Mob Boss Joseph Bonnano's Son, Salvatore, is Dead

Salvatore (Bill) Bonanno, the oldest son of the late New York City crime chieftain Joe Bonanno and author of a book about growing up in a Mafia family, has died. He was 75.

Los Angeles literary agent Mickey Freiberg confirmed in an e-mail to The Associated Press that Bonanno yesterday in Tucson. The cause of death was a heart attack, according to Bonanno's nephew Anthony Tarantola.

Bonanno, who escaped mob hits and eventually the mob itself, wrote "Bound by Honor: A Mafioso's Story" in 2000. His Web site describes him as an author, movie producer and lecturer. The book was an attempt to make sense of myths about the Mafia in America, the site says.

Bonanno was made a member of the Mafia by his early 20s, according to the site.

He was the subject of Gay Talese's book "Honor Thy Father" and co-produced a 1999 miniseries based on the autobiography of his father, known as "Joe Bananas."

In 1968, Bonanno was imprisoned on contempt, credit card and other white-collar charges, according to his own biography. Between his first stint in prison and 1993, he spent 12 years behind bars for several convictions.

Bonanno served for decades as his father's adviser before becoming an author.

Bonanno's father died in 2002. Joe Bonanno was never convicted of anything worse than obstructing justice, but had admitted to belonging to "the Commission," an organized-crime board of directors of sorts in New York and other major American cities.

Tweet

The Sopranos Locations Map

Just as I have with the Chicago Outfit Locations Map, I have started to create a map of famous locations from The Sopranos. With the holidays past us and a lull in news, I should have more time to spend on both of these maps. Eventually, I will add location maps for each of the 5 New York Families as well as for mob spots in Las Vegas. Clicking on the blue markers will bring up information on each site. Feel free to send me additional locations for inclusion.


View Larger Map

Tweet

Were Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham-Clinton both Trained by the Mob?

Barack Obama's campaign blamed Benazir Bhutto's killing in Pakistan, on the regional instability caused by the war in Iraq for which Hillary voted. Both candidates know a thing or two about local leaders being gunned down in the streets. They are both from Chicago. ;-)

Tweet

Now an Author, Retired Chicago Cop to Write about the Chicago Mob

A retired Chicago police officer who gained notoriety writing about an infamous triple murder is now at work on his next book, about the mob.

James Jack's book "Three Boys Missing: The Tragedy That Exposed the Pedophilia Underworld" won awards for its telling of the murders of Robert Peterson and Anton and John Schuessler in 1955. The boys' murders ended an era of perceived innocence for many Chicago families.

As a rookie detective, Jack helped investigate the case, but it went unsolved for four decades before horse trainer Kenneth Hansen was convicted.

Now, another high-profile case is giving Jack material for his second career as a writer.

The Daily Herald wrote about Jack in June, just before the Family Secrets mob trial, recounting his run-ins in the 1950s and '60s with Frank Calabrese Sr. and other players in the Chicago Outfit. Since then, Jack has become something of a minor local celebrity, attending the trial every day and commenting on it for WGN 720-AM, WLS-TV Channel 7 and other media outlets.

Now, Jack is working on his next book, about his brushes with the mob since his youth with young hoodlums in pool halls on the city's West Side.

Growing up, he knew future mob members like Frank Santucci and Phil Tolomeo, who was briefly his police partner before working on juice loan collections and eventually turning state's witness. "I was like the nice guy," said Jack, a former Gold Gloves boxer. "I used to tell these guys to back off."

After all these years, Jack's glad that the hoods who caused so much trouble are finally being put away. "These guys will never see green again," he said. Though he talked to one of the defendants, a fellow former cop, Anthony Doyle, during the trial, others, like reputed mob boss James Marcello, didn't speak with him, and instead gave him the "cold eye."

At age 79, Jack has survived open heart surgery and is in remission from Hodgkin's lymphoma.

He still appears for occasional book signings at bookstores, most recently in Schaumburg, and will speak at the Palatine Public Library in April.

Thanks to Robert McCoppin

Tweet

America's Most Wanted Top 10 Fugitives for 2007

10: Alexis Flores: Five-year-old Iriana DeJesus was found sexually assaulted and strangled to death in an empty apartment complex near her house in 2000. For years, the case went unsolved, but in March, the FBI got the break they were looking for: a DNA match from convicted criminal Alexis Flores.

9: Dominic Lyde: Deputies in South Carolina say two fugitives still on the run after one of the country's largest armored car heists might just be staying close to home. Police say Dominic Lyde played a role in stealing nearly $10 million -- $5 million of which is still missing.

8: Derrick Benjamin: Deputies in South Carolina have already arrested five suspects who they believe were involved in the robbery. Detectives say that Derrick Benjamin was also involved.

7: Nai Yin Xue: Authorities in Los Angeles tell AMW that a multi-agency international task force is currently on the lookout for Nai Yin Xue, a self-proclaimed martial arts master accused of killing his wife in New Zealand and abandoning his 3-year-old daughter at a train station in Melbourne , Australia.

6: Patricio Sosa: Patricio Sosa was one of the ringleaders of an operation that imported women and children from Mexico and forced them into prostitution in Florida , according to authorities. Now, law enforcement wants to put the brakes on this alleged trafficker.

5: Rafael Cadena-Sosa: Like many young men, authorities say Rafael Cadena-Sosa went into the family business. Unfortunately, that business was human trafficking and prostitution, according to the FBI.

4: Carmela Cadena: Imagine being kidnapped from your home country, held captive, and forced to work as a prostitute. This is the fate of thousands of women and children who are smuggled into the U.S. every year. The FBI says they're kept in line by women like Carmela Cadena, a member of the Cadena-Sosa family who is alleged to run a major trafficking and prostitution enterprise.

3: Paul Jackson: Cops say that when Paul Erven Jackson went to visit his brother, the pair didn't engage in the usual family bonding. Instead, they lured teenage girls back to a homemade sex-torture chamber. While Jackson is still on the run, Vance Roberts turned himself in back in September of 2006 and was convicted on June 6, 2007 after an hour of jury deliberation on 24 counts of charges ranging from first-degree kidnap to first-degree rape. On August 3, 2007, Judge Timothy Alexander sentenced Roberts to 108 years in prison.

2: Robert Bowman: AMW tipsters are telling cops exactly where they've seen 71-year-old accused killer Robert Bowman. Cops say the strongest tips are out of southern California and Sin City : tipsters have spotted Bowman living on the strip in Las Vegas as a homeless man. None of the sightings have been confirmed but cops are working to pinpoint any location that Bowman may have been recently. Since 1967, Ohio cops say Robert Bowman has literally gotten away with murder. They say science has finally caught up to the accused killer, and DNA irrefutably ties him to the abduction, rape and murder of 14-year-old Eileen Adams in Toledo , Ohio some 40 years ago.

1: If we told you before Saturday night, we would have to kill you.

Tweet