Criminals & Outlaws Codexery

Joseph Bonanno

Italian-American crime boss who led the Bonanno family for decades.

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Joseph Bonanno headed one of New York City's five original Mafia families for more than three decades before losing power in the 1960s.[1] Bonanno was supposedly the model for Marlon Brando's Vito Corleone in The Godfather films.[2] At a hospital in Tucson, Arizona, on May 11, 2002, Joseph Bonanno, aged 97, passed away due to heart failure.[3][1][4]

Key facts and history

Bonanno fled to Canada in 1964 and later disappeared until 1966.[3][5] Joseph Bonanno's birth occurred on January 18, 1905, in the Sicilian town of Castellammare del Golfo.[6][7] Bonanno engaged in the illegal production and sale of alcohol, running a basement distillery in an apartment building alongside Gaspar DiGregorio and Giovanni Romano.[8] A plot to murder several members of The Commission was devised by Bonanno in 1963 with the assistance of Joseph Magliocco.[3][9]

The assassination scheme was exposed after Magliocco assigned the murder contract to Joseph Colombo, who then informed the intended victims.[3][10] The conflict known as the "Banana War" continued until 1968, concluding when Bonanno consented to step down as boss and relocate to Arizona.[3][11]

What the cited sources add

The Guardian obituary states Bonanno ran narcotics, gambling and pornography rackets and ordered the murder of an old friend of his father.[2] Bonanno's lawyer said he should be remembered both as a notorious mob boss and as a man who lived in peaceful retirement for decades.[1][7] Bonanno described himself in his autobiography as a "venture capitalist" who invested in businesses with owners who invited him to become a partner because of his connections.[1][7] The same report states Bonanno's lawyer claimed a bomb "stamped U.S. government" was thrown over the fence surrounding Bonanno's home in 1978.[12]

According to a United Press International article, on January 12, 1981, U.S. District Judge William Ingram handed down Bonanno's first prison term, a five-year sentence accompanied by a $10,000 fine.[12][13] Michael Korda, who edited Bonanno's book, described him as someone who "read poetry, boasted of his knowledge of the classics, and gave advice to his cohorts in the form of quotes from Thucydides or Machiavelli".[14]

References

  1. "Former Mob Big Bonanno Dies - CBS News", www.cbsnews.com, 2002-05-12. facts only, no text reused. cbsnews.com
  2. Reed, "Joseph Bonanno", The Guardian, 2002-05-14. facts only, no text reused. theguardian.com
  3. Wikipedia, "Joseph Bonanno" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Reed, "Joseph Bonanno", The Guardian, 2002-05-14; "Former Mob Big Bonanno Dies - CBS News", www.cbsnews.com, 2002-05-12 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Joseph Bonanno" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Raab, "Joe Bonanno Dies; Mafia Leader, 97, Who Built Empire", The New York Times, May 12, 2002; D'Imperio, "Great Graves of Upstate New York", iUniverse, 2009 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Joseph Bonanno" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Schneider, Iced: The Story of Organized Crime in Canada, pp. 255 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Joseph Bonanno" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Former Mob Big Bonanno Dies"; (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  7. "Former Mob Big Bonanno Dies". facts only, no text reused. cbsnews.com
  8. Wikipedia, "Joseph Bonanno" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Raab, "Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires", MacMillan, 2014 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Joseph Bonanno" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Staff (September 1, 1967) "The Mob: How Joe Bonanno Schemed to kill – and lost" Life pp. 15–21 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Joseph Bonanno" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Bruno, "Colombo Crime Family: Trouble and More Trouble", TruTV Crime Library (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  11. Wikipedia, "Joseph Bonanno" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Sifakis, "The Mafia Encyclopedia", Facts on File, 1987; (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  12. Bonanno sentenced to prison Lidia Wasowicz, United Press International (January 12, 1981). facts only, no text reused. upi.com
  13. Wikipedia, "Joseph Bonanno" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Bonanno sentenced to prison Lidia Wasowicz, United Press International (January 12, 1981) (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  14. Wikipedia, "Joseph Bonanno" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: ; Korda, "Another life : a memoir of other people", Random House, 1999, p. 415–425 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Joseph Bonanno (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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