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.

The Massino Family: The Last Boss

There are five Mafia families in New York. Of the five families, only one boss was left on the street, the rest were all locked up, with “acting bosses” or panels running in their absence.  

The last one left on the street was Joey Massino, boss of the Bonanno family.  Joey Massino had been in prison when Rusty Rastelli, the previous Bonanno family boss had passed away. The captains voted him in as boss and he inherited a family that had been in constant conflict for 25 years.  The ranks had been thinned and the remaining family was about 80 made members strong.

Joey started to change things for the better right away.  He suggested that his men close the Social Clubs because they made easy targets for the FBI.  The feds could set up surveillance and watch 50 men very easily at once.  Joey’s logic was simple, if his men were scattered the FBI could not be in 50 places at once.  

He also dropped the mandatory attendance of weddings, wake and other family events for the same reason.  Then he changed the rules on being made, he wanted anyone proposed for membership be around the crew for a minimum of 8 years.  After Donnie Brasco he decided there was no way the FBI would keep a Special Agent undercover for 8 years just to be made.

Joseph Bonanno, the founder of the modern Bonanno family had written a book.  The book spoke about the Cosa Nostra and even the Commission.  Joey felt that this was huge breach of Omerta and it was an embarrassment.  Joey changed the family name internally to the Massino Family.  He then started building up the family after so many years of neglect.  Each family was allowed to fill positions of those who had died and they were also allowed 10 new members a year. A list would be passed among the families of those proposed. The family would swell to 190 made members and 17 capos with people in Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Canada.

Joey decided to break up his Massino family, so he put Sal Vitale in charge of so many capos, TG aka Anthony Graziano in charge of others and Tony Green Urso in charge of the rest.  He made this move for a number of reasons, but a main reason was that his brother-in-law, Sal Vitale, and John Gotti had plotted to get rid of him and take over the family in 1993.  Joey has stated that it was a good thing John Gotti had been away when he got home or he would not be on the stand testifying.

Joey called a meeting of the heads of the 5 families in the year 2000 and told the men to only come if they could make decisions.  Louie Bagels attended from the Lucchese Family, Joe Waverly came representing the Colombos, Peter Gotti came for the Gambinos and Skinny Larry attended for the Genovese.  They were to set important policy for the mafia across the country. They wanted guys who came home from prison to have to wait 10 years before they could be made.  They didn't want guys who took drug beefs still doing the same thing in the families.  They finally settled on a 5 year waiting period.  He told the other families at the meeting that the Massino family would only be inducting full-blooded Italians.  That was the only big meeting of all the five families while Joey was the boss.  

Early January 2003 Joey could see that the FBI was all over him.  They watched him day and night.  No matter where he went they followed him and they had guys outside of his house all night.  He knew that they were going to arrest him.  He knew that they had gotten his accountant to turn over all his records.  The noose was tightening, so on January 7 he slipped the FBI and met Bruno and Vinny Basciano at a diner close to his house.  There he told them he was going away and that he was leaving a panel to run the family.  He had found out from a lawyer on New Years’ Eve that Frank Coppa had flipped so he knew he was finished.  Vinny wanted to kill Sal Vitale before he was arrested, but Joey squashed it.  On January 9th the FBI came and took Joey away.  He asked them if they had gotten Sal and they said yes.  Joey knew that it was over and soon he found out how many guys had flipped on him.  It would turn out to be 7 guys who flipped on him, including his brother-in-law Sal Vitale.   

In January of 2004 the FBI came down with another massive indictment and took down the Bonanno family’s panel.   Joey sat through the trial where all his closest friends testified against him and he was convicted and facing life.  It was then he learned that the Feds were putting together a death penalty case against him for the murder of George from Canada. They said it was because George had accused TG Graziano of being on cocaine but it was because he murdered a wiseguy’s son in Canada.

Joey decided to flip but not until he saw what happened with the trial.  He was in his 70’s at the time, and he learned that the FBI was going to go after his wife.  He had married Josephine Vitale in 1960 and he had worked hard first in a factory and then on a food truck to provide for her.   He had built up his food truck business branching out to stocking other peoples trucks.  He had a deli and a catering business and he had saved this cash.  He had won the lotto 4 times and put that money away.  He had invested heavily in real estate for his family.  The FBI was going after his wife for money laundering.  The Bonannos had stopped giving him money from his book and shylock on the street.  Vincent Basciano had made himself acting boss and told people that the Commission okayed it.  Vinny took Joey’s money guys and placed them in his crew.  He made guys and broke and promoted Capos.  Then he had Randy Pizzola killed to show people he was boss.  The Genovese wanted to kill Vinny because they said he was like John Gotti in his suits but Joey told them no.  Joey went to a proffer with Edward McDonald as his shadow council. When the Government decided against the death penalty he started wearing a wire.

