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Behind the Gemstone Files |
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AUTHORSHIP ALPHA-1775 GEMSTONES A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W Y Z |
Who
are Mari and Adamo? 20 July 1969:
Mari and Adamo are both common Italian names. With no first names to go by, the reader is left in the dark. There is a Joseph Adamo, for instance, who was linked to Jimmy "The Weasel" Fratianno, legendary Mafia assassin believed to have been one of the JFK killers. The names Mari and Adamo are about as common as Jones or Smith in the phone book. What no researchers have bothered to do is find out who they are. Joan Tunney (daughter of boxing great Gene Tunney) was indeed found wandering around in France in a daze after she had beheaded her husband, as described in more detail in the Joan Tunney section. Somewhere in my files I have newspaper clippings that are not available on the Internet. And there were indeed two Mafia gunmen known as Frank Mari and Mike Adamo, who would fit the possible descriptions. It may be a stretch of the imagination to link the three to Norway. First, a little background. Fratianno and Frank Bompensiero ("Bomp" and Jimmie) shared the rare honors of being both big shot Mafioso and FBI informants at the same time. Both men worked together on different hits. For example, there was the hit on ex-bootlegger tied to mobster Jack Dragna in the early 1950s. Dragna had appointed Bompensiero boss of the San Diego territory, and "Bomp" and Jimmy "The Weasel" got together at Bomp's office at the Gold Rail bar to plan the murder. Bomp told Jimmie that Borgia had gone to Dragna complaining about some guy called Gaspare Matranga who was trying to extort money from Borgia. He wanted Dragna to put a stop to Matranga. What Borgia didn't know what that Dragna himself was behind the extortion attempt; Matranga was just a cutout. Bomp told Jimmie this story over drinks, saying Dragna had told him to kill Borgia. Bomp commented on what a double-dealing rat his boss (Dragna) was. He had a habit of bad-mouthing his bosses behind their back and it eventually led to his own downfall. Borgia's best friend, Anthony Mirabile, was used to lure Borgia over to the home of Joseph Adamo. Once inside, Mirabile grabbed Borgia in a big bear hug, while Bomp and Jimmie did the "Italian rope trick" - looping a rope around his neck and each man pulled as hard as they could from opposite sides. It was a quick strangulation. Joseph Adamo had a brother, Giolamo "Momo" Adamo, who was at one time one of the underbosses in California. Another thug, Frank DiSimone, was about to become Los Angeles boss in 1956, and may have seen "Momo" Adamo as competition. Simone raped Adamo's wife, Marie, in front of him. Humiliated, Adamo shot his wife, then committed suicide in their San Diego home. Marie survived her wounds and later became Bompensiero's wife. With all the Adamos floating around, it's perhaps easy to see why no one has pursued this part of Roberts' writings. The closeness of Joe Adamo to Fratianno could even lead a researcher astray. The researcher has to look for a team composed of the names Mari and Adamo. Mari and Adamo were members of the Joe Bonanno family who disappeared Sept. 18, 1969 in the aftermath of what is known as "the Banana War." That war started Jan. 28, 1966 with the Troutman Street ambush. Joe Bonanno has retired and turned things over to his son, Bill Bonanno. Bill was replaced by Gaspar Di Gregoria, first as consigliere and later when he was made family boss by the Commission. This usurpation of power did not come with Bonanno's blessing; it was a hostile takeover that split the family into two warring factions. At 63, he had already had three heart attacks and was the target of a lot of unwanted publicity and police probing. The whole mess was "bad for business" - which sent the Bonanno family into a tailspin for nearly two years, more occupied with turf war than making money. In January 1966, he sent word through Sorena Tartamella to Frank Labruzzo, Joseph Bonanno's brother-in-law, that he wanted a "sit down" to work out the problems between the feuding factions - Bonanno and Di Gregoria. It was supposed to be neutral territory, but Bill Bonanno insisted it looked like a setup. Di Gregoria had sent word that Bill they could meet any place Bill wanted, and this is what convinced Labruzzo and Bill and Joe Bonanno to "give it a shot." The "sit down" was set for the home of Vito Bonventre on the 305 block of Troutman Street, brick and frame houses between Knickerbocker and Irving Avenues in the Bushwick area of Brooklyn. Joseph Bonanno had worked with Bonventre in the early 1920s as he had set up his bakery business. Troutman Street was narrow with no trees or vegetation to offer hiding places