Sal the Zip is sleeping with the fishes.

Yesterday they fished Salvatore Montagna, aka Sal the Iron Worker, out of the L'Assomption River north of Montreal. Sal was the acting head of the Bonanno Familia, one of the five legendary New York families in The Commission. At one time he had over 130 made guys under his wing.

The Bonanno's were forced to leave the five family syndicate when they were found to be dealing heroin in the 1960's.

The married father of three was deported to his native Canada from the United States in 2009 because of a conviction for refusing to testify before a grand jury on illegal gambling. Soon after his arrival in Canada, members of the local Rizzuto crime family started showing up very dead.

The Bonanno family is an interesting read. In the seventies acting boss Carmine Galante was murdered on the  orders of the imprisoned Phil Rastelli. Joe Bonanno was always in hot water for spending too much time in Tucson. Donnie Brasco infiltrated the organization. Then in 2004, acting boss Joe Massino turned rat. It ain't easy.

According to wikipedia, "the Bonanno crime family can be traced back to the early 1880s in the town of Castellammare del Golfo located in the Province of Trapani, Sicily. During the 1900s, top members of the Bonanno, Bonventre, and Magaddino Mafia families relocated to New York, forming the Castellammarese clan due to their rivalry with Felice Buccellato, the boss of the Buccellato Mafia clan.The newly arriving Bonanno, Bonventre and Magaddino Mafia members began establishing dominance and control in the Castellammarese community of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. While operating in Brooklyn, the Castellammarese leaders were able to preserve the criminal organization's future."



Bonanno was awarded most of his late boss Sal Maranzano's crime family after pal was killed by jewish gangsters. He was one of the charter members of the Commission, along with Luciano family Boss Charles "Lucky" Luciano who served as head of the Commission, Mangano family Boss Vincent Mangano, Gagliano family Boss Tommy Gagliano, Profaci family Boss Joseph Profaci and Chicago Outfit Boss Al "Scarface" Capone At only 26 years old, he was the youngest boss of a crime family He directed the family into popular organized crime dealings, involving gambling, loansharking, and narcotics. The family also had significant interests in California and Arizona. With the support of his cousin, Buffalo crime family boss Stefano Magaddino, he also expanded into Canada. Bonanno was more steeped in the Old World Mafia traditions of "honor," "tradition," "respect," and "dignity" than other mafiosi of his generation, and was widely reckoned as the most traditional boss in New York.  His family was considered the closest knit of the Five Families due to the fact that it was made up mostly of Castelammarese. He strongly believed that blood relations and a strict Sicilian upbringing would be the only way to hold the traditional values of the Mafia together. Bonanno's power was due to his close relationship with fellow boss Joe Profaci. The relationship between the two bosses became stronger when Bonanno's son Salvatore "Bill" Bonanno married Profaci's niece Rosalie in 1956.If any members of the other three families exercised thoughts of muscling in on Bonanno enterprises, the close ties to the Profaci family made them think twice. With the death of Joe Profaci in 1962 an alliance of Tommy Lucchese and Carlo Gambino threatened to undermine Bonanno's position.


In the early 1960s many of the Bonanno family members were complaining that boss Joe Bonanno spent too much time at his second home in Tucson, Arizona. This led to a civil war in the family, widely referred to in the media as the "Banana Split" or "Banana War". The war was triggered in 1963 when Bonanno conspired with Joe Magliocco, Profaci's successor as boss of the Profaci family, to wipe out several other mob leaders, including Magaddino, Carlo Gambino, Tommy Lucchese and Frank DeSimone. Magliocco was given the task of wiping out Gambino and Lucchese, and gave the contract to one of his top hit men, Joe Colombo. However, Colombo instead alerted Gambino and Lucchese. The other bosses quickly realized that Magliocco could not possibly have planned this by himself. Remembering how close Magliocco was to Bonanno (and before him, Profaci), they realized that Bonanno was the real mastermind. The commission summoned Magliocco and Bonanno, intending to go easy on them, with nothing more than a fine and loss of their family. However, only Magliocco showed up. He admitted his role in the plot and was forced to give up his family to Colombo. After months of no word from Bonanno, the commission named Bonanno capo Gaspar DiGregorio as the new boss.



Bonanno still claimed to be the rightful boss. Magaddino, acting on behalf of the commission, sent two of his soldiers to kidnap Bonanno and take him to a rural area in Upstate New York. He was finally released after a month, with the commission hoping he'd fade quietly into the background. Instead, he rallied a large part of the family to his side. The family split into two factions, the DiGregorio supporters and the Bonanno loyalists. The Bonanno loyalists were led by Bonanno, his brother-in-law Frank Labruzzo and Bonanno's son Bill.


There had been no violence from either side until a 1966 Brooklyn sit-down. DiGregorio's men arrived at the meeting, and when Bill Bonanno arrived a large gun battle ensued. The DiGregorio loyalists had planned to wipe out the opposition, but they failed, and no one was killed Further peace offers from both sides were spurned with the ongoing violence and murders. The Commission grew tired of the affair and replaced DiGregorio with Paul Sciacca, but the fighting carried on regardless.


The war was finally brought to a close with Joe Bonanno, still in hiding, suffering a heart attack and announcing his permanent retirement in 1968 (he went on to live to the age of 97, dying in Tucson, Arizona in 2002) Both factions came together under Sciacca's leadership. His replacement was Natale "Joe Diamonds" Evola as boss of the Bonanno family. Evola's leadership was short lived - his death (from natural causes) in 1973 brought Phillip "Rusty" Rastelli to the throne.

The family loses its seat, Galante becomes a renegade, Rastelli tries to take charge. Galante gets wacked. A bunch more guys get wacked. Rastelli dies in prison, Sal the Iron Worker takes his seat. Now he's gone too. Tough business.