Mikey Mancuso running Bonannos from prison.

[gohnjotti]

A big question I have is whether Mikey Mancuso continued to hold the title of boss of the Bonanno family after his 2006 imprisonment until today, or whether from 2006-2012 he held no rank.

Mikey Mancuso was first named as the official boss of the Bonanno crime family in September 2012 by Jerry Capeci of Gang Land, who claimed that while Vinny Badalamenti had been serving as the family's "main man" since the deportation of former acting boss Sal Montagna, Mancuso was viewed as the wiseguy who was pulling the strings in the crime family, despite his confinement in prison. "He's the (Bonanno) mobster with the most clout right now," Capeci quoted one source as saying. "The other guy (Badalamenti) is more like a street boss."

Since Badalamenti was imprisoned in January 2012, I think Capeci is referring to when Badalamenti was on the street, as in 2010-2012. This means that Mancuso was at least the boss since 2010/2011, not since 2012.

If you believe Anthony Zoccolillo though, Mikey Mancuso "had (his nephew/cousin Ernie Aiello) straightened out" in 2009. This was so Aiello could help Mancuso run the family through letters that Mikey sent him. One example is in June of 2011, when Aiello and Zoccolillo were in Zoccolillo's Yonkers lemon ice store. Thomas 'Tommy Garbage' Minervo, an associate who has no criminal record and has been begin in private carting since the 1990s, came in with a letter from Mancuso.
The letters "were kind of worded a little different so (Mancuso) could get (them) through prison" censors, Zoccolillo testified. • "Tommy kind of came in, and the three of us sat down at the table and Tommy had a letter from his cousin Michael and they kind of read the letter together out loud while I was sitting there," Zoccolillo recalled. "I didn't get involved in it. And they were trying to decipher what the letter meant to Ernie because the message was sent to Ernie."
While not in code, the letter "was written in a way to where Ernie would be able to figure out what the message meant, by the way that his cousin Michael was explaining himself through the letter."
Asked what it was, Zoccolillo said: "Make sure that guy, the guy from Brooklyn, doesn't come by my house. I don't want him around my daughters no more. I don't want him by the house because he wanted to be a part of that reality show." The show in question, Zoccolillo confirmed, was Mob Wives.

But then there is the issue of the Asaro tapes. On June 23, 2012, Vinny Asaro (who was then a broke and bitter soldier) was tape-recorded by his associate cousin Gaspare Valenti saying "now we have a fuckin' scumbag, the new boss. Cheap scumbag (unintelligble)... Some scumbag from Long Island." Asaro didn't seem to like DiFiore but his mood seemed to change a bit when, on Aug. 17, he reiterated to Valenti; "we got a new boss. He sent for me. He wants me to be consigliere." Vinny continued that the "new boss" was "some guy from the Island, Tommy," a reference to Tommy DiFiore. Then he made a mostly unintelligible remark about Jerry Asaro's acting capo Jack Bonventre being offered a promotion. Later Asaro made a remark about Bonventre being offered a position to consigliere (most likely in the place of old Tony Rabito), but he declined because Jackie "didn't want to be a part of this no more," and was too loyal to Jerry. On August 25, Asaro told his cousin that he was recently promoted to skipper and was on "the panel," or the "commission" running the crime family. So from June to August 2012, Asaro went from soldier to capo and ruling panel member.

But Asaro didn't mention once that Mikey Mancuso was running the family from prison. Even if Mancuso's name was said but it was taken out from the indictment, Asaro still made it clear that DiFiore was "the new boss" and was running things - i.e. he wanted to promote Asaro to consigliere and promote Bonventre to consigliere. No mention of anyone from the Bronx running the show. So either Mancuso wasn't running things or Asaro didn't know. I don't think it was a case of Asaro choosing not to tell Valenti, because he had been open about everything else to Valenti (like when Vinny always badmouthed DiFiore behind his back) and the two had been career criminals since the 60s' and whacked a guy together with Jimmy Burke.

Does anybody on here have any more information on Mikey Nose's status after he was locked up in 2006 and before his official boss promotion in 2012? For example, what was his status with Sal Montagna? Thanks in advance, sorry if this a confusing question.

[Camo]

Tommy Garbage is the best nickname. It should be awful and be used for some sewer rat but it just sounds so great. Like: Tommy "garbage" Lucchese is better than whatever he was actually called.

[gohnjotti]

Tommy Garbage is the best nickname. It should be awful and be used for some sewer rat but it just sounds so great. Like: Tommy "garbage" Lucchese is better than whatever he was actually called.

