Buster from Chicago

Buster from Chicago was a pseudonym used for a mobster and freelance hitman of the 1930s. He is alleged to have played a key role in the Castellammarese War (1929–1931) as the assassin of Giuseppe Morello and others. Some claim that Buster was gangster Sebastiano Domingo (1910–1933), notably Bill Bonanno, the son of Bonanno crime family leader Joseph Bonanno, who participated in the war. Others charge that Buster is a character created by Joe Valachi to evade his responsibility for various killings.

Life as hitman Buster's crime companions knew little of his background, other than that he was from Chicago. Joe Valachi, a mobster turned government informant, described Buster as a "college boy" in appearance and claimed he carried a Tommy gun inside a large violin case. While working with the unknown assassin, Valachi noted his exceptional skill with a wide range of weaponry including pistols, shotguns and machine guns. Contrary to Valachi's story that has him hiding a Tommy gun in a violin case, Buster did carry a sawed-off, 12 gauge pump shotgun in a guitar case.

Buster's first murder assignment for Salvatore Maranzano was to kill Giuseppe Morello. On August 15, 1930, Morello and Joseph Perrano were shot dead in the former's East Harlem office. Two gunmen were seen fleeing the scene. Some accounts claim that Albert Anastasia and Frank Scalise were the shooters that day, although Valachi wrote that Buster was responsible.

On February 3, 1931, Buster was stationed in a basement apartment on Belmont Avenue in the Bronx in order to watch for Giuseppe Catania aka Joe the Baker. As his quarry left a store across the street with his wife, Buster opened fire. Catania fell mortally wounded and Buster made a clean getaway in the commotion that followed. Buster was supposedly proud of the fact that, despite the wide blast pattern of his shotgun, Catania's wife was unharmed. After this, according to Valachi's McClellan Committee testimony, Buster "was killed during an argument at a crap game."

On May 30, 1933, Sebastiano "Bastiano" Domingo was playing cards with a few others at the Castle Cafe in Manhattan's Lower East Side. As they were, four gunmen barged inside and opened fire on the card players. An eyewitness reported that one of the triggermen yelled, "You bunch of rats," just before the bullets began flying. Police found Domingo dead on the sidewalk outside the cafe and five other men wounded. One of the victims, Salvatore Ferrara, eventually died of his wounds. Over 200 friends and relatives attended the dual funeral at St. John's Cemetery on June 3, 1933.

Joe Valachi In A Man of Honor (1983), mob boss Joseph Bonanno identifies Buster as Sebastiano Domingo: According to Bonanno:

Bonanno's description of Buster is different from Valachi's. Bonanno's Buster is recalled as short instead of tall like Valachi's. Crime author Allan May argues that Buster was a character invented by Valachi to avoid acknowledging his role in the killings of Mineo and Ferrigno. Valachi was inducted as a "made man" immediately after these killings. Furthermore, according to May, there was no obvious motive for the mob to induct him at this point. However, Bonanno was attempting to remember comparative height 30 years' after the event, and a photograph allegedly of "Buster" printed in Joseph Bonanno's book shows instead a man of medium height. May himself did not attempt to pursue the claim made by Bonanno that "Bastiano" Domingo was, indeed, the fabled Castellammare War gunman. Maranzano had a strong motive to induct Domingo into his crime family in late 1930 after observing his highly effective role in the murders of Manfredi Mineo and Steve Ferrigno, top men in the Masseria mob.