1930–1931 — Salvatore "Caesar" Maranzano (murdered September 10, 1931)
1931–1964 — Joseph "Joe Bananas" Bonanno (crime family patriarch and longtime godfather, officially stepped down in December of 1964)
1963–1964 — John "Johnny Burns" Morales (acting boss)
1965–1968 — Gaspare "Gasparino" DiGregorio (retired)
1966–1968 — Paul Sciacca (acting boss)
1968–1970 — Paul Sciacca (jailed May 12, 1971)
1971–1973 — Natale "Joe Diamonds" Evola (died August 28, 1973)
1973–1975 — Phillip "Rusty" Rastelli (jailed in 1975)
1975–1979 — Carmine "Lilo" Galante (aka. "The Cigar") (defacto boss, Rastelli was the officially recognized boss, murdered July 12, 1979)
1979–1991 — Phillip "Rusty" Rastelli (paroled 1984, jailed 1986, sentenced to 12 years in 1987, released on July 21, 1991, died 3 days later in a Queens hospital)
1979–1984 — Salvatore "Sally Fruits" Ferrugia (acting boss)
1987–1992 — Anthony Spero (acting boss)
1991–2005 — Joseph "Big Joey" Massino (aka. "The Ear") (jailed January 9, 2003, defected October 2004)
2003–2004 — Anthony "Tony Green" Urso (acting boss) (jailed January 20, 2004)
2004–2005 — Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano (acting boss) (jailed November 19, 2004)
2005–present — Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano (defacto boss, recently convicted in July of 2007)
2005–2006 — Michael "Mikey Nose" Mancuso (acting boss) (jailed February 16, 2006)
2006–present — Salvatore "Sal the Iron Worker" Montagna (acting boss)

Frank Garofalo was the underboss until he left for Sicily in 1957. Carmine Galante, who was forced out of Canada, served as underboss of the Family, ith Johnny Morale serving as a direct underboss/street boss for Joe Bonanno until 1960. When Lilo goes to the can, Morale is made official underboss with John Tartamella as Consiglieri until 1964.

Anyone know the circumstances of the short term change between Paul Sciacca and Joe diamond Evola?

Bonnano never named Galante because Lilo was extremely loyal to him over the years.

I don't buy that logic. Galante was dead before Bonanno wrote his book, so nothing he said could have hurt him. He also talked openly about several other individuals he was friends with who were deceased at that point (Maranzano, Mangano, Profaci, Magliocco...) and didn't shy away from describing the roles they held in the hierarchy of their families.

With what we know about Garofalo and Morales holding the position, I don't believe Galante ever served as Bonanno's underboss. I think it's a similar situation to the misconception that Sonny Franzese was the underboss for Colombo in the 1960s when we know Colombo's underboss was actually Charlie Mineo at that time. (Or the idea that Bonanno was Maranzano's underboss when we know it was actually Angelo Caruso).

We are talking about a guy who bombed a tomb because of his loyalties to Vito. And when Bonnano was outsed non of those guys tried to make it right. In Bonnano's eyes (and this is an opinion) Galante was loyal when he was boss and when Galante came out he was still loyal and tried to get family back. If u follow the h you would be able to see the two were extremely close and no ones loyalty to bonnano can compare to Galantes.

The only time he mentioned Galante was when he was asked. And he started working on the book before Galante was dead.

Yes ties between Galantes and Bonnanos are going back to Castellammare del Golfo.

What is the actual source identifying Galante as Bonanno's underboss?

I do believe Galante was the street underboss after Frank Garofalo went to Sicily in 1957 until his imprisonment in 1960. Morales was in a Tommy Bilotti kinda role at this time until getting bumped up around 1960.

Joe's older brother and advisor, Stefano, led a mafia clan in Castellammare del Golfo.

I think Bonanno didn't mention Galante simply because of the association with drugs but mainly because the Galante murder was still relatively recent then. I don't think he wanted to be associated with that in any way. For legal reason mainly, getting called to testify.

I think you mean Joe Bonanno's uncle Stefano Bonanno.



