Bonannos dad was killed back in Italy. LCN was in Joe's blood. He was left a nice amount of money, he went to the maritime academy, something happened back home, then he came to the US. The history is obviously more detailed than that but his dad was not in the US.
Bonnano's family was in the US from around 1910 for a few years. That's why he was apparently known as the American when he went back home.
