JeremyTheJew wrote: ↑Sat Jun 09, 2018 3:53 pm
he did MENTION Galante but not in any type of admin position as it was previously thought
I believe he even mentioned about him goin to Canada?
when he did his interview the topic came up of him and bonanno wouldn't really answer the question if u remmember right
You're absolutely right. I got it mixed up. He was mentioned in passing. I don't know about Canada though. It would be great if someone can confrim it, as I no longer have the book. Joe B. was very protective of his image and didn't want to be seen as a heroin smuggler. I guess that's why he doesn't go into details on Galante. Also, Galante was loyal to him and I always had the impression Bonanno's book was a way to get back at some of the people that burned him along the way.
that is exactly what the interviews was about. bonanno was constantly reffering to Men Of Honor NOT dealing drugs and how he never would allow it.
the interviewer was like "well Galante was right under you yet you didn't know he was dealing heroin?"
and i think he just replied "no." and switched subjects or something like that
Pogo The Clown wrote: ↑Fri Jun 08, 2018 5:45 pm
Towards the end Napolitano started reducing the size of his crew by distributing his Soldiers to other Crews because he was focusing his efforts on Florida. According to what Lefty told Pistone, Napolitano was also pushing to be named Consiglieri. Never seen anything about him being Street Boss but he was one of top guy's on the street (along with Massino, Canone and Ferrugia) at the time of his death.
Pogo
At one point Ruggiero said that Sonny Napolitano was the "top captain" in the family and that every family had a top captain along those lines. He made it sound like a semi-formal position. Interestingly an old FBI report said something similar about Carmine Galante in the 1950s before he was busted in the big drug case. Galante was also often mistaken as part of the admin in the 1950s. I don't think there is some formal "#1 captain position" but families do often seem to have select captains helping run the family, serve as go-betweens with other captains, etc. and it seems by 1981 Napolitano was definitely helping the admin in this capacity despite not having a title.
As for the "Massino's motivations" debate, that's been pretty well debunked in older posts here. Earlier narratives tried to make it sound like everything that happened in the Bonanno family from 1979-1984 was Massino wiping everyone out to consolidate his power, but as more info has come out it's pretty clear that even though Massino was a main participant in everything that happened, he simply benefited from the circumstances and wasn't orchestrating a grand conspiracy to take over. There were a number of other family leaders with as much if not more power than Massino during that period and as more info has come out, the most reasonable conclusion is that Massino was being groomed for a future leadership position but was ultimately carrying out orders as a trusted presence on the street for the imprisoned boss.