Vinny Basciano now locked up with him and was running his mouth.  He had made Michael Mancuso the acting boss but the rest of the family wanted to hear from Joey.  The Family was split into factions again.   Then it came out that Joey had flipped, the first official boss in the Cosa Nostra to flip and wear a wire.  Josephine gave the FBI 7 million in cash, over 500 gold bars and 5 properties to satisfy the forfeiture judgement against him.  She was allowed to keep 6 properties including her home, his mother’s house and four rental properties.  The rentals gave his wife an income of 270k a year.  

Joey would be sentenced to time served in 2013.

Mob Wives just announced a new cast member by the name of Natalie DiDonato, from Philadelphia.  Could she be related to Andrew DiDonato?

Andrew DiDonato: Surviving the Mob

Bonanno Family

The best inside secrets come from the guys who turn.  Nobody was a bigger coup for the government than Joey Massino.  Joey was Boss of the Bonanno family and not just any boss but the man who built it back up.  The Bonanno family had been decimated by internal strife and embarrassed by Donnie Brasco aka Joseph Pistone infiltrating the family.

Joey shut the social clubs and made a secret gesture where they tugged on their ear lobe to signify the Bonanno family.  He was able to get the family back on the Commission and he brought new blood into the family.  

Joey Massino wanted to flip even before his conviction.  He had attended a couple of proffer sessions in prison and the Government was still on the fence about a deal or no deal.  

Vincent Basciano, aka Vinny, had been in charge on the street as acting boss of the Bonanno family while Joey was behind bars.  He was able to make Captains or break them if necessary, and was the last word on the street for the Bonanno family.  Then Vinny was also arrested and housed at Brooklyn MDC. In November of 2004 Joey called a family meeting by using lawyers to set up co-defendant meeting so they could go over family business.

It was at one of these prison meetings that Joey Massino wore a wire for the FBI.  He got Vinny to talk about Randy Pizzolo, a guy who was an associate of his crew who was found murdered in Brooklyn.   Vinny spoke freely to Joey because, after all, he had been boss for over 13 years.  

Vinny had sent Joey’s wife 50k in a bottle of Dom while he was locked up.

Vinny told Joey that he had given the order to kill Randy Pizzolo because the kid was a rat and scumbag that he had brought a pistol to a meeting at Villa Sonoma with a made Bonanno family guy.  He had then gotten drunk and started running his mouth.  Vinny had chased him and he was told to go to Florida.  Randy would not leave New York and this bothered Vinny a lot.

Randy was lured to Greenpoint Brooklyn early one day and he was shot seven times by Anthony “Ace” Aiello, a made Bonanno man.  Vinny had told Joey on tape in MDC that Ace was his Luca Brasi, a fictional character from the The Godfather.  

Joey Massino also gave up how the Bonanno family inducted new members.  A Capo would place a guy who had been around them for a number of years on a piece of paper and give it to Joey.  Joey would then at his leisure look into the guy to see if he was “stand up.”  If he passed, Joey would put his name next to the name of a soldier who had died or gone away and that would be passed among the other five families.  If they had no objections he would induct them into the family.  He told the FBI that he personally attended 60-70 induction ceremonies over the years.

The Bonannos would bring a guy or two or even three into the room and say something along the lines of, “This is the life you chose. If not, there is the door, you can leave now.  If you choose this life, you are here until you die.” Once they say yes they start the ceremony.  They then go over the rules: you dont mess with a Wiseguy’s wife or daughter, you don’t sell drugs (which is a joke because they all make money this way), never bring a gun to a meeting, and you put everything on record with your Capo.

Then he said they would tell them if your wife is dying, your kids, your mother and you are called you must come. The Family, the Mafia comes first. They tell you to murder, your brother is dying, your kid, you have to murder, the Bonanno family always comes first.   They then told them that if they were told to kill their brother or best friend they had to right away.  After that they swear allegiance to the family and Omerta.  Then they are put with a Capo.  If it was a Capo who proposed them, then they are put with him.  If it was a soldier that proposed them, they are instead put with a Capo who needs another guy.

