Bill Bonanno, son of crime boss, dies at 75

Salvatore "Bill" Bonanno (left), son of late crime boss Joseph Bonanno, died yesterday morning, according to reports of Arizona television stations KVOA-4 and KOLD-13. The 75-year-old Tuscon resident and author reportedly succumbed to a heart attack on New Year's Day.

Bonanno was the subject of the Gay Talese work, "Honor Thy Father," and went on to write, "Bound by Honor," an account of his experiences as a leading figure and short-time acting boss in the Bonanno Crime Family. He and Joe Pistone - the former FBI agent who infiltrated the Bonanno Crime Family in the 1980s - collaborated on a Mafia-related novel, "The Good Guys," in 2005. During his father's 1960s disappearance, Bonanno engaged a rebellious faction of the family in a struggle that became known as the Banana War.

Recently he posted messages to a blog at http://www.billbonanno.org/. The last entry was a Christmas message dated Dec. 20. An Aug 23 post explained his involvement in the Space is Special Foundation, introducing high school special needs students to NASA Space Camp. Two posts in mid-June touched on a Newsweek article by Talese. That article updated the lives of the children of Bill and Rosalie (Profaci) Bonanno. Rosalie is the niece of late crime boss Joseph Profaci. She also penned her memoirs.

Bill Bonanno went into federal prison twice, once related to a stolen credit card charge. He claimed to have retired from the Mafia in 1968.

According to a report by Enric Volante of the Arizona Daily Star, Bill Bonanno's survivors include his wife of 51 years, Rosalie; sister Catherine R. Genovese of California; sons Charles and Joseph of Phoenix, AZ; son Salvatore of Scottsdale, AZ; daughter Felippa Pettinato of California; 18 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. Funeral services have reportedly been scheduled for Monday in Tucson, AZ.

Joseph Bonanno Jr., the younger of the crime boss's two sons, died two years ago at the age of 60. He was living at his 20-acre horse ranch in Ione at the time a heart attack took his life on Nov. 2, 2005. The senior Joseph Bonanno died in 2002 at age 97.

(Photo at right: Joseph Bonanno and his sons in 1984. Bill is on the right.)

Familiar-sounding names in Detroit gambling case

A federal racketeering case in Detroit features two surnames long connected with Michigan organized crime: Giacalone and Tocco. But the individuals involved are not the infamous mobsters.

Jack V. Giacalone, 56, of West Bloomfield, MI, is a nephew of Anthony "Tony Jacks" Giacalone, believed to be one of the men responsible for the disappearance of union bigshot Jimmy Hoffa, and the son of convicted Mafioso Vito Giacalone, according to an Associated Press story published in today's Michigan Business Review. Jack V. Giacalone has pleaded not guilty to charges of racketeering and extortion. Officials say he plans to fight the charges in court.

Peter Dominic Tocco, 59, of Troy, MI, is the nephew of former Detroit mob boss Jack Tocco (his relatives include crime boss William "Black Bill" Tocco and the Zerilli family of Detroit, and there are family ties to the Profaci and Bonanno clans of Brooklyn). He has pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy.

In addition to Giacalone and Tocco, there are 13 other defendants in a case that resulted from a probe into illegal sports gambling. Charges included the laundering of gambling proceeds through legitimate businesses operated by the defendants. Tocco and two associates were accused of using gambling profits to buy cars at auto auctions, which were then sold to earn laundered income, according to a story by Amanda Lee of the Macomb Daily. According to prosecutors, the Detroit-area gambling ring accumulated $5.9 million between 1998 and 2006.

Defendants Peter Joseph Messina, 51, of Roseville, MI; Thomas James Mackey, 50, of Clinton Township, MI; John William Manettas, 52, of Harrison Township, MI; and Wayne Joseph Kassab, 50, of Sterling Heights, MI; have also pleaded guilty. Under plea agreements, they face sentences of up to 46 months in prison. They collectively agree to forfeit up to $3 million in gambling income. No sentencing date had been announced.


Tocco, Messina and Mackey pleaded guilty on Wednesday. The guilty pleas of Manettas and Kassab were entered yesterday, according to a story by Paul Egan of the Detroit News.

