Carmine "Lilo" Galante (21 February 1910 – 12 July 1979) was boss of the Bonanno crime family from 1973 to 1979, succeeding Natale Evola and preceding Philip Rastelli. Galante was nicknamed "The Cigar" and "Lilo" (the Italian slang for "cigar"), as he was rarely seen without a cigar, and he was whacked by The Commission in 1979 for refusing to share his drug trafficking profits.
Biography[]
Carmine Galante was born in East Harlem, Manhattan, New York City on 21 February 1910, the son of two Sicilian immigrants. Galante was sent to a reform school at the age of ten for his criminal activities, and he soon formed a juvenile street gang on the Lower East Side. In 1926, he was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison for assault, and he was arrested for the murder of an NYPD officer during a robbery in August 1930. From 1931 to 1939, he was in prison, and he became a hitman for Genovese crime family underboss Vito Genovese a year later. In 1943, he murdered an anti-fascist newspaper editor as a part of a favor from Genovese to Benito Mussolini. He would come to work as a chauffeur for Joseph Bonanno, later rising to the rank of caporegime and underboss. In 1956, he succeeded Francesco Garafolo as underboss, and he was sent to supervise the drug business in Montreal, Quebec, Canada as a part of the French Connection. In 1957, the Canadian government deported him back to the USA for his role in extortion. During the early 1960s, he was arrested several times and tried with narcotics trafficking, and he was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison in 1962. In 1974, Galante was released from prison on parole, and he ordered the bombing of his enemy Frank Costello's mausoleum upon his release.
Bonanno don[]
Galante during the 1970s
When acting Bonanno boss Philip Rastelli was imprisoned in November 1974, Galante declared himself the new family boss. Galante had eight members of the rival Gambino crime family murdered in order to take over a massive drug trafficking operation, and his parole was revoked on 3 March 1978, sending him back to prison. On 27 February 1979, it was ruled that his parole revocation was illegal, and he was released. The New York crime families would become alarmed at Galante's brazen attempt to take over the narcotics market and his refusal to share any drug profits with the other families. Genovese boss Frank Tieri built a consensus among Cosa Nostra leaders to call for Galante's murder; even Joseph Bonanno approved of the hit. In 1979, after Rastelli called Galante an illegitimate usurper, The Commission ordered Galante's execution.
Murder[]
Galante after being shot
On 12 July 1979, Galante headed to eat lunch on an open patio at Joe and Mary's Italian-American Restaurant at 205 Knickerbocker Avenue in Bushwick, Brooklyn with capo Leonardo Coppola and Bonanno soldier and restaurant owner Giuseppe Turano; his bodyguards Baldassare Amato and Cesare Bonventre accompanied him. At 2:45 PM, three men wearing ski masks walked into the patio and opened fire with shotguns and handguns, killing Galante, Coppola, and Turano, while Amato and Bonventre were spared due to their inactivity. Anthony Indelicato, Dominick Trinchera, and Dominick Napolitano were later named as the gunmen, with Louis Giongetti serving as their driver.