Nicholas Santora & Bonanno Family

Nicholas Santora is a second generation mobster, who continued in his father’s footsteps, like so many others have done. Modesto Santora was a soldier in the Colombo Family, and his son has far out shone his father when it comes to the Mafia. Nicholas was inducted into the Bonanno Family in the mid 1970s by then-boss Philip Rastelli and he was placed in Capo Mike Sabella's crew.

The Bonanno Family at the time was in a state of turmoil because boss Rusty Rastelli was away in prison and powerful Capo Carmine Galante had been released.  Carmine Galante began to make moves for the top spot in the family.  He also started to consolidate the Heroin business with the Sicilians. The other families including the Gambino family did not like this so they went to the Commission who handed down the order to kill Galante.  Nicholas was the messenger between the Capos loyal to Rusty setting up the hit.

On July 12th 1979 they blasted Carmine Galante as he was finishing up his lunch.   It ended up being an iconic killing because a reporter snapped a picture of his sprawled out body with a cigar still clenched in his teeth.

Sonny Black was upped to Capo and Nicholas was placed in his crew with a few notables like Lefty Ruggierro and Donnie Brasco. The crew was based in Brooklyn out of the Motion Lounge. Nicholas would head down to Florida to work with Donnie Brasco and with the worsening internal family problems, things would soon blow up.

It soon came out that fellow crew member Donnie Brasco was an FBI Agent.  Sonny Black would be executed and Nichalas was promoted to Capo of his crew.  He did not last long because he was given time for the whole Donnie Brasco Operation.

He was locked up until the 1990s, and when he was released he got right back to work.  Nicholas started working his gambling business and soon he was back on the rise.  Nicholas worked closely with Sal Vitale and Joey Massino.   The Massino family did not work out like they planned and Sal Vitale flipped after two Capos flipped on him.  Then Joey Massino flipped in order to save his assets and a death penalty trial.  Vinnie Basciano became boss and Nicholas was bumped up to underboss.

When Massino was still boss, a guy took me down to Bamonte's in Brooklyn on a Saturday afternoon.  There were a lot of Bonanno guys in the place and I even saw a Lucchese associate named Jerry Degerolamo, who didn't want me to tell anyone he was there.  We went out in the parking lot and Nicholas opened up his SUV gave us some NFL Jerseys.  I recorded the whole thing and later the FBI told me not to worry.  A few weeks later they took down everyone.  I left the jersey when I left New York - not a big loss since it was free.

Nicholas did a few years and came out as a Capo running his crew out of Brooklyn. He then worked with a man named Nicholas Bernhard who just happened to be the President of Local 917 of the Teamsters.  Santora and friends actively campaigned for him in 2010 and when he won he used his position to enrich himself and the Bonanno family.  He had a shop steward help the crew get players for their sportsbook from the Union and he also pushed shylock loans to them.  The Bookmaking took in 7 million in one year and they were selling Viagra and Cyalis, along with heavy pain killers.  A few years ago the NYPD Joint Taskforce took him down, and the case is currently still going on.  Somethings never change.

Frank "Curly" Lino

Born on October 30th, 1938 in Gravesend Brooklyn Frank "Curly" Lino had his life's path already mapped out for him.   Frank's mother married Frank Lino Sr in a marriage arranged by the boss of the Genovese Family, Vito Genovese.  Frank would never get past the 10th grade at Lafayette High School in Brooklyn because he started running with a Mafia farm team: the Avenue U Boys.  He used to pull off robberies with the Avenue U Boys but he was soon running a floating game for a made Genovese Soldier.

Frank has lived a charmed life.  It may not have been the best life but he lived it to the max.  In May of 1962 he got involved with two other men to pull off a robbery of a tobacco store in Brooklyn.  While it was going down two NYPD Brooklyn Detectives were shot and killed.  Frank was picked up soon afterward and beaten severely in the station house by other detectives who he claimed stapled his hand and shoved a broomstick up his ass.  He did have a broken leg and arm.  The NYPD has put broomsticks up others asses, so who knows.

The court placed him on 3 years probation after he threatened to sue the city.  The other men were given the death penalty that was later commuted to life in prison.

This was not the last time Frank would be a torture victim due to his criminal activity.  During the heyday of the Mafia, the real life “Luca Brazi” for Junior Persico, a man named Hugh "Apples" Macintosh (or just Mac) grabbed Frank out of a bar. Mac brought him to a basement where he beat him and tortured him for two days trying to make him give up the names of his friends that had a beef with Persico.  He never gave up their names even after he was beaten so badly he suffered a weird eye twitch - a blinking twitch that remained for the rest of his life. So Mac let him go after telling him 'the reason you are being let go is because you didn’t rat. If you did we would have killed you"  Frank was so afraid he never looked back until he was well away from that place.

