Mikey Mancuso running Bonannos from prison.

[Frank]

I'm sorry Santora

[Stroccos]

Would Pete Calabrese be in a ranking position now that he is out of prison ?

[gohnjotti]

Actually was it ever confirmed that DiFiore was official underboss. Didn't somebody post that Nicky Santoro might have been official underboss.

Well Santora was acting underboss from 2005-2007, when he was arrested, then released in 2009 or so and started getting really close to new acting boss Vinny Badalamenti. It was also confirmed that two acting capos (one from his own crew and also Ernie Aiello from the Bronx) were reporting directly to him, which was confusing. So yes it appears that Santora had at least some sort of admin position from 2009 up until 2012, which would explain his closeness to the acting boss and also the fact that two acting capos reported directly to him. In 2012 Santora was indicted as a capo with Badalamenti and TG Graziano in a federal extortion case and the following year he was arrested again as a capo along with his crew in a big state blue-collar sweep. He is battling the state case in court to this day which has really taken a toll on his physical health, if not mental as well, and has not been able to get back onto the streets. My opinion is the feds had a fair idea he was in some sort of admin role but didn't have anything to back it up other than circumstantial evidence. Even though he talked on the phone, Santora was relatively careful with what he said apart from the odd outburst, and there was no mention of underbosses or Badalamenti or anything, if I recall correctly.

[gohnjotti]

Would Pete Calabrese be in a ranking position now that he is out of prison ?

I don't think so. Pete Calabrese is on supervised release, which doesn't rule him out but makes it more unlikely that he is active in running the family at this stage. For example, his co-defendant in the Bonventre slaying, Big Bobby Attanasio, was busted for probation violations a few months back.

[Frank]

Actually was it ever confirmed that DiFiore was official underboss. Didn't somebody post that Nicky Santoro might have been official underboss.

Well Santora was acting underboss from 2005-2007, when he was arrested, then released in 2009 or so and started getting really close to new acting boss Vinny Badalamenti. It was also confirmed that two acting capos (one from his own crew and also Ernie Aiello from the Bronx) were reporting directly to him, which was confusing. So yes it appears that Santora had at least some sort of admin position from 2009 up until 2012, which would explain his closeness to the acting boss and also the fact that two acting capos reported directly to him. In 2012 Santora was indicted as a capo with Badalamenti and TG Graziano in a federal extortion case and the following year he was arrested again as a capo along with his crew in a big state blue-collar sweep. He is battling the state case in court to this day which has really taken a toll on his physical health, if not mental as well, and has not been able to get back onto the streets. My opinion is the feds had a fair idea he was in some sort of admin role but didn't have anything to back it up other than circumstantial evidence. Even though he talked on the phone, Santora was relatively careful with what he said apart from the odd outburst, and there was no mention of underbosses or Badalamenti or anything, if I recall correctly.

Yes that was the info. That it appears that he was underboss. 2012 is the same time frame of reports that Mancuso became official boss and DiFiore as official Underboss and acting boss. So it looks like DiFiore might of replaced Santora as Underboss. Has it ever been confirmed that Vinnie Basciano was never Official boss. I have seen were he was official and also only acting. Capeci said that Mancuso was the first official boss since Massino. I always found it strange that Mancuso took the official boss position, seeing that he had 7 more years in prison. You would think, with all their problems the Bonanno Family could come up with someone else.

[SonnyBlackstein]

The official line concerning Mancuso has never made sense to me.
Cammarano is apparently UB and acting after defying Mancuso, is my understanding of the official course of events.
Mancuso backed Palazzolo. The Feds stated the Palazzolo and Cammarano factions were on the brink of ‘war’ prior to Palazzolo’s incarceration.
This therefor is a rejection of Mancuso by Cammarano in defying his orders on accepting Palazzolo. And ‘going to war’ with the Mancuso backed faction.

Now he’s his UB and Acting after defying/rejecting him and nearly going to war with his faction?

What’s the logic or likelihood in that?

[SonnyBlackstein]

Which leads me to conclude that either:
A) Mancuso is no longer boss
B) Cammarano is not the UB/Acting
C) Mancuso supported Cammarano not Palazzolo
D) there never was any discontent let alone war in the family.

One of the above HAS to be true as the official line is a nonsense.
In my opinion

[gohnjotti]

Actually was it ever confirmed that DiFiore was official underboss. Didn't somebody post that Nicky Santoro might have been official underboss.

Well Santora was acting underboss from 2005-2007, when he was arrested, then released in 2009 or so and started getting really close to new acting boss Vinny Badalamenti. It was also confirmed that two acting capos (one from his own crew and also Ernie Aiello from the Bronx) were reporting directly to him, which was confusing. So yes it appears that Santora had at least some sort of admin position from 2009 up until 2012, which would explain his closeness to the acting boss and also the fact that two acting capos reported directly to him. In 2012 Santora was indicted as a capo with Badalamenti and TG Graziano in a federal extortion case and the following year he was arrested again as a capo along with his crew in a big state blue-collar sweep. He is battling the state case in court to this day which has really taken a toll on his physical health, if not mental as well, and has not been able to get back onto the streets. My opinion is the feds had a fair idea he was in some sort of admin role but didn't have anything to back it up other than circumstantial evidence. Even though he talked on the phone, Santora was relatively careful with what he said apart from the odd outburst, and there was no mention of underbosses or Badalamenti or anything, if I recall correctly.

