Why wasn't Joe Bonnano whacked?

When Joe Bonnano released his memoir, "A Man of Honor", he pretty much violated Omerta and as a retired Don, his book caused some trouble and also made him a liability. He basically admitted publicly that La Cosa Nostra existed, that he was a Boss, and even mentioned other power players in it. All no no's. Why wasn't he clipped for releasing his book?

I believe the FBI picked up some discussions on wires in which members of the Genovese Family (Fat Tony & Sammy Santora?) discuss that Joe should be clipped.

He never was. My guess, no one wanted to go down to Tucson and deal with the heat, literally and figuratively.

Castellano was recorded on tape when he gave his "review" of the Bonanno book in front of Joe N. Gallo and Frankie DeStefano.

"I tried to take ten minutes of that fucking book. I thought it would be interesting, you know, what with knowing a lot of the people. But fuck, I can´t read that shit....The memory, that´s what gets me. The fucking guy acts like he remembers every word ever said to him since 1927."

///Well, some people find it harder to read books than others do I guess.

If you take a look at the book, none of the sitting bosses at the time (1983) is mentioned. No specific crimes or its perpetrators were revealed. Not much in the book actually revealed what was not already known to the authorities. So why rock the boat by killing Bonanno who had been out of the business for 15 years?

Rudolph Giuliani took the book seriously enough though to bring Bonanno in for questioning regarding his statesments about the Commission found in the book. Bonanno refused to answer any questions. He was indicted on RICO charges and consequently sentenced to a one year prison term.

That's fucking hilarious. The part I bolded

One FBI agent said that they would never kill Bonanno as he was a charter member of the Commission.

Plus according to Joe and the rest of the original charter members, they considered the "mafia" operating in America by the time be wrote the book was dead, no longer existed. Just a group of gangs with no tradition or honor by the time he wrote the book, and the fact that he wrote the book and was not killed only proves his point. Anytime before 1970 or so Joe would have never wrote the book cause he knew he would be a dead duck. People can say what they want about Joe but he was a heavy hitter that was well respected across the globe for almost 50 years! We wouldnt be looking at headlines out of Canada every week if it wasnt for Joe either!

Think about all the people who broke omerta and didn't get killed. ITs a joke. Joe Bonnano should have been whacked after that whole fake kidnapping fiasco. I guess starting int he late 70's early 80's the mob had bigger issues.

Like Luciano with his plan for a biopic movie deal in early 1960's. Near the end of his life, Vincent "Jimmy Blue Eyes" Alo wanted to write a book on the 1930's mob, covering Tammany Hall corruption. He asked permission but the Chin supposedly nixed the idea. That would have been an interesting book.

All omerta means now is, "How much time will it knock off my sentence?"

Interesting that no word was leaked to OC prior to pub. Thought these mokes had their tenticles in every facet of NY commerce? None in publishing, I guess (discount porn). If they had, wondered what steps they would've made to squash it--if any, for all the reasons you guys state above.

Rudy Giuliani praised Bonanno's book as helping him greatly with prosecuting the Commission Case. JB even said to Rudy "You'r doing a good job!".

He was not killed because he was THE only original Comission member still alive when the book came out. He was a legend. Also, he still had guys around him in Tuscon. His sons were still getting indicted (in San Jose) up until the early 90's. Now, in my opinion, after Guiliani was able to sucessfully use the book to get convictions in the Comission Case, I can't beleive Fat Tony Salerno or Carmine Perciso did not order his killing. But, then again the FED had all of them on wiretaps, so they were gonna go down with or without the book.

What good would it have done to kill Bonanno other then setting an example? Gravano would have 'switched governments' anyway and set the stage for all the other rats. I think that by the time Bonanno wrote that book he still had loyalists in New York, so his murder would only stirr things up. He was an old man who overplayed his hand, but he was still respected as one of the original members of the Commission.

Yea he wasn't whacked out of respect in my opinion.. he seemed to have alot of backing from alot of people...plus the shit he talked about in the book did not pertain to the guys at that point in time...

I read somewhere that Frank Costello was also talking to an author (Peter Maas?) about a proposed biography shortly before he died in '73. Omerta was a tenuous thing even among the old timers.

Imagine Don Carlo retiring and writing a book? Lol Joe lost his balls when the Bonanno war was in full flow anyway and fucked off to Arizona. Pretty embarassing for one of the original bosses.

@tommy gambino: he was forced into retirement he even named his replacements in the family before he left for arizona, they did'nt come to arizona to get jb for the same reason they did'nt come to get sammy, the mafia these days is scared of a war, jb went to arizona and built his own empire, the man spent a year in jail as an old and brittle man cause he told rudy to fuck off! @ gallo: At the end of the day what did he do? Mobsters these days are admitting that thier apart of the mafia anyway

Actually ol' one eyed peter gotti was going to try to take out sammy, it was one of the things he got convicted and senteced to 25 years for. I dont think it showed how not scared gotti was but how stupid he was, just as it wouldve stupid to try and take out bonnano. It wouldve been such a high profile hit while they were already in the limelight of the commision trial, it wouldve brought down even more heat on them thean there already was if that was even possible at that time.

I am more surprised he wasn't whacked not because of the book, but because of the attempt to whack the commission and the Banana war.

@dellacroce: I'm aware of the possible hit on sammy but c'mon, this is petey we're talking about, this guy could'nt get it right even somebody showed him which way was left, and how credible was this hit man if he turned evidence the first chance he got, did they get him from canada???

yes youll notice how I pointed how stupid he was for trying it.

John gotti would have sent a few guys to arizona with a backup team

Chicago hated Bonnano. They considered Arizona Outfit Territory. Some of the guys would go occasionally and there were a few financial interests in Arizona by a prominent Chicago made guy called the Rim Rock Ranch near Phoenix.

The Genovese Top men would deal with Chicago. They didn't like Bonnano either.
Bonnano was not an overly popular guy in New York.

HK, can you please tell me where I can find that Castellano conversation? Or can you put up a link?

Well, the quote I posted above is from the book Boss of bosses by Joseph O´Brien and Andris Kurins. Large part of the book is based on the Castellano bug, planted in his house.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/440277.Boss_of_Bosses

Thank You Hairy. Does anyone know if full transcripts of all recordings from wire in Castellano home are available anywhere?

You´re welcome. Sorry to say, but I doubt a full transcript can be found on the net. Please correct me if I´m wrong guys, but maybe you can make a FOIA request on FBI´s home page and obtain the transcripts.

his son bill continued in his father's tradition and wrote several books without being reprimanded.

someone posted his very short interview on 60mins on youtube. he really doesn't answer a question, his son does his talking he mumbles. he didn't speak English very good. I thought he'd have a Brooklyn accent nope. he was a zip.

Their was a changing of the tide. The conservative faction of the Commission yielded little to no power at the time. Gambino and Lucchese were close allies who sought to have ultimate control by bringing Bonanno before the heads of the Families for the supposed plot he and Magliocco had hatched. I think Carlo and Three Finger Brown didn't care for his Mustache Pete philosophy but respected him enough to not clip him.