A Man of Honor: The Autobiography of Joseph Bonanno

I've read a fair number of books on the Mothers And Fathers Italian Association including  Honor Thy Father  by Gay Talese, and  Bound by Honor: A Mafioso's Story  by Bill Bonanno, but this is the first book of its type that's actually imparted a kind of logic to Mafioso thinking.Joseph (Peppino) Bonanno was a Godfather of the Old School, and he may actually have BEEN the Godfather that Mario Puzo based his Godfather on in  The Godfather .In these pages, the college-educated, literate and thoughtful Bonanno comes across as a man of erudition, a man who consciously CHOSE to uphold the traditions of the Sicilian Vespers, traditions of Family and Honor, Loyalty and Silence. It's ironic that he chooses to speak in these pages, but having read him, this reviewer could understand him (somewhat); at least his belief system is not so utterly alien to this reader.Is A MAN OF HONOR candid? Yes and no. Bonanno certainly evades some subjects, particularly those that could get him indicted by the law or killed by his rivals. He'd be a fool to speak on those, and this man is no fool, and certainly not Joe Valachi, in any case. This is not a confessional book. Leaving aside his choice to stay silent on certain subject matter, Bonanno does explain things as he sees them.Sicily has been conquered and occupied by virtually everyone else who ever had a maritime interest in the Mediterranean (that IS everyone else). As a result, there are brunette Sicilians, blond Sicilians, redheaded Sicilians, white Sicilians, black Sicilians, and every shade in-between Sicilians. There are Sicilian hill-folk, Sicilian plainsmen, Sicilian townsmen, Sicilian country-dwellers. There are Sicilian farmers, Sicilian fishermen, Sicilian cattlemen, Sicilian sheep ranchers, Sicilian fruit farmers and Sicilian grain merchants. Each group often spoke its own dialect. This smallish island is a palimpsest of peoples moving through history.Since Sicily was so often subjugated, the locals learned not to trust the occupiers who most often exploited or abused them. Even the eventual Italian government in Rome was alien to the island and tried to force its ways upon the islanders.This made Sicilians dour and closemouted (except amongst friends), hotheaded and prone to violence (most often between strangers). (f)amily was the basis of everything. The numerosity of Sicilian children meant that families intermarried widely with other families, and these interlinked families became clans. Internecine generational warfare between clans (a la the Hatfields and the McCoys) was not uncommon. Neither were cross-generational alliances. As close friendships formed and friends became accepted members of these clans, they slowly transmogrified into the (F)amilies we understand today. These Families were, in their inception, actual families.According to Bonanno, the admittedly legendary beginnings of the Mafia date back to the 1300s, when local Sicilians took up cudgels against a French occupier who had raped a village girl; her distraught mother ran through the streets shouting, "Ma fia! Ma fia!, My daughter! My daughter!""Ma fia!" soon became a Sicilian acronym, MAFIA, for what translates roughly as "Down With France, Up With Italy!" Even Bonanno doesn't quite buy this story, and he says so; he's almost certainly correct, for no other reason than that "Italia" didn't exist as such until the late Nineteenth Century.The Mafia functioned as a shadow government in which "connections" meant everything, and, given the vagaries of human nature, ability rather less. The shadow government could supply employment, bribe officialdom, and mete out justice (rough and otherwise) to the population. It worked in Sicily, paternalistically, and often at a high cost in blood and treasure, but it did work in place of the often brutal rulership; when the Sicilians came to America, the Mafia came with them.Bonanno revers the Traditions of his ancestors, and in more than one place decries their erosion in America. He's both right and wrong. In a pure democracy, the Mafia would become as useful as an inflamed appendix, but in a less-than-pure democracy it had a place. And so it did. In a sense, it functioned similarly to the homegrown landsmenschaften of the Jews or the Benevolent Associations of the Irish, but having been an outlaw group from its beginnings it remained an outlaw group.It is important to realize that most Italian immigrants shied away from the Mafia and created democratic law-abiding support organizations like their non-Italian neighbors did. Still, a hard core of Family-oriented people remained and still remain.The Italian immigrant influx of the late 19th and early 20th centuries was spurred by the rise of Fascism, and the newly-arrived Family-oriented immigrants (like Bonanno) found a niche in the illegal but widely tolerated practice of bootlegging. Having subverted Prohibition, the Families moved into other illegal enterprises like loan sharking and extortion. At the same time, they continued their old warfare. The Castellammarese War of the 1930s was brutal and caused tremendous attrition, but it did lead