I think "greed" is indeed why most of these leaders have fallen. Either directly or indirectly, their greed and drive helped get them to the top. But in the end spelled their doom!
The more intelligent and less greedy bosses mostly died in bed instead in a jail cell or the gutter bleeding out.
So true. One of the reasons Meyer Lansky lived into his eighties and died peacefully in bed was that he wasn't greedy--house odds were good enough for him. His biographer, Robert Lacey, also notes that Lansky was never as rich and powerful as he was described in news media and in FBI files. That's why he never incurred the jealousy and resentment of more powerful Mob figures--always fatal.
Re. Bill Bonanno: I read somewhere that he went away for a long time on "wire fraud" for using a credit card belonging to a Family member. That was a slam-dunk conviction. He was a world-class BS artist in the same league as Henry Hill. He mesmerized Gay Talese, who swallowed all the "honored society" BS in his book, "Honor thy Father."
