Salvatore Bonanno
Salvatore Bonanno | |
---|---|
Mobster , writer | |
Spouse |
Rosalie Profaci (m. 1956) |
Children | 4 |
Parent(s) | Joseph Bonanno Fay Labruzzo |
Relatives | Joe Profaci (uncle-in-law) |
Allegiance | Bonanno crime family |
Salvatore Vincent "Bill" Bonanno (November 5, 1932 – January 1, 2008) was an American mobster who served as consigliere of the Bonanno crime family, and son of crime boss Joseph Bonanno. Later in life, he became a writer and produced films for television about his family.[1]
Early life
Bonanno was the first child of
On August 18, 1956, Bonanno married Rosalie Marie Profaci, daughter of Salvatore Lawrence Profaci Sr., brother of
Involvement with organized crime begins
Shortly after leaving university, Bonanno was inducted as a "made man" into the Bonanno family, and was eventually appointed as consigliere by his father.[1] However, many family members felt that Bonanno lacked experience and was too intellectual to lead effectively. These tensions only worsened when Bonanno advised his father against involving the family in the illegal narcotics trade.[1]
In 1963, his father conspired with Profaci family boss
Banana War
During his father's two-year absence, Bonanno mobster
In early 1966, DiGregorio allegedly contacted Bonanno about having a peace meeting. Bonanno agreed and suggested his grand-uncle's house on Troutman Street in Brooklyn as a meeting site. On January 28, 1966, as Bonanno and his loyalists approached the house, they were met with gunfire; no one was wounded during this confrontation.[9]
In 1968, DiGregorio was wounded by machine gun fire and later suffered a heart attack.[9] The Commission eventually became dissatisfied with DiGregorio's efforts at quelling the family rebellion, and eventually dropped DiGregorio and swung their support to Paul Sciacca. In 1968, after a heart attack, his father ended the family warfare by agreeing to retire as boss and move to Arizona. As part of this peace agreement, Bonanno also resigned as consigliere and moved out of New York with his father.[7] In later years, Bonanno made the following observation about this period:
I always say I had only one goal in the '60s—actually two goals. When I got up in the morning, my goal was to live to sunset. And when sunset came, my second goal was to live to sunrise.[3]
Later career in California and Arizona
On March 9, 1970, Bonanno was convicted of 52 counts of
On January 23, 1981, Bonanno was indicted in
Author and producer
Bonanno worked occasionally as a
Bound by Honor: A Mafioso's Story
Bonanno's autobiography, Bound by Honor: A Mafioso's Story, was published by St. Martin's Press in 1999.[1]
In his memoir, Bonanno theorized that Cuban exiles and the Cosa Nostra murdered President John F. Kennedy. He stated that several Cosa Nostra families shared close ties with members of the Cuban exile movement dating back to the mob casinos in Havana before the Cuban Revolution. According to Bonanno, both the Cubans and the Cosa Nostra hated Kennedy enough to kill him. Many exiled Cubans blamed Kennedy for the failure of 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba. The Cosa Nostra felt betrayed when Kennedy's brother and Attorney General, Robert F. Kennedy, opened a strong legal assault on the mob, despite the mob's alleged support for Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election. Bonanno said that he realized the degree of Cosa Nostra involvement in the assassination when he witnessed on television Jack Ruby, an associate of Chicago Outfit mobster Sam Giancana, killing Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald while in police custody.[15] Bonanno also claimed in the book that he had discussed the assassination of President John F. Kennedy with mobster John Roselli and implicated him as the primary hitman in a conspiracy instigated by the mob.[16][17] According to Bonanno, Roselli fired at Kennedy from a storm drain on Elm Street.[16]
George Anastasia wrote that the book "is not a mob tell-all, but rather a treatise on the demise of the American Mafia told from the perspective of someone ... who witnessed and experienced it firsthand."[17] According to Anastasia, Bonanno "writes longingly of a better time when honor and loyalty, not guns and money, were the cornerstones of the Mafia. It is a fascinating description. But like so much else in Bound by Honor, it is virtually unverifiable."[17] Publishers Weekly said in its review that the book is "big on bluster and short on substance" and that the author's "only apparent goal is to exalt the world of his father".[16] Discussing the allegation that Roselli fired from a storm drain in a conspiracy to assassinate Kennedy, PW said: "overblown claims are just part of a bloviating style windy with references to 'our tradition' and 'our world,' phrases that would have struck a more resonant chord in the mid-70s, when Mario Puzo's books and Francis Ford Coppola's movies introduced the country to the peculiar mix of honor and violence that Bonanno crudely celebrates."[16] Emil Franzi of the Tucson Weekly wrote: "This slice of high-level Mafia existence definitely belongs on the shelves of two different libraries -- collections on organized crime and those on the Kennedy assassination. Besides its obvious historical relevance, it's a fun read loaded with Tucson references."[18]
Bonanno: A Godfather's Story
In 1999, Bonanno was an
Death
Bonanno died of a
In popular culture
Bonanno was the main character in the 1971 non-fiction book Honor Thy Father. In the television miniseries based on the book, Bonanno was portrayed by Joseph Bologna. Tony Nardi depicted the adult Joseph Bonanno in Bonanno: A Godfather's Story; Eric Roberts portrayed him in the 1993 made-for-TV film, "Love, Honor & Obey: The Last Mafia Marriage".[1]
References
- ^ New York Times.
