Funzi definitely was not scared of him, he killed some guys that were working with Galante and afterwards had Tommy Casina tell Little Moe to let Galante know that if he thought that Funzi owed him anything, that he should could come see him. As expected, Galante never followed up with Funzi. Galante was never going to hit another boss, he just wanted to keep what was a good thing going. At most he had kind of a cold war thing going with the Gambinos with regard to the drugs and the pizza shops. There is a good article on gangsters inc. that was done some years ago that sets it out pretty clearly.

As for who set up the hit, I tend to think that the Gambinos were the family most directly involved with the Rastelli loyalists given the fact that after the hit went down Bruno Indelicato and some other guys including Stevie Beefs were observed meeting with Neil Dellacroce at his club.

I just read an excerpt from Joe Coffey's book that said Rastelli was being visited by Gambino captains while in the hospital. That's also part of the puzzle that helped LE connect the dots. But again, where are the Genovese in all of this?

Rusty the boss is locked up in late 75 to 83 on extortion charges. He must have made galante his acting boss and the other bosses must have been okay with it. Galante according to fbi files and a couple turncoats inducted my guess 50 guys into the family. The old fbi file says he inducts tony mirra sonny black and al walker and others in the family dec 75. In 77 massino says he was inducted in a queens barroom with spero and the chillis. Frank lino says he inducted on his bday in october 77 with 10 others. Frank coppa was made at a different ceremony. Some guy joey damico was also made that year. So other bosses are not letting galante make all these guys if its not ok with them. I wonder what galante did to piss off traffcante that he was in on the hits. I read somewhere neil dellctoce and him hated one another and like weve seen the pics of him hugging the shooters at bis club. Maybe tony ducks had something to say or probaly that guy funzi.

I get you pmac. According to the rules, you couldn't even make a guy if the Commission disapproved.

http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/death-in-the-afternoon-the

This may be the article you speak of.

OK so I purchased the Sixth Family. I have read up to chapter 14 so far. The Galante hit is covered, and the informant is one Frank Lino.

This Lino says the actual killer of Galante was Russel Mauro. Bruno Indelicato supposedly shot Turano and Coppola, the first a cousin and made man, the second a captain, both Bonannos. Big Trin was in the restaurant keeping everyone seated. Outside of the restaurant was Massino, Phillip Giacone, JB Indelicato, and Sonny Red.

This account is a little hard to believe. According to this account of the Galante hit, you have two obese mobsters in Big Trin and Massino, with Philip Giacone, JB Indelicato, Sonny Red, Bruno Indelicato, as well as Russell Mauro all arriving by automobile.

Now while a Mercury Montego is an awfully mean looking automobile...it could probably scare the sh-t out of Cristine, it is absolutely not holding all of those people. But supposedly another car was present to block off traffic to Knickerbocker Avenue while the hit went down. All seven people could have fit into two cars.

Why did Sal Catalano lam it to Italy for a few months right after the Galante hit? He was king of the zips on Knickerbocker. What is up with the witness account of the Galante hit where someone recalled one of the shooters yelling "Get em Sal!"?

Could Catalano have been one of the shooters?

Both of Galante's bodyguards, who joined in on the shooting, Bonventre and Amato, were both Castellammarese. This links Joe Bonnano in with Galante's financial ambitions. Joe Bonnano, Carmine Galante, and Carmine Persico attempting to form an alliance.

Alpha massino said on the stand he knew but wasnt there think vitale co signed him on it or they would have caught him in lies. You figure the guy russel was a queens guy with phil lucky. Sonny red puts his kid there. Big trin is there he becomes a capo after theres probaly a stolen crash car with a driver on the street and galantes 2 body guards who never lifted theres guns. 3 shooters run in plus the 2 body guards and a get away driver would be anuff. Theres alot of linos testimony in that book i think thats were i read he said it was his bday and some zips who were inducted with him in a apartment in little italy was all in Sicilian.

Thanks pmac. Only one thing: Bonventre is positively confirmed as a shooter due to ballistics.

Also, no one mentions Santo Giordano the zip. His prints were also lifted from the blue Mercury Montego, but from the drivers side. So he is suspected of being the real driver. Because Whack Whack's prints didn't come from the drivers side, he is considered a shooter. That now makes 8 assassins. Very problematic.