Thomas 'Tommy Three-Finger Brown' Lucchese was pretty cool though, in my opinion.

[Extortion]

It’s possible that Sal Montagna could have only been an acting boss or front boss not similar to what the Genovese did in the 70s and 80s. Vinny G was apparently very cautious hade certain functionalities and methods for meeting with capos.

[SonnyBlackstein]

An Interesting thought line regarding the Feds is what standards do they require to carry someone holding a certain position.
If they have no intel on say the consigliere position of a given family for five years, do they just carry the last verified as consigliere?
This modus operendi would be problematic as what they’re publishing is ‘this is the last verified’ to what they actually ‘say’ which is ‘this IS the consigliere’.
But both sentences carry very different meanings.
How the Feds work on situations like this would be key to understating a lot regards understand family makeup.

[Pogo The Clown]

But Asaro didn't mention once that Mikey Mancuso was running the family from prison. Even if Mancuso's name was said but it was taken out from the indictment, Asaro still made it clear that DiFiore was "the new boss" and was running things - i.e. he wanted to promote Asaro to consigliere and promote Bonventre to consigliere. No mention of anyone from the Bronx running the show. So either Mancuso wasn't running things or Asaro didn't know.

I think it is as simple as Asaro not using the designation "acting" when talking about DiFiore. There are plenty of examples of guys cought on tape not being so formal with the designation in conversation.


Pogo

[gohnjotti]

But Asaro didn't mention once that Mikey Mancuso was running the family from prison. Even if Mancuso's name was said but it was taken out from the indictment, Asaro still made it clear that DiFiore was "the new boss" and was running things - i.e. he wanted to promote Asaro to consigliere and promote Bonventre to consigliere. No mention of anyone from the Bronx running the show. So either Mancuso wasn't running things or Asaro didn't know.

I think it is as simple as Asaro not using the designation "acting" when talking about DiFiore. There are plenty of examples of guys cought on tape not being so formal with the designation in conversation.


Pogo

Good point but surely if Mancuso was pulling the strings then Asaro would have mentioned it. The way he says it explicitly references DiFiore giving the orders, like the meeting where they discussed bumping down capos, or moving Asaro up to consigliere. I think that, if anything, it's obvious that DiFiore wasn't merely a "figurehead," like the NY Daily News reported.

[Chucky]

Acting Bosses are not "figureheads", they're usually members who have a good deal of influence and have a good bit of autonomy. Badalamenti was made acting boss by Mancuso before DiFiore. After DiFiore went down, Palazzolo was made acting boss by Mancuso according to the feds...so my guess is DiFiore was selected by Mancuso to be acting boss and was given a good bit of freedom.

[SILENT PARTNERZ]

Acting Bosses are not "figureheads", they're usually members who have a good deal of influence and have a good bit of autonomy. Badalamenti was made acting boss by Mancuso before DiFiore. After DiFiore went down, Palazzolo was made acting boss by Mancuso according to the feds...so my guess is DiFiore was selected by Mancuso to be acting boss and was given a good bit of freedom.

+1 on all counts...

[gohnjotti]

Acting Bosses are not "figureheads", they're usually members who have a good deal of influence and have a good bit of autonomy. Badalamenti was made acting boss by Mancuso before DiFiore. After DiFiore went down, Palazzolo was made acting boss by Mancuso according to the feds...so my guess is DiFiore was selected by Mancuso to be acting boss and was given a good bit of freedom.

Yes but the Daily News specifically identified DiFiore as "merely a figurehead" if I remember correctly.

[Chucky]

If he was a figurehead would he be in a position to decide which capos should be demoted, offer consiglieri to Asaro & Bonventre, make new members? Doubtful.

[SILENT PARTNERZ]

Jerry Capeci, then the FBI. That's the order of who's info
I take as the best. Marry Christmas to all!!

[gohnjotti]

If he was a figurehead would he be in a position to decide which capos should be demoted, offer consiglieri to Asaro & Bonventre, make new members? Doubtful.

Exactly, I agree.

[yatescj7781]

I thought Frankie Boy Salerno was the nephew Mancuso made to pass along messages and whatnot.

[gohnjotti]

I thought Frankie Boy Salerno was the nephew Mancuso made to pass along messages and whatnot.

It seems that Ernie Aiello & Tommy Garbage were used as messengers from 2009ish to 2013 when Aiello was indicted w/ the Santora crew. Frankie Boy Salerno (another cousin) was inducted in 2014/2015 to "legitimize" his position as a messenger apparently.