Did Galante even have a crew?

He was underboss when he went inside and did a long stretch. By time he got out most of the guys in his era were either dead in jail or retired

When he got whacked he was only with his cousin (owner) and Coppola... Plus his two zip bodyguards (were they his only crew members)

And he just went around bullying the other captains who were all deathly afraid of one man. And that is why he was so easily crushed with zero retribution once he was taken care of

I know he was close to a few captains like Mike Sabella so perhaps that was his power base relying on the crews of guys supposedly under him as opposed to having a large crew himself (like Gotti) he took out Paulie and even when Paul was alive... Chin and Paul had a pact to kill all drug dealers

But other than having Neil as support/ even after Neil died nobody could easily make a move on Gotti due to the number of guys he had behind him.... That's where Galante went wrong, he thought he alone was sufficient to take on anyone due to his reputation alone

SPERO might have been with him. lilo, spero stayed at a bar on bath ave called the magic lantern

He probably did at one time but whacking your own guys probably isn't good for friendship and loyalty.

Joey B was his main man! Even though he was outcasted to Arizona.

Tony that's a good question that was never really made clear..like Lilo got out in 74 and was clipped in 79..thats 5 yrs of him bullying that family and others..one would think he had an army of wiseguys and more than just Sabellas Little Italy crew backing him no? Did he have unwavering support from the UB Marangello? Or Stevie Beef Cannone the consigliere? Idk bout Nicky glasses but Stevie Beef was def in on the hit as evidenced by him hugging Bruno and Sonny Red outside the Ravenite an hour after the hits captured on the FBI surveillance photos? Who else was backing Galante that allowed him to remain in power for 5 yrs?

Mob docs and certain books like Raabs 5 families always mention Lilo had an army of zips imported and loyal to him? The only 3 I've ever read about are Sal Catalano, Cesar Bonventre and Baldo Amato??Anyone know of anyone else in this supposed Army lfe Sicilians?

Y'all gotta understand, the army of zips was NOT HIS STRENGTH, his strength was his control of Montreal, thus controlling the gateway for heroin, thus controlling a huge money faucet.
He was a Sollozzo, and Sollozo didn't have a crew that we saw, but he had the backing of two families because they knew they could make a lot of money with him.

What did Galante in was one, he didn't want to share, and two, he got replaced by Nicola and Vito Rizzuto in Montreal, So, he wasn't needed anymore.
He became as much of an impediment as Violi in Canada.See Galante was representing the Sicilians, so fucking with Galante meant challenging the Sicilians. And by Sicilians, I mean the whole French connection, heroin operation, these guys were representing whole families in Sicily, it wasn't just about an upstart capo, same way dealing with Sollozo meant dealing with half the commission. Only bigger, cause the whole Sicilian commission was invested in these drug crews moving narcotics. Same thing killed Galante killed the three capos... In Sixth family, it says Sonny Red took a 1.5 million consignment then decided he didn't have to pay. I think he thought he's gonna be boss soon, so he didn't have to pay an underling he outranked. But he was taking from Sicilian bosses who invested in that shipment. Notice the Gambinos signed off and became the principal distributors.


The book The Sixth Family does a better job of explaining this, it wasn't really the BONNANO FAMILY's heroin trade, it was the SICILIAN MAFIA's HEROIN TRADE, in partnership with the bonnanos since that 57 meeting in Palermo,I think the families were afraid of losing a potential source of revenue, more than scared of Galante... Any thoughts?

Thanks to Barbarian from RD forum

Michael Zaffarano
Joseph Notaro
Peter Notaro
Michael Consolo
Frank Presanzano
Angelo Presanzano
Joseph Zicarelli
Peter Policastro
Anthony Riela
Vito DeFilippo
Armando Pollastrino
Frank Bonomo
Salvatore Giglio
Mike Sabella
Philip Rastelli
Nicky Marangello
Frank Mari

Montreal was definitely a factor for Galante's power and influence. Vic Cotroni was godfather to one of Galante's children. I think Galante was in a position to request assistance from Montreal when he needed it.

