Part 7 (1/2)

”Well, how do you feel?” one reporter asked.

”Under the circ.u.mstances,” Bonanno said, cautiously, ”as well as could be expected.”

At the bottom of the steps in front of the courthouse, Bonanno waved good-bye and walked with Krieger half a block to a parking lot. There he climbed into a 1965 white Lincoln and Krieger drove away.

Ten minutes later they pulled into a lot next to a tall building at 401 Broadway, the location of Krieger's firm, and arriving in the office lobby Bonanno saw his son waiting for him. The two men moved quickly toward one another and embraced for several moments. Then other men who had been waiting also embraced the elder Bonanno. Among the men were Labruzzo, Joseph Notaro, and Notaro's cousin Peter Notaro. There were affectionate exchanges in Sicilian, tears in the eyes of Joseph Bonanno, and awkward moments of silence. Then someone suggested that they all go uptown to La Scala Resturant on Fifty-fourth Street to have a few drinks and perhaps dinner. The elder Bonanno agreed. La Scala had long been one of his favorite restaurants. But first he wanted to go to a barbershop to get his long gray hair trimmed, wanted also to have hot towels on his face and a shoes.h.i.+ne. The men knew of a barbershop on West Forty-eighth Street that was on the second floor, making it easier for them to protect against a rival gang's ”hit” man.

The men drove uptown in a three-car tandem. It was after 5:00 P.M. now, and the streets were crowded with office workers returning home; cars were b.u.mper to b.u.mper and horns were honking. Bonanno looked out with fascination at the pedestrians as he was driven slowly uptown; he noticed how fas.h.i.+on had changed during the months he was out of New York, and he told one of the bodyguards in his car that he would have to go to a tailor soon-his trousers had cuffs, and he noted that the prevailing trend was cuffless trousers. He also observed that the lapels of men's jackets were wider, and the shorter skirts that he saw some women wearing along the avenue amazed him.

As Bill sat in the car with his father, he could not help but wonder where he had been all those months, but he doubted that his father would ever discuss it with him. After all, a trial would be coming up sooner or later, although it might take years because of various delays; in any event Bill would surely be summoned to testify, and the less he knew the easier it would be. Still, Bill was intensely curious about whether his father had moved around from place to place-and how he had done it-or whether his father had remained generally in one place, and he wondered how close his father had come to getting caught, and how he had managed to avoid foolish mistakes during the interminable weeks of tension and solitude. His father now had a deep suntan, and he might well have been in North Africa or Haiti as the newspapers suggested, or even in any of a dozen other places beyond the hot sun-knowing his father, it was possible that the elder Bonanno had gotten the tan from a sunlamp as a ploy to mislead the FBI in court today.

Half of the men got out at the barbershop on Forty-eighth Street, while the others went to park the cars. As Bonanno sat in the barber's chair, a bodyguard sat waiting inside the shop and another man was posted outside the door at the top of the steps. Both men were armed.

Less than an hour later, they a.s.sembled at La Scala; they were given a large table, and drinks were quickly ordered and delivered. Most of the waiters seemed to know him and shook his hand, and other people in the restaurant recognized him from his photographs and stretched to get a look at him. He sat at the head of the table, made several toasts in Sicilian, and thanked the men for their loyalty. After a second round of drinks, there was much laughter at the description of how the FBI agent had grabbed Bonanno's hat in the detention pen and had looked without luck for labels or dry cleaner's markings that might serve as a tip-off as to where he had been. There was more laughter with the description of Morgenthau's crestfallen face on being told that Bonanno had just walked into the courthouse, and the stories continued for nearly an hour-then, suddenly, the laughter stopped. Joseph Notaro, one of Bonanno's most trusted captains, an individual who had devoted himself tirelessly to the organization throughout the chaos, sat slumped forward at the table. The men could not revive him. Notaro had just had a heart attack and was dead.

PART TWO.

THE WAR.

12.

