The Commission of the American Cosa Nostra

After the war Castellammarese and killed the boss Salvatore Maranzano, Lucky Luciano together the heads of other Italian-American Mafia families gave body to the Commission of the American Cosa Nostra.

The idea was developed just by Luciano and Maranzano, but the boss of bosses was then betrayed and murdered and Luciano at age 34 he had become the head of one of the Five Families of New York.

In those days in the country were killed from thirty to forty old mafia leader. The new guard had taken over. The "union" was formed by the New York Mafia families and the main families of the rest of the nation.
A committee to audit the activities mafia, a place for resolving conflict, but also of dark plots, collusions, betrayals. Today the Commission shows the 5 families of New York, the more the family De Cavalcante, the Chicago Outfit, the family patriarch, the Scarfo family. From Gnosis:

Since Luciano established the first precedent, the mobsters who worked freely and in close contact with criminals and other ethnic groups and nationalities. Through traditional methods of maintaining the mafia leadership and discipline, the mafia criminal enterprises associated with criminals not Italian, they were able to put them in line. The mafiosi who had entered the era of prohibition with criminal activity limited to the Italian community, acting individually or in small groups, they found themselves at the end of Prohibition, meeting activities on a large scale, even in areas outside the Italian community, in collaboration with gangsters and criminal groups of other nationalities.

With the death of Maranzano, the strong man, the leader of castellammaresi had become Joe Bananas Bonanno (pictured) in the homonymous family had incorporated most of the former subordinates of Maranzano.

Joe Bananas, the boss who gave you the politicians and judges, and business shared power with the other four New York families: Genovese, Gambino, Colombo, Lucchese.

The interests of the Bonanno ranging from traditional criminal activities of gangs, to the clothing industry, through the food factories and undertakers.

It would have been just Bonanno to devise a way to get rid of the corpses known as "double coffin" to hide the body was hidden under a client's funeral home.

When in the 60s, Bonanno began to expand its activities in Arizona and California in the other families began in alarm, and soon there were contrasts and implications. From Narcomafie:

At the reception for the wedding of his son Salvatore and Rosalie Profaci, also the daughter of the boss, at the Hotel Astor in Manhattan there are three thousand people, including businessmen, politicians, clergymen, the editor of the newspaper Il Progresso Italo-Americano and many others. In August of '57 is in Italy for the opening of an orphanage in Sicily. Fiumicino airport received a triumphal welcome: there is also Bernardo Mattarella, he Castellammarese, Democrat and several times minister. Only in the 60s' begins its decline as a result of the revelations in Joe Valachi. Condemned by the Board of Cosa Nostra, Bonanno disappears simulating a kidnapping (31 October 1964). When the waters subside retired in Tucson, Arizona on the border with Mexico to die many years later in his bed on 11 May 2002.

Valachi was the first, in 1963, to speak publicly about the existence of the American Cosa Nostra. After telling everything to Senator John McLellan and his commission of inquiry against organized crime, published a book ("Valachi Papers"), which became a best seller.

Bonanno was later accused of plotting behind the Commission and to desire the death of some of the other families including bosses Carlo Gambino and Gaetano Lucchese. In 1964, after a mysterious escape, disguised as a kidnapping, he agreed to withdraw, to hand over the management of the family business of the Commission (for a turnover of approximately U.S. $ 2 billion per year) and moving to another country.

The boss would then secretly left the States and would have been a bit 'of time in North Africa, Tunis, and then to Haiti, before returning In the United States, in Tucson.

Joe Bananas remained quiet until 1965, when his son Salvatore, suffered an assassination attempt. Who could have an attempt on his life? The boss Castellammarese had no doubt about it: Paul Sciacca, who had replaced him at the behest of the Commission at the head of the family.

Thus began the so-called "war of Joe Bananas" Bonanno family which divided into two branches, one which supported Joseph Bonanno and the other under the command of Paul Sciacca. Shortly after it was Bonanno suffered a heart attack and retired from the scene. He died in Tucson in 2002 and was never convicted of serious crimes.

The 'man who despised the most in his life he was known as "Caco" and had a reputation at the end of 1963. Actually his name was Joe Valachi and for two months shook the American Cosa Nostra, from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific . (...) The more angry with "Caco" was just that if Joseph 'had grown almost as a son, that' he had honored with his friendship, which had offered him protection and especially dollars. A generosity reciprocated evil with a "cantata" unprecedented on the 5 "families" and in particular about him about Joseph Joseph Bonanno said Joe Bananas. It was then that the whole 'America knew of that' man d 'Affairs of Italian origin who lived in Brooklyn. He was the boss of bosses.