A number of FBN informants. Carmine Galante became Joe Bonannos driver after 1943. By 1950 he was a Capo, by 1953 he was sent up to Montreal and brought members into the Bonanno crime family. 1956 he was acting underboss, 1957 he was official underboss. John Morale became official underboss in 1959.
FBI got informants from other families in the late 1950s in New York and New Jersey, interesting none from the Bonanno crime family (made members anyway).

You're right his uncle did Joe have any siblings?

Is they why the 1963 Valachi Charts for the Bonannos were so shabby compared to the others?

The short term leadership of both Paul Sciacca and Natale Evola, were that Sciacca was tired of being boss and his sentence was a way out. Evola was not in good shape but took the title anyway until he died in 1973.

Joe Bonanno was an only child. His father Salvatore had three brothers, Giuseppe and Stefano were killed and the finale brother Giovanni moved to Tunisia for protection.

They were all inaccurate, but yes the Bonanno and Gambino charts were worst then others. With Valachi given up information, he accurately drew up the Genovese and Lucchese charts from what he remembered before and while inside prison. The Feds also had wiretaps, and informants which helped fill in some of the blank, but they kept putting members in the wrong families do to them associating more often with them than with the actual families.

Why did Galante blow up Costello’s grave site, to send a message, of course, why else tho??

I think that has a lot to do with Valachi being a east harlem/Bronx guy and the Bonannos were Brooklyn based.

Did Joe's uncles Stefano, Giuseppe and Giovanni have any children?

Giuseppe did not father any children, Stefano did not have any children with his wife but is rumored to have fathered children out of wedlock with a couple of different women. Giovanni had children but that branch of that family only dealt with the mafia when it had to, it did marry into a Palermo providence clan, until the 1990s when a member of that branch became affiliated with a sicilian clan. The Bonanno in Trapani providence Bonanno are descended from the brothers cousins.

Something interesting I thought about this time period. If you look at the time frame within the Bonanno Family, I think Joe had genuine intentions on "retiring" around the late 50s because he would have Galante as the Boss in New York but he got sent to prison. It was always his intention to choose the next regime in his family. But only person in New York who understood the power in a peaceful transition was Tommy Lucchese, The puppetmaster.

The old Genovese family had too many volatile powerhouse's for things to be peaceful. The Gambinos were two bloodline families involved with a dangerous gang leader. These two always had problems. The Colombos were a bunch of street gangs from the same place ran by a bloodline family from Sicily, similar dynamic in the Bonannos. The only boss who prospered by achieving peaceful/organized transfer of regime was Tom Gagliano to Tommy Lucchese. Lucchese had to prevent both Joe Profaci and Joe Bonanno from this. I think it was always Joe's intention to hold on to power long enough to get Galante back into the equation. I even think that Bill Bonanno would've been a proxy until Galante was released from Prison. All roads lead to preventing Bonanno and Gaante from having power in the future because neither could be told what to do or easily with. And in the future why would the Gambinos/Luccheses care if the if Brooklyn has internal problems? More money for them. Could you imagine if Bonanno was able to choose the succeeding regime how powerful they could have been without going to war?
Certainly couldn't have been less eventful then Di Gregorio Sciacca, Evola and Rastelli . We give Bill Bonanno a lot of crap but could he really have been any worse?

Who would have been a better candidate for Bonanno's consigliere in 1964 after Tartamella?

Bill Bonanno was an informant, how much worse do you need?

Angelo Caruso turned the position down. Bonanno wanted guys blood relation in the top spots, well through the Bonventre family anyways. John Aquaro, Nick Alfonso, Giuseppe DiFilippi, Vincent Tarantola would be good contenders.

@Giacomo
And so was plenty of people who get respect in this genre (lucky Luciano, Santo Trafficante etc). They eventually got Massino (the tough street guy), so what's the difference?

Bonanno should have put Gaspare Di Gregorio in that spot, it possibly could've kept him in line long enough to die of his heart attacks. Of course you can't tell the future but IMO Bill Bonnano was a placeholder for the likes of Galante and Evola who were in the can.... If Bonanno wanted to spread some goodwill to guys who weren't necessarily apart of his clique, there was John Aquaro, Nick Alfano or Joe Zicarelli, could have been smart moves. Caruso was probably the best choice on paper but as stated, wasn't ambitious... I'm guessing since he already had Johnny Burns in a top spot, he decided against a Frank Labruzzo or Joe Notaro.