NOTARO'S FUNERAL IN THE BRONX WAS ATTENDED BY dozens of members of the organization and also by several detectives and FBI agents who recorded the license plates of the cars and took photographs of the mourners. Joseph Bonanno swore silently as he pa.s.sed the agents on his way to the casket but he did not display his feelings openly. He was overcome with grief. His old friend, Notaro, dead at fifty-six, had been suffering from a heart ailment for years and yet his energy and loyalty remained constant throughout the ordeal following Bonanno's disappearance. On ten occasions Notaro had been summoned before the grand jury and asked questions about Bonanno and the organization, and each time Notaro was worried by government agents' hints that if he did not cooperate, his son, a young lawyer, might suffer the consequences, might possibly be disbarred from New York State; but Notaro held out against the pressure, saying nothing for which he would later be ashamed and not weakening as he continued to receive notices from the jury ordering him to reappear and to testify again. Notaro was scheduled to testify on the day following his death. dozens of members of the organization and also by several detectives and FBI agents who recorded the license plates of the cars and took photographs of the mourners. Joseph Bonanno swore silently as he pa.s.sed the agents on his way to the casket but he did not display his feelings openly. He was overcome with grief. His old friend, Notaro, dead at fifty-six, had been suffering from a heart ailment for years and yet his energy and loyalty remained constant throughout the ordeal following Bonanno's disappearance. On ten occasions Notaro had been summoned before the grand jury and asked questions about Bonanno and the organization, and each time Notaro was worried by government agents' hints that if he did not cooperate, his son, a young lawyer, might suffer the consequences, might possibly be disbarred from New York State; but Notaro held out against the pressure, saying nothing for which he would later be ashamed and not weakening as he continued to receive notices from the jury ordering him to reappear and to testify again. Notaro was scheduled to testify on the day following his death.

When the funeral ceremony was completed, Joseph Bonanno returned to his car and was driven to his son's home in East Meadow. The elder Bonanno traveled under heavy protection-armed men sat on each side of him in his car; two cars with other men drove to the front and rear along the highway; and two men also accompanied him inside his son's home, sleeping there at night and remaining on the alert there through the day. The newspapers that had given frontpage coverage to his surprise visit to Judge Frankel also reported the omnipresent threat of rival gunmen: The New York Daily News The New York Daily News's headline read BANANAS BACK, FEARED RIPE FOR KILLING. There was also speculation in the press that Bonanno had chosen to return at this time to direct a full-scale battle against the opposition, realizing, after his son's experience on Troutman Street, that there was no peaceful way in which to deal with Di Gregorio's faction or the Mafia commission led by Stefano Magaddino.

Oddly, one of Bonanno's bodyguards in his son's home was Stefano Magaddino's first cousin, Peter Magaddino, a stocky gray-haired man who was once close to the Buffalo don, but after repeated disagreements with his older cousin, whom he came to regard as overbearing, he moved to New York City and became rea.s.sociated with Joseph Bonanno. It was Peter Magaddino who had concurred in Bonanno's worst suspicions about Stefano Magaddino during 19631964-that is, Stefano's aim to control the Bonanno organization through the puppet leaders.h.i.+p of his brother-in-law, Gaspar Di Gregorio.

Peter Magaddino met Gaspar Di Gregorio many years ago in Buffalo after Di Gregorio had married Stefano's sister, and he concluded then that Di Gregorio was completely dominated by Stefano and would never be otherwise. Since Peter Magaddino had little respect for Di Gregorio and was appalled by what he considered his cousin's avariciousness, it was a simple decision in 1964 for Peter Magaddino to side with Bonanno-he admired Bonanno, whom he had grown up with and had known intimately as a young man in Castellammare del Golfo.