I know this next question could be a new thread, but I need to ask it:

How were the Bonannos inducting Sicilian mafia men? Some say that a man of honor can only have one allegiance. That might be true, but I don't think it was/is that simple. Bonventre and Amato were both Castellammarese. Then they swore allegiance to the Castellammarese clan in NY, aka the Bonannos. What it looks like at first glance, and I know this sounds crazy, but what it looks like is that Joe Bonanno merged his family into the Sicilian mafia. Maybe Carlo [Gambino] did also. How else to resolve the divided loyalty question?

Simple. They weren't made before coming to America and so free to be inducted into the Bonannos.

Theres a good article about some old colombo soldier nick rizzo in gangland says caesar and baldo came to the us in early 70tys and worked as brick layers for him as a favor to someone in the bonannos. Then they probaly seen the guys in the life and said thats what we want like most kids. After sal toto kills that capo licata i think he takes over probaly inducted by galante then opens the floodgates to all them young zips on that ave. What did galante do in 1978 to have rusty and all the other bosses turn on him. They allowed him to induct abunch of new guys into his family 76 77 what changed after that? I think the bosses found out he was talking to old man joe in arizona partly. He went to jail for i think 1 yr on paroe violation between 7879.after his death all the loyal capos to him got broken down. Thats why massino got bumped up that guy casear big trin the young guy bruno.

@Alfa

You aren't combining the three capos hit with the Galante one are you? I ask cause you mention Massino and Giordano? I thought that was the three capo hit...

Also the 8 shooters? Did you combine em? Also Bonaventre and Amato were there already right? Guarding Galante?

Edit: I looked it up, they were all there, except the two zips were with Galante. Two cars would be enough for 6 guys right?

Also, you gotta keep reading, they address the whole divided loyalty thing in the book..

Also Alfa, from what I can gather, it took so long to hit Galante cause they needed permission from Sicily, that they weren't about to give if it upset their narcotics network.


You gotta understand, like when In the book, it says Sonny Red took a consignment and didn't feel obligated to pay. See he thought that cause he felt he outranked the Sicilians over here, and he was right,he did. But what he didn't get was that when it came to narcotics, that didn't count for shit. If it were a matter of screwing one mobster, or a small group of guys, that's one thing. But half of Palermo might have been invested in these drug shipments. To think of this as AMERICAN MAFIA PROPERTY is a fatal miscalculation of the situation.
Also, I think in D'Arcos book he said they used TWENTY-SEVEN blockers to make sure the shooters got away. And in the follow up three capo murders, they took the extraordinary step of subcontracting the burial work to a crew in another family (Gottis crew), so a lot of guys involved isn't exactly unheard of.

The thing about the merging of the families, you are preaching to the choir my man. Look at the Partnership/Partinicos, the Bonnano/Castallamarese, the Gambino/Palermo families, same god damn structure, but no one sees it it seems. And today you have the Gambinos trying to duplicate this with Calabrese gangsters. And the common denominator is narcotics. It's hard to see if you follow the MAFIA, but if you follow the narcotics industry, you start to see repeating patterns, repeating structures, regardless of ethnicity or whatever.

That would certainly have to be the case. I considered that. It just seems like there is something more going on there, a merger of sorts. Just wanted to mention that.

Here's another thing. The Zips were in many cases....illegal aliens. They were brought in to move contraband for the bosses back in Europe and in New York. Their deportation was anticipated. Therefore, why make them Bonanno men? What you end up with is a bunch of Bonanno soldiers, and in some cases captains, deported to Italy. When there, they join back up with the mafia there. It had to be anticipated, that they'd eventually be deported and have to answer to a Sicilian, not the New York Bonannos. It's like one organization, one family.

Joe Bonanno I believe was present when the meeting was called to form the Cupola. Could he have been a member is all I am saying. I know no one really knows, so I won't keep going on about it.

If Sonny Red really did that, that was crazy. But a lot of times what it seems like is they come up with excuses for why they hit someone after the fact. Like Anastasia. I don't for one second believe he was whacked for selling memberships. That's an excuse. It might be a made up accusation that he stole a Sicilian consignment. As a matter of fact, it makes no sense, because weren't the three capos killed over drugs? This means the three capos wanted to be the masters of their own Sicilian connections. Stealing from those connections would be counterproductive.

The only people that are really connected to the Galante hit, evidence wise are who? Santo Giordano, Bruno, and Bonventre. And we know Salvatore Catalano lammed it back to Italy for a few months after the hit.

Licata apparently wasn't aware of what the Bonanno leadership had decided to do in partnership with Sicilian mafia and the Zips. It looks like he got bumped off when he somehow got in the way. captain or no captain, he wasn't told.