Prosecutors say they are arranging plea deals with many of the remaining defendants.

The original federal indictment dated March 3, 2006, named 15 defendants. Joining Giacalone, Tocco, Messina, Mackey, Manettas and Kassab were:

• David John Aceto, 48, of Roseville, MI;
• Dominic Corrado, 35, of Glen Ellyn, IL;
• Ronald S. Yourofsky, 64, of Warren, MI;
• Alan H. Russell, 54, of Sterling Heights, MI;
• Vincenzo Bronzino, 40, of Macomb, MI;
• Joseph Messina, 48, of Macomb, MI;
• Virginia Nava, 36, of Roseville, MI (Joseph Messina's sister);
• William John Manettas, 27, of St. Clair Shores, MI;
• Peter Tocco, 27, of Macomb, MI (son of Peter Dominic Tocco).

Corrado (whose relatives are shown in a WLS-TV graphic at right), a resident of Illinois, was processed in federal district court in that state. According to investigators, while Corrado resides within the territory of the Chicago Outfit, his bloodline includes a number of Detroit "Combination" bigshots.

Colombo judge rules against the 'M-word'

Judge Naomi Rice Buchwald decided Friday that there can be no mention of the Colombo Crime Family or the Mafia during the racketeering trial of Anthony and Christopher Colombo, according to a story by Thomas Zambito of the New York Daily News.

Anthony and Christopher are the sons of Joseph Colombo, the slain boss of the crime family that bears his name (formerly the Profaci Family). They are accused of using their perceived connections to the mob to extort money from victims. Anthony is charged with demanding payoffs from a New York construction firm. Christopher is charged with running a gambling operation in East Harlem and the Bronx.

Buchwald ruled that prosecutors had not sufficiently linked the defendants with the mob clan.

In his opening statement a day before Buchwald's ruling, defense attorney Louis Fasulo said Anthony Colombo (right) was guilty only of being Joe Colombo's son. While his client is accused of extorting $100,000 from the construction firm, the attorney argued that the firm hired Colombo to generate business - something he accomplished.

Yesterday, a prosecution witness stated that he gave Christopher Colombo $600,000 in interest payments through six years on a loan of just $90,000. "I could see that it was never, ever, going to be paid off," John Sitterly said. Sitterly, 52, is facing a five- to 15-year sentence for robbing customers of his upstate home improvement business. The Post indicated that Sitterly testified against Colombo "hoping to shave time" off his sentence.

Related MobNews posts:

• Colombo admits gambling, denies intimidation 01-19-07
• Colombo's sons head to trial this week 01-16-07
• Colombo son objects to use of crime family name 11-30-06

Colombo's sons head to trial this week

The racketeering conspiracy trial of Anthony (right) and Christopher Colombo, sons of slain crime boss Joseph Colombo, will begin this week, according to a story by Thomas Zambito of the New York Daily News. The brothers are charged with running an offshoot of the Colombo Crime Family that engaged in extortion and loansharking. Prosecutors say the Colombos were squeezed out of the Mafia clan that continues to bear their surname and started up an operation known as the Colombo Brothers Crew. In pretrial hearings, defense attorney Aaron Goldsmith asked that prosecutors be forbidden from mentioning the Mafia organization or Joseph Colombo's role in it. Goldsmith argued that such mentions would unfairly prejudice a jury. Prosecutors argued that the Colombo brothers themselves revealed their family connections in order to intimidate their victims. With the approval of boss of bosses Carlo Gambino, Joseph Colombo (left) took over the old Profaci family after the deaths of Joseph Profaci and successor Joseph Magliocco in the early 1960s. Colombo was a highly visible organizer of Italian unity causes and publicly insisted that he was being targeted by the FBI solely because of his ethnic background. It is believed that other crime bosses were alarmed at his courtship of the press and arranged for his assassination. Colombo was mortally wounded in a 1971 shooting. He remained in a coma until his death in 1978. Related MobNews post:

• Colombo son objects to use of crime family name 11-30-06

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