Salvatore Bonanno

Salvatore Vincent "Bill" Bonanno (November 5, 1932 – January 1, 2008) was an American mobster who served as consigliere of the Bonanno crime family of New York City, and son of crime boss Joseph Bonanno. Later in life, he became a writer and produced films for television about his family.

Early life

Bonanno was the first child of Joseph and Fay (née Labruzzo) Bonanno, born on November 5, 1932, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. In 1938, after his father purchased property in Hempstead, Long Island, he attended school there. At the age of 10, Bonanno developed a severe mastoid ear infection. In order to aid in treating this ailment, his parents enrolled him in a Catholic boarding school in the dry climate of Tucson, Arizona. Bonanno attended Tucson High. Between 1950 and 1952, Bonanno attended the University of Arizona, but never graduated. DeCavalcante crime family boss Sam DeCavalcante later remarked on Bonanno's poor treatment of Rosalie: "It's a shame; the girl wanted to commit suicide because of the way he treated her". Bonanno and Rosalie eventually had four children; Charles, Joseph, Salvatore, and Felippa ("Rebecca"); Charles was adopted by Bonanno and his wife in 1958. However, Profaci capo Joseph Colombo betrayed Joseph Magliocco to the Commission, which then summoned Magliocco to explain. In October 1964, Magliocco was kidnapped off the streets of New York. This led to a divide in the family between loyalists to Bonanno and loyalists to DiGregorio.

In 1968, DiGregorio was wounded by machine gun fire and later suffered a heart attack. In later years, Bonanno made the following observation about this period:

I always say I had only one goal in the '60s—actually two goals. When I got up in the morning, my goal was to live to sunset. And when sunset came, my second goal was to live to sunrise. On December 18, 1971, Bonanno and his brother Joe Jr. were convicted of extortion and conspiracy for operating protection rackets in San Jose and San Francisco. In the late 1970s, Bonanno and his brother, Joe Jr., were under increased scrutiny by law enforcement in Northern California after getting involved with Lou Peters, a Cadillac-Oldsmobile dealer, in the San Jose, Lodi and Stockton, California areas. The Bonannos were looking to buy him out for $2 million. Peters, however, became an undercover agent for the FBI.

On January 23, 1981, Bonanno was indicted in Oakland, California on 21 counts of grand theft for defrauding senior citizens in California for home improvements that were never completed.

Author and producer Bonanno worked occasionally as a television producer (primarily on mini-series and films related to his family's criminal past), and collaborated with author Gay Talese on the 1971 book Honor Thy Father, a history of the Bonanno crime family. Bonanno also claimed in the book that he had discussed the assassination of John F. Kennedy with mobster John Roselli and implicated him as the primary hitman in a conspiracy instigated by the mob. According to Bonanno, Roselli fired at Kennedy from a storm drain on Elm Street.

Bonanno: A Godfather's Story In 1999, Bonanno was an executive producer for Showtime's two-part television miniseries, Bonanno: A Godfather's Story. The production was based on Bound by Honor: A Mafioso's Story and his father's 1983 autobiography A Man of Honor.

In popular culture Bonanno was the main character in the 1971 non-fiction book Honor Thy Father. In the original 1973 made-for-TV Film of the same name based on the book, Bonanno was portrayed by Joseph Bologna. Tony Nardi depicted the adult Joseph Bonanno in Bonanno: A Godfather's Story; Eric Roberts portrayed him in the 1993 made-for-TV film, Love, Honor & Obey: The Last Mafia Marriage.