Bonanno Family

The Bonanno Crime Family was formed as one of the five branches of the mafia commission after the Castellammarese war. Picked to head the newly formed Bonanno Family was Joseph “Joe” Bonanno a past member of the Maranzano Family. At the time Joe Bonanno was the youngest of the new bosses leading the five families of the new york mafia at age 26. Joe Bonanno built a close knit family made up of blood relations from strictly sicilian upbringings , which he thought would be a key to upholding the values and rules of La Cosa Nostra.

The Bonanno family has a rugged history like most Cosa Nostra families. The Family survived a civil war known as ” Banana Split” because of the knickname given to Joe Bonanno of “Joe Banana’s”. The war was set off when the mafia commission tried to replace Joe Bonanno as boss with then capo regime Gaspar DiGregorio. This set off a fight between Bonnano loyalist and DiGregorio supporters , those backing Bonanno was his son Bill Bonanno. The infighting took a toll on the family and the mafia commission stripped the family of its seat on the commission and appointed a new boss in Paul Sciacca to settle things inside the family. The fighting was finally put to rest with the retirement of Joe Bonanno because of health reasons as boss in 1968 , and the family came together under Sciacca’s leadership.

With out a seat on the commission and in a hapless state the family was not a well run organization. With passing of new boss Sciacca and then Natale “Joe Diamonds” Evola the new Bonanno boss Phillip “Rusty” Rastelli was appointed. A close friend of Rastelli Carmine Galante would set up the bonnano family in well refined drug trafficing operations. This would make Galante a powerful member and slowly take power away from Rastelli and take over the leadership role of the family. But Galante went to far when he ok’d the murders of eight members of the Genovese crime family without a commission ok. The commission decided he had outlived his usefulness as Bonanno family leadership and he was shot dead by three men at a restaurant in brooklyn. Rastelli would once again step into the leadership role of the Bonanno family , but the galante fiasco had left the family unsettled. Three renogade capo’s Phillip Gianccone , Alphonse “Sonny Red” Indelicato and Dominick “Big Trin” Trinchera would challenge Rastelli’s leadership skills and even plot to kill him. There plot would be short lived as Rastelli found out and went to the commission and got permission to kill the rougue capo’s. The hit would be carried out by then underboss Dominick “Sonny Black” Napolitano , Benjamin “Lefty Guns” Ruggiero and Joseph “Big Joe” Massino. It was also rumored that the current boss of the Montreal Mafia Vito Rizzuto was also involved in the murders.

The family finally at peace would take one of the biggest hits to date for the American Mafia. Dominick “Sonny Black” Napolitano and Benjamin “Left Guns” Ruggiero had become friends with a man calling himself Donnie Brasco. They allowed Brasco to work his way up as a family associate and gain respect within the Bonanno family. Brasco worked his way up all the way to being proposed for membership into the Bonanno family by Sonny Black Napolitano. Unknown to Napolitano and Ruggiero Donnie Brasco was actually a federal agent working undercover , his real name was Joe Pistone. Numerous charges were filed against many members of the Bonanno family following the evidence and testimony of Pistone. This spurred the killing of Napolitano by Ron Filocomo and Frank “Curly” Lino for bringing Pistone into the family, Ruggiero escaped a death sentence from the family because he was arrested by the FBI before he could be killed and recieved an 11 year sentence but would die in prison of lunk cancer 3 years after. The movie “Donnie Brasco” is based on these events.

The Bonnano family would regroup in the 1990’s when Joe Massino was promoted to boss after the death of Rastelli in prison. Massino would lead the family back into the ranks with his connections in the narcotics trade and nack for mafia stock scheme’s along with long time mafia practices in money laundering and loan sharking. The Bonnano family would regain its seat on the commission with help from long time Massino friend John Gotti. Gotti had become boss of the Gambino family and extremely powerfull. Under Massino who kept a very low profile like the old world bosses of the mafia the Bonanno family once again grew into a force. Massino’s time as Bonanno boss would end when he and underboss Salvatore Vitale would be charged with the murder of Sonny Black Napolitano. Once charged Sal Vitale would decide to turn rat and testify against Massino condemning him to life in prison. Massino with a possibility of recieving the death penalty also decided to turn rat , he became the first serving mafia boss in history to turn government informant in 2004.

Massino is believed to have led federal authorities to the burial sites of Dominick Trinchera and Philip Giaccone former members of the Bonanno family. He is also believed to have supplied the fed’s with the grave of John Favara , a neighbor of Gambino boss John Gotti , who had killed Gotti’s son in a car/bicycle accident and was then murdered. Massino also supplied the fed’s with information on many Bonanno family members including acting boss Vincent Basciano, who is thought to still be the official boss of the family today from prison. The Bonanno family continues to do business even though the Fed’s have crippled the leadership over the past few years.

Leadership history of Bonanno Family

1925–1930 — Nicola Schiro
1930–1931 — Salvatore “Caesar” Maranzano (murdered September 10, 1931)
1931–1964 — Joseph “Joe Bananas” Bonanno (crime family patriarch and longtime godfather, officially stepped down in December 1964)
1963–1964 — John “Johnny Burns” Morales (acting boss)
1965–1968 — Gaspar “Gasparino” DiGregorio (retired)
1966–1968 — Paul Sciacca (acting boss)
1968–1970 — Paul Sciacca (jailed May 12, 1971)
1971–1973 — Natale “Joe Diamonds” Evola (died August 28, 1973)
1973–1975 — Phillip “Rusty” Rastelli (jailed in 1975)
1975–1979 — Carmine “Lilo” Galante (also known as “The Cigar”) (defacto boss,street boss, Rastelli was the officially recognized boss, murdered July 12, 1979)
1979–1991 — Phillip “Rusty” Rastelli (paroled 1984, jailed 1986, sentenced to 12 years in 1987, released on July 21, 1991, died 3 days later in a Queens hospital) Dominic Napolitano, Street Boss
1979–1984 — Salvatore Ferrugia (acting boss)
1987–1992 — Anthony Spero (acting boss)
1991–2005 — Joseph “Big Joe” Massino (a.k.a. “The Ear”) (jailed January 9, 2003, defected October 2004)
2003–2004 — Anthony “Tony Green” Urso (acting boss) (jailed January 20, 2004)
2004–2005 — Vincent “Vinny Gorgeous” Basciano (acting boss) (jailed November 19, 2004)
2005–present — Vincent Basciano (defacto boss, recently convicted in July 2007)
2005–2006 — Michael “Mikey Nose” Mancuso (acting boss) (jailed February 16, 2006)


Current  Leadership of Bonanno Family


2007 - Current

Boss - Unknow (Vincent Basciano ?)
Acting Boss - Salvatore “Sal the Iron Worker” Montagna
Underboss - Nicholas “Nicky Mouth” Santora
Consigliere - Anthony “Fat Tony” Rabito
Estimated Membership - 115 Made Members