Dominick Napolitano
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Dominick Napolitano | |
|---|---|
| File:DonnieBrascoAndSonnyBlack.jpg Napolitano (right) and Donnie Brasco | |
| Born | June 16, 1930 |
| Died | August 17, 1981 (aged 51) |
Dominick "Sonny Black" Napolitano (born June 16, 1930 in Greenpoint, Brooklyn – died August 17, 1981 Flatlands, Brooklyn) was a caporegime in the Bonanno crime family. He is well known for allowing FBI agent Joseph "Donnie Brasco" Pistone to become an associate in his crew and nearly getting him made.
Biography
Napolitano's parents were immigrants from Naples, Italy. Napolitano was born with blond hair, but by his forties it had turned a gunmetal white-silver color. To hide the color, he dyed it black. Earning him the nickname "Sonny Black". He was a close friend of future Bonanno crime family boss Joseph Massino, and incarcerated boss Phillip Rastelli, who knew Napolitano before he went to prison. He was close to Carmine Napolitano (May 30, 1943 - February 15, 1999), a cousin and fellow Bonanno mobster.
Sons Peter Napolitano (November 17, 1957-June 29, 1994), Aniello Napolitano and Rocco Napolitano were born and raised in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Napolitano was a womanizer who cheated with his long-time mistress, Judith Fields. It is unknown who Napolitano was married to at the time of his murder. It has been widely reported that Napolitano has a son with Judith Fields named Anthoni Meuir, who has proven to be elusive when an attempt was made to contact him regarding his relationship with Napolitano.
Napolitano was a sturdy 5'7" man who weighed about 170 pounds with powerfully developed chest and arms. On his right forearm was a tattoo of a black panther. He was swarthy, with hair dyed jet black. His face was fleshy with rings under his brown eyes that made him look, depending on the mood, either tired or menacing. He was not a heavy drinker and only indulged at times with fine French liquor. He had dead straight hair, a square jaw and a Roman nose. Napolitano controlled Greenpoint, Brooklyn and from 1979 to 1980 he operated in Pasco County, Florida out of Holiday, Florida after negotiating control of the territory with Santo Trafficante Jr.. At that time, Napolitano set his sights on operating a major bookmaking operation in Orlando.
Napolitano was an avid racing pigeon and homing pigeon enthusiast. He kept his collection of birds on the roof of his apartment and social club The Motion Lounge. The brilliantly colored pigeons had pedigree bloodlines that descended from prize pigeons in France, Germany and Russia. Napolitano would win as much as $3000 racing his pigeons. Pistone said that Napolitano loved going to his pigeon coop to think. He wrote, "Sometimes when we were up on the roof with the pigeons, Sonny would lean on the railing and look out over the rooftops of the neighbourhood where he had lived all his life. I wondered what he was thinking about."
Napolitano would say to Pistone, "The whole thing is how strong you are and how much power you got and how fucking mean you are - that's what makes you rise in the mob. Every day is a fucking struggle, because you dont know who's looking to knock you off, especially when you become a captain or boss. Every day somebody's looking to dispose of you and take your position. You always got to be on your toes. Every fucking day is a scam day to keep your power and position." Napolitano would repeat this theme over and over again to Pistone in conversations up on the roof with his pigeons.
Caporegime
Napolitano rose to prominence in 1973 as a soldier for Michael Sabella and was promoted to capo, replacing his mentor after the gangland execution of the powerful rival capo Carmine "The Cigar" Galante. Sabella was demoted and Napolitano took over the crew. He became a trusted confidante of the imprisoned mobster Phillip Rastelli who took over leadership permanently again. But when Rastelli took over, it caused the Bonannos to split into two factions, one loyal to Rastelli, the other attempting to overthrow him in favor of the Sicilian-faction, led by Alphonse "Sonny Red" Indelicato.
Napolitano and Joseph Massino, who were loyal to Rastelli, were chiefly responsible for helping to end the struggle by killing three capos opposed to Rastelli; Alphonse Indelicato, Dominick Trinchera and Philip Giaccone. Napolitano owned the Wither's Italian-American War Veterans Club at 415 Graham Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and also The Motion Lounge at 420 Graham Street. He later ran an illegal casino in Pasco County, Florida and owned a tennis club and night club called The King's Court Bottle Club in Holiday, Florida.
When in Holiday, Florida, Napolitano took up the sport of tennis with Joseph Pistone and was a doubles partner of Bonanno mobster John Cersani. Although he was a lousy tennis player, he enjoyed playing at King's Court. Pistone would later say, "On the court he would run around and yell, 'I'm going to kill you' between strokes". Napolitano would arm wrestle Pistone, but always lost. Napolitano, who was a weight lifter, constantly challenged Pistone, who was the only guy that Napolitano couldn't beat.
Napolitano's headquarters were in the heart of Williamsburg's Italian neighborhood. His crew, involved in burglary, extortion, robbery, bank robbery, loansharking, hijacking, bookmaking, casino operations and drug trafficking, were one of the most successful crews in the Bonanno family. Napolitano's crew included Bonanno street soldiers Benjamin "Lefty" Ruggiero, Nicholas Santora, Louis Attanasio, John Cersani, Jerome Asaro, Sandro Asaro, John Faraci, Daniel Mangelli, Robert Lino, Frank Lino, Richard Riccardi, Joseph Grimaldi, Nicholas Accardi, Peter Rosa, Patrick DeFillipo, Michael Mancuso, Vito Grimaldi, Anthony Urso, James Tartaglione, Joseph Cammarano, John Zancocchio, Edward Barberra, Frankie Fish, Bobby Badheart, Bobby Smash and his previous capo Michael Sabella, Joseph Puma, Steven Maruca, Salvatore Farrugia, Anthony Pesiri, Antonio Tomasulo, Anthony Rabito, Raymond Wean, Frank DiStefano, Salvatore D'Ottavio, James Episcopa and Donnie Brasco.
