If Galante would have acted right &

Kowtow to Rusty, recognising him as boss. Would he be welcomed back into the fold & tolerated?

Apart from the zips he imported over, who were the captains loyal to him & his power base? I know he used to meet Mike Sabella a lot

& the two old school guys that were lured to joe & Mary's restaurant, but one left before it happened by chance

Only way that could have happened would be for him to take a lowly capo position and be satisfied with some rackets. For him that probably was impossible because he was the one who helped set up the pipeline from Canada. He just felt too much belonged to him and he wasn't going to ask for it back once he got out of jail.

What a Carlo Gambino would have probably done is get out of jail, take a lower position as capo, and then beef to the Commission to stage a coup and reclaim the pipeline & underboss spot.

Tony,Alfa ,the money come first,I read in the book The Sixth Family that Rastelli was not well considered as boss of the family; actually if Galante had decided to divide the enormous drug money for Gambino and the other families would be enough, in practice Galante would have been the defacto boss of the family and Rastelli in prison would keep only virtually the title of boss.

Yes Furio, without a doubt. It's all about money. Spread the wealth/ keep everyone happy including your enemies

Don't? They want u out of the way so their guys can bring in the money. Personally I don't think the other families gives a shit whose boss, rather they just want someone who plays by the rules that they can deal with (monetary wise). Clearly Galante wasn't that type so with him as boss, it's her everyone's pockets

My gut feeling tells me that up until Galante's death, Galante had been planning with Bonanno in Arizona, to make a power grab......It was obvious that these 2 were extremely close AND, events just seem to prove this to be true.

Here is why I believe this:

Bonanno agreed to retire to Arizona in 1968 and, it seems like that was the plan until, 1976, when Gambino died ....In 1977 he got clipped for trying to buy up big car dealerships so he could launder mob money.....What mob money?....Isn't he retired?
I also believe that Bonanno knew a return to power was impossible with Gambino at the throne which is why Bonanno did nothing from 1968-1976...,He would have been killed by Gambino if they saw any movement from him......At least until 1977.

Enter Lilo: Galante is released in 1974, and seems to making huge leaps and bounds in wrestling control of it all. He was making buckets of money, which is what led Bonanno to try and immediately overpay for those dealerships BUT, once Galante was stopped in his tracks, Bonanno knew at that moment in 1979, his mafia life was officially over.....If the commission sent word to Bonanno in Arizona for his blessing to take out Galante, Bonanno HAD to know at that instant that his career was OFFICIALLY over.... And supposedly when they asked for his blessing, they told him to not get any bright ideas about returning to NY.

That is why he started to write his Man of Honor book and do the 60 minutes interview in 1983. It probably takes about 3 years to write and publish a book and it just seems like all the events line up to prove this was the plan.

Obviously we will never know the full truth but how else do you explain all the timing of the factual events?

that sounds plausible...ItalianIrishMix

I have often wondered what would have been different in the Bannana War if Carmine was on the street, not in jail.

He was a tough respected capo. I've read that he visited Joe in AZ after he got out too.

That's why I think it's so funny that neither joe or his son talk about Galante in their books. They act like the man didn't exist to the outside world. They don't talk about him because it was all about the drugs and joe Bonanno acts like he had no part in that.

I still.think rusty made galante his acting boss to appease him well he went to jail for a few yrs. Rusty becomes boss in 73 him and galante were both on the street in 74 and 75 so they must have meetings. He had to give balance some position cause all the rats massino lino coppa ect all said he inducted them in 1976 77 ect. The commission just open the books there gonna screen that family good.

you are absolutely right. I have read all of the bonanno books, and I can't recall one line on carmine galente, and I have read them all.

I have to agree with you, especially about old joe trying to muscle his way into a car dealership in Arizona, indeed where did he get the money, and he was supposed to be retired. great post.

Why did the Bonanno family have so few capos? The Gambinos and Genovese always had about 20. The Profacis had about 10. Even the Magaddinos had at least 8 but probably more like 12-15.

On the hearing charts there's one or two capos only. Not to mention we can't really name but three or four from the Bonanno era.

I think the commission aka bosses of the other families striped the boss so why should they listen to every capo in the family plead there case to theres a diffinit resolution. Ifalso after Colombo became boss he striped all profacis capo and started over probably he was told to by the other bosses to give him a fucked up head start as new boss. Makes sense.

Think there's a gotti tape he's says something like I'll break all the Paul's capos. But when the real bosses back before him would have left him directionlest he played it smart. Don't think he broke down any of Paul's captains.

sammy said gotti made a few moves, and replaced tony tough with sonny ciccone on the docks.

@Furio, I can't say I agree. Back then, when there was a Commission for sure, they took themselves pretty seriously as a governing body. Someone who declared themselves boss would have been whacked sooner or later, even if it took 10 years to do it.