They were born in neighboring hillside houses, which overlooked the sea, to families that had intermarried in the past and had been allies in the feuds with the mafiosi in nearby towns. The Bonannos and Magaddinos were both large families with many branches, and for several generations they influenced the order by which people lived in that section. They subsisted from their farms, producing grain, olives, tomatoes, and other vegetables, and they raised sheep and cattle for slaughter or trade. They controlled jobs for which the government appropriated small funds, and they had influence along the pier and among the merchants, receiving tribute for their protection. They literally controlled the towns in that area as surely as had the ancient princes and viceroys before them, taxing their subjects for services rendered, services that included the arbitration of neighborly disputes, the recovery of stolen property, personal a.s.sistance in all family problems, personal redress for wrongs to one's honor or one's wife. They interceded with the judge at the trials of their countrymen and received favors from the politicians in Palermo in return for solid support in the hills. They often did things illegally, but their law was largely their own. For centuries their region's poverty and pestilence was ignored by the Sicilian government, by the parliament in Rome, by dozens of previous rulers overseas; so finally they took the law into their own hands and bent it to suit themselves, as they had seen the aristocrats do.

They believed that there was no equality under law; the law was written by conquerors. In the tumultuous history of Sicily, going back more than two thousand years, the island had been governed by Greek law, Roman law, Arab law, the laws of Goths, Normans, Angevins, Aragonese-each new fleet of conquerors brought new laws to the land, and no matter whose law it was, it seemed that it favored the rich over the poor, the powerful over the weak. While the law opposed vendettas among villagers, it allowed organized brutality and killing by government guardsmen or king's armies-wars were allowed, feuds were not-and the first to be conscripted into the king's armies were the sons of the soil. The laws regulating food, drink, dress, drugs, literature, or s.e.xual behavior were usually extensions of the life style of the n.o.bleman in power. They reflected his past, they varied if his background was prudish or permissive, if he was Christian or Moslem, if he was of an Eastern or a Western culture, if he was merciful or mad. The Germanic tyrant King Frederick II decreed that adulterous women should have their noses cut off, whereas other despots, lax and licentious, condoned concubines in court and the pursuit of other men's wives at will. The fact that the law was often inconsistent from generation to generation and was sometimes even contradictory to existing laws seemed of mild concern to the lawmakers, who were mainly interested in controlling the ma.s.ses and remaining in power.

Under such an unenlightened leaders.h.i.+p, feudalism was permitted to exist until the nineteenth century, and illiteracy prevailed in much of Sicily through the midtwentieth century, particularly in the barren mountain villages of the western region. Here in an atmosphere of neglect and isolation, families became more insular, more suspicious of strangers, held to old habits. The official government was often the enemy, the outlaw often a hero; and family clans such as the Bonannos, the Magaddinos, and numbers of other large families in neighboring seaside villages or interior towns were held in awe by their townsmen. Though certain of these leaders were vengeful and corrupt, they identified with the plight of the poor and often shared what they had stolen from the rich. Their word was nearly always good, and they did not betray a trust. Usually they went about their business quietly, walked arm in arm with the village priest through the square, or sat in the shade of cafes while lesser men stopped to greet them and perhaps seek a favor. While they bore the humble manner of other men in the town, there was nevertheless an easy confidence about them, a certain strength of character. They were more ambitious, shrewder, bolder, perhaps more cynical about life than their resigned paesani paesani, who relied largely upon G.o.d. They were often spoken of in hushed tones by other men but were never called mafiosi. They were usually referred to as the amici amici, friends, or uomini rispettati uomini rispettati, men of respect.

Since the ancestors of Joseph Bonanno and Peter Magaddino had long been part of the amici amici in Castellammare, the two men had a certain status at birth, and they were courteously treated wherever they went in the town. As a boy, Joseph Bonanno particularly liked to travel through the town on horseback, to swim near the old castle, to sometimes ride beyond the mountain through the wild pastures to his father's farm near the ancient temple of Segesta, a majestic structure with its thirty-six columns still intact though built during the cla.s.sical period of the Greeks. in Castellammare, the two men had a certain status at birth, and they were courteously treated wherever they went in the town. As a boy, Joseph Bonanno particularly liked to travel through the town on horseback, to swim near the old castle, to sometimes ride beyond the mountain through the wild pastures to his father's farm near the ancient temple of Segesta, a majestic structure with its thirty-six columns still intact though built during the cla.s.sical period of the Greeks.