The mess with Joe Masseria, Lucky Luciano and the competition of Joseph Profaci (boss of the Colombo family, ed), the first money earned with racketeering and invested in the real estate market, the climb to the summit of the American Cosa Nostra. In thirty years' criminal activity in America was convicted only once, and as a textile entrepreneur: a fine of $ 40 for a violation of labor law. He fared no worse here in Italy when the investigating judge Palermo Aldo Vigneri, all 'beginning of the sixties, the indicted with a dozen other "don" for drug trafficking. Acquitted for lack of evidence, as in the best traditions of the time. A few years earlier - it was on September 16, 1957 - Joe Bananas had returned to Sicily to take part in the big Mafia summit, which was held at the Grand Hotel delle Palme. All the "mammasantissima" of the 'island revered him, there they decided together what would be the "politics" of the Cosa Nostra in the years to come: control the world market of morphine base. (Archive Republic)

The current head of the Bonanno family according to the FBI would be Salvatore Montagna. From Anti-Mafia millennium:

Mountain is a Canadian citizen, having been born in Montreal 38 years ago, but its origins are of Castellammare del Golfo, the birthplace of former godfather Joseph "Joe" Bonanno, what would be the heir. The first time that you spoke of Montagna was in 2006, when he arrived in Italy to return to his country of origin. A transition is said obliged, on his return to the U.S. because he, bringing near the consent of mammasantissima Sicilian, would become the new "Godfather", after former boss Joseph Massino was convicted and became associate justice, and after conviction imprisonment of his presumed successor, Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano.

A mob that American did not give his origins. Castellammare were the most powerful mafia bosses United States, beginning with the Joseph Bonanno that inspired Mario Puzo's book on the 'godfather'. In Castellammare del Golfo told the repentant Nino Giuffre picciotti Americans were to "learn the trade" or were those of Castellammare who went to the U.S. to "coach" picciotti.

Of course in America there is a rule that within Cosa Nostra continues to be respected, and that is that to become "godparents" must be natives of Sicily, or the children of Sicilian parents, even better then if you are in Castellammare del Golfo. "Cosa Nostra - said at the time the deputy superintendent and head of Mobile in Trapani Giuseppe Linares, on the sidelines of a press conference after an anti-mafia raids (Operation Storm) Castellammarese right in - it's like a phoenix: always rises from the ashes» .

"There are specific intelligence reports - reports became an Italian security expert in America, Antonio Nicaso - confirm that as a result of feuds and mafia wars and especially after the scompaginamenti determined by arrests and convictions, the Mafia has decided to rely in Mountain, a new man. "How powerful the clan Castellammarese can be deduced from a history of the 90s, when he took refuge in Castellammare a drug trafficker still super sophisticated, Saro Naimo," a powerful man, "said Toto Riina was "more powerful than the President of the United States»

But let's step back and the other returning to the Genovese family boss believed to be the founder of the American Cosa Nostra. Lucky Luciano had about 300 "men of honor" and dozens of members under his command. He had appointed his deputy Vito Genovese and Frank Costello as a counselor of the family.

The gang with his illegal activities - extortion, gambling, gambling, construction, procurement unions, usury, prostitution, money laundering, counterfeiting of banknotes, drug trafficking - expanded not only in the State of New York, but also in California Florida, Connecticut, Nevada and Cuba

In 1937, Luciano was arrested and sentenced to cha ranged from 30 to 50 years and appointed regent of the family before Vito Genovese and then - when he was forced to go into hiding (in Italy) accused of murder - Frank Costello, nicknamed the "prime Minister of the Underworld" for his contacts with the sphere of politics, the judiciary and entrepreneurship.

With the approval of Luciano and Costello along with other bosses financed the construction of the first casino in Las Vegas. The operations were entrusted to Meyer Lansky, unofficial advisor of the family and one of the men of greater confidence Luciano, and Bugsy Siegel.

In 1946, Luciano was deported from the United States and deported to Italy. Costello then became the official boss of the Genovese family. But, again in 1946, Genovese was extradited to America for trial.

With the elimination of potential witnesses and the corruption of some judges, Genovese was acquitted of murder. At that point he had only one goal: to kill Costello and regain control of the family.

In 1957, allied with Carlo Gambino and Gaetano Lucchese, to organize the murder of Albert Anastasia, boss of the Mangano family and powerful ally of Costello. With the death of Anastasia and the withdrawal from the mafia activities of some of the most loyal "capidecina" Costello, Genovese decided to eliminate Costello.

On the evening of May 2, 1957, while he was returning to his apartment with his wife, Frank Costello was shot in the head by a gunshot exploded from a killer Genovese.