A CRIMINAL HISTORY OF MANKIND

Bananas. Genovese seems to have believed that Valachi was one of those who was responsible for
landing him in jail. Valachi was not a man of iron nerve; when he became convinced that his
execution had been ordered, he asked to be placed in solitary confinement. There he decided that
his only chance of escape lay in killing the executioner. On 22 June 1962, Valachi seized a piece of
iron pipe, and killed a fellow prisoner named John Saupp, a forger. He discovered too late that
Saupp bore a striking resemblance to a Genovese henchman called Joe DiPalermo, who had been
the intended victim. Faced with execution, Valachi decided to try and strike a bargain with the
authorities. The result was the most detailed revelation of Mafia crimes - and organisation - since
the days of ‘Kid Twist’ Reles. Valachi began by revealing that the term ‘Mafia’ was long out of
date; it had been superseded first by ‘Unione’, then by ‘Cosa Nostra’. He went on to confirm what
the justice department had long suspected: that Dewey’s intensive campaign against the Syndicate,
culminating in the execution of Lepke and Pittsburgh Phil and the deportation of Luciano, had left
the basic organisation untouched. Robert Kennedy called Valachi’s testimony ‘the biggest
intelligence breakthrough yet in combatting organised crime’.
This time the authorities did not make the same mistake as in the case of ‘Kid Twist’. Valachi was
kept under close guard in a comfortable jail cell; although Genovese offered $100,000 for his
murder, he survived to die of a heart attack in his cell in Texas in 1971. Genovese himself had died
in jail in 1969.
With Genovese behind bars, Carlo Gambino became the most powerful member of ‘Cosa Nostra’.
He soon found himself facing a challenge rather more dangerous than Gallo’s attempt to take over
the Profaci family. Joe Bonanno was a ‘family’ capo who had ‘retired’ to Tucson, Arizona,
although he continued to have interests in New York, mainly in ‘loan sharking’ (usury). Bonanno
was part of the nine-member Commission - elected from America’s twenty-four leading Mafiosi -
that governed Syndicate affairs. When Joe Bonanno’s son Bill was also elected to the Commission,
fellow members began to feel that the Bonanno family was acquiring undue influence. About this
time Valachi’s revelations caused Joe Bonanno some embarrassment, and he moved temporarily to
Canada. There he heard rumours that other Commission members were planning to get rid of him.
Bonanno decided to strike first, and ordered the killing of four leading mafiosi, including Carlo
Gambino. Bonanno was closely allied to the Profaci clan - his son Bill was married to Rosalie
Profaci - and the order was passed on to a Profaci ‘hit man’, Joe Colombo. And Colombo - no
doubt recognising that his chances of killing four leading gangsters were minimal - contacted
Gambino and told him: ‘It’s war. Bananas is trying to take over.’
On 21 October 1964, Bonanno was walking towards the entrance of his New York apartment when
two men pushed guns in his ribs and dragged him into a car. Bonanno was taken to a Catskill
resort, where his fellow Commission members demanded explanations. They were not anxious to
kill Bonanna; with his son still alive, that would mean all-out gang war, and much unwelcome
publicity. What they really wanted was to persuade Bonanno to surrender his ‘business’ interests,
and agree to vanish into retirement. Bonanno had little alternative. In exchange for his own life, and
a promise that his family would be left untouched, he agreed to leave the country. Gloomy but
philosophical, he retired to Haiti. The newspapers referred to the affair as ‘the Banana split’. Joe
Colombo was appointed head of the Profaci ‘family’ as a reward for loyalty.
Bill Bonanno was understandably upset by his father’s kidnapping and subsequent retirement, and
was indisposed to accept the demotion it implied. Clashes with rival factions led to an offer of a
truce in January 1966; but as Bill Bonanno made his way towards the agreed location - the house of
one of his own relatives - he was fired on from a doorway and had to run for his life. No one was