He also traveled once to the city of Monreale to see the great cathedral that was constructed in the twelfth century under the Norman ruler William II, a cathedral whose interior was covered with seventy thousand square feet of exquisite mosaics and whose tremendous bronze doors were sculptured by Bonanno of Pisa. He read and reread the history of Sicily as a student, and he often wondered, on seeing such grandeur in towns of such poverty, why there had not been more citizens' revolts against the extravagance of the n.o.bility and the church. But he knew how successful the church was in convincing the people that the reward for their suffering would be found in heaven. He was also aware that those who were capable of organizing the ma.s.ses were often absorbed into the ranks of the amici; amici; and the and the amici amici were not reformers. They did not seek the overthrow of the system, which they doubted they could do even if they wanted to. They had learned to work within the system, to exploit it while it exploited the country. There was only one dramatic example in Sicilian history where the island's impoverished, embittered population was able to organize a successful national revolt against their oppressors, who in this instance were the French. The cause of the revolt occurred on Easter Monday in 1282, when a French soldier raped a Palermo maiden on her wedding day. Suddenly a band of Sicilians retaliated by butchering a French troop, and as word of this reached other Sicilians, more French soldiers were killed in town after town-a frenzied spree of xenophobia quickly spread through the island as gangs of men wildly attacked and murdered every Frenchman in sight. Thousands of Frenchmen were murdered in a few days, and it was claimed by some local historians that the Mafia was begun at this point, taking its name from the anguished cry of the girl's mother running through the streets shouting were not reformers. They did not seek the overthrow of the system, which they doubted they could do even if they wanted to. They had learned to work within the system, to exploit it while it exploited the country. There was only one dramatic example in Sicilian history where the island's impoverished, embittered population was able to organize a successful national revolt against their oppressors, who in this instance were the French. The cause of the revolt occurred on Easter Monday in 1282, when a French soldier raped a Palermo maiden on her wedding day. Suddenly a band of Sicilians retaliated by butchering a French troop, and as word of this reached other Sicilians, more French soldiers were killed in town after town-a frenzied spree of xenophobia quickly spread through the island as gangs of men wildly attacked and murdered every Frenchman in sight. Thousands of Frenchmen were murdered in a few days, and it was claimed by some local historians that the Mafia was begun at this point, taking its name from the anguished cry of the girl's mother running through the streets shouting ma fia, ma fia ma fia, ma fia, my daughter, my daughter.

This story was told to Joseph Bonanno as a boy in Castellammare by his father, who had heard it from his his father, and while certain historians consider many aspects of the incident to be highly romanticized or exaggerated, there was no doubting that the ma.s.sacre abruptly terminated French rule of the island. But the French were soon followed by other rulers like themselves, corrupt, exploiting the land and inhabitants, and giving nothing in return except to the Sicilian aristocracy, who were the most corrupt of all. For hundreds of years Castellammare was a feudal estate, part of a dowery that n.o.ble families transferred from generation to generation, and even Sicily's unification with Italy in the mid-1800s did not improve living conditions for the average citizens-most continued to live in stone hovels without water or sanitation facilities, and with so many children they were unable to afford more than two meals a day. The only escape was through immigration, and by the early 1900s more than a million Sicilians had left the land, some going to South America or Canada and many more going to the United States. father, and while certain historians consider many aspects of the incident to be highly romanticized or exaggerated, there was no doubting that the ma.s.sacre abruptly terminated French rule of the island. But the French were soon followed by other rulers like themselves, corrupt, exploiting the land and inhabitants, and giving nothing in return except to the Sicilian aristocracy, who were the most corrupt of all. For hundreds of years Castellammare was a feudal estate, part of a dowery that n.o.ble families transferred from generation to generation, and even Sicily's unification with Italy in the mid-1800s did not improve living conditions for the average citizens-most continued to live in stone hovels without water or sanitation facilities, and with so many children they were unable to afford more than two meals a day. The only escape was through immigration, and by the early 1900s more than a million Sicilians had left the land, some going to South America or Canada and many more going to the United States.

