The most competent Bonanno boss

I've heard people say Joe Bonanno was the worst leader. Leaves me a little baffled. What do you guys say?

I put Spero in there because he was acting boss for a while and was a highly influential leader.

Voted Massino, not counting him flipping. Probably not fair criteria but as boss, he was one of the best of the modern era.

Bonnano.

Boss for close to 40years.

I wasn't sure if I should've put Massino in there because he flipped, but yeah he was certainly a very good leader before that.

Yeah it's a tough call. He was probably the best boss from the 80s-2000s besides Chin.

Massino flipping negates anything he previously did. In my opinion.

Massino all day long . If he hadn't have flipped would have gone down as one of the greatest bosses of all time

The fact that I can enter a google search or open a book and know all of that's borgata's history is a reason enough to know that they are all failures.

Ahhh..A Genovese fan boy from hell. DIE!

So you're saying if he hadn't almost destroyed the borgota he would've been the best boss.
If he hadn't done the absolute worst thing he'd be the best.

Hmmm. Not sure that logic holds up.

Considering compared to Bonanno. Ran a borgota for 4 decades and lived out his days in his own bed.
Not sure how it's even a comparison.

What massino did with the family in the 90s was nothing short of phenomenal, the bonnanos considered the smallest of the 5 families were built up by massino to arguably one of the most powerful. Massino closed all the social clubs, stopped members from going to weddings and funerals and even got there seat back on the commission.

It still amazes me how people still compare bosses from the 40s 50s and 60s to the present day , modern day bosses like gotti , gigante , and massino had it far tougher than the likes of bonnano , gambino and lucchese , back then the Feds barely knew the mob existed let alone go after them . There was no Rico , no safety net of witness protection , no stiff penalties for drug dealing , no wiretaps and hardly any surveillance and hardly any rats , they had a free run . To compare bosses from back then to bosses of the modern era is naive , do u not thinking the the Feds back then had the resources and technology they have today that they wouldn't have got prosecutions and guys flipping left and right ?? Guys like accardo and gambino would have ended up in the same place as gigante , amuso and gotti . JAIL .

Yeah Bonanno flipped but after the commission case was the only boss on the street and rebuilted the bonanno after the Donnie Brasco case, reported the family in the commission and in a case always successe to take the ok for made 10 men in s single ceremony.
Bonanno was boss for 40 y but wanted to left the power to his son and started a war and was force to go in exile in Arizona. Rastelli was for the most part of his reign in prison,Galante was the de facto boss but his greedy led to his dead.
So for me Massino,he received a family in bad situation and rebuilt it while the other bosses after bonanno ruined it.
Basciano was acting boss only for a while.

NONE...

Could always go with Joe Bonnano if you're willing to overlook the stupid book, but I go Galante.

lol, okay.

Trying to choose the most competent Bonanno boss is like trying to choose the least diabetic mobster, or mobster with the smallest nose or mobster with the best hairpiece.

It's impossible.

Good point.



A compelling argument can be made that it was circumstance, not Massino that enabled the Bonannos to rebuild.
Closing social clubs, preventing members from going to weddings and funerals have nothing to do with the Feds depriotising them.
More likely the growth and stability was due to not having a seat on the commission as a result of Pistone and Drugs which enabled the family to skirt the commission and concrete club convictions and directed the Feds attention elsewhere.
When federal attention finally turned their way they collapsed like a house of cards.
Vitale flipping can be seen as the catalyst and his decision to roll can be payed directly at Massino's feet. His decision to shelve Sal led to Sal rolling and the dominos of collapse that ensued.
So Massino it can be argued was not so much personally responsible for the growth and stability and caused the family to implode by his decisions with his final one to rat himself.

Find it hard to support a case for best boss ever, personally I think he is at the other end of the scale.

+1 massimo got lucky. When massimo took over the feds had sqauds for every family except the Bonannos who shared theres with another sqaud only in the late 90s did the Bonannos get there own sqaud which they shared with the decavs i think


Look at the guys around him aswell his trusted guys all flipped as soon as there was heat one of his capos and vitale was his own mistake weeks before they all got busted guys were caught on tape saying they cant understand why vitale was made number 2 and he should be killed they were right he flipped as soon as there was heat

That was joeys hierachy he killed geogre S that was hardly showing smarts.


and the guy was a rat end of does not matter if he had been the greatest boss ever he flipped disgraced the family and made them into the laughing stock of the 21st century. The psychological damage of him the head of the commission official boss of the Bonanno mafia flipping can never be repaired the entire mafia was shaken when he flipped it was not just the Bonannos who felt it gambinos westside they all did

