Hi,
This is my first post - I am intrigued by the 'gentle don' Angelo
bruno - was he really gentle - did he use baseball bats etc when he was younger or was he really the gentle don - all the other mob bosses seem to be stone cold killers but their does not appear to be any direct violence attributable to bruno. Can anybody fill me in

Welcome, Freddie!

It's said that Bruno was called the "gentle Don" because he ran his Phila. family in a low-key, non-histrionic way. Probably the biggest contributing factor to the nickname was how he got the Donship after Joe Ida retired in '59. His rival was Antonio Pollina, who got the nod. Pollina thought Bruno would be a rival, and ordered him whacked. But Bruno was an old pal of Carlo Gambino. He appealed to his old pal, and thanks to Gambino's influence, Bruno became the Don. But, instead of whacking Pollina, he kept him on in a subordinate role, believing it'd be good for the family.
Of course, Bruno couldn't have gotten into the Mafia, and have gotten high up, without personal violence along the way.

Thanks for that - its just that he looks so benign in the videos and pictures - but then so does carlo gambino

Some of his successors in Philly certainly did'nt look benign though eh

So far, Joe Ligambi has...he is very old school Cosa Nostra, has rebuilt/stabilized the family.

I was thinking - if i got into my car ,looked in the rear view mirror and saw angelo bruno behind me in the backseat i would not be as frightned as if it were pete clemenza or your worst nightmare - samuel 'mad sam' destefano.

I remember reading somewhere that Bruno had not allowed the Genovese Family what it felt was its proper percentage of North Jersey gambling rackets.

So the Genoveses encouraged the Bruno consigliere , Anthony "Tony Bananas" Caponigro, who also didn't care for Bruno, to set up Bruno and led Bananas to believe that he had Commission backing.

After the deed was done, the Genoveses of course denied giving any sort of permission or signal for such a crime.

Bananas and his driver were summoned to New York and promptly disposed of. The Genovese Family took over a large share of both Bruno's and Bananas' gambling businesses.

Anyone know about this?

From the Genovese family's standpoint, they had two problems. The first was competition from the Bruno family, specifically consigliere Antonio Caponigro, in New Jersey. The second was competition from the Gambino family, aided by their close ties to Bruno, in Atlantic City. In a classic double cross that would go down in mob history, they were able to solve both problems with one move. The Genovese obviously couldn't kill Bruno themselves without approval from the Commission, so they used Caponigro's own ambitiousness against him, giving him enough rope to hang himself. Angered at what he saw as a weak position by Bruno towards Atlantic City, and thinking he had approval from the Commission, he took Bruno out on March 21, 1980 in order to assume control of the Philadelphia family. Just as the Genovese family knew it would, Caponigro's brazen and unsanctioned action brought down the wrath of the Commission, and the Genovese were more than happy to take care of the problem themselves. Less than a month later after the Bruno murder, on April 17, Caponigro and his cousing Alfred Salerno were killed after attending a meeting with Genovese members. Because they had been allies of Caponigro, and before either could assume control themselves, the Gambino and Genovese families had Philadelphia captains John "Johnny Keys" Simone killed on September 19 and Frank Sindone on October 30. Afterwards, Genovese consigliere Louis "Bobby" Manna let the Philadelphia family know that the Commission supported Phil Testa as boss. However, new Philadelphia underboss Peter Casella and captain Frank Narducci had Testa killed with a bomb on March 15, 1981. Then new consigliere Nicky Scarfo didn't believe Casella's assertion that he had Commission approval and, though his close association with Bobby Manna, met with the Genovese and Gambino families who approved him as the next boss. Casella was forced to retire to Florida and Narducci was later killed on January 7, 1982. The Genovese family's close ties to Scarfo aided them on a number of fronts. They no longer had problems with competition from the Philadelphia family in New Jersey like they had before. Already the most powerful mob family in the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union, including controlling HEREU Local 69 in New Jersey, the Genovese family's relationship with Scarfo enabled them to share power with him over the union in Atlantic City. They were also able to outpace the Gambinos in establishing the largest presence of any of the New York families there.

Was Actually involved in a few hits personally in his younger days according to some. Not as gentle as the press likes to make him out to be.

I was always intrigued by bruno as well.