Galante as "boss" and his murder

[B.]

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

It gets a little bit cloudy since Orena demoted the consigliere Sessa and some Persico captains when the war started and put some other guys up, plus some soldiers switched around.

Some of these guys may have been acting, but it's not totally clear to me due to the chaos in the family.

Keep in mind that there were far more soldiers in the Orena camp, too, so the captain count doesn't sum up the situation.

Persico faction:

Boss - Carmine Persico (incarcerated)
Acting Boss - Carmine Sessa
Underboss - (vacant)
Acting Underboss - JoJo Russo
Consigliere - Carmine Sessa (promoted to acting boss)
Captains-
Richard Fusco
Anthony Induisi (Florida; I believe he sided with Persico but not sure)
John Pate (former Sal Profaci crew)
Teddy Persico Sr.
Anthony "Chucky" Russo (still acting for Anthony Scarpati?)
JoJo Russo (acting for Andrew Russo)
Michael Sessa (his brother had been officially promoted but most info still has him as acting; Robert Zambardi was previously acting for this crew)

Orena faction:

Boss - Victor Orena
Underboss - Benny Aloi
Consigliere - Vincent Aloi
Captains -
Pasquale Amato (was acting underboss, but can't remember if before or during the war)
Bill Cutolo (former official underboss)
Nicholas Grancio (recently promoted before the war)
Salvatore Micciota (defected from JoJo Russo crew and was promoted during war)
John Orena (promoted during war)
Charles Panarella (promoted before war after returning to NY at Persico's request)
Thomas Petrizzo (recently promoted before the war)
Joseph Scopo (former acting underboss)

The war was mediated by Louis Vallario (Gambino), Joseph Ida (Genovese), and Anthony Barratta (Lucchese).

Vincent Aloi was apparently considered for the official underboss role by the Persico faction in an attempt to smooth things out but it doesn't seem they approached him.

More Colombo war info:
viewtopic.php?f=29&t=1667

[Hailbritain]

Joe scopo and Joe T Tomesello were on the administration for the respective sides wernt they ??

[B.]

Joe scopo and Joe T Tomesello were on the administration for the respective sides wernt they ??

After Bill Cutolo was demoted as underboss, consigliere Benny Aloi who was then incarcerated was moved to underboss and Joe Scopo was made acting underboss. Aloi was back out on the street and Scopo went back to running his crew but remained a key leader of the Orena faction.

As for Joe T, what I can remember off the top of my head is that he had moved to Florida a couple years before the war and retired. He was either taken down or stepped down. I'll try to confirm that later.

[Hailbritain]

Joe scopo and Joe T Tomesello were on the administration for the respective sides wernt they ??

After Bill Cutolo was demoted as underboss, consigliere Benny Aloi who was then incarcerated was moved to underboss and Joe Scopo was made acting underboss. Aloi was back out on the street and Scopo went back to running his crew but remained a key leader of the Orena faction.

As for Joe T, what I can remember off the top of my head is that he had moved to Florida a couple years before the war and retired. He was either taken down or stepped down. I'll try to confirm that later.

Thanks for the info B

[B.]

No prob. I don't know much about Tomasello... might be better suited for a Colombo topic, not the Galante one, but maybe someone knows more about his background, i.e. who he came up around, etc.

[Hailbritain]

No prob. I don't know much about Tomasello... might be better suited for a Colombo topic, not the Galante one, but maybe someone knows more about his background, i.e. who he came up around, etc.

I'm pretty sure tomasello was with the gallo's , but then was with the persicos from the early 70s

[B.]

Just confirmed it was in mid-1988 that Joe Tomasello was "put into retirement" and removed of his captain rank. I don't know where I got the bit about him moving to Florida, but he did have Florida members in his decina.

[rayray]

Going back to Galante and the Bonanno's. Maybe, that's what the commission was afraid of, another Bonanno war and simply chose Rastelli out of pure convenience of an "x' amount of controlability. Cause it seems there was a more sense of reason with the Rastelli's then the Galante's.

Ironic that Galante could have been feared because of the backings of several core members yet when killed it waned to nothing. Kind of like killing the snake by chopping of the head.

[B.]

Going back to Galante and the Bonanno's. Maybe, that's what the commission was afraid of, another Bonanno war and simply chose Rastelli out of pure convenience of an "x' amount of controlability. Cause it seems there was a more sense of reason with the Rastelli's then the Galante's.

