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, and in the United States, as part of the criminal phenomenon known as the American Mafia.
Joe Bonanno Joseph Massino Vincent Basciano | |
| Founded | c. 1890s |
|---|---|
| Founder | Salvatore Maranzano |
| Named after | Joseph Bonanno |
| Founding location | New York City, New York, United States |
| Years active | c. 1890s–present |
| Territory | Primarily New York City, with additional territory in Long Island, Rochester, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, South Florida, Arizona, Las Vegas, Northern California, and Montreal |
| Ethnicity | Italians as "made men" and other ethnicities as associates |
| Membership (est.) | 195 made members and 500 associates (1986) |
| Activities | Racketeering, loansharking, money laundering, murder, drug trafficking, extortion, illegal gambling, prostitution and pornography |
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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.
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 retired to Arizona.
Between 1976 and 1981, the family was infiltrated by 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 them to recover, a process overseen by new boss Joseph Massino. 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 most powerful family in New York.
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.