Among those to leave was Joseph Bonanno's father, Salvatore Bonanno, a lean six-footer with a handlebar moustache who was one of the few whose departure was not provoked by poverty. Salvatore Bonanno was extremely bored and restless with life in Castellammare. As a young man he had given serious thought to becoming a priest, a career pursued by many ambitious youths in quest of wealth and social prestige (one of Bonanno's granduncles had been a bishop); but before Salvatore progressed very far, he became disenchanted with the church, resentful of the great treasury it h.o.a.rded, and one day he decided to reduce that treasury a bit by stealing several jeweled chalices, gold sacramental plates, and an ornate gold candelabrum. Then he left the monastery with his booty and returned home without guilt.

Soon he was helping to run the family cattle business, which included smuggling animals from North Africa, and he also supervised a family farm and vineyard that produced figs and grapes. At the age of twenty-five, he was cheered by the birth of a son, and he might have resigned himself to life in Castellammare if he had not heard so many enticing tales about America from those immigrants who sent back word. In 1906, at the age of twenty-six, with his twenty-one-year-old wife, Catherine, and his one-year-old son Joseph, Salvatore Bonanno sailed for New York. Upon arriving he was met by numbers of Castellammarese, who took the couple to the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn where hundreds of Sicilians had settled before the turn of the century. Soon Salvatore obtained an apartment and purchased a restaurant and bar on the corner of Roebling Street and North Fifth. The amici amici had already established themselves in small numbers in Brooklyn, operating an Italian lottery, trying to control the cheap labor market that their countrymen were providing American business, and selling their ”protection” service wherever they could. But none of the had already established themselves in small numbers in Brooklyn, operating an Italian lottery, trying to control the cheap labor market that their countrymen were providing American business, and selling their ”protection” service wherever they could. But none of the amici amici tried to extort money from Salvatore Bonanno; his family's position in Sicily was well known, and the New York tried to extort money from Salvatore Bonanno; his family's position in Sicily was well known, and the New York amici amici were hopeful that Salvatore might bring whatever skills and cunning that he possessed to their Brooklyn operation. were hopeful that Salvatore might bring whatever skills and cunning that he possessed to their Brooklyn operation.

But the Sicilian and Italian gangsters were of little significance at this period in New York, and Salvatore Bonanno did not greatly concern himself with their affairs. The big gangs in New York and other eastern cities were predominantly Irish or Jewish. The same elements were powerful in Chicago, and further to the West and Southwest, the big names in crime were Anglo-Saxon, spiritual descendants of the James boys, the Barkers, and Pretty Boy Floyd. Although some amici amici were receiving kickbacks and other considerations along San Francisco's Fishermen's Wharf, where many of the fishermen were Sicilian immigrants, the only city in which Sicilian or Italian gangs had made headlines was in New Orleans in 1890, and that episode turned out horribly for the gangmen. The headlines concerned two Sicilian factions battling for control of illegal waterfront operations in New Orleans and the efforts of a vigilant police chief to expose the racketeers. After the chief had ignored bribes and the threatening advice that he not probe further, he was shot in the street one night and died shortly after. A grand jury investigation blamed the murder on a ”secret organization known as the Mafia,” and nineteen Sicilian immigrants were brought to trial as princ.i.p.als or conspirators. When the suspects were not convicted, a group of enraged citizens, including the mayor and the press, voiced their disapproval, and many people suspected that the jury had been bribed. A large group of protesters marched to the jailhouse, and many of these citizens later broke into the prison where, while the guards were occupied elsewhere, they lynched or shot to death eleven of the Sicilians. News of this traveled around the world, and the Italian government severed diplomatic relations with the United States; although relations were later restored when President Harrison apologized and authorized an indemnity of approximately $30,000, it was many years before law-abiding Sicilian and Italian immigrants felt at home in New Orleans. were receiving kickbacks and other considerations along San Francisco's Fishermen's Wharf, where many of the fishermen were Sicilian immigrants, the only city in which Sicilian or Italian gangs had made headlines was in New Orleans in 1890, and that episode turned out horribly for the gangmen. The headlines concerned two Sicilian factions battling for control of illegal waterfront operations in New Orleans and the efforts of a vigilant police chief to expose the racketeers. After the chief had ignored bribes and the threatening advice that he not probe further, he was shot in the street one night and died shortly after. A grand jury investigation blamed the murder on a ”secret organization known as the Mafia,” and nineteen Sicilian immigrants were brought to trial as princ.i.p.als or conspirators. When the suspects were not convicted, a group of enraged citizens, including the mayor and the press, voiced their disapproval, and many people suspected that the jury had been bribed. A large group of protesters marched to the jailhouse, and many of these citizens later broke into the prison where, while the guards were occupied elsewhere, they lynched or shot to death eleven of the Sicilians. News of this traveled around the world, and the Italian government severed diplomatic relations with the United States; although relations were later restored when President Harrison apologized and authorized an indemnity of approximately $30,000, it was many years before law-abiding Sicilian and Italian immigrants felt at home in New Orleans.