- ^ The Mafia Encyclopedia By Carl Sifakis pg.28–29
- ^ a b c "Salvatore Bonanno, eldest son of Mafia boss wrote of mob life" Boston.com The Boston Globe January 6, 2008
- ^ Telese, Gay (1971). Honor Thy Father.
- ^ a b "Salvatore Bonanno Sought on California Theft Charges" NY Times January 24, 1981
- ^ Bruno, Anthony. "Colombo Crime Family: Trouble and More Trouble". TruTV Crime Library. Retrieved 27 November 2011.
- ^ a b Raab, Selwyn (May 12, 2002). "Joe Bonanno Dies; Mafia Leader, 97, Who Built Empire". The New York Times. Retrieved March 11, 2011.
- ^ ISBN 0-8160-1856-1.
- ^ a b "Part II: The Mafia at War New York Magazine, July 17, 1972, page 32
- ^ Whitney, Craig R. (March 10, 1970). "Bonanno Son Gets 4 Years in Prison". The New York Times.
- ^ "Bonannos Guilty in Extortion Case". The New York Times. December 18, 1971.
- ^ "In a Daring Undercover Scam, a California Car Dealer Helps Trap Mob Kingpin Joe Bonanno". People. October 6, 1980.
- ^ Fitzgerald, Michael. "A local angle on notorious mafia boss". recordnet.com. Archived from the original on 2019-12-17. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
- ^ "Bonanno's Son Gets 4 Years for Bilking Elderly". Los Angeles Times. March 28, 1986.
- ISBN 0312203888
- ^ a b c d "Bound by Honor: A Mafioso's Story". Publishers Weekly. March 29, 1999. Retrieved 5 May 2017.
- ^ a b c Anastasia, George (May 30, 1999). "Did the Mafia really manage JFK's assassination?". The Baltimore Sun. Baltimore. Retrieved 30 January 2013.
- ^ Franzi, Emil (November 15, 1999). "Mob Rules: Tucsonan Bill Bonanno Takes Us Inside His Family". Tucson Weekly. Tucson, Arizona. Archived from the original on February 25, 2017. Retrieved February 27, 2013.
- ^ a b Blumenthal, Ralph (July 18, 1999). "TELEVISION/RADIO; And Now for a Little Organized Revisionism". The New York Times. New York. Retrieved January 30, 2013.
- ^ Flick, A. J. (January 8, 2008). "Bill Bonanno, Mafia scion, eulogized in private ceremony". Tucson Citizen. Tucson, Arizona. Retrieved December 16, 2014.
External links
- Bill Bonanno at IMDb
- Rosalie Bonanno with Beverly Donofrio (1990). Mafia Marriage: My Story. William Morrow & Co. ISBN 0-688-07297-6.
- Bill Bonanno (1999). Bound by Honor. St. Martin's Paperbacks. ISBN 0-312-97147-8.
- Bill Bonanno and Joseph D Pistone with David Fisher (2005). The Good Guys. Thorndike Press. ISBN 0-7862-7506-5.