Reputation
Napolitano was unusually tough and savvy, even for a mafia capo. Although he was a stone-cold gangster, he ran his crew in a laid back style. Pistone would say, "Dominick was more observant and disciplined than his old capo Michael Sabella and had a watchful eye... In mob circles he had an excellent reputation for personal loyalty to his sidewalk soldiers.... He would kill you in a minute if you crossed him." Napolitano was a fine marksman with small caliber-pistols which made him an efficient killer.
In restaurants or in public, he was a gentleman and never flamboyant or brazen. He always carried his own suitcases when travelling, which was not traditionally done by other capos. Pistone said that Napolitano was not a 24-hour gangster, meaning that you could talk to him about other things besides the mafia. Unlike other mobsters who only wanted to talk about illegal activities and mafia business. When working, Napolitano was respected and feared, but when hanging out with Pistone, they would go out to dinner, have coffee and just "shoot the breeze" like two friends.
Operation Donnie Brasco
When Joseph Pistone infiltrated the mafia, he became attached to the crew that Napolitano ran and the two developed a close relationship. Pistone was one of the few people that Napolitano trusted and relied upon. Pistone even spent nights sleeping over at Napolitano's apartment. He regarded Pistone so highly that he planned to nominate him to be "made" (inducted into the mafia), and began to use the formal introduction "a friend of ours" (a code meaning a made man) when introducing Pistone to other mafiosi. By becoming Napolitano's right hand man, Pistone gained respect in the Bonanno family.
Pistone's undercover operation ended after six years, when Napolitano ordered Pistone to murder another mobster, originally Phillip Giaccone while he was in Miami, Florida. Later, after the decision was made to murder Giaconne at the same time as Indelicato and Trinchera, Pistone was given the task of murdering Indelicato's son, Bruno. Two days later, FBI agents came to The Motion Lounge to inform him that his associate of six years was an agent. . [1]
Death
Shortly thereafter, the order came down to kill Napolitano for allowing such a breach in mafia security. Rather than turn state's evidence and enter the witness protection program, Napolitano accepted his fate. Shortly before his death, Napolitano told his girlfriend Judy that he bore no ill will towards Pistone, knowing that Pistone was only doing his job, and that if anyone was responsible for taking him down, he was glad that it was Pistone.
On August 17, 1981, he was asked to come to a meeting in the basement of Bonanno associate Ron Filocomo's home in Flatlands, Brooklyn. Knowing he would be killed, Napolitano gave his jewelry to his favorite bartender who worked below his apartment at The Motion Lounge, along with the keys to his apartment, so that his pet pigeons could be cared for. He was shot to death in Filocomo's basement by Filocomo and Bonanno captain Frank Lino using .38 revolvers. In August, FBI surveillance agents noticed workmen dismantling Napolitano's pigeon coops atop the Motion Lounge.
On August 12, 1982, a body was found at South Avenue and Bridge Street in Arlington, Staten Island, New York; the corpse's hands were severed and the face was so badly decomposed that dental records were required to verify the identity. The FBI announced that it had found the corpse of Dominick Napolitano. However, in 2000, the FBI publicly revealed that it had long doubted whether the corpse was correctly identified.
Napolitano's killer Frank Lino, had turned state's evidence, providing authorities with the details of his murder. [2] Although the FBI were reasonably sure that the body found in Staten Island was Napolitano, one discrepancy existed: while Lino claimed that he and Filocomo shot Napolitano with .38 caliber revolvers, and that he himself fired more than once, the corpse only had one bullet wound, which was apparently made by a .45 caliber pistol. Dominick "Sonny Black" Napolitano was buried in Calvary Cemetery, Queens.
In 2003, Bonanno boss Joseph Massino was arrested and charged with a variety of crimes, with the case centering around the murder of Napolitano. At Massino's trial, prosecutors claimed that Napolitano was killed by his associates for allowing his crew to become compromised, and that his hands had been removed as a warning to other mobsters to follow the rule about proper introductions (the association of shaking hands with being introduced to someone). Massino was convicted in 2004.
Popular culture
The 1997 film Donnie Brasco features "Sonny Black", played by Michael Madsen. For dramatic purposes, many of Sonny Black's character traits, and most of his relationship with Pistone, was combined with other real-life Bonanno mobsters Anthony Mirra and Benjamin Ruggiero, who in the film is played by Al Pacino.
A notable parallel is towards the end of the film when Ruggiero is summoned to what he knows will be his execution for allowing Pistone into the mafia (in reality, Ruggiero was arrested by the FBI). He leaves his personal effects in a drawer for his wife, echoing Napolitano's final actions shortly before he was murdered. Ruggiero's sentiments of how if it was going to be anyone that sunk him, he was glad it was Pistone; is a direct paraphrase of the real Sonny Black's last words.
References
- ^ "Up on the Roof". King of the Godfathers. p. 106.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters:|origdate=,|origmonth=, and|coauthors=(help) - ^ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article435582.ece
- Crittle, Simon, The Last Godfather: The Rise and Fall of Joey Massino Berkley (March 7, 2006) ISBN 0425209393
- DeStefano, Anthony. The Last Godfather: Joey Massino & the Fall of the Bonanno Crime Family. California: Citadel, 2006.
- Morton, James, East End Gangland & Gangland International Omnibus Chapter: "Florida"
- Pistone, Joseph, Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia. Random House Value Publishing (February 1990) ISBN 5552531299
- Pistone, Joseph D.; & Brandt, Charles (2007). Donnie Brasco: Unfinished Business, Running Press. ISBN 0-7624-2707-8.