for gunmen. Bill still smelled a rat, and sent his men in early to set up inside the house and wait for a signal. They waited until after midnight. Finally, Bill got a phone call - Gaspar was sick and couldn't make it. At about 3 am on the morning of Jan. 29, Bill and one of his bodyguards, Carl Simari, left the house - and immediately came under heavy fire from gunmen hiding in a house across the street and behind some shuttered fruit stalls along the sidewalk. The leader of the DiGregoria hit team was Frank Mari. Mike Adamo was also one of the gang of shooters. Bonanno and Simari returned fire and called out for backup from their other men still inside the house. Bonanno and Simari then ran up Troutman Street into Knickerbocker and then to an all-night diner on Flushing Avenue, where Bill called Hank Perrone, one of his men, who drove over from Manhattan and picked them up. Despite a lot of damage to cars, wood and concrete, nobody shot anybody else, despite estimates of 20-100 shots over a range of just 20 feet. Talk about the "gang that couldn't shoot straight"! Later in the year, Bill Bonanno got a chance to see seven weapons that had been found in the streets, laid out before a grand jury. He recognized one of them as belonging to Philip "Rusty" Rastelli, one of DiGregorio's veteran hitmen. This gave him all the evidence he needed to confirm his suspicions. DiGregorio had already gotten trouble with the Commission, who wanted to know why in the hell he was instigating all this bad publicity. He was demoted and replaced by Paul Sciacca as leader of the dissident faction. But Bonanno wanted more - he wanted revenge and he wanted DiGreogiro's head. On May 17, 1966 Joe Bonanno walked into Room 318 of the federal courthouse and surrendered himself. He got out on bail and went to stay at Bill's home in East Meadow, Long Island. Joe was back to take over his family - and heads were about to roll. In late summer, Frank Mari was the first target. Bonanno's men tracked him through the Bay Ridge area of Brooklyn and put a bullet in his shoulder and almost shot him in the head, but that bullet just grazed his temple. The war dragged into 1967. In October, the Bonanno faction started taking some heavy hits. Vincent Cassese and Vincent Garofalo were both shot, but survived. Two weeks later, on November 10, Bonanno struck back; Thomas "Smitty" D'Angelo and his brother Jimmy, along with Francisco "Frank the 500" Terelli were gunned down in the Cypress Garden Restaurant on Cypress Avenue in Brooklyn by "a short, stocky gunman wearing a black fedora and carrying a .45-calibre sub-machine gun. The killer was Gaspare Magaddino, importyed from Castellammare and a relative of the Buffalo don, Stefano Magaddino. Police hunted him for a year before they found him shot-gunned to death on a Brooklyn Street. In early March 1968, Peter Crociata, a DiGregorio capo and temporary underboss, was shot in the neck near his home. He was badly wounded but recovered. On March 11, 1968, Samuel "Hank" Perrone was gunned down as he left the warehouse of his transport firm, Bingo Warehouse and Trucking Companyy on Leonard Street in Brooklyn. Hank, 39, had been Bill Bonanno's close friend and sometime bodyguard and chauffer. It was Hank whom Bonanno had called to pick him up after the Troutman Street shootout. Police figured it was in retaliation for the Crociata shooting and fingered Frank Mari and James (Jimmy Legs) Episcopia as the assassins. For Bill Bonanno, this was the last straw. He took Hank's death very badly and swore he would take out Mari. On April 1, another Bonanno regular who had switched sides to DiGregorio, Michael Consolo, 64, was found dead next to his car in Brooklyn. He had been seen talking to Bonanno while both men were waiting to give evidence at Superior Court in Brooklyn; he was probably killed by DiGregorio's gang, who was afraid he was switching sides again. April 5, William Gonzalez, one of Hank Perrone's men, was shot on the way to his Bronx home. He survived and was taken to Fordham Hospital. April 16, 72-year-old Francisco Crociata was shot at the Rossini Democrat Club in Brooklyn while he was drinking an espresso. The old man survived. April 19, Calogero "Charley the Sidge" LoCicero, 64, was killed while drinking a strawberry malt at Cuselli's Luncheonatte in Brooklyn. LoCicero was a member of the Colombo crime family, so his murder was a puzzle, but an informer confirmed that Bonanno was behind it. Had members of the Columbo family been trying to form an alliance with DiGregorio? Typically, the Mafia lets each family work out its own bloodbath and hesitates to get involved. The long "Banana War" came to an end Feb. 6, 1969 when Thomas Zummo, a 29-year-old DiGregorio-Sciacca member, was machine-gunned down walking through the lobby of his girlfriend's apartment