Galante as "boss" and his murder

[B.]

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.

Yep, this is exactly what I'm taking from everything.

But more than there simply being two factions, it appears one faction constituted the majority of the family. JD has posted lists of the captains from the late 1970s and talked about who was demoted following Galante's murder, and it appears that a number of the captains (along with underboss Marangello) were explicitly loyal to Galante while the rest of the majority were at least supportive of him. I'm not sure how all of the soldiers in those crews may have felt, but from the small samples we know of (guys like Lefty Ruggiero and Frank Coppa for example, who were in the Sabella and Valvo crews) they recognized Galante as official boss at the time.

It seems consigliere Cannone, who kept his position after Galante's murder unlike Marangello, was loyal to Rastelli and we know that soldiers Massino and Napolitano were rising soldiers who were diehard Rastelli supporters, but I'm having trouble coming up with other family leaders who could be described as part of the Rastelli faction. Most of the names I can come up with seemed to be ambivalent or indifferent at most. Maybe someone can fill in those blanks for me.

As far as the Commission support, it seems like shady political maneuvering on their part. They refused to recognize Galante despite his support within the family and had him killed, yet after he was killed they treated Rastelli as a second-tier boss and as shown in the Tony Salerno tapes they refused to give him a seat on the Commission. He hardly legitimized the family as boss and it wasn't until Massino took over in the 1990s and the old guard of the Commission was gone that the Bonannos became respected again. This makes me believe that part of the motivation for the Commission's support of Rastelli had less to do with any respect for Rastelli and more with the fact that with Rastelli at the helm they could keep the Bonannos down, as they had been for more than a decade, thus giving the other families more power/influence. They wanted to keep the status quo exactly as it was, and Galante seems to have been a challenge to that.

All of this sort of flies in the face of how bosses are historically meant to be chosen. From wiretaps in the 1960s, we know that bosses are supposed to be proposed within the family, and if the majority of the family reaches consensus, the Commission will approve that person as the official boss. This is what happened with Carlo Gambino and Angelo Bruno, who were named provisional bosses with majority support within the family and later made official. It was also a central part of the Bonanno discussions of the 1960s when they were trying to choose a new boss, as evidenced by the DeCavalcante and Magaddino tapes. It was also one reason why the Commission wouldn't support Joe Magliocco as head of his family -- he didn't have the majority support and had tried to override the process.

No doubt Galante was a brutish, heroin-trafficking thug, but it is looking to me like Cicale's words have some truth to them. We also can't rule out Galante's apparent loyalty to Joe Bonanno as a motivating factor, as we know Joe Bonanno continued to concern the New York bosses for some years after he was deposed.

[HairyKnuckles]

Good post B. Do you remember, which one of the CWs said, or "confirmed" Galante was never official boss? Was it Lino?

[Pogo The Clown]

Good post B. Do you remember, which one of the CWs said, or "confirmed" Galante was never official boss? Was it Lino?

It was Vitale.


Pogo

[HairyKnuckles]

Good post B. Do you remember, which one of the CWs said, or "confirmed" Galante was never official boss? Was it Lino?

It was Vitale.


Pogo

Okay. Thanks. That kinda confirms B´s thinking on the two factions.

[Antiliar]

B,

I totally agree with everything you wrote. From what I recall about the lack of acceptance for Rastelli by the Commission, the issue was approval of drugs. I don't know if Rastelli said anything about drugs or not, but by getting rid of Galante and his supporters it would seemingly gain the acceptance of Commission members, yet apparently they still blamed him. Maybe they thought he was too weak and should have done something to have prevented Galante's rise to the top. Hey, this might be a good question for Michael Franzese LOL!

[Lupara]

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.

Yep, this is exactly what I'm taking from everything.

But more than there simply being two factions, it appears one faction constituted the majority of the family. JD has posted lists of the captains from the late 1970s and talked about who was demoted following Galante's murder, and it appears that a number of the captains (along with underboss Marangello) were explicitly loyal to Galante while the rest of the majority were at least supportive of him. I'm not sure how all of the soldiers in those crews may have felt, but from the small samples we know of (guys like Lefty Ruggiero and Frank Coppa for example, who were in the Sabella and Valvo crews) they recognized Galante as official boss at the time.

It seems consigliere Cannone, who kept his position after Galante's murder unlike Marangello, was loyal to Rastelli and we know that soldiers Massino and Napolitano were rising soldiers who were diehard Rastelli supporters, but I'm having trouble coming up with other family leaders who could be described as part of the Rastelli faction. Most of the names I can come up with seemed to be ambivalent or indifferent at most. Maybe someone can fill in those blanks for me.

As far as the Commission support, it seems like shady political maneuvering on their part. They refused to recognize Galante despite his support within the family and had him killed, yet after he was killed they treated Rastelli as a second-tier boss and as shown in the Tony Salerno tapes they refused to give him a seat on the Commission. He hardly legitimized the family as boss and it wasn't until Massino took over in the 1990s and the old guard of the Commission was gone that the Bonannos became respected again. This makes me believe that part of the motivation for the Commission's support of Rastelli had less to do with any respect for Rastelli and more with the fact that with Rastelli at the helm they could keep the Bonannos down, as they had been for more than a decade, thus giving the other families more power/influence. They wanted to keep the status quo exactly as it was, and Galante seems to have been a challenge to that.

