CARMINE "Lillo" GALANTE

Carmine Galante will go down in American Cosa Nostra history as one of, if not the most notorious Mafia members of all time. Even at a mere five feet 4 inches tall, Galante had a presence about him that made him feared by so many mobsters from all over the U.S. Carmine Galante was known as Lillo; from a very early age Lillo showed that he only had one career aim in life, to become a Mafiosi one way or another. Lillo was born on February 21st 1910 in a tough neighbourhood in East Harlem, New York. His first brush with the law came when he was just thirteen years old when he was caught stealing Trinkets from a store, and it wouldn't be long before the Young Galante would serve his first prison term when he was arrested for Assault in 1926. His second prison term wouldn't be long coming either. When a police accidentally stumbled on an attempt by Galante and four more men to rob a Liquor store, a shoot out soon erupted with a young six year old girl was accidentally caught by an astray bullet she survived, but Galante and his pals tried to escape Galante tripped and fell to the ground, leaving him an easy target for police to sling on the cuffs and take him away.

He was sentenced in late 1930, were he got a real taste of jail life getting paroled in May 1939. By this time Lillo was getting noticed by many of the high-ranking members of the Bonanno crime family. His ferocity was always well liked by many of his superiors, as he displayed all the credentials to be a top Mafiosi, someone they could rely on and most of all someone who was capable. Through this he got to know Johnny Diourgardi, a hoodlum in the garment center. It was Diorgardi that got Galante a job there, looking after his transport company on KnickerBocker Avenue. Diougardi was also connected to a close associate of Joe Bonanno, Gaetano Gagliano. During the 40's Lillo quickly progressed through the ranks, as he became the bodyguard of Gagliano and then his personal driver. It was long after proving himself to Gagliano that Carmine was promoted to capo status in the Bonanno family. Galante had an enormous appetite for criminal life, his ferocity and cunning was met by a driving ambition that would carry Lillo to the pinnacle of Mafia life.

The 50's were another good decade for Galante. He was now well respected within his crime family and it was that capability that he always displayed that made the family godfather Joe Bonanno decide to use Galante to plant Bonanno family flags north of the border. He was sent to Canada to develop contacts in order to expand the Bonanno Empire even further. He soon set up contacts in Montreal as he firmly put down the foundations of a new Bonanno arm in Montreal, Canada.

Galantes success in Canada pleased Joe Bonanno, and so in October 1957, Bonanno decided to take Carmine Galante to one of the biggest summits in the history of organized crime anywhere in the world. The Grande Des Palmes Hotel in Palermo, Sicily would be the setting for a series of meetings between the American and Sicilian Cosa Nostra. At this meeting were some of the biggest names in global Cosa Nostra as Joe Bonanno, Carmine Galante, Lucky Luciano and other American mobsters met with the likes of Gaetano Badalamenti, Toto Riina, Luciano Liggio, Tomasso Buscetta, Genco Russo and many more high ranking members of the Sicilian Mafia's. At the meetings the two parties discussed whether or not they should enter the global narcotics trade and get rich beyond their wildest dreams.

One month later the meeting in Palermo was followed by the biggest summit in American Mafia history. Appalachian was the setting at Joe Barbera's home, for the largest convention of Mafia leaders ever seen in the U.S. as hundreds of top Mafiosi flocked there way to Appalachian. Shortly after this summit Galante attended another important meeting this time though not nearly in size of the one at the Home of Joe Barbera. This time Lillo Met with Frank Garofalo, Joe "Beck" Di Palermo a major narcotics player from New Jersey faction of the Lucchese family. The four men got straight down to business as Galante laid down his plans of expanding the narcotics operations.

Those summits were not the only important summits that Galante attended. In 1958 Lillo had another two highly crucial meetings regarding globalizing the narcotics trade further. Lillo met with French, Italian and Canadian traffickers in Miami and in Cuba and also he flew out to Corsica to meet with the Corsican gangsters who controlled so many of the heroin refineries in Corsica and around the southern French coast including Marseilles.

