The Bonanno Family Saga

The Bonanno family keeps getting hammered by law enforcement from every direction. The media likes to portray the Cosa Nostra as dead.  They make fun of the guys who get taken down, but the truth is, all the other crime groups wish they were like them.

The Cartels.  What happened to the Medellin Cartel?   The Cali Cartel?  The organizations before and since are gone.  Most of the drug Cartels are just that: drugs networks.  They are usually run by one person and when they get arrested or killed it's over.  They do not diversify into other areas like Unions, political corruption, waste, carting and the list goes on.  Cosa Nostra does that, and everything they can make money doing.

In July of 2013 the Manhattan District Attorney’s office came down on the Nicky Santoro crew of the Bonanno family.  They arrested 9 men including their Capo Nicky Santoro.

The media has made a big deal that they were selling Viagra and Cialis pills. What they failed to tell you is that they were trying to move 300,000 of them plus tens of thousand of Oxycodone pills.

They also ran a bookmaking operation that pulled in 7 million in bets.  It was a typical sportsbook feature, a special website and an 800 number that you could place bets.  Then they would settle up on Tuesdays if it was a grand or more either way.

One of the guys indicted, Nicholas Bernhard, was president of International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 917 which had about 1900 members. He is charged with using his position with the Union to enrich himself and the Bonanno family.

He had one of his guys loaning money to Union members and taking action for the sports book.

ERNEST AIELLO and VITO BADAMO were both acting Capo’s at various times during the investigation.  

Anthony Santoro known as Skinny was a soldier beneath them.  

They are on trial now and it is expected to go on until April.  The way the trials have been going I would not be surprised to see them all walk.  

If anyone has watched Donnie Brasco they may recall when Donnie walks into a Social club and some guys are busting open a parking meter.  That was in the late 1970’s early 1980’s.  That is what street guys do.  They hustle however they can to make cash.  Some guys make more than others.  I knew guys who made fake subway tokens and they made money doing it.  Others sold phone cards for long distance calls.  Some guys are in karting and they make money that way.

Nicky Santoro was part of the Sonny Black crew portrayed in Donnie Brasco. They claim the Bruno Kirby character was loosely based on him.  

I know that he was selling knock off NFL team jerseys in the mid 2000’s because he gave me a box in the Bamonte’s parking lot.  Today the FBI is looking for terrorists and Mexican drug cartel members moving tons of heroin.  They have let up on the five New York families of the Cosa Nostra. The last time they did that, the Bonanno family regrouped and rebuilt itself up into a good sized family.  You cannot count them out just yet.

Joe Colombo

I write about the Colombo family often, but how many know how it all started?  

It came about after prohibition-era gangster Frankie Uale was murdered and his rackets were divided up between men in Brooklyn.  Giuseppe Profaci was granted the largest piece of the rackets.  One of those who also received a piece was a man named Anthony Colombo who had a son named Joseph who would one day head the family.  

Anthony would be garroted and found in a car on a Bay Ridge Brooklyn street when Joe was high school.  Joe’s mother was afraid gangsters would kill him or his family so she decided to move the family to California.

Joe decided to stay in Brooklyn.  He was hooked up with jobs through Carlo Gambino and he started hustling on the side.

He was a hard worker and he was pulling down cash by having craps games.  Then came World War Two and one year into the war he volunteered for the Coast Guard.

He was assigned to the Falgout which was on escort duty for convoys.  He saw combat when German planes and submarines attacked the convoys.

Joe ended up in trouble for being AWOL when his ship was in New York.  He had to spend 7 months in the brig on Hart's Island. He did receive an honorable discharge and was offered disability checks for his shock but he decided not to take them.

He started working on the Brooklyn docks that were run by Albert Anastasia, who at the time was head of the family.  Soon it would become the Gambino Family after Albert was gunned down while getting a shave in the city.

When the police and the FBI started putting the heat on the Brooklyn docks he decided on a new line of work.  He soon started to work for Peter Castellano in the meat business as a salesman.

He opened a social club and it soon became a hub for various gambling ventures.

Joe was working hard moving up in the life when Joey Gallo and his crew on President Street carried out a hit on Frank “Shots” Abbatemarco for Giuseppe Profaci the boss of the family.  

They thought they would receive a piece of Shots’ gambling action in their neighborhood.  Profaci decided not to give them anything and that started a war.

The Gallos started kidnapping members of Profaci’s inner circle.  Larry Gallo was lured to a lounge where an assassin tried to strangle him.  He was unconscious when a policeman stumbled in on the whole thing and saw his feet as he lay on the ground.  

That scene and another incident from the Gallo war would become part of popular culture when they were played out out on the big screen.  The Gallo’s would get a package with a fish and clothes that belonged to their toughest enforcer Joe Jelly.  The message was clear Joe Jelly slept with the fish and he would not be seen again.

Next week Joe Colombo ascends to the top spot and joins The Italian American Civil Rights league.