to the organization of the Families in the way most Americans are familiar with them today, structured to ensure peace (mostly) amongst themselves.Even as the Families organized and grew and gained influence in America they began to die, says Bonanno. In retrospect, the Castellammarese War was a first death knell, as due to attrition by death, "men not of our Tradition," non-Sicilian Italians (like Joe Valachi, a Neapolitan, Bonanno points out with a sniff), and others (Jewish mobsters like Meyer Lansky) were permitted to serve the Families (they were never to be considered as full Family members, but they soon outnumbered the Sicilians themselves). The openness of American society broke down the centuries-old omerta. Children married non-Sicilians. Papas lost their life and death veto power. The concept of Mob "Bosses" replaced that of Family "Fathers," with a corresponding decline in unanimity. Pure greed and moneymaking replaced the wielding of influence and the wages of respect as primary motivations for the Families. Lucky Luciano (or "Charlie Lucky" as Bonanno calls him) became the prototype for this new American Mafioso. Competition-based killings between and even within Families gutted them out. Even the children most inculcated into the Tradition failed to grasp it fully (visit my review of  Bound by Honor: A Mafioso's Story ) for my take on this point.It's when speaking of the Tradition and of its rise and fall that Bonanno speaks most clearly. Sometimes, he's downright funny, as when he describes his attempts to win over his explosive would-be father-in-law. Other times, he's much less endearing, as when he admits his glee at an enemy's death.He's also got the world's best poker face. He describes the Family as a self-contained mutual support society of doctors, lawyers, small businessmen, laborers, tradesmen and their wives and children, essentially harmless. Illicit activities like bookmaking are waved off with, "That's not considered a crime in our world." He claims to have banned traffic in women and in narcotics from his Family, but "If a man wanted to go into business with someone outside of our world that was his decision," a statement which covers a multitude of literal sins. He claims never to have taken graft (probably true; why would HE need to be paid off?). He claims never to have accepted a penny for his role as Father to the Family, "but if people wanted to show their respect with a gift of money, how could I disrespect their good intentions?" and he admits to receiving free services and products as a sign of respect. The fact that this respect often contained a good-sized dollop of fear doesn't seem to occur to him, or at least he never admits it. He plays up his legal business connections, all the while saying that he accepted stock or an officership in these various companies because the owners "wanted" him for a partner. In what might be laughable, he describes strong-arm men as "the lowest of the low of our world." He never denies using their services, though. All in all, I'm sure I would have liked the man, but I wouldn't have trusted him as far as he could throw me.Joseph Bonanno was a career criminal. Yes, he undercut the larger society with vice and drugs; and no, he does not apologize. In his non-apology I grasped a simple kernel of truth, and that is that a crime is only a crime if it is recognized as a crime. A hit man can sleep at night only because, as a Family "soldier" he does what soldiers have always done---killed their enemies in war. The Family-endorsed gratuitous violence that goes along with this is meant as a warning to others of the same Tradition.Let me hasten to add that I am not excusing murder and mayhem, but saying that murder and mayhem exist only in the absence of sanction. It is when two different social groups like gangsters and lawmen collide, or if a soldier exceeds his sanction, or if a person acts on his own to kill without sanction, that the question of the validity of sanction arises. The armed soldiery of any nation is not generally classed as a group of murderers, but remove sanction and recognition of sanction by one's self and others, and we are left with our Lieutenant Calleys and Reinhardt Heydrichs, our Charles Whitmans, our Osama bin Ladens, and our Mafia contract killers. Perhaps that's why assassination is often referred to as "sanction."Rationalize that gambling, liquor, and women and drugs are "what the people want," and the criminal aspect of vice becomes just a behavioral control mechanism of an authority to be disregarded. We accept only the sanctions we are prepared to accept. We ignore the sanction we are programmed to ignore. Ignore it, just as it was ignored by Joseph Bonanno, literate and intelligent though he obviously was.In a world comprised of men like himself, Bonanno was no criminal; but by living in 20th Century America, he was perforce subject to its values, not just his own. That's this Man of Honor's blind spot.Yes, it was "cosa nostra" it was "Our Thing" for Men of Tradition like Bonanno, but regardless, even understanding it, it does not make it, in practice, one whit less ugly than it really was.