Galante earned his enemies. He was whacking Gambinos. That'll do it.

In my opinion it is very likely Galante was in league with Joe Bonanno. Joe Bonanno might have even been the one who put Galante up to it, to take over the Canadian to US heroin trade. As a matter of fact, Joe Bonanno being run out of New York...was probably trying to get Montreal back. When Joe got run out on a rail, he was probably kicked out of the Canadian-US border heroin racket too. Obviously Galante would be an in for him to return through a back door.

Galante's ally, Persico, was boss of the same family Bonanno aligned himself with...the Profacis. Just an observation. Galante likely was antagonistic to all of Joe Bonannos old enemies. Problem was, Galante was outnumbered on the Commission the same way Joe Bonanno was.

Alpha that guy santo was a shooter in the 3 capo hit. Hes the won the accendtly got shot and crippled then died like 20yrs later in a plane crash in montreal i think i read. He was a avid small plane flight guy. Guess your legs dont work and you put in some many hits for the family they buy you a small plane. Sixth family was a good book i read that at myrtle beach when i first joined the board probaly 5yrs ago. But how the Canadian author thought all rizzuto family and guys jn the book were untouchable. Like everyone has been killed. Thats not organized crime up there thats a clusterfuck they were doing 1000times better under the bonanno family before massino fliped. I still think the whole enigma of them being a satellite of the 5familys helped them. Today thats gone correct?

For sure P. They must've lost their leadership in Canada when the Bonannos partially collapsed. No choice but to go it alone.

Santo Giordano is definitely listed in The Sixth Family as the owner of one of the fingerprints on the shooters getaway car from the Galante hit. I double checked it after Cabrini asked about it. What it clearly looks like is: Santo was the driver of the blue Mercury Montego.

If Giordano was a pilot, he probably was pulling a Barry Seal using his plane for transport of you know what.

@ pmac
I get what you mean, but this is the thing, I think it's shortsighted to say they aren't organized crime. Outside of a blood oath and burning Saint card, I can't see what exactly you think they CANT do. Run a sports book? Corrupt politicians? Secure public works contracts, white collar type corruption? If you are talking about just a codified hierarchy, I mean, sometimes I don't get you guys on here.


I could give you guys a street gang with a hierarchy, and 3000 members, but I guarantee you will say, no, it's not organized crime. I give you a family clan with 30- 40 core members moving a thousand kids a month, laundering untold millions, corrupting all kinds of politicians, and it's like, no it's not organized crime. And this is solely based off a comparison with NY Cosa Nostra, you can't seriously believe it's the ONLY CRIMINAL ORGANIZATION IN THE WORLD, right?

The Mexican cartels aren't OC. Doesn't that sound silly? See I've said before these Italian groups from Italy more resemble Latin American crime syndicates more than American Cosa Nostra. They are more drug cartel first, extortion syndicate second, just like the prohibition era gangs were liquor merchants first, gambling and all that came after they got the funds. The prohibition era gangs LOOK LIKE THE DRUG CARTELS, key difference, no family members.( And actually, consider the Genna family....)

Did you take a look at the Map of Italian families strax put up? Sicily has like 161 families? Sicily is tiny. Every family can't have 150 members and 1500 associates. I would bet you a VAST MAJORITY of them don't fit your definition of OC. Same for most Calabrian clans, and probably Naples clans too. Ditto for the gangs of Rome. Hell, the Russians too. Now, we aren't going to sit here and say there is no ORGANIZED CRIME IN ITALY CAUSE THE SYNDICATES DONT LOOK LIKE THE FIVE FAMILIES? Italy might be the FUCKIN CAPITOL OF ORGANIZED CRIME LOL


For me American LCN is most comparable to like, the Japanese Yakuza. Large organization, with a codified hierarchy, initiation rituals, integrated into the mainstream business and corporate structure, largely out in the open, accepted by society. Most their income from gambling and extortion, infiltration of public works and such, sound familiar?



It's like saying Luciano NEEDED the mafia structure to be successful, or move liquor. Like he couldn't charter shipments from Europe, get the the stuff ashore. Keep a tight trucking schedule to get the stuff to his distributors. Like Costello couldn't bribe anyone without the mafia telling him how, or run a gambling operation. They were doing all this stuff, BEFORE they joined the mafia, with a small core group of key gangsters, I am so serious, if you do a comparison they look like these drug clans, again just no family members. (I think this came later, as they began to understand that they needed product and trust, nothing else) In fact, the fact that they were SO organized was what made em attractive to the Cosa Nostra.