In New York City, however, Salvatore Bonanno remained aloof from gang activity and concentrated on learning English, traveling around the city, and operating his restaurant. When his son Joseph was old enough, he entered the first grade at the public school on Roebling Street. A year later, in 1911, Salvatore Bonanno was summoned home by his brothers in Castellammare. A dispute had erupted among various gangs in western Sicily, and while the Magaddino and Bonanno factions were still united, other large local families, such as the Buccellatos, were not and were suspected of conspiring with outside amici amici to take over control of the piers and other operations in Castellammare. Salvatore's land and cattle interests were threatened, he was told; so as soon as he and his wife could pack and board a steamer, they began the voyage back to Sicily. Joseph Bonanno was six years old and was speaking Sicilian with a Brooklyn accent. to take over control of the piers and other operations in Castellammare. Salvatore's land and cattle interests were threatened, he was told; so as soon as he and his wife could pack and board a steamer, they began the voyage back to Sicily. Joseph Bonanno was six years old and was speaking Sicilian with a Brooklyn accent.

By the time the family arrived in Castellammare, the threat of a widespread battle and series of vendettas had simmered down, and it was soon obvious to Salvatore that his trip home was something of a false alarm. He was initially angry with his brothers but decided to postpone his return to America for a while until he was absolutely certain that the disputes and misunderstandings were settled to everyone's satisfaction.

There was obviously great unrest throughout the island, particularly in the western region, and Salvatore Bonanno was more aware than ever of the divisiveness of the people. Sicily seemed to be an island of many islands, a mixture of individualists united only in their poverty, and their lives were so very different from those immigrants who had settled in Brooklyn and elsewhere in America. Salvatore noticed that no man in western Sicily ventured along the open road beyond the town without a shotgun in his saddle or a pistol in his pocket, which had not been the case in New York, although it might have been in the cowboy country of western America. Salvatore became increasingly aware, too, of the hostility of western Sicilians toward eastern Sicilians, especially since the western capital of Palermo had been overtaken in overseas trade by the eastern port of Catania, resulting in dwindling profits for the amici amici and everyone else who had linked their fortunes to Palermo. and everyone else who had linked their fortunes to Palermo.

