|
Post by ~Snaps~ on May 7, 2004 11:52:40 GMT -5
I just thought this would be a good idea to let everyone know the history and major events in the 5 New York Families.
|
|
|
Post by ~Snaps~ on May 7, 2004 11:55:20 GMT -5
BONANNO
New York's Bonanno crime family has roots going back to the turn of the century. Based in Brooklyn, most of its early members were from the Castellamarese region of Sicily. Other families of similar Castellamarese composition formed in Buffalo and Detroit. Joe Aiello led another in Chicago.
In the late 1920's, the Aiellos were battling Al Capone for control of Chicago's beer industry. By 1930, the conflict had spread to New York, pitting the powerful Capone supporter, Joe Masseria, against the Castellamarese family led by Sal Maranzano. The subsequent series of shootings became known as the Castellamarese War, now recognized as the greatest upheaval in Cosa Nostra history.
Eventually, the Maranzano forces began gaining the upper hand and men under the direction of his capo, Lucky Luciano, murdered Masseria. Maranzano was then the strongest Mafia boss in the nation. But he would not enjoy this status for long. His tendency towards despotism angered many including Luciano, who had Maranzano killed just four months after his victory. A myth that the Maranzano murder was quickly followed by a "purge" of from thirty to ninety old fashion bosses has persisted to this day. It is a ridiculous claim. My research, and that of others, indicates there was only one boss, Pittsburgh's, murdered around the same time as the Maranzano hit. Simply stated - there was no "purge."
There was, however, a need for the New York Castellamarese family to elect a new boss. Stefano Magaddino, powerful boss of the Buffalo family, urged his cousin, Joe Bonanno, to seek the position. With the prestigious support, the 300 members of the family easily elected Bonanno boss. If Magaddino expected Bonanno to show his gratitude by being subservient, he would be sadly mistaken.
Early in his reign, Bonanno played a part in the creation of the Commission. Initially composed of seven bosses, this board of directors was to arbitrate disputes between families in the hopes of avoiding bloodshed. It was to be a safer alternative to the former practice of looking to the most powerful mafia leader to make the decision. This method had created despots like Masseria and Maranzano and no one wanted a repeat of that.
For the next thirty years Bonanno and his family prospered. This success and the fact that Bonanno had solid allies, who dominated the Commission, meant that there were no challenges to his leadership. Much money was made in gambling, labor racketeering and drug trafficking. To facilitate the latter, Bonanno expanded his influence into Montreal, Canada, which quickly became a major transit point for heroin entering the United States from Europe.
It was not all sunshine, however. Dark clouds were beginning to form. Bonanno's strength began to wane in 1957, when a major ally, Albert Anastasia, was killed and replaced by future foe Carlo Gambino. Also, the publicity surrounding the raid on a national meeting of La Cosa Nostra at Apalachin, New York that year led Bonanno to initiate a series of disappearing acts. These created suspicion and the impression of a lack of leadership. For the first time Bonanno appeared vulnerable.
In 1962, Bonanno's power slipped further when his long time friend, Joe Profaci, boss of what is now the Colombo family, died. In a vain attempt to turn the tide, Bonanno encouraged Profaci's underboss, Joe Magliocco, to join him in a strike against Gambino and his supporters. Unfortunately for Bonanno, word of the plot leaked and the Commission demanded his attendance at a meeting to explain himself. In addition, his cousin, Magaddino, turned against him. Long resentful of Bonanno's haughty manner, Magaddino had become suspicious that Bonanno was eying Toronto, which was Magaddino's territory. Bonanno compounded his problems by an unwise decision of pushing the election of his unproven son, Bill, instead of a Magaddino relative, as consiglieri. Furthermore, it was also rumored that Magaddino was one of the intended victims of the Bonanno/Magliocco plot. When Magliocco dropped dead of a heart attack, Bonanno was completely isolated. The Commission voted to depose him and selected the Magaddino relative as the new boss.
Bonanno then began a hopeless battle to regain his position. He claimed that the Commission had no business interfering in the internal affairs of his family. Secondly, he claimed that the Commission had no legitimacy since their mandate of five years had run out in 1961. When this didn't work, he staged his own kidnapping and went into hiding. This was another mistake in tactics for many of the family fence sitters moved over to the boss backed by the Commission. Finally, Bonanno surfaced and a series of shootings called the Bonanno War broke out. But in 1968, Bonanno accepted the inevitable and retired to Arizona. The Commission he helped create had proved to be his undoing.
By 1975, Carmine Galante had seized the top spot in the family. He was a former underboss of Joe Bonanno who had spent the sixties in prison after being convicted of a major heroin conspiracy. Once out, he quickly revived his drug contacts in Sicily and soon the eastern seaboard was afloat in the white powder. The riches flowing into Galante's hands made the other bosses nervous, especially when combined with Galante's aggressive attitude and his recruitment of tough Sicilian soldiers. This nervousness turned into a Commission approved murder plot culminating in the shotgun slaying of Galante in July1979.
Galante's death did not bring peace to the family. It took another shotgun ambush, which wiped out three capos, to end the latest revolt. Unfortunately for Sonny Black Napolitano, the winning capo, he had allowed undercover FBI agent Joe Pistone get close to him. Once this became known, Napolitano himself was killed.
About this time, Joe Bonanno unexpectedly came back into the picture. A few years earlier he had published his autobiography, "Joe Bonanno, Man of Honor", in which he detailed the history of the Commission. Federal prosecutors seized upon the admissions in an unprecedented attack on La Cosa Nostra in the "Commission Case." The end result of the trial was 100-year prison sentences for several Commission members and some aides. Bonanno had accidentally gotten his revenge on this body but his real tormentors; Gambino and Magaddino were already long dead.
In 1985, a year before the Commission trial, John Gotti gunned his way to power in the Gambino family. Naturally, he wanted an ally to head up the Bonanno family so he threw his support behind a friend, Joseph Massino, a Bonanno capo, then imprisoned for labor racketeering. Under Massino, who learned from the mistakes of the flamboyant Gotti, the Bonannos grew in stature and influence as they went about their business trying to attract as little attention as possible. Released in 1992, Massino was firmly in charge until January 2003 when he was indicted on racketeering charges that included the 1981 killing of Sonny Black Napolitano. In the following months, the feds upped the ante, eventually adding six more murders to the case, which is scheduled for trial in April 2004.
Courtesy of GangLandNews.com
|
|
|
Post by ~Snaps~ on May 7, 2004 13:05:26 GMT -5
|
|
ELLE MADE ME DO THIS
Guest
|
Post by ELLE MADE ME DO THIS on Apr 4, 2006 13:19:59 GMT -5
U MEAN THE 5 SCUMMY FAMILIA.!!!!! WHICH THERE MOTHERES ARE BATTONAS AND GIVE IT AWAY TO ALL THE GUMBAS!!!! AM I RIGHT CAZZO? CINCO FAMILIAS SON MERDA E NADA MENOS QUE MERDA,ELLOS SON HIJOS DI PUTAS SUCIAS QUE SE DEJAN CLAVAR POR SUS GUMBAS.!!! LA MAFIA ES PURA MERDA,LCN ES PURA MERDA..LA OMERTA ES PURA MERDA,E TU MADRE ES PURA MERDA.!!!!!!! USTEDES SON PURA MERDA QUE CLAVAN A SUS MADRES POR EL CULO.!!!!!
|
|