Galante as "boss" and his murder

[B.]

In his little pamphlet, one thing Dom Cicale says is that a "Genovese crime boss" told him Galante was killed because he was rightfully reclaiming what belonged to the Bonannos and essentially giving them credibility again. This is kind of the opposite of what we often hear, that he was a killed for being a scoundrel who had no right to fill the void in leadership and was giving the family a bad name. I'm not sure who this Genovese leader was and I know because it is Cicale that many here will immediately discount the theory, but I'd like to at least consider it.

Galante was referred to as "the boss" by at least the Sabella crew as well as Valvo soldier Frank Coppa, which might indicate that Valvo himself recognized Galante's legitimacy. We can assume that Galante's cousin and captain Moe Presinzano (former Galante soldier) and captain Vito DeFilippo (former Galante soldier) were in this camp as well. There is reason to believe other captains as well treated Galante with the fear/respect/whatever given to an official leader, including the Catalano and Lupo crews and others.

Underboss Marangello (former Galante soldier in the 1950s) seems to have continued to defer to Galante as boss even when Galante was incarcerated at various times in the late 1970s. JD has also talked about a ruling panel of captains who operated, if I remember right, at Galante's discretion when he as in prison. According to Ruggiero, Sabella also communicated with Galante by phone while he was away. Of course most of these captains were demoted following his murder, but that doesn't mean the family did not largely accept his rule.

Keep in mind too that some of the sources we have heard from on Galante, like Sal Vitale, were firmly in the anti-Galante faction. He claimed that Galante was a capo (did he have a crew? was he promoted after his release? the original Galante crew from the 1950s was given to Joe Notaro and split into at least three or four crews in the years to come) who became the acting/defacto boss (was he selected by Rastelli? other family leaders? did he take it upon himself?) and usurped Rastelli's power. We know it's true that Galante was NOT the official boss in other families' eyes and even within certain groups in his family, but it does seem that a large percentage of the family did consider him the boss.

Side note, but he mentions that Sonny Red Indelicato was tasked with handling the murder and put his son Bruno in charge of carrying it out which is why he was rewarded with a promotion to captain later. We know this is more or less true, as Bruno Indelicato was definitely a participant in the murder and all indications point to his father being involved in the conspiracy. I'd be curious if he heard some of this directly from Bruno (or through Bruno's buddy Basciano) or if he is just going off the same "common knowledge" we all have.

Anyway, just some things to think about.

[toto]

Important point: in Cosa Nostra the boss is not always the "official" one. It often depends who can take the family and control it - put the capidecine in position, decide who will join the family and so on. This person may not get the official title of boss i.e. a formal recognization but this person can be the boss because his power is felt in that family.

So perhaps Galante was only capodecina but he was powerful and feared and many guys backed him against the official boss in jail. Often this would be enough and it would be enough if there was no powerful guys who stayed loyal to the official boss - Rastelli.

[B.]

Important point: in Cosa Nostra the boss is not always the "official" one. It often depends who can take the family and control it - put the capidecine in position, decide who will join the family and so on. This person may not get the official title of boss i.e. a formal recognization but this person can be the boss because his power is felt in that family.

So perhaps Galante was only capodecina but he was powerful and feared and many guys backed him against the official boss in jail. Often this would be enough and it would be enough if there was no powerful guys who stayed loyal to the official boss - Rastelli.

Yeah, that's exactly what he was -- a defacto boss. No question there.

It always comes back to the fact that he was "feared", and no doubt he was. Galante was among the most feared hoodlums going back to his youth, but by the time of his release from prison the faction he was aligned with had been decimated and he was an old man. A mean old fucker, no doubt, who could wield a gun if needed, but the only reason he was able to become the defacto boss was through the support of others. He certainly didn't have the support of other families, but it's clear he had a great deal of support in his own family. It's sort of a chicken or the egg argument -- did Galante gain a lot of support because he was feared, or was he feared because he gained a lot of support?

I noted some of the captains and high-ranking figures who had been soldiers in Galante's crew in the 1950s. You have to figure that the Montreal, Bronx, New Jersey (though it had been combined with a Manhattan decina), and at least one or two other crews could trace their history back to the original Carmine Galante crew from the 50s, which was a massive sprawling crew containing some of the family's most dangerous members. I have to figure this history was one of the reasons for the support he got in the 1970s.

[Wiseguy]

Officially a captain but certainly not the official boss, which Rastelli was. He certainly acted like he was the boss in a lot of ways but it seems a significant part of the family didn't recognize him, let alone the other families.

[Laurentian]

There is no doubt that here in Montreal, Galante was a very well respected mafioso, when sent in the mid-1950s by Joe Bonanno to "organized" the illegal activities of the Montreal decina. The two main and important underworld figures were of course Vic Cotroni and Luigi Greco. Later, Cotroni was appointed by Bonanno capodecina.

[Antiliar]

It seems to me that with the two factions, the faction that supported him did consider him the official boss, not just an acting one. Rastelli and the Commission didn't agree, of course. But that seems to make more sense from what we know.

[Rocco]

Dom Cicale has gone off the deep end for attention it seems. Mostly on the stuff that happened when he was like 3 yrs old. lol

[HairyKnuckles]

I would take what Cicale said about Galante and his efforts to take back what once belonged to the Bonannos into consideration. I would definitely not dismiss it completely. And all the talk on Galante´s toughness doesn´t seem to be exaggerated, as we sometimes see with other mobsters. It looks like he had the support from Tieri and DiBella, at least initially. According to CI´s, Rastelli was considered weak and a man who lacked anbition of being boss. It´s possible that Bonanno members at the time thought that Lilo was the leader who could and would regain the power the Bonannos once wielded under Bonanno.

Galante ruled by fear and in the end, it cost him his life.

It would be great to research Galante´s last two, three years in life. But his file is so heavily redacted, reading through it gives one a headache. I suspect the reason for his file being so heavily redacted, it´s because what´s in there is conflicting with what CW´s later said in court. No one can argue that the government does not take care of their "rats". lol

[Lupara]

By the way, I suppose that 'CI' means cooperating informant? Is this the official term used by the feds?

[HairyKnuckles]

By the way, I suppose that 'CI' means cooperating informant? Is this the official term used by the feds?

Yes, cooperating informant.

[Wiseguy]

By the way, I suppose that 'CI' means cooperating informant? Is this the official term used by the feds?

Yes, cooperating informant.

It means confidential informant (CI), as opposed to cooperating witness (CW).

[brianwellbrock]

A CI is someone who is giving infornation but not neccessarily helping with cases. A CW is someone whos been busted who flips to testify or goes back out on the streets and wears a wire and does debriefings and all that.

[JeremyTheJew]

So whats the reason for all these files to be redacted so much? I can understand blocking out names... But what they said i would think should stll be available to us even if its wrong info

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[Lupara]

By the way, I suppose that 'CI' means cooperating informant? Is this the official term used by the feds?

Yes, cooperating informant.

It means confidential informant (CI), as opposed to cooperating witness (CW).

Ah yes, thanks for clearing that up.

[Antiliar]

So whats the reason for all these files to be redacted so much? I can understand blocking out names... But what they said i would think should stll be available to us even if its wrong info

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This page explains the file exemptions (redactions): http://www.foiadvocates.com/exemptions.html
This page gives a general explanation of FBI files: http://www.historyofphonephreaking.org/writings/htraff/

So the FBI can redact if it reveals something about the agency or its procedures, info that should be kept private, info about living individuals, and material covered by other agencies.

One thing that's interesting is that sometimes you can find the same documents at the Mary Ferrell site (from the JFK Assassination Collection at the National Archives) with fewer redactions.