@ItalianIrishMix, I agree with your suspicions about a Bonanno Galante conspiracy to wreak mischief. Problem is, Joe Bonanno was, as always, so well insulated from his intrigues, that it's hard for us to pinpoint his role in them. If Bonanno was consulted about the Galante hit ahead of time, that means the Commission itself might not have been certain about Bonanno's involvement in Galante's ambitions and was testing him to see which way he would answer.

@Barrett, you don't need a bunch of Capos and soldiers earning and paying tribute if your number one cash crop is narcotics and you are letting your capos deal in it.

Galante was a stronger personality and more business savvy than Rastelli.

You only have to look at how Massino was a Rastelli loyalist.

Under Rastelli's mentorship, Massino increased his own power. He played Rastelli like a fiddle in a way he wouldn't be able to do with a guy of Galante's insularity.

Look at the way Rastelli carried himself when he was on trial. The guy could barely stand up. He was a nervous wreck; not a firebrand like Galante.

You are both wrong. Galante is mentioned several times in Bill´s last book. I believe he is mentioned in "Bound by honor" too. Joe Bonanno talks about Galante in the 60 minutes interview.



The FBI didn´t develop a reliable informant within the Bonanno camp until much later. The Bonanno chart at the hearings is a joke. The Bonannos had around 15 captains in the early 1960s.

15 capos.Thats a lot of soldiers..What do you think size wise,where would they land?Did they have more soldiers than the Lucchese's and the Colombo's?
Or there is no way we can know that for sure...

^^^ Impossible to say. Joe Bonanno himself mentioned around 300 members in 1931. I would guess they had more members than the Luccheses and definitely more than the Colombos in the early 1960s.

Thank HK buddy.

Is it true that Joe Bonanno himself gave his blessing on the Galante hit?

It´s possible that he was informed about it, but his "blessings" would not have had any importance whatsoever.

I think they sent someone to Arizona to inform him about the hit. It wasn't really asking for his blessings but more like Galante is going down don't try anything funny.

Wonder what happens to his daughter guess she was a tough chick. Him and the snake plotted to have allieboy marry her and spawn some super mafia offspring.

Isnt that a video game about two Italian plumbers?

I don't understand why anyone in their right mind would inform Bonanno about the Galante hit in advance?! Doesn't make sense. They sure as heck don't need his "okay"

So perhaps it was a warning not to get involved BUT again, suppose Old man Joe decides to tip off Galante. Having a serial killer like Galante retaliating isn't a great idea if one wants to live a long life

Now, I'd understand if they sent word to Joe AFTER the hit, as a warning not to interfere nor retaliate in anyway

And Joe probably DID warn him but that wouldn't change a thing. Galante knew he had a target on his back, he had the zip faction protecting him along with his two trusted bodyguards. He was always careful and only went to trusted joints, etc with trusted people. Joe and Mary's restaurant was owned by a cousin of his if I'm not mistaken.

Galante believed they couldn't get to him since he had an army of killers, or maybe he just didn't believe the other families would really set their differences aside, get together and take him out by any means. Regardless, Joe Bonanno's warning wuldn't/couldn't make any real difference to the outcome.

Whenever I read the story that led up to the Galante assassination, it always seemed to me like New York got Sicily's permission and assistance. This because Galante's Sicilian bodyguards appear to have been in on the hit. If that is so, and Joe Bonanno was the last to find out, then Bonanno was powerless to stop what was happening. He probably got a visit, not only informing him of the hit, but also that the Sicilian mafia and everyone up in Canada was on the same page with the bosses in NY. Joe Bonanno would've nevr challenged something like that.

http://books.google.nl/books?id=jgCpxTpPCPcC&pg=PA444&dq=tieri+%2B+carmine+galante&hl=en&sa=X&ei=iqjFUvX5HJXesATbjIGwDQ&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=tieri%20%2B%20carmine%20galante&f=false im not sure if it is a good source. But it confirms what I said. However I forgot were I found this news and when I looked it up I saw it was from a blog with innaccurate information in the past so I don't know if it is to be trusted or not.

http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/death-in-the-afternoon-the-1
https://joebrunoonthemob.wordpress.com/2...ante-the-cigar/

two other sites claiming it but then again could be innaccurate

I've read a number of books that said Bonanno had his crews in CA and AZ after moving West. Remember that Joe had ties to guys all over the world, Sicily, Canada, Haiti, Mexico as well as part of the country.

Gambino may have had sway over NYC but not enough to tell Joe he could not run his crews is AZ, crews that had been in place since the 40's.

read both sites, yigido.. interesting reading, galente was certainly very feared, no doubt the reason for his death.

and both articles relate that indeed, joe bonanno was informed of the coming execution of lilo galente.