Joe Bonanno’s attempted takeover?

[JoelTurner]

This (https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.htm ... ch=Bonanno) file has some interesting information in it.

Page 3 says that Joe Bonanno attempted to consolidate the 5 families under him in the late 1950s. This plot was foiled by captain Mike Sabella who told Tommy Lucchese.

Also mentioned is that Bonanno has an organization of killers throughout the country with Los Angeles, Kansas City, Las Vegas, and Chicago being specifically named.

The informant also states that members of the Bonanno family including himself were placed temporarily with other families.

I’ve never heard of this plot before. Could the informant be referring to the the takeover attempt with Magliocco that was foiled by Joe Colombo or was this a separate, earlier attempt?

Also, I’ve never heard of Bonanno being involved in those cities other than LA. The informant uses the term execution squads to refer to these killers, implying multiple people in each city. Do we have any idea of who these could be?

This seems like a big story that isn’t talked about.

[thekiduknow]

The informant, Florida based Bonanno member Willie Dara, might be mixing some things up.

I haven’t seen any other report backing up that Bonanno wanted to consolidate the different NY families into one. I think you’re right, in that he might be referring to the plot with Magliocco to take out Lucchese, Gambino, and Magaddino. But it’s interesting that he says that it was Mike Sabella who told Lucchese about Bonannos plot. The narrative is always that it was Joe Colombo who went to the Commission after being given the contract from Magliocco.

The timeline is also off. Bonanno had been in Arizona for a decade by the 1950s. And the Commission didn’t call him for a “showdown” until late 1964. In fact, Magaddino complained that Bonanno wasn’t around the to help with the Gallo war, and kept trying to get him to show.

During the split, Bill did go around with guys from Arizona and Texas, so I can see how having out of town bodyguards can turn into the “execution squads” referred to here. And no doubt Joseph had lots of contacts in other cities, so that rings true.

[JoelTurner]

Where does the information that Colombo alerted the other bosses come from anyways? The story is well known but who said it first?

You’re right about the timeline part. Bonanno has been in Arizona since ~1942 when he sent his son to school there. Could the line about Bonanno leaving to Arizona be interpreted as him physically leaving to go there?

I knew that the Bonannos had guys from Arizona and California but I’d never heard of them having people from the cities that he named. I was pretty curious to know who they would be. Like you said, he had a ton of contacts everywhere.

[Eline2015]

It’s was probably a Sally Sheik Musacchio who warned commission about Maglicco and Bonanno plot

[thekiduknow]

In one of Bill’s interviews with the FBI, he cursed Colombo for “betraying his father”.I’ve seen other reports that state that Colombo was the one to warn the Commission, and that is why he was upped to boss. I feel like it could come from the Magaddino and/or DeCavalcante tapes, I’d have to go back and check.

Bill writes in his book that Musacchio was the one that Magliocco gave the contract to, but that Colombo was the one who went to the Commission.

Edit: This is from 1966:

[JoelTurner]

To sum it up, we have either two versions of the same story or two different stories altogether.

1) Magliocco puts hits on Lucchese, Gambino, and Magaddino with Sally the Sheik getting the contract. He assigns it to Joe Colombo who tells Carlo Gambino. This event takes place approximately in 1963.

2) Bonanno attempts to consolidate the other families under him. Logically, they wouldn’t roll over, so it would be a hit. Mike Sabella tells Tommy Lucchese. This event takes place in the late 1950s.

The “basic premise” seems to be the same in both stories. A hit is put on some commission members, a captain leaks the plot and its foiled. Other than that, every other detail appears to be different.

Additionally, Dara states that Paul Vario was one of the Bonanno members put with Lucchese. Do we know when he took over the Brooklyn crew? I would think it was before 1963 meaning that his transfer and thus the failed Sabella plot occurred earlier.

[JoelTurner]

Furthermore, Dara told this story on(or earlier than) 08/21/1967. He also said that he was one of the soldiers temporarily placed with another family.

Personally, it seems weird that Dara would completely confuse an event that occurred only 4 years earlier and affected him personally.

