Assasination of the Gentle Don Bruno

Does anyone know the real motive behind his assasination? I heard many things about it, he was against drugs etc. And he was oldschool, the new generation wanted to rub him out.

But do we know who was behind the killing, did the newyork families bosses on the commission gave the ok?

I don't know about being against drugs. I'm betting that was just good PR.
Anyway the story I read was that his counselor, Anthony Caponigro (Tony Bananas-who was not a normal counselor in that he had his own power base and rackets) was upset about the supposed expansion of NY power into the Atlantic City rackets and/or was just convinced that Bruno was weak and now that Bruno's friend Gambino had passed away a few years back there would be no repercussion to removing Bruno.

Even so Tony Bananas supposedly checked with Frank Tieri, (front) boss of the Genovese family, to whom he was close, even though they had had a dispute about numbers/gambling rackets in Newark a few years back. Allegedly Tieri gave Tony the greenlight.

So Tony had Bruno clipped. Then the full Commission summoned Tony to NY for a hearing. It seems probable that Tony pointed to Tieri and claimed he gave the OK but Tieri was like "Who me??"

Since people always believe a boss over a non boss and most people didn't want others to get the idea they could remove bosses they didn't like the ruling evidently went against Tony B.

Tony B. was found in a car trunk in the Bronx, stabbed , shot and with money stuffed into his nether regions. And the Genovese family took over the disputed Newark gambling rackets.

interesting, i mean i would believe that. Because no mobster would go on and taking on a boss without some heavy backing from NY. To bad for Tony, never trust them

And it didnt end with the killing of Bruno, there were others who were killed if i remember correctly. Men from the family, who were loyal to Bruno.

And after both murders a war within the Philadelphia family was triggered which severely weakened the family structure.

so the commission in its whole would never allow such a hit? I mean, Bruno was a member of the commission or not? And was Nicodemo Scarfo Bruno's driver? or bodyguard, at least thats what i heard.

No. Nicky Scarfo was on the outs with Bruno. Scarfo had been exiled to Atlantic City years previously because he had killed a longshoreman in a dispute over a restaurant seat. I read that it was only via some serious pleading from Scarfo's uncles or other made members within the Philly family that Bruno hadn't ordered Scarfo's demise. It didn't help that Scarfo had also made an enemy of the family counselor by agreeing and then declining to marry the counselor's daughter.

It was future boss John Stanfa, who was Bruno's driver, and was actually wounded in the assassination of Bruno.

As mentioned Bruno's demise set up a chain of murders and countermurders that eventually saw Scarfo rise to the top and then unleash even more violence.

You heard that in the Netherlands?

ahh my mistake, how could i made that one
i meant Stanfa, not Scarfo. Maybe cuz of the names :S
yeah i heard it in the netherlands

Lilo basically summed it up.

Drugs had supposedly been one of several reasons why there had been tension between Bruno and Caponigro for years. Caponigro was brazen and ambitious and reportedly didn't care for Bruno's more laid back approach.

Bruno's stance on drugs was similar to Castellano's. He didn't want his own guys involved but he readily took drug money off other Mafia narcotics traffickers who operated in his territory; the Sicilian "Cherry Hill" Gambinos, for instance. Of course, Caponigro felt they were losing out on a lot of money.

Bruno's flexible stance on Atlantic City, as far as the NY families go, was the last straw for Caponigro, who was behind his death - some say personally.

As Lilo alluded to, Frank Tieri basically gave Caponigro enough rope to hang himself, afterwards taking over the disputed gambling operation in Newark. Guys in Vincent Gigante's crew were reportedly the ones that picked up Caponigro and his driver - never to be seen alive again. Gigante also gave the OK for several additional murders in the Philadelphia family. And through Bobby Manna's ties to Nicky Scarfo, they had an inside track to HERE Local 54 when Scarfo became boss.

thanks for sharing the information, know i have a better view of what "really" happened.

and the book Blood and Honor, does it cover the period of Bruno? Or is it more a modern view of the Scarfo family?