Gaspar yes...but if Natale Evola were available..that would have been a win-win....Notaro was a good choice..

Steve Magadinno wanted DiGregorio to have the consigliere spot and was upset when Bonanno put DiGregorio on the shelf for not coming in when he was called (in his autobiography, Bonanno chalks Magaddino's support of DiGregorio to the belief that he could control him in the same way he controlled Nicolo Schiro in the 1920s). DiGregorio was then put under the protection of the Commission and became their first choice to replace Bonanno. (Magaddino may have also been the chairman of the Commission at this time).
That was one of the contributing factors in Bonano falling out of favour with the Commission, along with Bonanno's expansion into Montreal and Arizona, his attempt to send Bill and 40 men to California to kill Frank DeSimone and take over the LA family, putting Magliocco up to kill Gambino and Luchese, and then not coming in when the Commission called him.

@,Chin_gigante
Magliocco came up with the plan on his own. The evidence is simple, there isn't anything linking a Gambino or Lucchese to Bonannos regime and during the Bananas war, there was hardly any fighting amongst those families. Last, joe was allowed to live and nobody IMO can make powerful enemies (in a personal fashion) and just get shelved.

Secondly, the whole thing about Bonanno not coming in, is misunderstood. There was an elaborate system of checks and balances, where two commissions members had to be a witness (along with other top guys) to corroborate the meetings occurrences. The people appointed to give this message (Angelo Bruno and Joe Zerilli) were inclined to not get deeply involved and didn't give Bonanno proper notice so he refused to come in because he thought it was a trap. Also considering he had little respect for Gambino, he "gave them the finger" ..... Its very understated how his legal problems play such a big roll in his fall from power.

I have to respectfully disagree with you on both of those areas.

First of all, in regards to the plot to kill Gambino and Luchese, we have this taped conversation between Sam DeCavalcante and Joseph LaSelva about Bonanno:

SD: He put Magliocco up to do a lot of things... Like kill Carl.
JS: Well, Magliocco was his son's father-in-law.
SD: He put him up to kill Carl and Tommy Brown.
JS: Well that must have something to do with Profaci's outfit?
SD: Yeah. Now they feel that he poisoned Magliocco. Magliocco didn't die a natural death. Because the only one who could accuse him was Magliocco. See Magliocco confessed to it. But this Joe didn't know how far he went. Understand? So they suspect he used a pill on him - that he's noted for it. So he knows the truth of all the damage he done. But they feel he don't know how much the other people know. He'd come in and deny everything but he knows he couldn't deny he made people when the books were closed.

While I don't believe that Bonanno had Magliocco killed, DeCavalcante certainly talks about Bonanno's involvement with confidence. Magaddino was also caught on tape around this time talking about how Magliocco had confessed to the plot and that Bonanno was possibly involved in it, though one can argue that Magaddino was biased against Bonanno. DeCavalcante, on the other hand, was an advocate for Bonanno and tried hard to settle the situation peacefully. He and Joe Zicarelli were later criticised for advocating on Bonanno's behalf when it became clear that the whole thing would have been easier if he was just killed when the trouble started. DeCavalcante in fact wanted to continue mediating the Bonanno situation until Jerry Catena told him to leave it and divorce himself from the situation. DeCavalcante also had a direct link to Gambino - it was Gambino who personally told him of the Commission's edict to ostracise the entire Bonanno family until Bonanno was removed as boss, John Morales was removed as underboss and Bill Bonanno was removed as consigliere.
I don't trust the denials found in the Bonannos' autobiographies because they were so clearly revisionist and self-serving. That also links to my next point about the 'misunderstanding'.

Bonanno claims he did not go in because he no longer recognised the Commission as an official body because it had not been ratified by vote again at the last general meeting. But what is also obvious is that he is the only member who felt this way and it coincided with Bonanno's more individualistic attempts to branch out into Montreal, Arizona and California (and also in reading his book one gets the clear impression that Bonanno felt he was above everyone else at that time). His legal problems (such as when he was detained in Montreal) did contribute to his not appearing before the Commission but he still had plenty of opportunities to do so. I agree that Bruno and Zerilli messed matters up a bit as all they were instructed to do was to go with DeCavalcante to issue a summons and not tell Bonanno why he was wanted. That led to him only communicating through DeCavalcante, but even that ended poorly when he angrily accused DeCavalcante over the phone of being dishonourable, which led to discussion that Bonanno was becoming unhinged. Bonanno eventually said the Commission should come to him if they wanted to see him and the Commission refused to do so, considering the offences he was accused of and the fact that he had refused multiple summonses through various messengers. It wasn't a misunderstanding as much as it was Bonanno being evasive and obtuse for months.

