Bonanno crime family

The Bonanno crime family (pronounced [boˈnanno]) is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City. The family was known as the Maranzano crime family until its founder Salvatore Maranzano was murdered in 1931. Joseph Bonanno was awarded most of Maranzano's operations when Charles "Lucky" Luciano oversaw the creation of the Commission to divide up criminal enterprises in New York City among the Five Families. Under the leadership of Bonanno between the 1930s and 1960s, the family was one of the most powerful in the country. The Bonanno family maintained close ties to the Sicilian Mafia, with whom it orchestrated the importation of billions of dollars' worth of heroin into the United States. However, in the early 1960s, Bonanno attempted to overthrow several leaders of the Commission, but failed. Bonanno disappeared from 1964 to 1966, triggering an intra-family war colloquially referred to as the "Banana War" that lasted until 1968, when Bonanno was forced into exile by the Commission and subsequently retired to Arizona. Carmine Galante, a former top lieutenant of Bonanno, took control of the family in the mid-1970s. After challenging the Gambino family for control of New York's drug trade, Galante was killed in July 1979 in a Commission-approved assassination. During the 1980s, Philip Rastelli headed the organization and survived an insurrection by a competing faction within the family by ordering the murders of three rival capos. Between 1976 and 1981, the family was infiltrated by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent Joseph Pistone, who went undercover using the alias "Donnie Brasco". This resulted in the Bonannos becoming the first of the New York families to be expelled from the Commission. It took until the 1990s for the family to recover, a process overseen by Joseph Massino, who became the new boss upon the death of Rastelli. Despite these issues, by the dawn of the new millennium, the Bonanno family had not only regained their seat on the Commission but had also become the second-most-powerful family in New York after the Genovese family. However, in the early 2000s, a rash of convictions culminated in Massino himself becoming a government informant, the first boss of one of the Five Families in New York City to do so. The Bonanno family was seen as the most brutal of the Five Families during the 20th century.

Infobox

Founded

c. 1890s; 134 years ago (1890s)

Founder

Salvatore Maranzano

Named after

Joseph Bonanno

Founding location

New York City, New York, United States

Years active

c. 1890s–present

Territory

Primarily the New York metropolitan area, including Long Island, Westchester County and New Jersey, with additional territory in Rochester and Montreal, as well as Las Vegas, Northern California, South Florida, Tucson and Castellammare del Golfo

Ethnicity

Italians as "made men" and other ethnicities as associates

Membership (est.)

mw- 195 made members and 500 associates (1986) 130–145 made members (2005) 132 made members (2021)

Activities

Racketeering, gambling, loansharking, extortion, labor union corruption, drug trafficking, truck hijacking, fencing, fraud, money laundering, prostitution, pornography, assault, and murder

Allies

Buffalo crime family Castellammarese Mafia clan Chicago Outfit Colombo crime family Cotroni crime family DeCavalcante crime family Gambino crime family Genovese crime family Lucchese crime family Patriarca crime family Milwaukee crime family Rizzuto crime family (formerly) Rochester crime family San Francisco crime family San Jose crime family Trafficante crime family Purple Gang

Rivals

Rizzuto crime family and various gangs in New York City, including their allies