Well written, and in the introduction the author states this is not a book about any no-account Sicilian or blood and mayhem, so if this is what you want buy another book. The autobiography leans heavily towards why, according to Sicilian norms he is an honorable man. It continuously focuses on this credo and how it justifies the actions taken within his "family" and towards other " families " " families ".

First me you have to see both side a story and the book helped to get him caught.

The media could not be loaded.  What a powerful story. I spoke with Daniel a few years ago. He had the most impressive Maria family in history. Hopefully I'll meet him in person and keep my promise to cook for him and his family. I really miss speaking with him. I wish him and his family well.

I'm not going to get into a big long thing here. Two things you should know: Joe Bonanno is a liar and a coward. Read the book, it doesn't take long to figure this out. And two, this might be the closest and therefore most disturbing look into the psyche of a mafioso in publication right now. When I say disturbing, I don't mean gory or violent. For a "mafia" book, there is very little of that to be found which is obviously intentional. What I find most disturbing is that, even without violence or gore, it doesn't take long for you to hate Joe Bonanno as you see just how little honor this man possesses. The way he is able to rationalize his cowardice, the way Bonanno is able to make his lack of a spine or integrity seem like a principled set of values is nothing short of abhorrent. That's what makes this such a fascinating read. We know what happened. The truth of the historical and legal record bears all of this out and yet you get a complete retelling of these events with an innocent Joe Bonanno leading the charge as the man on the white horse out to save eroding values from the lack of moral direction found in the new world. It was hard to read to be honest at times because you just feel gross taking in this man's, this murderer's lies and distortions of truth. It's worth the read if for nothing else that it gives some pretty clear insight into the deluded and self-centered mind of a killer who believes himself to be the model of honor. For anyone who may have grown up fantasizing about being a made man, this is the book that will leave you feeling peevish for the desire. And while there are a number of good things about this book, the same cannot be said for the man that is its subject.

BONANNO SAYS ALOT BUT TELLS YOU VERY LITTLE!!I wanted to like this book more but I found myself getting tired of Bonanno's constant denial of any involvement in any sort of crime or being the head of one of New York five organised crime families (as to him, he was a 'Father' of a Family that wasn't really a criminal enterprise) and trying to skirt around incidents by trying to use philosophical debate to somehow try and justify something else. In doing this, Bonanno uses very flowery language to try and portray an intellectual and learned man but when you read the book there are many fundamental flaws in his arguments. For example, he talks about the values of his Tradition (as he refers to the mafia) and how in his Tradition he was against narcotics, prostitution, extortion and kidnapping but gambling, loan sharking, murder, assault, bootlegging and the associated problems that these things cause are all ok and he also says that he didn't know if other members of his Family were engaging in these forbidden activities which I find a little far fetched.He never mentions where any of his money came from or how he could afford numerous properties or travelling to foreign countries. He never mentions how he dealt with any hostile or aggressive intentions towards his businesses (but of course, in reading this, he would deny that he'd ever had to deal with aggressive intentions other than early on in his career or that he even owns any businesses!) and when a 'Man of Honour' just becomes a greedy man (that's something Mr Bonanno doesn't philosophise about conveniently!) or why law enforcement agencies would have any interest in someone who is a law abiding citizen with nothing to hide.This book however is not all bad, there are very interesting insights into how the Commission (the Mafia's board of directors for want of a better description) was run and the Commissions' internal political manoeuvring as well as how the Five Families evolved and his involvement in the Castellammerese War (and I feel he treats it as a 'proper' war with more sincerity than the Second World War, which again, makes the reader question Bonanno's thinking) but mainly the book is the philosophies of an old gangster who wants to remember the good times he had and revere in the past yet deny all the bad he did.As a footnote, the other reviews of this book are pretty accurate (from 1 star to 5 star) as parts of the book are good and some aren't (the last part of the book relates to his trials in the early 80's when this book was written) but if you want an accurate book on the New York organised crime families with what happened and who did what to whom, there are much better books in my opinion.

Bought as a Christmas gift for my husband - he was gripped from start to finish and very much sang the praises of this book, souch so that I also read it and was fascinated by the stories told within its pages. Would definitely recommend to anyone.

Not very goodGets boreing going over same storiesJoe Bonanno is nor realy mentioned in big 5 families

Really enjoyed this book although I think you might have to take some of it with a pinch of salt.

A great read. It really gives a much better view and insight into "LCN" as we know it today. However, if you're going for a "Tony, I want you to whack that guy right now" kind of book, this isn't for you. If you want some deep insight into the personal life and the beginning of the modern world of La Cosa Nostra, this is for you. The book details how the media misinterpreted a great many things about him that are still largely misinterpreted today, it's a really great read and I highly recommend it.