Other familys lost respect massimo left them in a worse situation than when he took over that in my eyes does not make a him a good boss one of the worst ever

It's been a long time since Joey Massino flipped. The Bonannos may have been a laughing stock at that particular time, but I tend to doubt they are viewed that way today. What this guy did is what he did. You're gonna view Joe C in a different light because of Massino? What about Porky? Louie DeCicco? Vinny TV? That doesn't make any sense. I agree that Massino was a disgrace, but he doesn't define who they are today. Not saying they are the perfect family.

your missing the point Joey massimo cant be a good boss he was a rat the damage psychologically he did to the mafia and to the Bonanno family is irreversible for someone like him to flip was shocking guys were caught on tape they were shocked.

The knock on effect of massimo and his hierachy all flipping hurt them bad that family for several years were seeing leading mobsters getting indicted all over the place it was a mess. That family is a mess compared to what it was and guys like joe C why would i look at them in a different light not there fault massimo and his leadership all of them massimos guys flipped.

No adminstration has lasted long there has been infighting tension in that family last year feds arrested street boss john pallazo for trying to start a war there knock on effect of those guys flipping is there all of the problems that family has had is linked back to massimo and those guys flipping

That family is still not the same never will be massimo and that leadership flipping that family has never been the same the knock on effect is still being felt today

I have no clue on the answer but Massino was the worst boss in CN history. Thats the way he chose it to be and his name should not be on that list, that's just the game .

^^Well put Dom!

You do have a point. I'm not saying you don't. And I agree that Massino almost destroyed the family. He is the worst boss in the history of that family because he flipped. I agree with that! But we're also looking at what he did before he flipped. If he hadn't flipped then how would you view him?

You're right. It's not easy to include someone like Massino. I feel I was wrong and right. Wrong because he almost decapitated the family, but right because there's a few people who understand what he did before he made that decision. It comes down to a perspective. Both perspectives are interesting.

True - I guess looking at it in real life- the game vs. non real life - vid game

My opinion it would be joe b, but he wrote that book guliani used to cripple the mob until today. massino ratted nothing to say there. galante was never boss, spero acting .rusty by default..vinny only there for a minute. rusty and joe killed a lot of good guys..that family was and is a mess. i can not vote..

exactly my point ralphie

Bonanno was the most influential and connected boss. None of the other bosses besides Galante (which he wasn't officially), had the political and business connections Bonanno had. Bonanno really didn't have any missteps until Appalachian, then Luchese and Gambino started maneuvering for Commission control and it kind of went downhill from there. Would of been a lot different if Columbo filled that contract instead of snitching.

Bonanno's book was a mistake, he said so much himself right before he was sentenced to almost 2 years for contempt for refusing to testify at the Commission trial. Massino shouldn't be on the ballot, he went full rat.

Galante hands down !

Galante hands down !

I'd wager on Joe Bananas, with Big Joey a 2nd if he hadn't ratted out his fellow mobsters.

Gotta respect how he pulled them out of the gutter in the day and age but a boss, telling? Fuck outta here. He's the biggest hoe on the block.

Galante inducted so manyguys in 76 77 he revived the family to take it into the 21centuary. Massino must want no part of a book or interviews. Hes been out 5 yrs. Id bet mobsters around nyc no were he is. Probaly myrtle beach they put alot there.

I voted Bonanno. Even though mobsters had it easier in the early days when it came to law enforcement, they still had to deal with each other. Bonanno was able to take over a family at just 26 and maintain power for about 30 years. He made some blunders in the 60s, but was still wily enough to come out unscathed and retire.

SonnyBlackstein outlined in an earlier post why Massino doesn't get the vote. While he did rebuild the family, when the heat was on they all folded like a house of cards.

Maybe not the most competent boss, but Salvatore Montagna was an interesting (acting) boss.

Apart from the big SNAFU he had with the Commission in 1964 (when he tried to become the boss of bosses by having Gambino, Lucchese and his cousin rubbed out; Genovese was in the can at the time, so he wouldn't be much of a trouble), and the tell-all book he wrote (which was used in the Commission Case) I'd say Joe Bananas was the most competent of all the family bosses. Points to note:
-Rising up the mafia ranks very quickly was a rare feat, and so is becoming boss at the age of 26.
-40+ year mob career (6-7 years as Maranzano's right-hand man, and 30+ years as boss) is very rare
-Very smart, shrewd for his age
-Even after writing a tell-all book, refusing to talk to Giuliani about this and spending 2 years in the slammer for OOJ, and not facing any retaliation from New York for his book (perhaps he was the only one of the original five bosses alive at the time) really tells me something about Bonanno