The Genovese proved why they are the "Rolls-Royce" of organised crime.
They really put the cat among the pigeons in Philly!

Yes, Blood and Honor covers the period of Bruno and Scarfo. It is primarily told from the pov of Nick Caramandi, former street hustler and later made man. Caramandi wasn't a formal member under Bruno IIRC so his stories about that time are all second hand.

Since Scarfo was such an intensely violent man and extremely paranoid one, he caused quite a few associates, made members or just people who had business with him to go public. So there's a little cottage industry on the Philly mob, just as there was on the Gotti led Gambinos.

I think George Anastasia is probably the best of the writers or at least the most well known.
In order some of his books on the Philly Mob are
1) Blood and Honor (70's and 80's)
2) The Goodfella Tapes (90's)
3) The Last Gangster (90's and 00's)

If you are interested I believe I wrote a review of the The Last Gangster around here someplace.
There are also books like The Plumber by Joseph Salerno and Steve Rivele, (80's Scarfo hegemony)
Blood Oath by George Fresolone ,(80's and 90's but with lots of historical references) and of course The Boardwalk Jungle by Ovid DeMaris (70's and 80's but with more emphasis on city, business and state corruption) and finally Ricochet by the same author, which is a barely fictionalized retelling of Scarfo's rise to power and subsequent fall-though it is more final and abrupt than it was in real life..

i am going to order Blood and Honor, the Last Gangster seems interesting to. But i couldnt find it here in the Netherlands. Ill try ebay, i dont have amazon account. And i can only pay with paypal, dunno if amazon has that. But Blood and Honor is a must for me, after i finish Murder Machine (its so epic).

And I always thought that Bruno was actually killed because he resented the New York families' involvement in Atlantic City...

Bruno is one of the few mob guys who you can actually like, because he supposedly was a pretty good guy, or one should say 'good bad guy'.

yeah i agree, hes one of the good bad guys, there are other couple of examples. I always liked Joseph Bonanno, Lucchese and Tony Ducks Corallo were also murderers but they did a lot of services like Don Corleone in Godfather.

A lot of people thought that initially. But it was the other way around. As Philadelphia turncoat George Freselone said, Bruno wasn't killed because he was keeping the NY families out. He was killed because he was letting them in.

Bruno wasn't killed because he was keeping the NY families out. He was killed because he was letting them in

Surely the disgruntled members of his family would have realised that trying to stop the 5 NY families from entering Atlantic City would be like standing at the foot of a mountain trying to stop an Avalanche?

i think if that was the reall thing behind it, the family would be better of with Bruno then without him. Look what happened after he got killed.

It's a mystery as far as what many guys in Philly were thinking. Caponigro thinks he can trust Tieri with permission to kill a boss, even though they had a beef not long before over that gambling operation in Newark. And even after Tony Bananas and his driver ended up dead, shot and stabbed repeatedly, with money shoved up their rectums, the new Underboss Pete Casella and Capo Frank Narducci had the bright idea to kill the guy who replaced Bruno - Phil Testa. They blew him up with a bomb, that contained nails, thinking they could blame the Roofers Union. But it didn't take long to discover they were behind it.

The Genovese family had wanted Scarfo to become boss, because he was close to Consigliere Bobby Manna, but Scarfo felt Testa deserved it more. Afterwards, Testa made Scarfo his Consigliere. After Testa was killed, Scarfo quickly had a sitdown with New York and was able to convince them he had nothing to do with Testa's murder. For one reason or another, Pete Casella was spared but was forced to retire to Florida immediately. Chin Gigante gave permission for Narducci, as well as Rocco Marinucci, to be killed for their involvement in the bombing.

But i dont understand how New York would give ok for Scarfo to become boss, i mean hes to much unwanted attention. Look at Scarfo, and the other bosses after him. They were more oldskool and stealthy at work. Like Ligambi

For all of his bluster in Philadelphia, Scarfo knew very well where he stood with NY and did not give the larger families static about sharing the wealth from Atlantic City. And I'm betting that's all they were concerned about.