Joseph Charles Bonanno (born Giuseppe Carlo Bonanno; Italian: [dʒuˈzɛppe ˈkarlo boˈnanno]; January 18, 1905 – May 11, 2002), sometimes referred to as Joe Bananas, was an Italian-American crime boss of the Bonanno crime family of New York City, which he ran between 1931 and 1968.
Bonanno was born in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, where his father was also involved in organized crime. At the age of 3, Bonanno emigrated to New York with his family, where he lived for about ten years, before moving back to Italy. He later slipped back into the United States in 1924, stowing away on a Cuban fishing boat bound for Tampa, Florida. After the Castellammarese War, during which Salvatore Maranzano was murdered in 1931, Bonanno reorganized most of Maranzano's crime family as the Bonanno family. At age 26, Bonanno became one of the youngest-ever bosses of a crime family.
In 1963, Bonanno made plans with Joseph Magliocco to assassinate several rivals on The Commission, the governing body of the American Mafia. When Magliocco gave the contract to one of his top hit men, Joseph Colombo, he revealed the plot to its targets. The Commission spared Magliocco's life but forced him into retirement, while Bonanno fled to Canada. In 1964, he briefly returned to New York before disappearing until 1966. The "Banana War" ensued and lasted until 1968, when Bonanno retired to Arizona. Later in life, he became a writer, publishing the book A Man of Honor: The Autobiography of Joseph Bonanno in 1983. Bonanno died on May 11, 2002, in Tucson, Arizona.
Joseph Bonanno was born on January 18, 1905, in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, to Salvatore Bonanno and Catherine Bonventre. Joseph's uncles, Giuseppe Bonanno and his older brother and advisor, Stefano, were involved in the Sicilian Mafia and led a clan in Castellammare del Golfo. The clan's strongest ally was the leader of the Magaddino clan, Stefano Magaddino, the nephew of Joseph's maternal grandmother. During the 1900s, the clans feuded with Felice Buccellato, the boss of the Buccellato clan. After the murders of Giuseppe and Stefano Bonanno, their younger brother Salvatore took revenge by killing members of the Buccellatos. In 1902, Magaddino arrived in New York and became a powerful member of the Castellammarese clan.
When Joseph was three years old, his family moved to New York City and settled in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, for about ten years before returning to Italy. His father had returned to Sicily in 1911, and died of a heart attack in 1915. In 1921, Magaddino fled to Buffalo, New York, to avoid murder charges.
Bonanno slipped back into the United States in 1924, stowing away on a Cuban fishing boat bound for Tampa, Florida, with Magaddino's son, Peter. According to Bonanno, upon arriving at a train station in Jacksonville, Bonanno was detained by immigration officers and was later released under $1,000 bail. He was welcomed by Willie Moretti and an unidentified man. It was later revealed that Magaddino was responsible for the bailout as a favour for Giovanni Bonventre, Bonanno's uncle. Bonanno first worked at a bakery owned by his uncle and later took up acting classes near Union Square, Manhattan. He had become active in the Mafia during his youth in Italy, and he fled to the U.S. after Benito Mussolini initiated a crackdown. Bonanno himself claimed years later that he fled because he was ardently anti-Fascist.
Bonanno became involved in bootlegging activities. He operated a distillery located inside an apartment building basement with Gaspar DiGregorio and Giovanni Romano, who was later killed in the distillery due to an accidental explosion. During this time, boss Salvatore Maranzano took a liking to Bonanno and became his mentor.
The Castellammarese War and aftermath
During the Castellammarese War, between 1930 and 1931, Maranzano and Bonanno fought against a rival group based in Brooklyn, led by Joe Masseria and Giuseppe Morello. However, a third, secret, faction soon emerged, composed of younger mafiosi on both sides. These younger mafiosi were disgusted with the old-world predilections of Masseria, Maranzano and other old-line mafiosi, whom they called "Mustache Petes." This group of "Young Turk" mafiosi was led by Masseria's second-in-command, Lucky Luciano, and included Frank Costello, Vito Genovese, Joe Adonis, Carlo Gambino and Albert Anastasia on Masseria's side and Joe Profaci, Tommy Gagliano, Tommy Lucchese, Joseph Magliocco and Stefano Magaddino on Maranzano's. Although Bonanno was more steeped in the old-school traditions of "honor", "tradition", "respect" and "dignity" than other mafiosi of his generation, he saw the need to modernize and joined forces with the Young Turks.
In a secret deal with Maranzano, Luciano agreed to engineer the death of his boss, Masseria, in return for receiving Masseria's rackets and becoming Maranzano's second-in-command; he was killed April 15, 1931. However, although Maranzano was slightly more forward-thinking than Masseria, Luciano had come to believe that Maranzano was even more greedy and hidebound than Masseria had been, declaring himself capo di tutti capi (boss of all bosses); as a consequence, Luciano arranged Maranzano's murder on September 10, 1931.
After Maranzano's death, Bonanno became boss—or as he called himself, "Father"— of the bulk of Maranzano's family. At the age of 26, Bonanno became one of the youngest-ever bosses of a crime family. Bonanno's role in the events leading up to Maranzano's death has been disputed. Years later, Bonanno wrote in his autobiography that he did not know about Luciano's plans; he claimed to have only learned about them from Magaddino. According to Bonanno, he subsequently learned that Maranzano and Luciano had had a falling out over influence in the Garment District. Reportedly, relations between the two had soured to the point that Maranzano was planning to kill Luciano as early as one day after Maranzano was ultimately assassinated. Maranzano had given the contract to Irish gangster Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll, who was actually on his way to Maranzano's office on the day of Maranzano's death. According to Bonanno, he concluded that going to war with Luciano would serve no purpose. He wrote that Luciano had no quarrel with him, but only wanted to be left alone to run his own rackets and "demanded nothing from us." He also doubted that his soldiers would be enthused about going to the mattresses again so soon after the end of the Castellamarese War. For these reasons, Bonanno said, he decided to choose "the path of peace." However, according to mob expert Anthony Bruno, it "defies mob logic" to believe that Luciano would have allowed Bonanno to stay alive had Bonanno still supported Maranzano.
In place of the capo di tutti capi in Maranzano's plan, Luciano established a national commission in which each of the families would be represented by their boss and to which each family would owe allegiance. Each family would be largely autonomous in their designated area, but the Commission would arbitrate disputes between gangs.
In 1931, two months after Maranzano was murdered, Bonanno was married to Fay Labruzzo (December 31, 1905 – September 9, 1980). They had three children: Salvatore "Bill" Bonanno, Catherine, and Joseph Charles Jr.
Bonanno held property in Hempstead, New York, and later Middletown, New York. After his son Bill developed a severe mastoid ear infection at the age of 10, his parents enrolled him in a Catholic boarding school in the dry climate of Tucson, Arizona. After this, Bonanno also maintained a home in Tucson from the early 1940s.
Bonanno had several legitimate businesses, including three coat manufacturing companies, laundries, cheese suppliers (through Lino Saputo between 1964 and 1979), funeral homes, and a trucking company. The funeral parlor Bonanno owned in Brooklyn was suspected to be used as a front for disposing of bodies, building double-decker coffins to fit more than one body so that both would be buried in one grave. Bonanno became a U.S. citizen in 1945. Later that year, he was convicted of violating wage laws and fined $450.