Bonanno Family Ceremony (Halloween 1977)

[Pogo The Clown]

As always great info JD.


Is it just me or does this seem like an unusually large gathering of Bonannos gathered in one location at the same time? By my count that is about 30 guy's including almost the entire leadership. Seems pretty risky.


This is also the largest making ceremony I can recall with about 18 guy's being made at a single ceremony.


Pogo

[Pogo The Clown]

Was Peter Monteleone one of those made during this ceremony? I recall reading this somewhere.


Pogo

[B.]

As always great info JD.


Is it just me or does this seem like an unusually large gathering of Bonannos gathered in one location at the same time? By my count that is about 30 guy's including almost the entire leadership. Seems pretty risky.


This is also the largest making ceremony I can recall with about 18 guy's being made at a single ceremony.


Pogo

That's what I was just about to say. Definitely the largest NY ceremony I can recall hearing about and by far the largest number of inductees I've heard of anywhere. They must have been there all night. I know in Philly some ceremonies even during the Scarfo era were described as having <40 members but things were different there.

Benanti was under Sonny Indelicato before Spero, right? I know those crews were connected and Benanti is seated with some of that faction at the Bono wedding.

D'Amico must have been the youngest button in NYC at the time.

[LcnBios]

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[toto]

Was Carmine Galante in jail at this time? How many of the people in the ceremony could be considered to be his guys?

Perhaps it was his attempt to create a army to take over the family by creating an "obligation" from the new guys. Just some thoughts.

[Pogo The Clown]

Thanks for the info JD.


Could Lefty Ruggiero, Anthony Rabito or Louis Attanasio have been some of the others in this ceremony?


Pogo

[B.]

Do you know when the ceremony was where Galante presided over the induction of Frank Coppa, Cesare Bonventre, and Baldo Amato? Or who any of the other inductees were? Coppa testified that Bonventre and Amato went through the ceremony in tandem and that their entire bit was done in Italian. Never heard of two guys going through the actual initiation together.

[Angelo Santino]

Do you know when the ceremony was where Galante presided over the induction of Frank Coppa, Cesare Bonventre, and Baldo Amato? Or who any of the other inductees were? Coppa testified that Bonventre and Amato went through the ceremony in tandem and that their entire bit was done in Italian. Never heard of two guys going through the actual initiation together.

Not being petty, you know this, but the Sopranos got their making inspiration from Blood Oath. I remember watching it and knowing instantly where it came from, I wasn't surprised when Fresolone sued. But essentially it was Tony Piccolo, acting over Philly holding a ceremony for Newark but I believed it occured in NY. Multiple guys were made at once with Piccolo saying almost the same speech Soprano gave 15 years later on screen. If anyone wants, I'll post that portion in a different thread. (I don't want to distract the discussion.)

Again, good stuff JD.

Question, off the top of anyone's head, where were the capi operating from? Territory we can call it, but that can be misleading. I'm curious who were the Castellammarese crews, Zip crews and American-Italian crews. Obviously by 1970, the Bonannos were out. I don't know Rastelli's background but his faction wouldn't reflect the same background as Joe Bonanno and his immediate Sicilian tradition successors. I'm just curious about the next gen growing pains of the 1970's.

[toto]

Was Rastelli from Castellammare del Golfo as well?

[Angelo Santino]

Was Rastelli from Castellammare del Golfo as well?

I'd be curious to know his background also.

[HairyKnuckles]

As always great info JD.


Is it just me or does this seem like an unusually large gathering of Bonannos gathered in one location at the same time? By my count that is about 30 guy's including almost the entire leadership. Seems pretty risky.


This is also the largest making ceremony I can recall with about 18 guy's being made at a single ceremony.


Pogo

I don´t know what the source said, but it could be something like the inductees entered the location in groups. When one group was inducted, they left and then another group entered etc. Perhaps they sat in parked cars in the vicinity of the apartment waiting for their turn.

Thanks for this excellent info JD!

[B.]

The Bonannos aren't quite as bad as the Colombos, but there has always been a lot of jumping around with some of the crews.

The main "zip" crew under Sal Catalano was based in Middle Village / Ridgewood and a lot of the soldiers were either first or second generation from Castellammare or other Sicilian backgrounds. To this day there are remnants of this Castellammarese element in Middle Village.

Keep in mind though that the Middle Village / Ridgewood area has been a Bonanno stronghold ever since they phased out of Williamsburg and that a bunch of crews had members and activities around there and Bushwick.

Cesare Bonventre mingled with that crew a lot, but he lived in South Brooklyn and aside from Baldo Amato I don't know of anyone else who could be called a "zip" in that crew. JD found out that Bonventre took over the Frank Lupo crew, and I think that Lupo took over the Joseph DeFilippi crew (or some of the same interests at least). The Bonannos never had much of a presence in South BK and it seems Bonventre had soldiers in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, etc.

George Sciascia was the other zip leader and obviously represented Montreal but also had the following of Sicilians in NY. Not sure when he officially became a capo, could have been 1982 but not positive.

Other than that, there were (and still are, but less so now) members with Castellammarese heritage throughout the family's other crews. Names like Asaro, Bonventre, Badamo, Pepitone, and others... all have Castellammare ancestry and are active in the family today. It was even moreso in the late 1970s.

As for Rastelli, I don't think he comes from a Sicilian background. When he was a capo he had guys throughout Queens and JD could correct me, but I think he may have been captain of the main Middle Village crew, or at least had guys there.

[Pogo The Clown]

According to the info JD has provided n the past Lupo took over a portion of the Mike Zaffarano Crew. He also said Zaffarano's Crew was made up of remnants of other crews in 1972 so it is possible that the Joseph DeFilippi Crew was one of them.


Pogo

[B.]

According to the info JD has provided n the past Lupo took over a portion of the Mike Zaffarano Crew. He also said Zaffarano's Crew was made up of remnants of other crews in 1972 so it is possible that the Joseph DeFilippi Crew was one of them.


Pogo

Lupo is described by Scarpa via Joe Colombo as "one of us" under DeFilippi, who he said was the consigliere at the time, and I think that was in 1972. JD is pretty sure that Lupo wasn't made yet, so the "one of us" part is confusing since that is a phrase sometimes used to describe member status.

Seems like there may have been too many crews being broken up and reassigned for there to be a straightforward succession with some of the 70s crews.

[Pogo The Clown]

Great stuff JD. I thought Mike Sabella was promoted (for the second time) in 1974 after Nicky Marangello was promoted to UnderBoss? Thanks.


Pogo