At the moment I am reading a book called Bound By Honor. This book was written by Bill Bonanno the son of Joseph Bonanno. Joseph Bonanno wrote a book called A Man of Honor which I have read from beginning to end. Joseph Bonanno's book was very interesting. I have learnt a lot from his book. The way he describes his "world" and his "Family" is very different to the books written by authors who have never really lived in the "tradition" that both Bonannos have been brought up in and reading a book from someone who has been an actual real life Mafia Don is very refreshing. I recommend both books as essential reading.

Both of those authors do glamorize their lives in the Mafia as if it deserves admiration. Such is a thin disguise of the murder and mayhem they aided and abetted. I find it refreshing though that law enforcement was able to use Joe's book to achieve convictions of Mafiosi.

I agree that "A Man of Honor" was very interesting. It also contains the best extant description of the Castellemmarese War of 1930-31, and of the workings of the Commission (which, as Olivant pointed out, was the basis of Rudy Giuliani's successful "Commission" RICO case that put several Dons away for life). That said, take everything Bonanno wrote about himself with a ton of salt, especially his being "against drugs."

I thought both books were self serving tripe.

Both books were written by murderers trying to rationalize their choices in life as "carrying on a tradition." Well, what if Charles Manson or David Berkowitz had children who decided that they were only carrying on the family tradition? Would that be any less "honorable"?

But to each his own .

Hi Don Nickel!
I have not read "Bound By Honor" but I have read "Man of Honor". I did find it interesting but would have to agree with the other posters that different perspective aside it is after all a book by a man who was a criminal and murderer. But most relevant he was a liar. Every time something big happens Bonnano was "out of town". Supposedly he had no involvement in narcotics despite allegedly traveling to Sicily to arrange narcotics deals and the fact that his top underboss/hitter Carmine "Lilo" Galente was involved in heroin deals up to his eyeballs.

But like any other book on the subject you have to strain the grains of truth from the nuggets of crap. Look forward to getting other reviews/items of interest from you.

Yeah, it's at best extremely hard to believe Joe Bonnano didn't know that Galante and other Bonnano family members were making millions of dollars in heroin. In addition to Galante's activities and Bonnano's own trips to Sicily (which, according to the testimony of a Sicilian mafioso, were made to arrange narcotics shipments), there's also the Cotroni brothers. In "The Complete Idiot's Guide To The Mafia," Jerry Capeci notes that in 1959, Bonnano's captain in Montreal, Vincenzo "Vic" Cotroni, was arrested on charges of conspiring to violate U.S. narcotics laws. Later that year, Vic's brother Giuseppe pled guilty to heroin conspiracy charges. Despite this, Vic remained Bonnano's representative in Montreal. This hardly suggests that Bonnano had no tolerance for drug trafficking by members of his family.

Believing Bonnano's claim that he didn't tolerate drug dealing is like believing Albert Speer's claim that he had no knowledge of the Holocaust, despite being arguably the closest person to Hitler in the entire Third Reich. And Bonnano can't have it both ways--if he really didn't know, then he certainly wasn't nearly as smart as he claimed to be!