He was made on his 40th Birthday in 1977 in Little Italy.  It has been said it was because of his cousin Eddie Lino who was with John Gotti and a major drug dealer.  Gotti was very close to Joey Massino at this time.  

Frank was asked by his Capo Sonny Red Indelicato to drive him to a peace meeting at a social club in Brooklyn. Sonny Red decided to have Frank drive him to the meeting instead of his son Bruno because he did not really trust the other Capos. He told his son Bruno to kill all the Zips and the rest of the Capos if he did not return. There was a lot of internal strife in the Bonanno Family at the time because the self proclaimed boss Carmine Galante had been murdered by Bruno and others on orders from the Commision. Rusty Rastelli was the real boss but he was locked up, so his most trusted Capo Big Joey Massino was working hard to keep the family together.  The Zip Faction, The Canadian Faction, Sonny Black and Joey Massino all lined up against the other three capos.  Sonny Red, Dominick Trinchera and Philip Giaccone were all opposing Rusty but they were called into this last ditch peace offering.  Things seemed to be going fine when Frank saw three hooded come down the stairs into the club.  He saw Joey Massino hit Sonny Red in the head with something and another man jump out of a closet with a gun.  He saw Giaccone thrown up against a wall and shot before he fled so fast that nobody on the hit team could stop him.

He then went into hiding but the powers that be did not want him dead.  They wanted Bruno who had escaped the massacre.  Frank was close to him and knew where he was hiding out.  He met with the Underboss of the Gambino Family who gave him a chance to live, if he murdered Bruno.  Frank pretended to be looking for Bruno, when he really already knew where he was.  The Bonanno Family powers gave the contract to Sonny Black who then gave it to Lefty Ruggiero and Donnie Brasco.   Things went downhill from there because Donnie Brasco was an undercover FBI Agent and the Commission's case came down and Bruno was picked up.  

Frank was then asked to bring Sonny Black to a meeting because it had come out that Donnie Brasco was an FBI Agent and he was vouched for by Sonny Black.  Sonny knew he was not long for this world so he left his jewelry at home for his wife.  They got to the house where the meeting was to take place and Frank showed him to the basement.  Sonny went first and a few steps down Frank shoved him and when he fell the shooter fired into his body but the gun jammed.  Sonny Black told them to "Hit him one more time, Make it good"  They did.  They would cut off his hands because he shook them with an FBI Agent and Frank Lino's son helped dispose of Sonny Black.  The world of the Mafia is crazy because years later when I was at BaMontes in Brooklyn a guy wearing a black over coat was walking back and forth smoking a cigarette.  I was watching him and Nicky Santoro a Bonanno Capo told me that he was Sonny Black’s kid.  So Sonny's kid is still around those guys.

Frank did it all on the street, from drugs, robbery, pump and dump, extortion to Gambling.  He made money from Family Union contracts with school buses.  He had conspired with the Lucchese Family to kill a Gambino associate until Sal Vitale the Underboss had a sitdown with Nicky Corrozzo who told him I dont care what the kid did, what he stole its done, we have big plans for him.  So that was it for that hit.  Good for Frank because when he was locked up later he was going to get shanked in the yard of a prison.  When the huge Bonanno family indictments came down he learned that Sal Vitale had flipped and he knew it was over.  He flipped becoming the first of many Bonanno's to testify for the Government.  He would implicate his own relatives in many Mafia crimes and for that he was rewarded with just 8 years by the judge and is now out and a free man.

I hope he lives a good life and enjoys his freedom.  He is older and he knows what he did.

Mobster Politics

You may have heard the following threats in the news this week.

"Let me be clear to you, you ever do that to me again I'll throw you off this fucking balcony,”

“If you ever do that to me again,”

“No, no, you're not man enough, you're not man enough. I'll break you in half. Like a boy,”

What mobster uttered these words?  No mobster.  New York Republican Rep. Michael Grimm. These threats were directed at a reporter from NY1 News because the man asked him about the FBI investigation in his campaign finances.  Many Mobsters and Citizens have been arrested for much less.  It happened January 28th 2014 on Federal Property and as he is part of the Legislative Branch of the Government, this falls under the Federal jurisdiction.  He for sure broke State law, these are terrorist threats.  This guy works for us the people, yet he acts like he is above the law.  I decided to look into him because I read a New York Times article about Michael G Grimm and it said he infiltrated the Gambino Family targeting Peter Gotti.  I guess the New York Times, like so many news outlets today cannot fact check stories.

