Word: bonanno
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Hugh Allen, the L.E.I.U. coordinator in the state's department of justice, can cite no convictions of major organized crime figures as a result of the agency's activities. He maintains, however, that information obtained by L.E.I.U. helped federal authorities return Mafia figures Salvatore and Joseph Bonanno Jr. to prison for parole violations in 1978. Allen justifies the organization's activities by saying that it concentrates on preventing crime by alerting local police to watch the activities of organized-crime figures closely...
Ironically, Bonanno used a legalistic ploy. He writes: "They [the commissioners] didn't have any official authorization because J.B. was official member of commission. J.B. was head of the committee who elected the commission every five years. The five years was already passed and they were all out as J.B. was the only official to call [for a new election...
Sages of the brotherhood were summoned from retirement to refute Bonanno's version of how the commission was set up. Reluctant to cross J.B., the tottering dons were no help. In the end, Bonanno was offered a deal: retire to Tucson in return for his life. He accepted, but in a few months was back in business with his narcotics and other rackets...
Many of the details of these recent activities were already in the hands of the law. Twice a week, beginning in 1975, a van would pull up to the Bonanno home and switch the plastic bags of garbage with similar-looking refuse. The authorities would then piece together Bonanno's torn-up notes from phone conversations, which recorded everything from the supplying of pizzeria equipment to concealing records from a grand jury (for which he is awaiting trial in San Francisco...
...dons were aghast when they learned that the authorities had seized Bonanno's book. An emergency meeting was called near Fort Lauderdale, but no decision was reached. The Mafia commission-established to "make law, to settle trouble, and to guarantee justice for all" -once again did not know what to do with the proud old man who liked to write his own rules, and his own history...