THE MURDER OF CARMINE “THE CIGAR” GALANTE

BY IM ITALIAN TEAM

BASED ON THE JAY ROBERT NASH BLOODLETTERS AND BADMENENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE AMERICAN CRIMINAL

Carmine Galante, also known as “Lillo” and “The Cigar” was a “made-man” of the Bonanno Crime Family and once held the position of underboss. Galante was rarely seen without a cigar, hence the nickname “The Cigar”. After his release in 1974, Galante attempted to gain control of the “Borgata Bonanno”, wresting power from the incarcerated Filippo “Rusty” Rastelli. The final vote for who would lead the Bonannos was cast on July 12, 1979, when gunmen walked into a restaurant and put an end to the whole debate about who the real boss was.

The assassination of Carmine “The Cigar” Galante was one of the most spectacular and blatant cases of the Mafia during the second half of the twentieth century.

Mobsters

BORGATA BONANNO - BIG HOUSE -EAST HARLEM

Pictures taken that day by police photographers and new summons still fill the minds of New York’s top MOB researchers. There he is, in all his glory!

Galante’s twisted body line halfway up on the chair that, moments before, offered a brief respite as he sat down for what he thought would be a typical lunch at Joe and Mary’s Italian restaurant.

The gruesome images captured that day show Galante’s left eye blown out of his head and blood dripping from numerous red-stained wounds, forming a puddle below that flows into a drain, in a small open patio behind the restaurant, with the cigar always present and still placed between the nicotine stained teeth.

People who knew him said that Carmine Galante was a bold and vicious man and that he scared the cops. Law enforcement sources believe Galante was responsible for 80 murders during his lifetime and for more than a decade, from 1962 to 1974 Galante was in detention at the Big House, a guest of the federal government, for drug trafficking.

Upon his release, Carmine believed that the title of head of the “Borgata Bonanno” should belong to him and to him alone. In order not to be dissuaded by the thought of another imprisonment, on his release in 1974, Galante stepped back into crime and drug dealing, with both feet. His job became to go and deliver milk from a truck but, the crime was in his blood even though, quite frankly, his parents didn’t have his propensity for violence and crime.

His father earned his living honestly, working as a fisherman. The Galante were of a Sicilian stock, his parents had emigrated from Castellammare Del Golfo in 1906 and settled in East Harlem. He was born on February 21, 1910 with the name of Emilio Carmine Galante.

Carmine was a problem for his parents from the beginning, from 1920 at the age of 10 he ended up in and out of the reformatory; he drops out of school and forms his first street gang at the age of 15.

His parents practically turned their backs on him after he was convicted of assault with two and a half years in prison. In August 1930, at the age of 20, Galante was the main suspect in the murder of a policeman; eyewitnesses had seen him shoot down the officer, but the young Carmine already had a reputation as a cold killer and the witnesses feared him.

VITO GENOVESI - LEO DELLA CROCE - LUCKY LUCIANO

The prosecutor reluctantly drops the charges as he is unable to force one to testify in court. Retired NYPD detective Ralph Salerno confided, “Out of all the gangsters I’ve seen in my life, there are only two that when I look them straight in the eye I think I wouldn’t want them personally mad at me!” Leo Della Croce was one and Carmine Galante was the other. They had evil eyes, the eyes of murderers, the cold stare of a murderer.

While in custody for the policeman’s murder, Galante was examined by a police psychiatrist and diagnosed with a psychopathic personality, meaning that he was unable to develop any sense of moral responsibility therefore, unable to perform violent and antisocial acts. .

In 1931 Galante was arrested again for having shot a police officer who had caught him in the act while trying to hijack a truck but the bullet, missed the officer, hit a sixyear-old boy and unfortunately for

Galante, that time there he was a witness willing to testify.

Galante felt he had no choice but to plead guilty and hope for the judge’s clemency. Twelve and a half years in a state prison and eight years later Galante is paroled.

Once free, he resumes working as a hitman for Lucky Luciano’s mafia and with the boss Vito Genovese who had bloodied the United States a few years earlier.

Vito Genovese

To escape a murder charge, Genovese settled in Nola, Italy, just outside Naples where he made his way with the fascism of dictator Benito Mussolini.