Ironic that Galante could have been feared because of the backings of several core members yet when killed it waned to nothing. Kind of like killing the snake by chopping of the head.

It's pretty typical of a lot of hits, where it seems like WWIII is going to start but in reality it's business as usual. With the Galante hit the biggest problem ended up being between the co-conspirators.

[rayray]

With the Galante hit the biggest problem ended up being between the co-conspirators.

You mean the Rastelli faction and the 3 capo's?

I guess with the Indelicato's so involved they thought they'd be taking over after Galante was gone or at least have a bigger part in running the family.

Thinking about this, Galante's biggest problem was not having all the zips on his side 100%

[B.]

An example of a potentially similar situation to Galante was Joe Magliocco. We've learned that Magliocco was never the official boss, as he didn't have full support from within his family and was not confirmed by the Commission. I'm not sure if he was selected by family leaders to serve as provisional boss or if he put himself in the position given that he was the family underboss, but he was called out by the Commission before his death of natural causes. It seems he was a less assertive/threatening figure than Galante, so that may have been why he wasn't killed despite drawing the ire of other families.

[Angelo Santino]

An example of a potentially similar situation to Galante was Joe Magliocco. We've learned that Magliocco was never the official boss, as he didn't have full support from within his family and was not confirmed by the Commission. I'm not sure if he was selected by family leaders to serve as provisional boss or if he put himself in the position given that he was the family underboss, but he was called out by the Commission before his death of natural causes. It seems he was a less assertive/threatening figure than Galante, so that may have been why he wasn't killed despite drawing the ire of other families.

Really!? I didn't know that. He was ID'd as such by the McClellan Commission and both Bonannos and I never questioned it. I don't have to ask you for your sources, if you're saying it I know it's from a solid source. But I will say that it just goes to show yet another example of the way information filters downward and gets muddled. Drawing back to the Galante/Boss argument, Pistone claimed Ruggiero ID'd Galante as Boss and Vitale claims the opposite. Couldn't that have to do with the factions they were in? If Ruggiero came up in a pro-Galante faction it stands reason he would be told one thing whereas Vitale who came up in a pro-Rastelli faction say something different.

[Wiseguy]

Here's that 1977 article on Galante I mentioned earlier.

https://www.nytimes.com/1977/02/20/arch ... -york.html

[Frank]

Here's that 1977 article on Galante I mentioned earlier.

https://www.nytimes.com/1977/02/20/arch ... -york.html

Great article. Some interesting things in it. If true about him meeting with the Commission about making more members, it is almost like he is the acting boss or boss.

[B.]

An example of a potentially similar situation to Galante was Joe Magliocco. We've learned that Magliocco was never the official boss, as he didn't have full support from within his family and was not confirmed by the Commission. I'm not sure if he was selected by family leaders to serve as provisional boss or if he put himself in the position given that he was the family underboss, but he was called out by the Commission before his death of natural causes. It seems he was a less assertive/threatening figure than Galante, so that may have been why he wasn't killed despite drawing the ire of other families.

Really!? I didn't know that. He was ID'd as such by the McClellan Commission and both Bonannos and I never questioned it. I don't have to ask you for your sources, if you're saying it I know it's from a solid source. But I will say that it just goes to show yet another example of the way information filters downward and gets muddled. Drawing back to the Galante/Boss argument, Pistone claimed Ruggiero ID'd Galante as Boss and Vitale claims the opposite. Couldn't that have to do with the factions they were in? If Ruggiero came up in a pro-Galante faction it stands reason he would be told one thing whereas Vitale who came up in a pro-Rastelli faction say something different.

Yeah, the Galante vs. Rastelli factions recognizing different bosses is what I go into in the original post above. It looks like Rastelli was officially recognized by the Commission and had support from a group of loyalists, but that most of the family leaders either supported Galante as THE boss or were too passive to protest.

The Bonannos were actually one of the reasons Magliocco was mistaken as an official boss. They seem to have propped him up because they knew they could count on him for support and manipulate him. Magaddino discusses a Commission meeting where Magliocco was called on the carpet and admitted to conspiring with Joe Bonanno against Lucchese and Gambino. Magaddino also talked about Magliocco not having Commission approval as boss, which is an important part of the process. Even Carlo Gambino was said to have been a provisional boss for some time before eventually being confirmed. I believe there was a group within the Colombo faction led by Charles LoCicero who were protesting Magliocco's legitimacy as boss, too.