in Queens. There had been a building storm of press coverage, court appearances, police questions - and no money being made. The chief rivals were running out of steam. On Sept. 18, 1969, Frank Mari, 42, kissed his wife goodbye outside their $45,000 home in Nassau County and drove off with his bodyguard. He and Mike Adamo were never seen again after that day. Insiders believe the disappearance was actually organized from within the DiGregorio gang itself - engineered by Philip "Rusty" Rastelli, who later became Mari's replacement. Mari had been groomed to take Sciacca's place, so that mystery could have to do with rivalry within the DiGregorio faction. DiGreogirio himself died June 11, 1970 of cancer. Paul Sciacca had suffered a heart attack, though he kept his power until he was arrested in 1971 for drug trafficking. His position was taken over by Natale Evola (an usher at Joe Bonanno's wedding in 1931), who ruled until he died of natural causes August 28, 1973. On the other side, Joe Bonanno himself had had another heart attack and his son Bill was facing jail for a credit card scam and was facing a civil income tax matter. Joe once more called the family together and told them he was retiring, this time for good, and left to live out his years in in Tuscon, Arizona - still alive in 2000 at the age of 95 - the longest living Mafia boss of all time. His son Bill, along with Angelo Caruso, Joe Bayonne and Vito DeFilipo became the family's delegation to the Commission. The "Banana War" was over. The Commission would arbitrate and mediate, but there were to be no more retribution from either side. Bonanno's men would be recognized by the Commission as the representatives of the Bonanno family. Joseph Bonanno would retire to Arizona but "stay" in New York. One of his men once asked "how can you go and still stay?" Bonanno tapped himself over the heart and said, "Here. We remain here." Chappaquiddick happened July 20, 1969 - shortly after Mari was a hunted man, and shortly after the "Banana War" ended. On Sept. 18, Mari and Adamo disappeared, probably done in by their own side. DiGregorio's faction was supposed to be on the wane, after February 1969. I have found no evidence that there was a link between Mari and Adamo and Chappaquiddick or Joan Tunney in Norway. If the DiGregorio family was on the wane, it would seem any action solicited by Democrat bigwigs such as the Kennedys would go through the Bonanno family - or even their own Boston mob. Surely they would have been smart enough to do business with the faction in power, not the losers. Was Bonanno really the winner? Allan Mays makes a cryptic statement that the men Joseph Bonanno appointed as his delegation to the Commission (Bill Bonanno, Angelo Caruso, Joe Bayonne and Vito DeFilipo) went to the Commission "to lay down the terms of the abdication." Whose abdication? From father to son? Or from Bonanno to DiGregorio? The former seems most likely. If Mari and Adamo had been involved in the kidnapping of a Tunney, would they have come back to New York from Europe? It would have been a risky move, even if the Troutman Street mess was history. There was always the possibility that Bill Bonanno would still try to exact revenge, but the evidence that Philip Rastelli had been behind their disappearance would seem to rule that out. Further, Roberts claimed that "They [Mari and Adamo] locked her up in a Marseilles heroin factory for 60 days ..." Sixty days from July 21, 1969 [the date Joan supposedly ran away to Norway] is Oct. 21, 1969. Mari and Adamo disappeared Sept. 18, 1969, nearly a month earlier. How could they then "turn her loose outside the factory" on Oct. 21, 1969? They were already supposedly murdered - in New York. Still, one puzzle intrigues. Why, if Mari and Adamo had been such a big part of the embarrassing "Banana War", would Mari have been up for promotion? Had he done something special that made up for the intra-family warfare? Could that "something special" have been a Joan Tunney kidnapping? This is no more than speculation, and indeed it's a long, long shot - but worth a mention. Mays makes one statement that only opens the can of worms up even more, making one wonder just what happened after the "Banana Wars" ended and Joseph Bonanno retired to Arizona:
SOURCES: Frank Bompensiero, San Diego
Hitman, Boss & FBI Informant (Part One) by Allan May, 15
May 2000 The Bonanno Crime Family: Men
of Honour by Thomas L. Jones There are many other available sources on the Internet, but they are in Italian, if one has the ability to properly translate them. They may shed more light on the activities, if any, of Mari and Adamo in Europe. To locate these, go to Google.com and do a search for the names "Frank Mari" or "Mike Adamo" AND "crime" or "mafia."
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