1. Salvatore Vincent "Bill" Bonanno was an American mobster who served as consigliere of the Bonanno crime family, and son of crime boss Joseph Bonanno.
21 Facts About Salvatore Bonanno
1. 2.
Salvatore Bonanno's father had come from Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, with his grandparents, Catherine and Salvatore, and became boss of the Bonanno crime family a year before he was born.
3.
At the age of 10, Salvatore Bonanno developed a severe mastoid ear infection.
4.
Between 1950 and 1952, Salvatore Bonanno attended the University of Arizona, but never graduated.
5.
Shortly after leaving university, Salvatore Bonanno was inducted as a "made man" into the Salvatore Bonanno family, and was eventually appointed as consigliere by his father.
6.
However, many family members felt that Salvatore Bonanno lacked experience and was too intellectual to lead effectively.
7.
In early 1966, DiGregorio allegedly contacted Salvatore Bonanno about having a peace meeting.
8.
Salvatore Bonanno agreed and suggested his grand-uncle's house on Troutman Street in Brooklyn as a meeting site.
9.
In later years, Salvatore Bonanno made the following observation about this period:.
10.
On March 9,1970, Salvatore Bonanno was convicted of 52 counts of mail fraud, and sentenced to four years in prison.
11.
On January 23,1981, Salvatore Bonanno was indicted in Oakland, California on 21 counts of grand theft for defrauding senior citizens in California for home improvements that were never completed.
12.
Salvatore Bonanno worked occasionally as a television producer, and collaborated with author Gay Talese on the 1971 book Honor Thy Father, a history of the Salvatore Bonanno crime family.
13.
Salvatore Bonanno co-wrote the novel The Good Guys with former undercover FBI agent Joseph Pistone and scriptwriter David Fisher.
14.
Salvatore Bonanno later co-wrote his final book The Last Testament of Bill Bonanno: The Final Secrets of a Life in the Mafia with Gary B Abromovitz.
15.
Salvatore Bonanno's autobiography, Bound by Honor: A Mafioso's Story, was published by St Martin's Press in 1999.
16.
Salvatore Bonanno stated that several Cosa Nostra families shared close ties with members of the Cuban exile movement dating back to the mob casinos in Havana before the Cuban Revolution.
17.
Salvatore Bonanno said that he realized the degree of Cosa Nostra involvement in the assassination when he witnessed on television Jack Ruby, an associate of Chicago Outfit mobster Sam Giancana, killing Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald while in police custody.
18.
In 1999, Salvatore Bonanno was an executive producer for Showtime's two-part television miniseries, Salvatore Bonanno: A Godfather's Story.
19.
Salvatore Bonanno died of a heart attack on the morning of January 1,2008.
20.
Salvatore Bonanno was interred in Holy Hope Cemetery in Tucson.
21.
Salvatore Bonanno was the main character in the 1971 non-fiction book Honor Thy Father.