The plight of western Sicily continued to be ignored by the Italian government in Rome, except in instances that were embarra.s.sing to Sicilians-such as the impeachment from the Senate of a popular representative from Trapani, capital of the western province of which Castellammare was a part, because he was charged with padding munic.i.p.al payrolls, installing his friends and the amici amici in political jobs, misappropriating certain funds for personal use or patronage, doing things that Sicilians believed all politicians did, including those in Rome. When the Italian government would not drop its charges against the Trapani representative, there were protests throughout Sicily, especially in the western region; the Italian king's picture was publicly burned, a local street was named in honor of the defamed politician, and a French flag was flown in the town square, suggesting that the Roman bureaucrats were no less hypocritical or despicable than the French had been centuries ago, and a few Sicilian citizens advocated a b.l.o.o.d.y revolt similar to the one that had occurred in 1282. in political jobs, misappropriating certain funds for personal use or patronage, doing things that Sicilians believed all politicians did, including those in Rome. When the Italian government would not drop its charges against the Trapani representative, there were protests throughout Sicily, especially in the western region; the Italian king's picture was publicly burned, a local street was named in honor of the defamed politician, and a French flag was flown in the town square, suggesting that the Roman bureaucrats were no less hypocritical or despicable than the French had been centuries ago, and a few Sicilian citizens advocated a b.l.o.o.d.y revolt similar to the one that had occurred in 1282.

The Italian government was not surprised by this response since many of its members.h.i.+p had long felt that Sicilians were incorrigible, impossible to understand, and perhaps even criminal by nature. The Italian criminologist Cesare Lombroso came close to suggesting this in pointing out that while eastern Sicilians had been greatly influenced by Greek colonization, the western Sicilians had been more influenced by the Arabs, many of whom in the thirteenth century were driven into the hills behind Palermo and were forced to survive through their cunning and deception. Other Italian theorists suggested that western Sicilians living in or near Palermo were generally lazy and unambitious because they had been ruled for hundreds of years by the lax administration of the medieval Spanish. And there were other explanations, too, that were equally unflattering to western Sicilians.

Salvatore Bonanno resented the aspersions cast upon his region, particularly since he had seen for himself in America how hard western Sicilians were willing to work if given a chance. Not only did they work hard but they earned extra money to send back to their relatives in Sicily, and this financial bonus was a boon to the sagging Sicilian economy. Another benefit provided by their immigration was in making more jobs available to those who remained at home, and Sicilian landowners were often heard to complain of their inability to find sufficient numbers of farm workers.

But Salvatore Bonanno saw no change with regard to violence in Sicily-hardly a day pa.s.sed without a few people being shot in the streets because of one vendetta or another, and there was endless cattle stealing and kidnaping for ransom. Among the many murders during the early 1900s in Sicily was the fatal shooting of an American detective who had come to the island to learn what he could about the Mafia. His name was Petrosino. He was born in Italy and had immigrated at thirteen to the United States. Eventually he became a member of the New York City Police Department and then was selected to work with the Italian Squad, a secret unit established in 1904 to help curb the extortion racket that was growing in New York and was believed to be run by the Mafia, or, as it was also called, the Black Hand or the Unione Siciliane. Petrosino thought that he would be better equipped to fight the Mafia in America if he learned more about its origins in Sicily, and gradually he convinced his superiors to send him. He traveled there under an a.s.sumed name, and his mission was confidential, but as he strolled through a piazza in Palermo on the day of his arrival, he was approached from behind and was shot four times in the head and back. Petrosino fell dead in the street. His killer or killers disappeared into the crowds in the square and escaped.

Salvatore Bonanno's presence had a restraining effect on the mafiosi of Castellammare and neighboring towns and villages in the province of Trapani. Since he had been in America during the five years in which there had been much dissension among the gang leaders, much infiltration of traditional boundaries, and unauthorized brigandage, he was able to avoid taking sides with one faction or another; as a result, he could arbitrate disputes with apparent objectivity. Though he was young, he commanded respect from his elders; and though he was soft-spoken, he could be vengeful if necessary, and more than one corpse was found along the narrow hilly roads of Castellammare after his judgments and warnings had been ignored. Tall and formal of manner, he was a conspicuous figure wherever he went, and the people of the town were beginning to extend to him the deference that custom required.