BENITO MUSSOLINI - CARLO TRESCA - FRENCH CONNECTION

The influence of the fascist dictator on Genovese grew more and more and Mussolini needed a great favor: Carlo Tresca, an Italian immigrant, supporter of left-wing movements, who had written some rather incendiary things about the fascist regime and Mussolini wanted stopped.

In 1943 Galante allegedly shot and killed Carlo Tresca the editor of an anti-fascist newspaper in New York, although he was never charged with the murder, he was sent back to prison for violation of probation, serving almost two years. At that point Galante became a man of the Bonanno family, starting his career as a driver for the powerful crime lord and in 1953 elevated to the rank of underboss of the Borgata, assuming the role of senior advisor to the elderly Bonanno Joe Bruno. At that point Galante effectively became the first councilor of the Bonanno family.

Galante is sent to Montreal, Canada to take control of the Bonanno family interests. Especially the very profitable Canadian gambling racket.

The Bonannos were featured in the import of heroin from France to Canada and then to America, the infamous French Connection while in Canada Galante’s reputation as a no-nonsense businessman is underlined by his brutality towards those who work for him, in what many considered trivial matters.

The story of the American mafia continues, Galante had several carriers killed for slow deliveries and other seemingly minor infractions while the death toll in Canadian law enforcement was not counted.

The Canadian government noticed this in 1957, and Canada gallantly deported to the United States after trying, unsuccessfully, to accuse him of ordering the killings. Upon his return, Galante accompanied Bonanno to Sicily where they signed an agreement to import heroin from suppliers and distribute the drug in the United States. Given the loyalty of the old world mobsters, Galante convinced some of the most ruthless young men to return to the United States with them as bodyguards and help protect supply lines and distribution points from those who would try to invade the company. family.

Bodyguards became known as zips. But in the meantime Galante was arrested again in 1960, this time for drug trafficking. His first appearance in court ended in a judicial process due to numerous jurors who dropped out. The second trial began in 1962 and Galante was found guilty and sentenced to 20 years; he was paroled 12 years later, in 1974.

Upon his release from prison, it was sad for Galante to learn that the prime minister of the mafia Frank Costello had died the year before, because he hated him and hoped to have a chance to kill him himself.

In a show of utter disrespect, Galante ordered the bombing of Costello’s burial site. But during his time in prison things had changed in the Bonanno family, Joseph Bonanno was forced into early retirement by the commission and over the next few years the title of head was held by the numerous commissioners, however most of their reins were short term .

Philip rastelli was next in line, but Galante who served as an underboss prior to his incarceration believed the title belonged to him, as a result the leadership of the family was a battle that would take nearly three years to try to gain control. The Galante and the Bonannos engaged in a murderous madness largely over the drug business they had grown 12 years earlier and which was taken over by the other families, especially the Gambinos.

Galante revoked the activity in 1978 and organized at least eight high-ranking murders of the Gambino family.

Members who were deep in the drug business began to think that Galante was becoming one that matters and that he would never be killed, because the other families did not have the courage.

In 1979 all four families and even the big boss Joseph Bonanno agreed that Galante had to go; the date was July 12, 1979. Carmine Galante reaches the restaurant for what the police said was a bon voyage party for the owner. Joseph Toronto was leaving for a vacation to Italy.

Around 2:45 pm, three gunmen wearing masks entered the restaurant and rushed to the back patio and then riddled Galante and his guests with a rifle shot. The bodyguards, the Zips, did nothing to help their boss, in the back of the restaurant they walked casually all the time, which led to the suspicion that the commission sanctioned him for hitting

Anthony De Stefano , confirmations quickly emerged with evidence supporting the theory that the commission was involved.

Within an hour or so, the NYPD surveillance teams of the murder saw a number of Bonanno captains: one Steven Bruno, Indelicato and Dominic Sonny Black Napolitano, went to the Ravenite Social Club on Mulberry Street, where they greeted and kissed. the Gambino crime family.

They say Emilio Della Croce’s bullet-filled, bloodied body was delivered to the Provenzano Lanza funeral home, at 43 2nd Avenue, Lower East Side services were scheduled for Tuesday, July 17, Joe Bruno notes that, the crowd that usually accompanies ny in a mafia trail of this type, was notably absent.

Only fifty-nine people attended Galante’s funeral mass and burial, the feds also reported that no mobster was caught on surveillance cameras or at the wake.

Commenting on the low turnout at the funeral, the feds said Galante was so bad that people didn’t want to see him even in death.