The 50's had been an excellent decade for Galante but the 60's would be different. It all started in 1959, when Vito Genovese was indicted on narcotics charges. Genovese was arrested along with 29 mobsters, all suspected to be part of a huge narcotics conspiracy. One of the men suspected was Carmine Galante. After a short time on the run Lillo was finally caught and arrested in 1960, where he was convicted to 30 years for his part in the huge narcotics operation, spanning the Atlantic ocean and back again. Galante was sent to Lewisburg penitentiary. He resided in E-block, known as the Mafia wing. Whilst serving time Galante got acquainted with many Mafiosi such as Anthony Provenzano of the Genovese family, and a major player in the controlling some of the Teamster unions and even had a seat on the Teamsters board of directors. Vincent Rao, the Lucchese family consiglieri, and a tough young Gambino mobster John Gotti. Also serving time was Jimmy Hoffa, the Teamster union top guy. While Galante was on the wing though nobody did anything out of line and everybody was well looked after, his personality made everyone feel his presence. Galante took quite a shine to John Gotti, it is well believed that Lillo was very impressed with the way Gotti could take care of himself.

Lillo was paroled on the 23rd of January 1974, and within 3 days of his release Galante wanted to show in the most graphic way that he was back on the streets and ready to make a play for power, so Lillo blew the doors off the tomb of Frank Costello, Lillo was also unhappy with the way the commission had treated his old mentor Joe Bonanno by banishing him to retirement in Tucson, Arizona. But Galante wasn't about to take on Carlo Gambino; he concentrated on his own family as the recent death of family boss Natale Evola had brought Philip Rastelli to the fulcrum of the family.

Galante was determined that Rastelli's promotion was only temporary, and soon made a play for power himself by taking a shot for Rastellis son. Rastelli got the hint and moved over to let Galante have what he thought he had rightfully earned. With Galante as boss, the Bonanno family moved deeper and deeper into drugs. He also began to recruit Sicilian mobsters into the family to help him get a strangle hold on both continents. Knickerbocker Avenue became amass with Sicilian immigrants who were getting a profitable share in the heroin operation.

With the influx of Sicilians into the Bonanno family, Galante was positioning himself to be the critical point of the heroin pipeline, but little did Galante know that just as though he was taking huge slices of the heroin pie, he was also making himself vulnerable, as his position became more an more secure, he was turning himself into a target for his underlings, they now also wanted what Galante had, and also Galante's arrogance of thinking that he could actually dominate the heroin operation for himself was another flaw in Lillo's psyche.

It was a red-hot day on the 12th of July 1979, but this day would turn out to be another day that will be long remembered in the history of the New York Mafia. Lillo had arranged a meeting with some of his crime family at a restaurant on Knickerbocker Avenue in Brooklyn New York. With Galante was his 2 bodyguards Cesare Bonventre and Baldassare Amato, who would position themselves at either side of Galante at the meeting. Around 2:15pm three men entered the restaurant with ski masks and shotguns and pumped Galante with 6 bullets, one of which was shot through his eye. When Galante hit the ground the three gunmen ran out of the restaurant leaving Galante in a pool of blood and his cigar still hanging from his mouth still alight. Also murdered that day was Galante's friend Leonardo Copolla, but the most amazing bit of good fortune that day was that Galantes 2 bodyguard had survived the ordeal completely unscathed.

Galante's place as head of the Bonanno crime family was quickly filled by a quiet Sicilian named Salvatore Catalano. Catalano made one of Galante's bodyguards, the Sicilian Cesare Bonventre the youngest capo in American Cosa Nostra. This decission made many in the FBI to believe that Bonventre's promotion must mean that he was somewhere involved in the sensational assassination of Carmine Galante. Many believe that Galante got what had been coming to him for some time. He was a ferocious mobster with little regard for right and wrong. Never the less though Galante's murder became a sensational event in New York Mafia circles. The Commission may also have had a hand in the murder as well, Many of the other crime bosses in New York were also getting tired with the way Galante was openly doing business in the narcotics trade hence the quick replacement of Catalano. Whatever the story this hit was one that we all who study Cosa Nostra will not forget.

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