Bonanno wiseguy Vito Pipitone arrested on honeymoon goes to court with wife

She's got a big rock on her finger, and he's wearing an ankle bracelet

.Reputed wiseguy Vito Pipitone and his new wife, Paula, made their first appearance Thursday in Brooklyn Federal Court since he was arrested on their Hawaiian honeymoon.

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Thomas Fiore,and other Florida Bonanno crime Family members, admit guilt

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Thomas Fiore-One by one, members of a South Florida crew of the New York-based Bonanno crime family stood before a federal judge Wednesday to plead guilty to racketeering charges, including one enforcer who said it was impossible to escape the Mafia life.

Six of the 11 purported crew members indicted in May pleaded guilty to charges that carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. All 11 are charged under the federal Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO law, which the FBI has used frequently to break up major criminal enterprises. Read The Full Story

Giacomo "Jimmy Legs", Episcopia, Bonanno crime family

Giacomo (James) Episcopia, also known as "Jimmy Legs", was a Italian-American Bonanno crime family mobster from Greenpoint, Brooklyn that served under capo Carmine Galante and later Dominick Napolitano

.During the intra-Family "Bananna Wars", Episcopia sided with rival Bonanno faction leader Gaspare DiGregorio. He was suspected of being one of the gunmen involved in the January 28, 1966 Troutman Street ambush, which started the civil war in the Bonanno crime family.


Over the years Episcopia was promoted to act as bodyguard and chauffeur for Bonanno crime family capo and acting boss Carmine Galante until his gangland slaying in 1979. While acting as a bodyguard for Galante, Episcopia allegedly traveled to Canada with the Capo to arrange heroin deals. During these extended business trips to Canada, Episcopia enrolled in a Canadian college and took courses on philosophy.

During the Bonanno Family's civil unrest in 1979 with Alphonse Indelicato, Phillip Giaccone and Dominick Trinchera, he at first joined their ranks when Dominick Napolitano transferred Giacomo to serve in the crews of Giaconne and Trinchera. Giacomo, who was a Phillip Rastelli loyalist, survived the Bonanno crime family civil war and re-aligned himself with Dominick Napolitano. He was a close friend of Joseph D. Pistone. Unlike Dominick Napolitano, Benjamin Ruggiero and Nicholas Forlano who were all murdered (Ruggiero was rescued en route to execution), Giacomo's life was spared even though he built a friendship with Pistone during his six years undercover in the Bonanno crime family





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Richard Cantarella aka Shellackhead", Bonanno crime family

Richard Cantarella, also known as "Shellackhead", was a New York mobster who became a caporegime for the Bonanno crime family and later a government witness..As a skinny kid with jet-black hair, Cantarella got the name "Shellackhead" from the hair oil that he used. In October 2002, Cantarella was indicted on racketeering charges that included , loansharking, extortion, illegal gambling, and money laundering and murder..Cantarella flipped and testified at the murder trial of Bonanno boss Joseph Massino.and he testified at the murder and racketeering trial of Bonanno mobster Vincent Basciano As of 2009, it is assumed that Canterella and his family are part of the Witness Protection Program.

cesare "The Tall Guy" bonventre

Cesare Bonventre

Cesare "The Tall Guy" Bonventre (January 1, 1951 - April 16, 1984) was a Sicilian mobster who was a bodyguard and drug trafficker for the New York Bonanno crime family.

Early life

Born in Castellammare del Golfo in Sicily, Bonventre was brought to the United States by mobster Carmine Galante. Bonventre soon was appointed underboss of the "Zips." He appeared to be of German-Dutch descent, and not to be of Sicilian or Italian descent. "Zips" was a derogatory term for the young Sicilian men brought to the U.S. by the five New York crime families to serve as soldiers and hitmen. Bonventre was a relative of Bonanno crime family boss Joseph Bonanno and many other important family members. Soon Galante was using Bonventre as his bodyguard. His mob monicker "The Tall Guy" was given to him for standing close to six feet tall and not the 1988 film by the same title

Galante assassination

On July 12 1979, Galante was dropped off for lunch at an Italian restaurant in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn. After a short while, Bonventre and another Sicilian bodyguard, Baldo Amato, joined Galante's party. Suddenly three men in ski masks appeared and opened fire on Galante and two other family members. Bonventre and Amato allegedly joined in the attack, then fled the scene after the three hitmen. Galante died on the scene. Bonventre was arrested by federal agents a week later, then released. It was later rumored that the Mafia Commission, which oversaw all the crime families, had sanctioned Galante's murder and arranged for Bonventre and Baldi to betray him. Philip Rastelli succeeded Galante as boss of the family and Joseph Massino became underboss (although some believed Massino was the real power in the family). After Galante's death, Bonventre joined the Brooklyn "crew" of caporegime Salvatore Catalano. Bonventre soon became involved in the importation and drug trafficking of heroin from Sicily into New York pizza parlors, known as the "Pizza Connection

Death

The ascension of Rastelli as boss triggered a period of discontent and rivalry in the Bonanno family. As a result, Rastelli and Massino started purging their opponents in the family. In 1984, Massino decided that Bonventre represented a threat to the Bonanno leadership and should be eliminated. In April 1984, Bonanno mobsters Salvatore Vitale and Louis Attanasio picked up Bonventre one day to bring him to a meeting with Rastelli. As Vitale drove into a garage, Attanasio shot Bonventre twice in the head. Surprisingly, Bonventre still struggled, forcing the two hitmen to stop the car. Bonventre crawled out of the car onto the concrete before Attanasio finished him off with two more shots. Bonventre's body was hacked into two pieces and dumped into two 55-gallon glue drums in a Garfield, New Jersey warehouse. After the body was recovered, it took forensic technicians three months to

Aftermath

No arrests were ever made in the Bonventre murder. A government informant later claimed that one of the killers was mobster Cossimo Aiello. However, Aiello was never questioned as he turned up dead five weeks after the discovery of Bonventre's body.identify it. One month later, federal agents broke up the Pizza Connection with a series of arrests.