Great point about Montreal, Canada was always a hotspot going back to
Joe Bonanno (when his cousin accused him
of planting flags all over the place) and muscling in on Montreal

Problem is though, Galante needed power from within and with that I mean NYC. It's no good having a small army several hundred miles away/ who will not go to bat for u

I'd say you nailed it with this explanation, well said. This is one of those historical situations that seems shrouded in mystery but really isn't. There was a simpleness at play here that worked too well to do anything about. Too much money was being made and not enough high ranking members of any family were openly trafficking enough to warrant Galante being challenged until regime changes within the Bonnano's and the zips representing Sicily mandated his removal and replacement.

Couldn't have summed it up any better, well said as well my man....

Very well said Cabrini..I have also conjured the same thoughts..

As an example of guys who didn't fear Galante, you guys ever heard the story, (actually I'm sure Bronx has, lol) about how the "Flying Consalvo's" were killed on orders,from Funzi Tieri as a message to Galante? And then had the balls to put word out" Tell Lilo if he's owed anything, come see me..." Basically like, I fuckin dare you to retaliate...

Cabrini, ? i'm lost on how you mention me.... where did you hear that story about funzuale?

Actually not really. The guys he had around him in NY, almost all of them also had connections to Canada. Vito DeFillipo for example was very close to Galante at one point and he had connections in Montreal and Toronto with Paul Volpe. Galante's power post prison was largely the Cotroni organization. He managed to corrupt the likes of Nicky Glasses and some of those other guys through fear of his reputation and ability to basically call on Canada , and the two zips whom he always had with him. But they followed the money, and also had ties to the Sicilians in Canada. When the Cotronis were eliminated, so was Galante not too long after. And it was easy to do because he really had no NY power base. Galantes power was the fact that he was essentially the point man for the heroin in NY. So the other families had to go through him and the Bonannos for access to the heroin racket. For all intents and purposes, you let that guy live until you develop your own access point to those who are bringing the drugs into North America. And after the Cotronis and Violi were eliminated and the Sicilians in Montreal became the dominant traffickers, there wasn't a need for Galante, and you saw what happened. Its exactly how Cabrini said it was.

Excellent points, I see now what u lot mean in reference to Galante being the point man up until he lost his power (Controni's) eliminated

Interesting story about the "flying Consalvos". Tieri wasn't acting alone though, he had commission approval and backing.

Galante was involved in 50 hits as well that one top hitter

Is it actually true that lilo blew up costello's resting place when he got out of the can?

Idk about that one. And the amount of hits can always be questioned when the numbers are high like that. For example, Anastasia, is said to have hit like 300 guys or whatever, that amount can also be questioned. Galante was definitely a killer, but in order to verify the 50 hits thing, you'd have to connect him to actual victims, which is hard to do.

He definitely was a crazed madman.

If they're saying 50 in reality it's more like 25... But it's possible, similar to how Sammy had more than 20... Most of them he wasn't directly involved... Maybe just consulted on... Etc

Sonny Franzese has hit dozens of guys and he's spent nearly half his life in jail. Most of them were personally done by him too if we are to believe...

So if he would have shared some of the profits with Paul and the Chin , he might have lived ?

I agree, one thing that also supports this is the minor "pizza-shop war" between Galante and Gambinos after he got out that reportedly forced many Gambino guys out the business, but as soon a Galante is dead many Gambino guys (Gotti, Demeo etc.) got right back in to the drug business, this time mostly cocaine. By this time there is an alternate source of heroin from SE Asia and was cocaine was more popular anyway.

He Said he was involved in 50 hits that could mean being the shooter the driver or setting the hit up . I am sure he was the shooter on many of them

What a great example of Mafia politics.

Just DVR'd the AHC channel documentary on him. Not a big fan of these things. Mostly cheesy reenactments. But I'll give it a look. I've heard some twisted things about this guy. Is it true he'd kidnap black guys to test his drugs on them?