The Commission's Actual charges against Joe Bonanno

[CabriniGreen]

who is NG?

Can someone help me break this series of wire transcripts down?

I don't understand what the fuck eboli is driving at.

PArticularly the second half.

I don't get the overarching points nor do I understand the finer points.

Probably lack of historical knowledge of this whole thing, I've never really understood this whole thing.

Thank you very much

On NG... I'm actually drawing a blank.

But basically Bonnano appointed Johnny Sideburns to rep for him at Commision meetings. Gambino and Luchesse found out the guy was going to Arizona, and made a Commision meeting for the exact same time, so he would miss it. They tell Sideburn there's a Commision meeting, he says I'm gonna be out of town, and they say, oh, okay fine. But I guess they never actually tell Bonnano he was summoned. They were in Philly from 9am to 4am? Or was it 9pm to 4am? They sent for him 3 times and wanted to attempt a fourth. This, I think is where the Giancana quote came from, " WHAT IS THIS FOUR TIMES?! HE DONT WANNA COME WHEN WE CALL HIM, KILL HIM!!"

Then they make attempts to isolate the Genovese family "Foxes" , guys like Mike Miranda and Benny Squint, from Jerry Catena and this Commision business, playing on his ego telling him he's in charge and shouldn't be taking direction from underlings. This is so they can take advantage cause they knew Jerry really only cared about his money and they could manipulate him. I'm extrapolating a little, but I think that was the gist of it.

And they were doing the same to Zerilli, a Bonnano ally.

Anyone feel free to add on...

[CornerBoy]

Thanks for takign the time to write that Cabrini.

you the best

anyone care to expound on this? I think i"m halfway there......

[Don_Peppino]

Its kinda blurry but NG is actually MG, thats Michael Genovese, Vito's brother.

Eboli is basically explaining that Gambino and Lucchese were using underhanded tactics and weren't actually doing this in the interest of a helping the Bonannos but for there own reasons. I'll have to find the other transcripts but Eboli continues (or it might've been another conversation altogether) were he says talks of "what's to them from tampering with the west side".

[CabriniGreen]

Its kinda blurry but NG is actually MG, thats Michael Genovese, Vito's brother.

Eboli is basically explaining that Gambino and Lucchese were using underhanded tactics and weren't actually doing this in the interest of a helping the Bonannos but for there own reasons. I'll have to find the other transcripts but Eboli continues (or it might've been another conversation altogether) were he says talks of "what's to them from tampering with the west side".

Yes, you are correct. There's a lot more to it... I've seen and read it before but it was awhile ago.... Eboli called Gambino and Luchesse " Tigers"? Or was it Lions? I can't remember...

[PolackTony]

I'll have to find the other transcripts but Eboli continues (or it might've been another conversation altogether) were he says talks of "what's to them from tampering with the west side".

“If they’re capable of doing this here, well then, they’re capable of doing anything” has the same insinuation.

[PolackTony]

As Cabrini noted, there’s more in the Eboli/Genovese transcripts. Eboli believed that Bonanno was being railroaded by Lucchese and Gambino, that Zerilli was being sidelined from the Commission meetings dealing with Bonanno, and that Catena and Eboli were being instructed by the Commission not to appraise their own captains of what was happening with the Bonanno situation (as Cabrini noted, there seems to have been concern that guys like Lombardo and Miranda would realize something underhanded was going down and try to advise Catena against playing along with it). Eboli was concerned that if the Commission could get away with fabricating a pretext to remove Bonanno, they could do so with any Family and thus the Commission would lose its legitimacy and mandate.

Eboli also told Mike Genovese that he went to Paul Ricca with his concerns, but off the record as he didn’t want Paul telling Mooney that he talked to him:

[CornerBoy]

Thanks, bro!

[Don_Peppino]

Something that gets overlooked in this narrative is, Tommy Brown was involved in the Maranzano hit. Bonanno never trusted Lucchese. So it may seem that Bonanno was just "splitting hairs" on a technicality but his life was on the line.

[Don_Peppino]

Does anyone have any theories based on what happened afterwards, on why Lucchese and Gambino singled out Bonanno? I know we can only speculate and the wiretaps show that it was mainly "organizational" but there had to be some "operational" aspect to this. Magaddino, in my opinion, always saw himself as the leader of the Castellamarese in America and that he helped Bonanno get to his status. Stefano could involve himself as he saw fit. He was personally driven
But Lucchese and Gambino's motivation had to be more business oriented.

[Don_Peppino]

As Cabrini noted, there’s more in the Eboli/Genovese transcripts. Eboli believed that Bonanno was being railroaded by Lucchese and Gambino, that Zerilli was being sidelined from the Commission meetings dealing with Bonanno, and that Catena and Eboli were being instructed by the Commission not to appraise their own captains of what was happening with the Bonanno situation (as Cabrini noted, there seems to have been concern that guys like Lombardo and Miranda would realize something underhanded was going down and try to advise Catena against playing along with it). Eboli was concerned that if the Commission could get away with fabricating a pretext to remove Bonanno, they could do so with any Family and thus the Commission would lose its legitimacy and mandate.

Eboli also told Mike Genovese that he went to Paul Ricca with his concerns, but off the record as he didn’t want Paul telling Mooney that he talked to him:

Tony, have you ever seen any info on Bonanno being involved in the Vegas casinos? I've been researching him, for years, the only thing I've read was about Galante trying to muscle in (unsuccessfully) on a off-strip casino named the cattleman. Funny thing is, I couldn't find the existence of such a place. As far as I know, Bonanno had zero involvement in the Las Vegas. But maybe you know?

I realize that it's more of an "operational" question but I think it's valid because its my impression that (from his book) that his operational philosophy was "you have your business, I havr my business". Very seperatist. If he wasn't in the Vegas Skim and he was on the outskirts of what was going on in the Islands with Lansky, Trafficante etc. Maybe he felt he could plant flags in quasi-open territories and bend certain rules because he wasn't standing in the way of their business pursuits.