Brooklier, Dominic (1914-1984)

Born 1914.

Died Tucson, AZ, July 18, 1984.

Brooklier, also known by the names Dominick Bruccoleri and Jimmy Regace, became a member of the Dragna Mafia Family in southern California in the mid-1940s. It appears that he rose to command the crime family, though much of his term as boss was spent under the withering scrutiny of law enforcement.

Early in his underworld career, he was responsible for at least one failed attempt on the life of Dragna rival Mickey Cohen.

Upon the death of Nick Licata in 1974, Brucceleri rose to lead the L.A. Mob. It appears that he became wise to the betrayal of informant Frank Bompensiero, leader of the Sicilian underworld in San Diego, and ordered Bompensiero executed. The order was not carried out until several years later.

Brucceleri spent much of his term as Family boss in prison. He was convicted of various crimes, including armed robbery, larceny and interstate transportation of forged documents. In 1975, he was jailed for extorting money from gamblers and dealers of pornography.

Late in 1980, he and codefendants Samuel Orlando Sciortino and Louis Tom Dragna were acquitted of the 1977 Bompensiero murder. However, they were convicted of racketeering, extortion and conspiracy charges. Also convicted in the same case were Jack LoCicero and Michael Rizzitello.
Brooklier was sentenced to four years in federal prison. He remained free as he pursued legal appeals.

He began his prison term on Aug. 27, 1983. Though originally ordered to serve his sentence in Minnesota, his southern California family convinced the court to order his transfer to Arizona for health reasons.

Brooklier died in the Federal Metropolitan Correctional Center in Tucson, AZ, on July 18, 1984.

Related Links:

•  Crime boss listing - Mafiahistory.us

Bonventre, Vito (1875-1930)

Born Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, 1875.

Killed Brooklyn, NY, July 15, 1930.

Born in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, in 1875, this second cousin of Joseph Bonanno crossed the Atlantic with a number of other relatives in 1906. He became a successful bootlegger in Brooklyn and a powerful member of Nicola Schiro's crime family. He possibly served briefly as a successor to Schiro atop that organization.

For many years, the Bonanno-Bonventre-Magaddino clan in Castellammare battled their rivals, the Buccellato Family. In the 1910s and early 1920s, that bloody rivalry reached American shores. Vito Bonventre appears to have played a major role in the elimination of Buccellatos in the U.S., and he was briefly a suspect in the New Jersey murder of Magaddino enemy Camillo Caiozzo in 1921 (the Good Killers case.)

According to Bonanno, Bonventre became the second wealthiest member of Cola Schiro's Brooklyn Family in the late 1920s (with Schiro being the wealthiest).

As the organization of boss of bosses Joe Masseria moved to put down an uprising of Castellammarese Mafiosi in Brooklyn, Bonventre was targeted. He was murdered outside his home garage on July 15, 1930. His murder and that of Detroit Castellammarese leader Gaspar Milazzo a month earlier are often considered the opening salvo of the Castellammarese War.

Related Links:

•  Article: The Good Killers by Thomas Hunt and Michael A. Tona - Mafiahistory.us

Bonanno, Salvatore "Bill" (1932-2008)

Born Brooklyn, NY, Nov. 5, 1932

Died Tucson, AZ, Jan. 1, 2008.

Salvatore "Bill" Bonanno is the son of Joe Bonanno and the author of "Bound by Honor" and other books about the underworld.

Born in Brooklyn and educated at the University of Arizona, Salvatore served in various leadership positions within the Bonanno organization and was groomed by his father to take over the Family. The relationship between the two men is the subject of Gay Talese's largely unreliable journalistic endeavor, "Honor Thy Father."

Much of the Family membership and all of the Mafia Commission objected to Salvatore succeeding his father, leading to a civil war in the Family in the late 1960s. A faction of the Family led by Commission-favored Gaspar DiGregorio allegedly ambushed the younger Bonanno and his supporters at a supposed nighttime peace conference on Troutman Street in Brooklyn.

DiGregorio's men opened up with rifles and shotguns. Bonanno's side returned fire. It was said that the two sides fired 100 rounds at each other.

The incident - the most exciting of Bill Bonanno's underworld career - was either a complete fabrication or grossly exaggerated. There was no report of a single injury occurring at Troutman Street.

Salvatore Bonanno was imprisoned several times, beginning with a contempt conviction in 1968. He served four years in the Terminal Island prison near Los Angeles after being convicted of using a stolen credit card.