Bumpy always got a plan.
My only issue with last nights episodes is, do they really just let Bonano walk away? He tried to have them killed. I know its not sticking to the actual facts, but i just find it hard to believe that the mob would let him walk away after not only trying to steal from them, but also for arranging to have them all killed.
In 1963, Bonanno made plans to assassinate several rivals on the Commission—bosses Lucchese, Gambino, and Magaddino, as well as
Frank DeSimone.
[40] Bonanno sought
Profaci crime family boss
Joseph Magliocco's support, and Magliocco readily agreed due to his bitterness from being denied a seat on the Commission previously. Bonanno's audacious goal was to take over the Commission and make Magliocco his right hand man.
[41]
Magliocco was assigned the task of killing Lucchese and Gambino, and gave the contract to one of his top hit men,
Joseph Colombo. However, the opportunistic Colombo revealed the plot to its targets. The other bosses realized that Magliocco could not have planned this himself. Remembering how close Bonanno was with Magliocco (and before him,
Joe Profaci), as well as their close ties through marriages, the other bosses concluded Bonanno was the real mastermind.
[41]
The Commission summoned Bonanno and Magliocco to explain themselves. In mid 1964, Bonanno fled to
Montreal, leaving Magliocco to deal with the Commission.
[42] Badly shaken and in failing health, Magliocco confessed his role in the plot. The Commission spared Magliocco's life, but forced him to retire as Profaci family boss and pay a $50,000 fine. As a reward for turning on his boss, Colombo took control of the Profaci family.
[41]
Mr. Bonanno's authority, organized-crime investigators said, disintegrated in the mid-60's when Mr. Lucchese and another Mafia boss, Carlo Gambino, learned that he was plotting to assassinate them in an attempt to solidify his position as the nation's dominant mob leader. Mr. Bonanno's plan backfired when Joseph Colombo, the gangster who was assigned to organize the murders, betrayed him and informed Mr. Gambino.
Before his enemies could retaliate, Mr. Bonanno vanished for 19 months, maintaining when he reappeared that he had been abducted. But many investigators believe that he went into hiding, partly in fear for his life and partly to evade a government subpoena to testify before a grand jury. Based on information gleaned from wire taps and informers, New York City detectives and federal agents assert that Mr. Bonanno reappeared only after the other bosses on the Commission agreed to spare his life on the condition that he surrender control of his family and relinquish many of his rackets.
