Carmine Galante

After Joseph Bonanno left New York for Arizona and went into retirement, the helm of the family was left open. In 1976, Carlo Gambino died and, although he handed the leadership of the family over to Paul Castellano, the helm of Boss of all Bosses was also vacant. The underworld needed a new leader, and from jail, Carmine Galante decided it was to be himself.

Galante had originally been a hit man for Vito Genovese back in the 1940s and was also Joe Bonanno's personal driver. In the 1960s Galante was convicted and sent to jail for twenty years on a narcotics conviction. Plenty of people in the underworld were happy, or at least relieved about that. Galante was already gaining a reputation as being greedy and ruthless, more so than any other crime figure of the time, worse the Genovese. When he was released in 1974, he set out to do what Bonanno had failed to achieve: rid the family of all other potential leaders and take the top position for himself, including Gambino. Galante had to be careful though, since Gambino had squelched many other men from stripping him of his power. He waited until Gambino died and then started moving out the blacks and Hispanic gangs from the drug traffic business. He also sent out the message that the old way of doing things was dead by literally blowing the doors off of Frank Costello's tomb. In 1978, he did away with eight top-ranking Mafiosi. He was warned by the other heads of the family to stop the killings or he himself would face the consequences. His answer was only, "Who among you is going to stand up to me?"

On July 12, 1979, Carmine found out what those consequences were. He was shot dead in Joe and Mary's restaurant. The other family leaders had decided that it was time for him to go. So, while enjoying a lunch to say goodbye to a cousin that was leaving on vacation, a hit squad opened fire with machine guns and eliminated the would-be boss of bosses. His cousin and another associate were also shot dead.