Organized Crime Memoirists

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 31. Chapters: Joseph Bonanno, Richard Kuklinski, Anthony Casso, Chopper Read, Joseph D. Pistone, Kevin Weeks, Gay Talese, Jimmy Fratianno, Antonino Calderone, Salvatore Bonanno, Herbert Asbury, Nicola Gentile, Frank Rosenthal, Susan Berman, Michael J. Corbitt, Kenny Gallo, Frank Sheeran, Bill Lee, Robert Cooley, William F. Roemer, Jr., Nicholas Pileggi, Peter Maas, Michael Pelligrino, Colton Simpson, Rene Enriquez, Donald Frankos, Vincent Teresa, Harry Grey, Ovid Demaris. Excerpt: Joseph Charles Bonanno, Sr. (January 18, 1905 - May 11, 2002) was a Sicilian-born American mafioso who became the boss of the Bonanno crime family. He was nicknamed "Joe Bananas," a name he despised. Bonanno was born Giuseppe Carlo Bonanno on January 18, 1905 in Castellammare del Golfo, a town on the western coast of Sicily. When he was three years old, his family moved to the United States and settled in the Williamsburg neighborhood in south Brooklyn for about 10 years before returning to Italy. Bonanno slipped back into the United States in 1924 by stowing away on a Cuban fishing boat bound for Tampa. By all accounts, he'd become active in the Mafia during his youth in Italy, and he fled to the United States after Benito Mussolini initiated a crackdown. Bonanno himself claimed years later that he fled because he was ardently anti-Fascist. However, the former account is more likely, since several other Castellammarese mafiosi fled to the United States around the same time. Eventually, Bonanno became involved in bootlegging activities, and soon joined a Mafia family led by another Castellammarese, Salvatore Maranzano. Almost from the beginning, Bonanno was recognized by his accomplices in Brooklyn as a man with superior organizational skills and quick instincts. He also became known to the leader of Mafia activities in New York, Joe "the Boss..".