This is why I recommended The Sixth Family, it explains how all of this rigid hierarchy and rules becomes an impediment to business. And understand, these mafia rules and regulations are a pain for a mafia business man the same as government rules and regulations are a pain for legit businessmen. It's the flip side of the same coin.
Edit: ( This was something else they dramatized on the TV show Gommorah, they had a Calabrese gangster in the second season who was chafing under the Ndrangheta leadership cause he had to get permission for every little thing or move he wanted to make. They wacked him, sorry for the spoiler lol)

My last point made clear in the Sixth Family book, GLOBALIZATION. HUGE RAMIFICATIONS ON NOT JUST OC, but business in general. The lean structure of these gangs reflect a need to be everywhere in the world. These guys do business on the phone and on planes. A single neighborhood, he'll even a single city is just too damn small. Sticking to one ethnic group for business, too damn small for guys like Luciano or Rizzuto.


That TV show Gommorah demonstrated this dramatically during the second season. The kids father is obsessed with controlling his neighborhood stronghold, but the son had a direct connection, and had the capacity to ship cocaine around the world. He was like, basically unconcerned with the territory, indeed, he didn't even need a gang as no one dared touch him for fear of killing the money train. ( similar to the Galante situation) And he was basically above everyone, while they killed each other fighting over the turf, and the right to move his product. His pops was stuck in the past.....

Also, as far as Galante making guys and whatnot, I think that was Nicky Marangelo, the underboss and Mike Sabella who let him get away with playing boss when he wasn't.



They narrowly escaped death and got shelved as a result.


Major difference between the Gambino Sicilian heroin group and the Bonnano group is the Gambinos seemed to have absolutely NO INTERESTS in the Gambino hierarchy, only moving dope and money. There were no senior Gambinos trying to muscle them or skim a piece,they KNEW better. Shit Bruno was a Boss and he knew to just take his cut and shut the fuck up.

Do you guys think Pasquale Contes operation was an independent one? He seemed to answer to Paul, not the Cherry hill guys, or Sicily. I guess he was in charge of American crew of Sicilian guys? He has kinda always been an enigma to me, was he part of the Pizza thing, or something entirely different? I could never figure out....

@ Alfa

I wholeheartedly agree the Anastasia membership thing has always struck me as completely ridiculous. It's one of those cases where I really feel like history got it wrong, it just makes no sense. Like you said' these guys had to get vetted right? You can't even introduce another mobster without a previous association and three people, and they weren't just letting anyone in were they?

How the fuck does anyone SNEAK, like 50 guys past the Commision? Only thing I can think of is that Costello needed him as an Ally so bad that he tolerated it, and ran interference with the other Commision members. He DID after all, overlook mafia rules and ok Manganos murder... And he was of the Luciano school, business before all. Just a thought...

Okay, finally I found the excerpt I've been looking for, it explain why I believe in the 70- mid 80s,the Gambinos were the top family in my opinion, also note the name Vito Ciancimino, there is a documentary up in a thread right now explaining how this guy was THE MAFIA POLITICIAN, like this group was the POWER in Sicily, combined with an American mafia family. What equivalent did the Genovese or any other family have in Sicily like this? If you discount the Sicilian component, you only see half the family.




Heroin trafficking
In the 1970s, like many Sicilian mafiosi, Inzerillo got involved in heroin trafficking. The Inzerillo-clan allied with relatives in Sicily such as the Spatola and Di Maggio families and other Mafia clans like the one ruled by Stefano Bontade.

The Inzerillo-Spatola-Di Maggio-Gambino network and other Sicilian suppliers dominated heroin trafficking since the mid-1970s until the mid-1980s when US and Italian law enforcement were able to significantly reduce the heroin supply of the Sicilian Mafia (the so-called Pizza Connection).

THIS IS THE IMPORTANT PART HERE, THEY MAKE NO DISTINCTION, THEY TREAT IT LIKE ONE FAMILY...


According to the Palermo prosecuting office: "These four families, living partly in Sicily and partly in New York, form a single clan unlike anything in Italy or the United States � the most potent family in Cosa Nostra.






John Gambino is the converging point in the United States for all of the group�s activities in Italy, and the final destination for its drug shipments. Salvatore Inzerillo has emerged as the Gambino brothers� principal interlocutor, the central personage in Sicily, with myriads interests and heavy capital investments. � Rosario Spatola is just below them in structure."

