In June 1996, American mobster & reputed captain in the Bonanno crime family, Louis "Louie HaHa" Attanasio Jr. was indicted on racketeering & loansharking charges.
- mobtalk247
- Jun 8
- 6 min read
Updated: Jun 8
In June 1996, American mobster & reputed captain in the Bonanno crime family, Louis "Louie HaHa" Attanasio Jr. was indicted on racketeering & loansharking charges. Attanasio earned the nickname "HaHa" because he laughed whenever he killed a man. He reportedly ran his loansharking operation in the 1980s, while in federal prison on his tax evasion conviction. During the 1980s, Attanasio had been convicted of tax evasion & of trying to bribe a state trooper, receiving a 5 year sentence. In 1997, after a 23-year romance, Attanasio married his 2nd wife, Erica, in a prison wedding ceremony.
Attanasio was married twice, marrying young & divorcing his 1st wife in 1992. In 2003, he divorced his 2nd wife Erica, who supposedly suffered from a bipolar disorder. In the divorce settlement, Erica received $200k over a span of 5 years. In January 2004, Attanasio was indicted in New York on charges of murder, conspiracy to murder & loansharking. To avoid prosecution, he & Erica fled to Sint Maarten, a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Caribbean, which encompasses the southern 44% of the divided island of Saint Martin, where Attansio maintained a residence. Collectively, Sint Maarten & the other Dutch islands in the Caribbean are often called the Dutch Caribbean. In December 2004, Attansio was arrested by members of the Sint Maarten Police Force, after they received a tip that he was residing on the island. He was later extradited to the United States to face charges, including the 1984 Cesare Bonventre murder.
In April 1984, Attanasio participated in the murder of Bonanno soldier Cesare "The Tall Guy" Bonventre. Bonanno leaders Philip "Rusty" Rastelli & Joseph “Big Joey” Massino had ordered Bonventre's murder because they felt he was a threat to their power. Bonventre's pedigree, increasing wealth, & fearsome reputation had made him into a threat to the paranoid leadership. Bonventre controlled the Sicilian “Zips”, the most fearsome & reliable killers in the family. Bonventre was prone to outbursts of sadistic violence & was suspected of over 20 murders.
Massino warned, "He's a very sharp guy. You have to be careful." On the day of the murder, Attanasio & Bonanno mobster Salvatore "Good Looking Sal" Vitale picked up Bonventre to bring him to a meeting with Rastelli. As Vitale drove into a garage, Attanasio shot Bonventre twice in the head. Surprisingly, Bonventre still struggled, forcing the 2 hitmen to stop the car. Bonventre crawled out of the car onto the concrete, before Attanasio finished him off with 2 more shots.
Bonventre's body was hacked to pieces & dumped into 3 55-gallon glue drums in a Garfield, New Jersey warehouse. After the body was recovered, it took forensic technicians 3 months to identify it.
On July 12, 1979, Bonventre participated in the murders of acting boss Carmine “Lilo” Galante & 2 of his friends. Galante had been dropped off for lunch at Joe & Mary's, an Italian restaurant in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn. After a short while, bodyguards Bonventre & Baldassare “Baldo” Amato joined Galante. Although it was a hot summer day & they were dining on the patio, both Bonventre & Amato wore leather jackets, presumably to protect themselves from stray bullets & debris. Suddenly, 3 men in ski masks appeared on the patio & opened fire on Galante. Bonventre & Amato may have joined in the attack, then disappeared from the scene after the 3 hitmen. Galante & his 2 lunch companions died. A week after the Galante murders, Bonventre was arrested by federal agents, but he was soon released & was never charged with the crime.
The New York crime families were alarmed at Galante's brazen attempt to take over the narcotics market. Years earlier, on February 23, 1974, at a meeting at the Americana Hotel in Manhattan, the Commission had named Philip "Rusty" Rastelli as boss. When Rastelli was sent to prison in 1976, Galante seized control of the Bonannos as unofficial acting boss. During the late 1970s, Galante organized the murders of at least 8 members of the Gambino family, with whom he had an intense rivalry, in order to take over this massive drug-trafficking operation for himself. Genovese crime family boss Frank Tieri began contacting Cosa Nostra leaders to build a consensus for Galante's murder, even obtaining approval from the retired Joseph Bonanno.
