by B. » Thu Feb 23, 2017 11:55 am
Antiliar wrote: ↑Wed Feb 22, 2017 3:44 pm
Galante shot a police officer when he was young and killed Carlo Tresca in 1943, but how are his murders any more ruthless than that of the other Bonannos? That's the question I have. I'm sure they were all fairly ruthless, so what did he do that was so scary to make other members fear him? Plus, at his age at that time I'm sure he himself wouldn't do much shooting, so he must have had some sort of following to give him the power he had. So I agree with you, B. What happened when he was released? Did he have his own Luca Brasi who was mowing down his enemies? If so, who were they?
The follow up is, Who supported him when he came out? Why would the other captains go against their own boss to replace him and who were they? Why didn't Marangello and Steve Cannone stop them? I want answers and I can handle the truth! LOL
I wasn't pulling from specific examples, only his reputation among other wiseguys, LE, etc. Zicarelli, who was a Galante soldier, makes Galante out to be a hard, ruthless guy on the DeCavalcante tapes and Magaddino describes him as a "stinking specimen". All of the CIs from the relevant periods talk about him the same way. Even if some of it was myth, his name is always mentioned with an air of unpredictability and fear, even going back to his earlier days.
The "zips" have always been referenced as his personal army in the 1970s and it does seem they were closely aligned with him. There is misinformation there, though, as a lot of sources have said that he personally recruited them from Sicily, in particular Bonventre and Amato, when the reality is those two came to the US as teenagers with their parents. They were from CDG like Galante's parents and it's possible he had a strong hand in bringing them into the Bonanno fold but he didn't import them. I doubt he had a hand in bringing any of other zips from Middle Village / Ridgewood over either. Many if not most of them had been in the US since the 1960s. And of course there's the fact that at least three zips participated in his murder, so their loyalty fell away when mob politics came into play.
Some of Galante grabbing the steering wheel could have been a bluff on his part. The family was in a weakened state, their reputation in NY was low, and most of the family likely remembered what a force Galante had been under Joe Bonanno. Galante's connections earlier on had been so diverse and spread out, the rest of the family may have assumed he had more weight than he did. By the time other senior leaders realized what was going on, he had brought some old allies out of the woodwork (the DeFilippos for example), promoted some other allies, and officiated ceremonies which possibly gave the new recruits some loyalty to him. This would match up with the 1977 date when he told Massino he was now the boss... before that he may have been going through the motions as a more typical "acting boss". Just an idea, of course.
[quote=Antiliar post_id=47804 time=1487803489 user_id=77]
Galante shot a police officer when he was young and killed Carlo Tresca in 1943, but how are his murders any more ruthless than that of the other Bonannos? That's the question I have. I'm sure they were all fairly ruthless, so what did he do that was so scary to make other members fear him? Plus, at his age at that time I'm sure he himself wouldn't do much shooting, so he must have had some sort of following to give him the power he had. So I agree with you, B. What happened when he was released? Did he have his own Luca Brasi who was mowing down his enemies? If so, who were they?
The follow up is, Who supported him when he came out? Why would the other captains go against their own boss to replace him and who were they? Why didn't Marangello and Steve Cannone stop them? I want answers and I can handle the truth! LOL
[/quote]
I wasn't pulling from specific examples, only his reputation among other wiseguys, LE, etc. Zicarelli, who was a Galante soldier, makes Galante out to be a hard, ruthless guy on the DeCavalcante tapes and Magaddino describes him as a "stinking specimen". All of the CIs from the relevant periods talk about him the same way. Even if some of it was myth, his name is always mentioned with an air of unpredictability and fear, even going back to his earlier days.
The "zips" have always been referenced as his personal army in the 1970s and it does seem they were closely aligned with him. There is misinformation there, though, as a lot of sources have said that he personally recruited them from Sicily, in particular Bonventre and Amato, when the reality is those two came to the US as teenagers with their parents. They were from CDG like Galante's parents and it's possible he had a strong hand in bringing them into the Bonanno fold but he didn't import them. I doubt he had a hand in bringing any of other zips from Middle Village / Ridgewood over either. Many if not most of them had been in the US since the 1960s. And of course there's the fact that at least three zips participated in his murder, so their loyalty fell away when mob politics came into play.
Some of Galante grabbing the steering wheel could have been a bluff on his part. The family was in a weakened state, their reputation in NY was low, and most of the family likely remembered what a force Galante had been under Joe Bonanno. Galante's connections earlier on had been so diverse and spread out, the rest of the family may have assumed he had more weight than he did. By the time other senior leaders realized what was going on, he had brought some old allies out of the woodwork (the DeFilippos for example), promoted some other allies, and officiated ceremonies which possibly gave the new recruits some loyalty to him. This would match up with the 1977 date when he told Massino he was now the boss... before that he may have been going through the motions as a more typical "acting boss". Just an idea, of course.