The Life of "Joe Bananas": A Tale of Greed, Manipulation, and Murder
He is the namesake of one of New York City's five mafia families. A shrewd and cunning mobster, his 1983 autobiography caught many off guard and ended up dealing a crippling blow to the mob
Background
On May 11, 2002, Joseph Bonanno, the 97-year-old patriarch of New York’s Bonanno crime family and one of the original bosses of “the five families” died while in unofficial exile in Tuscon, Arizona.
Nearly forty years prior, the wily Bonanno had been ousted from “the Commission”, the American mafia’s governing body. Made up of the heads of New York City’s five families, as well as select bosses from other U.S. crime families, the panel served to carve out territory and rackets, mediate disputes, and arbitrate decisions while trying to avoid bloodshed.
Bonanno’s legendary scheming, conniving, and double-crossing ways had finally made him a pariah amongst his fellow rackteers. Even still, as a sign of respect for the legendary boss some called “Joe Bananas”, he was instead sent into exile for behavior that 99% of other mobsters would be killed for.
Yet, Bonanno would remain a thorn in their side even while living across the country. In 1983, Bonanno published his autobiography, “A Man of Honor.” It would be this book that an ambitious young prosecutor named Rudolph Guliani would use as the foundation to break up The Commission and send its members to prison.
Early Years
Like many of the other first wave of American mafia bosses, Joseph Bonanno immigrated to the United States as a child.
His family traced their roots to Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, which was a notorious stronghold of Sicilian organized crime. Bonanno’s uncles and other family members were already heavily entrenched in crime by the time he was born in January 1905.
In fact, due to the high numbers of individuals who originated from this region, the New York City gang war during the late 1920s and early 1930s was referred to as “The Castellammarese War.”
This conflict has been covered extensively in previous articles, but for a brief summary, the “war” involved two sides. One side was led by Giuseppe “Joe the Boss” Masseria, and the other was headed by Salvatore Maranzano.
In the trenches on each side were young, ambitious hoodlums just like Bonanno. People like Salvatore “Charlie Lucky” Luciano, Frank Costello, Albert Anastasia, Joe Profaci, Tommy Lucchese, Joe Adonis, Vito Genovese, Carlo Gambino, and others.
These individuals would go on to become some of the most powerful organized crime figures in the nation.
As the bloody war raged on, soldiers on both sides were secretly conspiring to eliminate their old school bosses and usher in more modern and efficient ways to expand their rackets and make money.
Masseria’s betrayal and murder was orchestrated by his top lieutenant Luciano on April 15, 1931. Following Masseria’s murder, Maranzano’s soldiers, Bonanno among them, agreed to assist Luciano in setting up and murdering Maranzano.
Double Crossing Maranzano
Prior to Masseria’s murder, Luciano had secretly made an arrangement with Masseria’s hated rival, Salvatore Maranzano. It was agreed upon that if Luciano arranged for the death of Masseria, he would be allowed to take over Masseria’s rackets and would be given the number two position under Maranzano.
However, not long after this, Maranzano called a meeting of the bosses where he unequivocally declared himself to be “Boss of Bosses.” Maranzano also made sure that many of the most lucrative rackets in the city stayed within his family.
Having already begun to sour on Maranzano’s leadership, things came to a head for Luciano in September 1931 when he learned from fellow mobster Tommy Lucchese that Maranzano was planning to have him murdered.
Acting first, Luciano dispatched four Jewish gunmen to Maranzano’s Manhattan office. The men posed as government tax agents, and because they were not Italian, Maranzano did not suspect a setup.
Once inside Maranzano’s office, the men viciously stabbed him numerous times before shooting him to death.
Joe Bonanno would later claim that he had no prior knowledge of Luciano’s plan to have Maranzano murdered, saying that he made no attempt at retaliation because he did not want to disturb the peace.
However, those familiar with Bonanno’s Machavellian cunning may find this hard to swallow.