Salvatore Inzerillo coordinated most of the heroin trafficking to the US for the Mafia families involved. They supplied the Sicilian faction of Gambino Family � the so-called Cherry Hill Gambino�s who were related to the Inzerillo�s � in New York through Inzerillo�s cousins John, Giuseppe and Rosario Gambino with heroin that was refined in laboratories on Sicily from Turkish morphine base. According to Giovanni Falcone, the investigating magistrate who was assigned the investigation into heroin trafficking case, the group had made about US$600 million. The proceeds were re-invested in real estate. Inzerillo's brother-in-law, Rosario Spatola, who in his youth peddled watered milk in the streets of Palermo, became Palermo�s largest building contractor and biggest taxpayer of Sicily, thanks to his close relationship with Christian Democrat politician Vito Ciancimino.

This also helps to explain why I believe they are trying to reactivate this structure today with Calabrian gangsters. An organization that reflects the reality of Globalization in this day and age.....

Couple weeks ago, antimafia had a post about Paulo Gambino meeting with Toronto mobsters in 1970, and one was a man with the surname Adamita. Now read this article closely and look at the connections HISTORICALLY, these are NOT NEW DEVEOLOPMENTS, but a continuation of something they have been doing for DECADES...


http://www.repubblica.it/2008/01/sezioni...oy-english.html

Patsy Conte's an interesting figure. I'm inclined to believe he was part of the Pizza Connection thing. He was charged with being involved in the murder of Pietro Alfano, a defendant in the Pizza Connection trial. The charges were dropped later though.

Must have been worth a lot. DiLeonardo testified that Patsy Conte was an "international heroin dealer, probably one of the biggest in the world at that time" (1989). On top of that he had supermarkets and was involved in construction. Still alive I think.

One family with more than one boss.

Being as Tommy Lucchese and Carlo Gambino's progeny intermarried, you can add the Lucchese family in there too. Lucchese might have been a wannabe in the scheme of the interrelated Gambino clans, but he was a successful wannabe.

You're very right. Just like NY needed to line up interests with bosses in Sicily to take Galante down, the Canadian bosses/captains lost their legitimacy in the eyes of their local competitors when their foreign padrones collapsed.

In other words, the Canadian hot war ran in tandem with a cold war in two other countries and another continent.

Likewise the conflict between Galante/Bonanno/Persico versus the rest of the Commission IE Tieri-Castellano-Corallo was a hot war mirroring whatever cold war that was being waged by the Inzerillo-Di Maggio-Gambino group against the Castellemarese and whatever other clans were with them. I'm making educated guesses here only.

I don't get how they were better off when they cut ties back in like 1999?
After Sciascias murder right?

And why would they be better off? If that's the case why were they so resistant to Montagna in Canada?

They were primarily a narcotics syndicate, I can't really see at that point what Bonnano affiliation would have done for em, or WAS doing for em.

Let me ask this, who were the Montrealers dealing with in NY after Sciascia got killed? Did they still work with the Bonnanos, or not, or another family? I was under the impression that they diversified their narcotics business to be less dependent on NY. ( Prime example is the hashish market) Did they still get a majority of their money in NY, cause I thought it was Montreal and Europe.

If you count Sciascias murder, Massino flipping, and Montagna sticking his nose in, NY was nothing but problems for these people, you could say NY is SOLEY RESPONSIBLE for shit falling apart up there, think about it....

You gotta remember Cabrini, I'm reading 6th Family now. You already finished. I intend to revisit this thread with some interesting analysis, such as the observation that Rusty must have been only an acting Boss to be challenged by both Galante and the 3 Capos. [I actually have a lot of circumstantial fact to back that assertion.] But some of your questions are a little advanced for me right now so please bear with me.

Oh, okay , I got you Alfa. I look forward to hearing your take on all this, I'll keep a look out for your post.

You enjoying the Sixth Family?

Think it was viloi lr cotroni caught on a wiretap talking about going to nyc in 1974 and having a capos vote for rusty to be boss then theres fat tony on wire like 84 saying fine rusty can be boss of that family but he doesnt have a vote on the commission. Cause of the joe pistone thing. Rusty proposed massino and galante inducted the guys rusty put up well he was in jail. Think after 1977 galante started positioning himself for the official chair. Rusty wasnt getting out for 5more years. They say that nicky glasses switched sides on galante and visted rusty in jail so was massino.

You think rusty or galante gave rizzuto the ok to kill violi? I bet it was both but rusty had the final say.