Yes that was the info. That it appears that he was underboss. 2012 is the same time frame of reports that Mancuso became official boss and DiFiore as official Underboss and acting boss. So it looks like DiFiore might of replaced Santora as Underboss. Has it ever been confirmed that Vinnie Basciano was never Official boss. I have seen were he was official and also only acting. Capeci said that Mancuso was the first official boss since Massino. I always found it strange that Mancuso took the official boss position, seeing that he had 7 more years in prison. You would think, with all their problems the Bonanno Family could come up with someone else.

It seems to me that Mancuso was official boss since 2010/2011 due to Capeci reporting that during Badalamenti's tenure as acting boss (2010-2012), Mancuso was the official boss. He also had enough power to sponsor his nephew for induction in 2009 (Ernie Aiello).

Before Mancuso was pegged as official boss, most people assumed that Vinny Basciano was the official boss. Ed Scarpo of the Cosa Nostra News blog continued to report that Basciano was official boss even after Mancuso was confirmed. In fact, Scarpo said something about how Basciano gave the okay for Palazzolo or Cammarano or someone to get upped to underboss/acting street boss. The fact of the matter is, Basciano could have never done that. He is/was in the most maximum-security prison in America, alongside guys like Ted Kaczynski (the Unabomber), a shit ton of Al Quaeda dudes, the Boston marathon bomber, Dwight York, etc. Every letter, phone call, visitation, that Basciano made would have been meticulously poured over by prison officials, even if he tried to write in code. Not to mention that Basciano was in solitary confinement 23 hours a day, every day.

[gohnjotti]

Which leads me to conclude that either:
A) Mancuso is no longer boss
B) Cammarano is not the UB/Acting
C) Mancuso supported Cammarano not Palazzolo
D) there never was any discontent let alone war in the family.

One of the above HAS to be true as the official line is a nonsense.
In my opinion

The official line looks deceiving, but I don't think it is nonsense. Mancuso has the official boss title, but Cammarano holds the power in the family. Mancuso promoted Camamrano to AB/UB and let him control the day-to-day in the family, and Cammarano let Mancuso hold on to his seat. It's not a case of Mancuso giving away the AB/UB seat to Cammarano, it's a case of the two coming to a compromise. Nobody wants war in this day and age, shootings would be disastrous to both Mancuso's side and Cammarano's side. We can probably credit Tony Rabito for helping the two come to a compromise.

[Frank]

Thanks gohnjotti makes perfect sense to me.

[SonnyBlackstein]

Which leads me to conclude that either:
A) Mancuso is no longer boss
B) Cammarano is not the UB/Acting
C) Mancuso supported Cammarano not Palazzolo
D) there never was any discontent let alone war in the family.

One of the above HAS to be true as the official line is a nonsense.
In my opinion

The official line looks deceiving, but I don't think it is nonsense. Mancuso has the official boss title, but Cammarano holds the power in the family. Mancuso promoted Camamrano to AB/UB and let him control the day-to-day in the family, and Cammarano let Mancuso hold on to his seat. It's not a case of Mancuso giving away the AB/UB seat to Cammarano, it's a case of the two coming to a compromise. Nobody wants war in this day and age, shootings would be disastrous to both Mancuso's side and Cammarano's side. We can probably credit Tony Rabito for helping the two come to a compromise.

Good post.

I’d suggest you’re probably correct.

[SonnyBlackstein]

Thoughts on when Mancuso is released in little over a year?

[gohnjotti]

Thoughts on when Mancuso is released in little over a year?

Really hard to say. It doesn't look like either Mancuso or Cammarano are willing to back down. Here are some options that I think are likely/possible:

- A ruling panel with Mancuso, Cammarano, and a guy like Rabito (maybe DiFiore, Santora, Graziano, etc.)
- Mancuso steps down to consigliere or something similar. Cammarano's duties won't change, but now he will be the official boss as opposed to acting.
- A shooting war. That would be the most devastating option for the Bonannos, hard to see them recovering from something like that. It seems Palazzolo and Mancuso were already preparing for the possibility of something like that by cultivating all those young, violent guys like Patty Maiorino, Enzo Stagno, Frankie Salerno, Ernie Aiello. Then it will probably be a Colombo-type situation where the whole family erupts with informants and arrests and fails to recover for years.

[Pogo The Clown]

Actually was it ever confirmed that DiFiore was official underboss. Didn't somebody post that Nicky Santoro might have been official underboss.

DiFiore was never the UnderBoss. Nothing has come out about Santora regaining the Acting UndeBoss slot after his release from prison. It doesn't appear that the fmily had an Offcial UnderBoss from the time Vitale flipped in February 2003 until sometime in 2015 when it came out that Cammarano Jr. got it.


Pogo

[gohnjotti]

Actually was it ever confirmed that DiFiore was official underboss. Didn't somebody post that Nicky Santoro might have been official underboss.

DiFiore was never the UnderBoss. Nothing has come out about Santora regaining the Acting UndeBoss slot after his release from prison. It doesn't appear that the fmily had an Offcial UnderBoss from the time Vitale flipped in February 2003 until sometime in 2015 when it came out that Cammarano Jr. got it.


Pogo

The Daily News reported, in no uncertain terms, that DiFiore was the underboss as well as acting boss. The acting street boss or whatever you want to call it is basically the underboss anyways so it doesn't make a huge difference.