Michael Grimm, a former Marine turned FBI Agent, was assigned to the C16 Squad better known as the Gambino Squad.  He was supposed to get to know everything about Peter Gotti, the garbage man brother of Gambino Family Boss John Gotti Sr.  Peter Gotti was then running the family while his brother and nephew were away in Federal Prison.  He was then transferred to the Fraud Squad where he would become an undercover player in Operation Wooden Nickel which targets rogue currency traders on Wall Street.  Grimm posed as a currency trader in order to draw in the players in this highly illegal FOREX Scheme.  The FBI along with the CFTC took down around 50 of the Traders.  It was during that time that Grimm was called in to be part of the Jack Falcone FBI undercover operation.  Jack Falcone aka FBI Special Agent Jack Garcia had infiltrated a Gambino Family crew headed by Capo Greg DePalma.  Jack had Grimm bring some of his Wall Street targets to a stripclub for some debauchery. This bolstered Jack’s profile with Greg DePalma because he could bring in a Big Money Wall Streeter like Grimm who he called Mikey Suits.  So Mikey Suits is not a Mob nickname, he was not undercover like Jack Falcone or Donnie Brasco he played a Wall Streeter. That would make more sense because when I saw his picture I wondered what moron Mobster would buy him as a street guy.

After he left the FBI in 2006 he and partner Bennett Orfaly started laying the ground work for a restaurant called Healthalicious, a small place located on Second Ave and 83rd Street.  The crazy thing about Bennett Orfaly is he is very close to Gambino Capo  Anthony "Fat Tony" Morelli.  So close that he refers to him as Uncle.  Orfaly is also in constant contact and has visited  Fat Tony who is serving a 20 years Racketeering sentence.  He also has ties that include a car registered to Fat Tony's wife.  Fat Tony has a release date of July 22, 2014 but he has been away for a long time.

Fat Tony ran a Gambino Crew based on Staten Island and in the past he has been involved with Gasoline tax fraud with Joe Glitz aka Joe Galizia a formerly made man in the Genovese Family.  Joe was a huge money maker because of the Gasoline scam with the Russians and Colombo Family guys.  

The Colombos had to have sitdowns over his involvement in the gas tax scam according to Michael Franzese.   Fat Tony collected at least 6.7 million dollars in the scam. This was accomplished by creating a series of companies called a Daisy Chain. Company A sells gas to Company B which sells it to Company C and then again to another company D all on paper so the physical gas never moves. The last company that sells the gasoline to the stations is supposed to pay the State and Federal Tax but they are just paper companies owned by no one.  Fat Tony then left New York for Boca Raton Florida where he was supposed to handle the Gambino Family rackets.

How is it that a former FBI Special Agent assigned to C16 did not know his partner and top fundraiser were close to Gambino Capo Fat Tony?

Grimm is controversial to be sure.  He once went to a popular Queens night spot Caribbean Tropics with a Caribbean woman.  The woman's ex husband was there and they got into a altercation and they were both asked to leave by the off duty NYPD guy working security.  Grimm came back later and they got into another altercation and this time Grimm had a pistol in his hand which he put in his waistband.  He then identified himself as an FBI Agent, but he was acting in an irrational manner.  I would like to know if he was drinking at the time.  He then ordered everyone against the wall and reportedly uttered a racial slur.  

No charges against Michael Grimm for that incident.

"Consistent with our law enforcement responsibilities, we looked into the event, determined there isn't a complainant and have closed the matter," Capitol Police

That was for his latest incident and one more time he walks.

He had huge contributions from Mobbed up Unions,  a former businesses partner is with a Gambino Capo, and he just put up bail for a friend Ofer Biton who is accused of funneling illegal contributions to Grimms  2010 Campaign.  He was arrested on immigration fraud charges and the FBI said he was picked up on a wire involved in a huge Ecstasy ring.  One more thing Ofer Biton bought his share of Healthalicious and now owns it all.

Read up on Michael G Grimm's other shady associates, it will shock you.

I suggest that you pick up a copy of Jack Garcias book Making Jack Falcone and Michael Franzese book Blood Oath for further reading on gasoline tax scams, Jack Falcone, and other subjects along those lines..