In 1979, they received a boost when the official boss, Rastelli, sought Commission approval to kill Galante. Joseph Massino, a Bonanno soldier loyal to Rastelli, relayed the request to the Commission, which swiftly approved a contract on Galante. Just as Lilo finished eating lunch on an open patio at Joe & Mary's Italian-American Restaurant at 205 Knickerbocker Avenue in Bushwick, Brooklyn. He was dining with Leonard Coppola, a Bonanno capo & staunch Galante loyalist, & restaurant owner/cousin Giuseppe Turano, a Bonanno soldier. At 2:45 pm, the 3 ski-masked men entered the restaurant, walked into the patio, & opened fire with shotguns & handguns. Galante, Turano, & Coppola were killed instantly. A picture of the murdered Galante showed a cigar still in his mouth. Amato & Bonventre, who had done nothing to protect Galante, were left unharmed. The gunmen then ran out of the restaurant. Bonventre was murdered to guarantee his silence in the Galante murder.
Philip "Rusty" Rastelli succeeded Galante as the undisputed boss of the family, even though he was incarcerated at the time & Joseph Massino became underboss, although some believed Massino was the real power in the family. After Galante's death, Bonventre was promoted from soldier to capo & joined Salvatore Catalano's Brooklyn crew. At 28, Bonventre became the youngest capo in Bonanno family history. Bonventre became involved in the importation & drug trafficking of heroin from Sicily into New York pizza parlors, known as the "Pizza Connection", along with his crew of “Zips”.
Bonventre had been on the side of the 3 capos Alphonse "Sonny Red" Indelicato Philip, “Lucky” Giaccone & Dominick, “Big Trin” Trinchera, a family faction who were planning a coup to take over the family. But Bonventre switched sides, joining Rastelli's faction. If Bonventre & the Zips had stayed loyal to Indelicato, he would have probably taken over the Bonanno family. On January 13, 1987, Anthony "Bruno" or “Whack-Whack” Indelicato was sentenced to 40 years in prison, as a defendant in the Commission trial, for the Galante, Coppola, & Turano murders. The ascension of Rastelli as boss triggered a period of discontent and rivalry in the Bonanno family. As a result, Rastelli & Massino started purging their opponents in the family.
On September 20, 2006, Louis “Louie HaHa” Attanasio was sentenced to 15 years in prison as part of his plea agreement for the 1984 Bonventre murder. As of April 2014, he was serving his sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Elkton, a low security unit in Elkton, Ohio. His projected release date was January 23, 2018, but he was released on May 2, 2017. At 80 years old, he currently a free man. Between 1976 & 1981, the family was infiltrated by FBI agent Joseph Pistone, who went undercover using the alias Donnie Brasco. This resulted in the Bonannos becoming the 1st of the New York families to be expelled from the Commission. It took until the 1990s for them to recover, a process overseen by new boss Joseph Massino, after Rastelli died at Booth Memorial Hospital (now NewYork–Presbyterian Queens) in Flushing, Queens from liver cancer at age 73.
Despite the “Donnie Brosco” fiasco, by the dawn of the new millennium, the Bonanno family had not only regained their seat on the Commission, but had also become the most powerful family in New York. That is until the early 2000s, as a rash of convictions culminated in Massino himself becoming a government informant, the 1st boss of 1 of the 5 Families in New York City to do so. Massino died following a short illness at a rehabilitation facility in Glen Cove, Long Island on September 14, 2023, at the age of 80. He had been in the witness protection program, & was living in Ohio shortly before his death. The Bonanno family was seen as the most brutal of the 5 Families during the 20th century. Michael "The Nose" Mancuso, the current boss of the Bonanno crime family, was picked as the new official boss in June of 2013, while he was imprisoned. On March 12, 2019, Mancuso was released from prison, he will turn 70 on July 18th.
Mob Talk Social Club has a 7-day free trial. So, why not become part of our family a brotherhood of other mob enthusiasts in one Mob Talk Social Club community. Try it out for free! What do you have to lose?
Our Social Media
![Paul "Big Paulie" Castellano Former Boss of the Gambino Family. Constantino Paul Castellano (Italian: [kastelˈlaːno]; June 26, 1915 – December 16, 1985) was an American crime boss who succeeded Carlo Gambino as head of the Gambino crime family of New York City. Castellano ran the organization from 1976 until his murder on December 16, 1985.](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/f8932d_8b6257909993462287747a329eb2ae79~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_234,h_216,al_c,q_80,enc_avif,quality_auto/f8932d_8b6257909993462287747a329eb2ae79~mv2.jpg)
Comments