[thekiduknow]

Dara was affected by it, but he wouldn't necessarily have a full understanding of the situation in New York. Even NY informants heard different things, and stories got mixed up and exaggerated. Without discounting it, I can see the Magliocco story getting twisted into the story Dara tells. I would think that Sabella would be the one telling him, so I wonder if there was some situation that Sabella was involved in with Lucchese, but it's hard to tell.

I haven't seen anything suggesting that there was a situation where Bonanno members went to other families in the 1950s. That definitely happened during the split, as members sought protection. I don't think that Vario would be one of those, as that would be in 1964. In the book Mob Boss, D'Arco meets Babe Vario in Sing Sing sometime in 1962, and they describe his brother as already a power in the Lucchese family. LCNBios has Vario likely being made with peter Abinanti in the 1950s:

https://lcnbios.blogspot.com/2019/07/bi ... nanti.html

I wonder if Vario was at one point connected to the Bonannos, and later ended up in the Lucchese family, and that is what Dara is referring too.

[JoelTurner]

I definitely agree with you on the first part, I can easily how the story could get misconstrued.

It’s the timeline that’s throwing me off. It’s just hard for me to believe that he would mistake an event that happened barely a few years prior as happening in the late ‘50s.

Other than this comment by Dara, has there ever been any sources pointing to Paul Vario transferring from Bonanno to Lucchese?

Pretty much everything else, including the Pete the Killer’s bio that was shared, paints him as someone who came up in the Lucchese Brooklyn crew. Maybe he was with the Bonannos as an associate.

[B.]

The FBI said Dara wouldn't let them interview him for more than an hour each time and couldn't press him for details as he was irritable, so that may have contributed to some of the confusing statements he made along with him genuinely getting some things off or wrong.

The stuff about Vario is odd, as I don't think he was made into the Bonannos and transferred but maybe he was an associate of them earlier. His family was from Vita in Trapani and the Lucchese NJ faction was from there but in NYC you had guys from Vita like Nicolo Gruppuso and Mike Adamo who joined the Bonannos.

Vario was a very close friend of Vinny Asaro and they plotted Lufthansa together. Vario decina member Joe Schiavo was from Castellammare del Golfo too. Willie Dara himself was from an area of Trapani not far from where the Varios came from.

Could be something there.

[JoelTurner]

That’s why I love this place lol, I would never have thought about looking in to their backgrounds on the other side.

Does this story from Dara cast doubt on some of the other, slightly unconventional things that he’s said? The first thing that comes to mind is how he said he was made without a ceremony when most other sources refer to a similar ceremony.

[B.]

Hard to say when there's no other source to compare the info with. One of the topics member informants are most cagey about is details of their induction ceremony so maybe he held things back, but the Bonannos later stopped doing the full ceremony so could go either way. The induction described by Dara is very close to what Joe Bonanno said about his own induction twenty years earlier.

[thekiduknow]

We talked about Dara’s induction ceremony(and a few other times in other threads I’m sure) here:

viewtopic.php?p=222860#p222860

Basically, Dara’s induction is an early example of what are from the Bonanno ceremonies from the 1970s on, so it’s possible he was made without the traditional ceremony. However, another Bonanno CI who was made in 1940 went through the traditional induction, done by Joseph Bonanno himself. Other Bonanno CIs in the 1960s don’t mention their inductions, or at least it hasn’t come out.

[B.]

The early 1970s informant was inducted in a full traditional ceremony in the 1940s or 1950s and it also included a banquet and drinks, so his was a little of both.

Speaking of Vario, Carmine Taglialatela said when he was inducted into the Luccheses by Vario his ceremony was basically a banquet type setting without the traditional stuff. Pretty sure JD shared info from Tommy Ricciardi that his Lucchese induction in the early 1980s was nontraditional too.

[thekiduknow]

D'Arco and others went through the traditional ceremony, with Vario pricking his finger, and that was in the early 1980s. Interesting that, if both accounts are true, the Luccheses were doing both types of ceremonies. I think its possible the Bonannos did that too, especially given how absent Bonanno was by the 1950s.