by B. » Sun Aug 04, 2019 12:51 pm
There are also examples of the Commission setting up sub-committees and panels of representatives to handle certain issues. For example, Angelo Bruno, Joe Zerilli, and Sam DeCavalcante were tasked with addressing Joe Bonanno early in the Bonanno conflict. The Commission was set up to carry an odd number of members to avoid stalemates in voting, and they used this odd number idea when setting up these panels of representatives, too. There was a rule that in order for a message from the Commission to be legitimate, it had to be carried by three delegates and Joe Bonanno tried to use this to his advantage as he never met with all three men at once. "I only got a text from one of u... u never sent a group text w/ all three of us. k bye."
Bruno and Zerilli were both official Commission members by the early 1960s. Bruno is recorded discussing this himself on his office bug, while Zerilli was recorded meeting with Ray Patriarca on Patriarca's own office bug and both explicitly discuss their membership on the Commission and other Commission business. DeCavalcante on the other hand was not on the Commission, which Joe Bonanno says explicitly in his book and is more or less backed up by DeCavalcante's office tapes.
Both Joe Bonanno and Sam DeCavalcante confirmed that DeCavalcante met with Bonanno personally at the very start of the Bonanno conflict. Bonanno discusses it in his book, but DeCavalcante was recorded in his office bug saying that Bonanno criticized him at this meeting, telling DeCavalcante something to the affect that he was not the man his father (Frank Rizzo DeCavalcante) had been. So Bonanno didn't only disparage DeCavalcante decades later in his book, but also directly to DeCavalcante's face.
This is interesting because it means the Commission set up a panel that included two Commission members and a non-Commission member who was still nonetheless a boss. These sorts of sub-committees and panels were common even before the Commission existed, as discussed by Gentile. Despite the despotism of the "capo dei capi" position, the mafia appears to have always used ruling bodies and assemblies to handle important issues, but earlier on they were probably more prone to manipulation from the boss of bosses as he could assign who was on these committees and influence them.
There are also examples of the Commission setting up sub-committees and panels of representatives to handle certain issues. For example, Angelo Bruno, Joe Zerilli, and Sam DeCavalcante were tasked with addressing Joe Bonanno early in the Bonanno conflict. The Commission was set up to carry an odd number of members to avoid stalemates in voting, and they used this odd number idea when setting up these panels of representatives, too. There was a rule that in order for a message from the Commission to be legitimate, it had to be carried by three delegates and Joe Bonanno tried to use this to his advantage as he never met with all three men at once. "I only got a text from one of u... u never sent a group text w/ all three of us. k bye."
Bruno and Zerilli were both official Commission members by the early 1960s. Bruno is recorded discussing this himself on his office bug, while Zerilli was recorded meeting with Ray Patriarca on Patriarca's own office bug and both explicitly discuss their membership on the Commission and other Commission business. DeCavalcante on the other hand was not on the Commission, which Joe Bonanno says explicitly in his book and is more or less backed up by DeCavalcante's office tapes.
Both Joe Bonanno and Sam DeCavalcante confirmed that DeCavalcante met with Bonanno personally at the very start of the Bonanno conflict. Bonanno discusses it in his book, but DeCavalcante was recorded in his office bug saying that Bonanno criticized him at this meeting, telling DeCavalcante something to the affect that he was not the man his father (Frank Rizzo DeCavalcante) had been. So Bonanno didn't only disparage DeCavalcante decades later in his book, but also directly to DeCavalcante's face.
This is interesting because it means the Commission set up a panel that included two Commission members and a non-Commission member who was still nonetheless a boss. These sorts of sub-committees and panels were common even before the Commission existed, as discussed by Gentile. Despite the despotism of the "capo dei capi" position, the mafia appears to have always used ruling bodies and assemblies to handle important issues, but earlier on they were probably more prone to manipulation from the boss of bosses as he could assign who was on these committees and influence them.