All of this sort of flies in the face of how bosses are historically meant to be chosen. From wiretaps in the 1960s, we know that bosses are supposed to be proposed within the family, and if the majority of the family reaches consensus, the Commission will approve that person as the official boss. This is what happened with Carlo Gambino and Angelo Bruno, who were named provisional bosses with majority support within the family and later made official. It was also a central part of the Bonanno discussions of the 1960s when they were trying to choose a new boss, as evidenced by the DeCavalcante and Magaddino tapes. It was also one reason why the Commission wouldn't support Joe Magliocco as head of his family -- he didn't have the majority support and had tried to override the process.

No doubt Galante was a brutish, heroin-trafficking thug, but it is looking to me like Cicale's words have some truth to them. We also can't rule out Galante's apparent loyalty to Joe Bonanno as a motivating factor, as we know Joe Bonanno continued to concern the New York bosses for some years after he was deposed.

As always, great analysis.

[OlBlueEyesClub]

Awesome thread to read through. And while I've never held much value in Cicale's claims in the past, with the corraborating points you've brought up B. I think Cicale may have actually been told that. And from all that we know about Galante, his attitude, and the Commission's history when it comes to the Bonanno family, it would make sense that Galante was the disruption to the status quo of the Five Families at the time, and that Galante was looked at as an obstacle not just because of his reputation but because he did have the support of the majority of the Bonanno Family itself. Interesting in that it's a slap in the face of all that we've been told about Galante and the reason for his murder, and as mentioned as well, many of those claims come from those who were considered to be a part of the Anti-Galante camp.

[JeremyTheJew]

Okay so few questions...

Was rastelli on the commission before he went away when he was boss the first time?

Were the bonannos ever really back on the commission after the banana war?

Also do we know for sure about lefty ruggerio recognizing galante as boss? I do remmember him saying he didnt like or trust zips. And when he got hit he said the boss was whacked n to get the paper n read it.

And lastly i thought that was why the bonannos were kicked off the commision as well. Was bc of donnie brasco

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[Antiliar]

I wonder if Vincent Teresa's "My Life in the Mafia" (1973) had any influence. He talked about Carmine Galante's hatred for Frank Costello and Carlo Gambino a lot. We know that Teresa lied in court, but not everything he said or wrote was a lie and there could have been truth in what he said. That wouldn't have made Galante popular with the other Families.

[HairyKnuckles]

Okay so few questions...

Was rastelli on the commission before he went away when he was boss the first time?

Were the bonannos ever really back on the commission after the banana war?

Also do we know for sure about lefty ruggerio recognizing galante as boss? I do remmember him saying he didnt like or trust zips. And when he got hit he said the boss was whacked n to get the paper n read it.

And lastly i thought that was why the bonannos were kicked off the commision as well. Was bc of donnie brasco

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if I remember correctly, according to Pistone, Lefty told Pistone something to the effect of "for the first time in almost a decade, our Family is going to be self governed." Now, I don´t remember if this statement was made right after the Galante killing or if it was made sometime in 1981 when he talked about Rastelli coming home from prison. (I can´t find the passage in the book.) Anyway, this would mean that the Bonannos had not had a seat on the Commision since the early 1970s (or possibly since the late 1960s when the Bananas War ended). They were not kicked out because of Donnie Brasco, but were kept out because, according to the Tony Salerno tapes "They´re all junk guys".

And yes, Lefty clearly said (again, according to Pistone) that Galante was the boss.

[B.]

I wonder if Vincent Teresa's "My Life in the Mafia" (1973) had any influence. He talked about Carmine Galante's hatred for Frank Costello and Carlo Gambino a lot. We know that Teresa lied in court, but not everything he said or wrote was a lie and there could have been truth in what he said. That wouldn't have made Galante popular with the other Families.

I wonder where the alleged hatred of Frank Costello comes from. Costello by most accounts was an aloof boss who rubbed some members of his own family the wrong way, but I can't imagine what Lilo's experience with him would have been, or if they even crossed paths. I don't remember Joe Bonanno having much of an issue with Costello, either.

Gambino would make more sense even though he was barely the boss when Galante was still on the street. Gambino was one of the main forces against Joe Bonanno and Gambino's order to the other families to stop doing business with Bonanno members until they denounced JB was a major turning point in the conflict. I imagine Galante had similar hatred for Lucchese, though he was dead by the 1970s.

Also I'm guessing that Teresa did prison time with Galante and that's how he knew supposedly knew this?

[Antiliar]

They were in Lewisburg Prison together. The thing with Teresa, because he lied so much, everything he said has to be prefaced by "allegedly."

[JeremyTheJew]

Was it teresa that said galante blew up the Costello gates ar his grave?

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[B.]

Was doing some more Colombo war research last night and it got me thinking how similar the Orena and Galante situations were. Like I probably said earlier, I'm not sure if or how Galante was formally selected as acting boss or if he just sort of put himself there, but aside from that, he and Orena both had full authority and the majority of the family supporting them.

The big difference is Galante was picked off before war broke out, though from Pistone's account it sounds like the Galante faction was ready for something like that to happen. When he talks about standing guard outside of Casa Bella with Ruggiero while Galante was inside, Ruggiero tells him things are going on behind the scenes and implies there could be violence.

Another difference is that Galante seems to have ruled through fear while much of Orena's support seems to have come through his leadership qualities. Sal Profaci speaks highly of his abilities for example in the Stanfa tapes, whereas I can't think of any account of Galante being "liked" -- simply feared.

Would have been interesting if Galante didn't get killed and you ended up with the Bonanno family at war again around 1980. I doubt they would have ever recovered had that happened.

[moneyman]

Is there a head count of which Columbo capos supported Orena becoming boss vs the capos who wished to remain loyal to Persico? Apologies if this should be in another thread