Most of us have the same information and its subject to interpretation. I accept your opinion eventhough I disagree with some of it. (I am obviously a Joe Bonanno "guy" and I don't look to make him the "villain of the narrative" like most people do but I am not bias, I have my critiques as well)
1.) All due respect but I'm not gonna take the wiretap of the Jersey Boys with a grain of salt. Sam The Plumber was not the best source of what was going on in NY. And I could argue that NONE of the NY bosses words could be taken for "truth" during this time.

Many people love to discredit Joe's book for one reason or another (and I agree there is B.S. in it but it is a reference) but I am inclined to accept the words of an original Commission member on how it operated...... I believe that what brought the Families peace was Autonomy. Everything point to that from 31' until the late 50s. That was the strength for guys like Bonanno and Profaci, who had smaller clans then the Luciano and Mangano groups. It wasn't until they started setting a Precedent for being involved in inner-family
Decisions (namely the Anastasia Fallout), that the Commission even considered it. Bonanno was planning naming the new regime, which still would involve him to a certain extent and that from a influence and financial extent, would cause problems for the other Families, particularly pertaining to drugs. When Tom Gagliano made Tommy Luchesse Boss, it was excepted without question (you could argue that, it was on the strength of Tommy Brown) but it proves my point that, the Commission had no authority (in Bonannos mind) to make certain request of him. Bonanno was going by the old guidelines and in the course of some mishaps and the meetings become less frequent, ideas changed and the Commission (a committee of peace) became side alliances used to undermine and usurp rivals.

I leave it with this, during that whole period after the story came out, why not more bloodshed amongst the Gambinos/Luchesse and Bonanno? Another thing, why not more strife with the Joe Colombos new regime? And last but not least, I find it had to believe that a guy who spared a traitor(Di Gregorio) would be so bloodthirsty.

Its was big problem for Joe B. To have national reach and international ties to pass on a strong Family to Carmine Galante, Paul Sciacca, Rusty or whomever and still be involved.Thats a huge problem for the other Families. Who does it benefit if both the families that control Brooklyn are screwed up?

My two cents is that both groups were in the wrong. Bonanno was "planting flags all over the world" and trying to be top boss, but Gambino/Lucchese were taking advantage of the situation and trying to gain more power themselves. We're talking about a bunch of ruthless criminals here.

In this great rant by Tommy Eboli, he seems to think Gambino/Lucchese are setting Bonanno up to look bad.
https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=94973&search=%22philip_lombardo%22#relPageId=2&tab=page

@MightyDR
I agree both sides instigated the situation in one form or another. It is my opinion (generally as a purist in any regard) I have to go off what I believe the original intentions of creating the Commission, and especially because Luchesse was the only NY boss to benefit from a peaceful transition of power, that he orchestrated alot of this ( and it is apart of the life) this scenario with the jealous Magaddino. The Commission should not have been involved in the Magliocco situation (which precipitated this) or Bonanno either (although they helped create some of the problem in Brooklyn behind the scenes). Only Magaddino had a legit beef over the Canada territory, the others in NY just took advantage.

Joe B had every right to expand his realm especially since they were generally open towns. As far as California, it didn't directly affect NY and they also stuck their noses on other Families business for Gain (i.e. Don Carlo helping Angelo Bruno become Boss).

It also proves the point of autonomy because Joe Bonanno would not cooperate with the other Families against his own interests and after his removal, the Commission didn't welcome the New Bonanno Family in the mix (unions, construction etc). Because when they lost Joe B., they lost the majority of the legit businesses, few unions and political/international connections he brought to the table. Thats why I say it was really the rebel side (Sciacca, Rastelli) that lost as much as they gained. They were fighting to get out from under Joe B's greed and "ambition" and ended up subjected to the greed and ambitions of other Families.