You write a lot Cabrini, and I enjoy reading it. But I'll try to reply to specific points to try and explain why I stand where I stand...



What the Sixth Family author tried to say, at least how I am reading it, is that all of the Italian OC groups in Canada acted "under the banner of" and "under the auspices of", Vito Rizzuto. I don't believe this. The N'Dranghetta were/are their own people. Panepinto got hit because he crossed them and Vito could do nothing to protect him.




Yes it was. It was also in the book that Massino went to very great lengths to make it look like a drug deal gone bad, instead of taking credit for the hit. Massino had no excuse he felt would satisfy all concerned, so he made a big show making it look like they were hunting for the killers, etc etc etc. The reason you cite above I believe to be one of those excuses used after the fact to justify a murder that took place for other reasons. It could be true. Maybe. Whatever the motivation was, Massino evidently didn't think it would go over very well, with anyone, in New York or Canada. But isn't it also awfully convenient that after George from Canada was taken out, that supposedly no New York Bonanno had any links to the Canadian smuggling. That sounds like great legal strategy is what it sounds like.



The book says he was subservient to Vito. That's a claim I don't see proof for. And if Sciascia was buying narcotics for the Gambinos...he was using their money, not his. These people were just messengers.



Yes, described as his underboss...only by the book. Remember, before George was whacked, there was no disagreement among any quarter about whether the Canadian crew was subservient to the Bonannos or not. Therefore there is no way, under a Bonanno administration, that George could be Underboss to Vito, or even that Vito could be a real boss. Vito was only a boss in Canada and only after George was out of the picture. I'm thinking a boss like Scarfo, Stanfa, or any other small family that answers to a full fledged member of the Commission.



For me to buy that, I'd need to be convinced that Vito Rizzuto pulled a Galante and seized the Canadian pipeline all for himself, as well as the business contacts of the Bonannos that were sending "weight" into Canada for Vito to reroute into the States. I just can't buy it. Ties could not have actually been severed.




No disrespect to Montagna, but I don't really see where he fits in at all. Maybe I just haven't read that far?




You said it yourself...BEFORE Sciascia was hit, Vito was this big gigantic boss and Sciascia was his number two. But the book says that up until George was whacked, envelopes were going down to NY from Canada. Vito was paying tribute. Yes, he was.

Why would he? Because he had like 19 made men, versus what? 150? Fughettabouttit



The book says Massino was upset about that. Supposedly he said something like "you shouldn't have asked. You should have told him he was capo."



Joe Bonanno wasn't the only Sicilian. The book goes deep into Agrigento, specifically, Cattolica Eraclea. Guess who else's family came from Agrigento? That's right, Sonny Red and Whack Whack. And Whack Whack plus Tommy Karate went with a third individual up to Canada once, on Massino's behalf, to line those people up. Look, Joe Bonanno had the Sicilian contacts, but the Commission told him to buzz off. They seized the pipeline....and the contacts. Then he probably tried to get back in through Galante. Old story. Long story short, many people had blood ties on the other side of the Atlantic, not only Joe Bonanno or Vito Rizzuto.



Not sure what you're asking here.



Massino was observed in a supervisory role. Supposedly he was the only one left in the room with the victims after the shooting stopped and the killers lammed it. He wanted to make sure his opponents were truly vanquished. At that time he was probably the strongest capo, and the voice of Rusty.



stop it!




Vito had to jump his ass out that closet or Massino would have had him whacked. That's the real politics of it.




Vito didn't own anything. He didn't own the buying or the selling. He was just a smuggler who was paid a percentage of every deal that successfully completed. The book makes it clear, in one particular paragraph, that Vito never actually used his own money. However it worked out, whether he was importing on credit or whatever, it wasn't his dope he was bringing into the Canadian harbor and moving into the United States. It belonged to Bonanno Enterprises International, a much bigger corporation than he. The right word to use to describe Vito and his role is importer. The book puts it like this...

"Vito never put a dime of his own money into a deal. It was always somebody else's money but he would end up with 60 percent of the product."

Now if you are your own boss, you are using your own money. Period.



Of course not. But the Caruana and C[unt]rera mafia families were independent middlemen. Alfonso Caruana was no Satellite. They used their own financing to move contraband from say South America up into probably Canada. They were owners. They were not being paid a percentage of what they could move for someone else. They bought on one end, owned, and then sold what was owned on the other. All of the major Cosa Nostra families of the United States were customers. Whoever could afford to pay was allowed to buy.




No one. It would be very foolish to have both money and contraband in the same room exchanging hands at the same moment, like in a movie. Very foolish. Foolish for far too many reasons to enumerate.




When you really sit down and question just what the financial relationship between the Canadian crew and the Bonanno family was, back when the Canada crew was inarguably just a satellite, you really can't come to any other conclusion. A soldier is not buying from foreign exporters with his own money and then selling to HIS bosses. He is kicking up, period. If I'm your boss, I am not buying from you. You are selling for me. All profit you make is already mine. You pay tax. So after I buy from you and you make a profit, you gotta pay me tribute out of your cut? How does that work?



Many came from Agrigento. Sonny Red, Whack whack, etc. That doesn't make you automatically a boss.



I read somewhere that the Caruana C[untrera mafias supplied USA mafia families. The Colombians were the producers. The Caruana C[untreras were wholesalers. The mafia families of the USA, imported and distributed down to the retailers. Vito was a high level smuggler that assisted in importation. High level only because he never touched the stuff. Where did the Bonannos get the money to finance someone like Vito Rizzuto's importation operation? Construction? Unions? Gambling? Everyone in the family kicked up to Rastelli...therefore he had plenty of money to invest.




The book gives an anticlimactic explanation actually. It says that someone found out the three capos would be armed for a meeting. That is supposedly when after Massino found out, he went to the Commission for permission. But the weapons were for self defense. Massino made it sound like they had to defend themselves with a preemptive strike against guys who were only arming themselves out of caution. We can only speculate. It could have been fear or greed. Maybe they thought they could vote in a new Boss and replace Rastelli if they had a majority of the Capos voting in their favor. Does any commentary anywhere definitively say if the 3 capos stopped paying tribute? If they were paying tribute, then their rebellion was purely an academic exercise. In such a case that kind of rebellion is like illegally calling a vote for a new boss...which is a far cry from an armed uprising. Now if they stopped paying trubute to a Commission certified boss, there's no more questions left to ask about why they were hit.




Whatever Vito did on his own, he had to pay tax on it. And the Caruana C[untreras were the link between the Five Fmilies and Colombia.