Philip Rastelli

Philip "Rusty" Rastelli (born January 31, 1918 in Queens , New York , † June 24, 1991 ibid), was a notorious mobster and leader of the Bonanno family of La Cosa Nostra in New York City. He became known primarily because of his involvement in various internal mafia conflicts and the investigations of the undercover agent Donnie Brasco , who succeeded in infiltrating the Bonanno family in the 1980s.

Life

Beginnings

Rastelli got into the Bonanno family's illicit businesses in Brooklyn , such as credit usury and drug trafficking . The relationship with his wife Conny, who ran an illegal abortion practice in Brooklyn, developed problematically. After learning of Rastelli's relationship with another woman, she threatened to pass on her knowledge of her husband's business to the authorities if she did not receive adequate severance pay as part of a divorce settlement. She was found shot dead in 1962. The authorities suspected that Rastelli was either the perpetrator himself or at least had given the order to murder his wife, but this could never be proven to him.

Carmine Galante

When Natale Evola died in 1973, Rastelli took over his position as head of the Bonanno family. Rastelli was, however, already jailed in 1975 for violations of the antitrust laws and extortion accused. For these acts, he was sentenced to a long prison term in 1976 and attempted to lead the Bonanno family out of prison from then on. Carmine Galante , a high-ranking member of the Bonanno family who had been released in 1973 after a long imprisonment, took advantage of this situation to de facto appropriate Rastelli's position. However, Galante soon made further enemies when he tried to control all drug trafficking activities of the Mafia. Here he proceeded with extreme brutality and also had members of other Mafia families murdered. After making himself unpopular with the other bosses, Galante was shot dead in 1979 in a restaurant in Brooklyn. For Rastelli, this meant that he was again the undisputed leader of the Bonanno family.

comeback

After Galante's death, his murderers were given high positions in the Bonanno family. Thus, Dominic Napolitano made the boss on the street shop the Bonanno crime family of Rastelli. However, the problem remained that Rastelli was only able to influence the family's affairs to a limited extent from prison. In 1981 three sub-leaders of the Bonanno family, Philip Giaccone , Alphonse Indelicato and Dominick Trinchera , wanted to take advantage of this and demanded a larger share of the drug business. They were shot by Napolitano and his men on Rastelli's orders. Witness to these events was FBI agent Donnie Brasco, who was smuggled into the Bonanno family and whose testimony would later bring many members of the Bonanno family to prison. In 1984 Rastelli was released from prison and took care of restoring the reputation of the Bonanno family in the underworld, which had suffered noticeably as a result of the clashes within the family and because of the Brasco incident. The Bonanno family now increasingly turned to the drug trade and generated large profits from this business. The drugs were brought to the United States via Montreal, Canada, where they were sold to bulk buyers.

The end

In 1986 Rastelli was first indicted in the so-called Mafia Commission Trial together with the leaders of other Mafia families. However, his trial was separated from the main trial, as the prosecution decided to pursue him and his underboss Joseph Massino separately for extortion. The trial ended with the now 69-year-old Rastelli being sentenced to 12 years in prison in 1987. From now on he directed the fortunes of the Bonanno family from his cell. On July 21, 1991, the terminally ill Rastelli was released from prison on humanitarian grounds. He died of liver cancer three days later in a Queens hospital at the age of 73 .

Web links

• Mafia Who's Who (English)
• Philip "Rusty" Rastelli on Find a Grave (English)
• Philip "Rusty" Rastelli ( Memento of October 13, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) on www.angelfire.com (English)

predecessor	Office	successor
Natale Evola	Head of the “ Bonanno Family ” of La Cosa Nostra 1973 - 1975	Carmine Galante
Carmine Galante	Head of the “Bonanno Family” of La Cosa Nostra 1979 - 1991	Joseph Massino