The quote from a Bronx Tale Is it better to be loved of feared?

Discuss!!!!

I love that scene!

Feared,fear last longer than a love!

Loved. Feared means you have enemies.

little bit of both in an ideal world.

Fear is stronger than love i believe but your right it means you have enemies. Personally though i would rather be stabbed in the back by my enemies than a loved one.

In terms of a boss? I´d say respected and revered. Of course, a little slew of being feared thrown into the mix doesn´t hurt.
I think the boss has to make his underlings believe they are depended on him, and only him, for success and that without him, this "thing of theirs" would collapse.
A mob boss can not be weak. He has to be strong and able to fight back any challenge on his authority. Joe Profaci was said to have used the tactic of "keeping them down". It worked for 34 years. Yes, a bunch of knuckleheads decided to challenge him, but you can´t really say the Gallos won that one. After all, Profaci died in his bed, still on top of things.

Fear, lasts longer then love ^

If you're a mob boss, then fear it is. If you're a normal human being, I'd have to say love.

If you're a mobster who is loved by everyone, you have nothing to fear.

Galante was feared and look what happened to him.

Galante was mostly killed by the heroin situation where he wanted every Sicilian to pay tribute to him, cutting out the other bosses and families. Even Rastelli was cut out of the profits, as were his loyalists like Massino.

This is debatable. We really don´t know what happened. If you take a look at Galante´s FBI files (very hard to read by the way) there is nothing there that suggests Galante was back into the heroin business after his release on parole in 1974. He was constantly being watched by the feds and in fact was back into the slammer in 1978 because of violating his parole restrictions.
I strongly believe that Galante was killed because of a power struggle within the Bonanno Family. The heroin became a very big issue, more so than ever, after the Galante killing.

Galante was killed because he was seen as a threat. They feared him.

Yup Galante was a nasty SOB. He didnt want love he wanted to be feared and he wanted to be the boss of bosses. I guess being diagnosed as a psychopath will do that

Well whats about Toto Riina then ?

He might have wanted to be the boss, but boss of bosses??
The title died off with Maranzano in 1931. Back then even, nobody could claim to be boss of bosses without the other bosses admiration, respect and approval. The system was scrapped when the Commission was formed in 1931.

Man this is the Scarfo school v. the Ligambi school. I feel like whack first ask questions later never lasts. Vic and Gas, Scarfo, on a smaller level DeMeo and Tommy "Karate"… they all had a short ass shelf life.

This is coming from donnie brasco who said he wanted authority over the commission and i didnt mean literally. Belive me i know about mob history

He ended up in jail doing life because the Italian state feared him. He probably has a thousand enemies left who would like to rip him apart.

you guys talking about galante and stuff...he was feard,genovese was feard,anastasia was feard,toto riina was feard...on the other end guys like costello,angelo bruno,meyer lansky they were loved,but guys like gambino or luciano..they stayed in the middle,the best position by my opinion,like gambino sad "the best way is to be like a lion and a fox"
either way every person deep inside gets the fear factor just by starring at a mobster

So Selwyn Raab in his Five Families book wrote lies on Galante and the heroin situation.

bruno wasn't loved by anybody, most of those guys despised him because he was a patsy for NY.

Loved. While you need both to be a successful boss, love=loyalty. A man that fears you can still betray you. He'd want to get rid of you if he fears you. If you're truly loved, your men would even give their lives for you in a situation.

Has anyone read the books before bruno by Celeste Morello? I think she wrote a series of 3 books? I'm going to go on ebay or amazon and see if I can find them cheap.

Well, "lies" would be too strong a word to use in this context. I believe that Raab, just like any other author, drew his own conclusions based on some dubious facts and myths surrounding the Mafia.
"Five Families" is a VERY good read. Raab certainly took the time of doing thoroughly research when writing it. But perhaps, in some of his conclusions, he missed some stuff/jumped into conclusions too fast. The segments covering the last (let´s say) 20 or 25 years in the book is nothing less than excellent. Some statements in segments covering the "early" years however, are dubious.
Let´s not wander too astray from this thread´s topic. But when it comes to Raab´s description of Galante´s drug dealing in the 1970s, he does not name proper sources in his Principal Sources and Reference segment.

Page 205:
"Paroled in 1974 after serving twelve years, Galante´s lust for power and his murderous instincts soon prevailed. Phillip "Rusty" Rastelli, a rival for the top post and interim boss , balked at stepping aside in Galante´s favour."

///Rastelli was elected boss of the Bonannos in 1973. This is picked up in wire taps and described in Lamothe´s and Humphrey´s "The sixth Family". Violi explained the proceedings for Nick Rizzuto and told him about who he had sent down to New York to deliver the Montreal vote. So Rastelli was not merely an "interim boss".

Further on:

"As the former consigliere and virtual underboss to Joe Bonanno, Lilo considered himself the rightful heir to the throne..."

///An unknown informant placed Lilo as the consigliere. But this informant´s info (not only regarding Lilo´s rank, but also his info on other stuff) is highly dubious. This gets clear when reading the FBI´s reported interviews of him. You can catch it on the Mary Ferrell site.
Lilo Galante was a groupleader within the Bonanno Family. I have posted a FBI report earlier on this forum, saying that Lilo was in retirement which indicates to me that Lilo actually was shelved in 1962. When this info is corroborated with a second source (Bill Bonanno, "The Last Testament") it makes it more believable than something that is said once by an unreliable informant.
Bonannos consigliere was John Tartamella btw.
Hairsplitting? Not Really actually. It´s important to know, in regards to that Lilo was not that close to Bonanno as an underboss would have been. So why consider himself the rightful heir to the throne based on this?

Furthermore:

"Increasing his cashflow, he stepped up narcotics deals...the loot would not be shared with other borgatas."

///I REALLY would like to know Raab´s sources on this. But he doesn´t name them.

"Galante imported from Sicily additional manpower known as Zips."

///Most evidence seems to suggest that these "Zips" voluntarily left Sicily for US looking for "work". No evidence (aside of Luigi Ronsisvalle´s testimony about a small group of Sicilians coming to New York in order to fight in the Banaas War) show that they were being imported by Galante. Most of them arrived in the 1960s when Galante was imprisoned.
Yes, Galante used some of them like Bonventre and Amato (who seems to have arrived in the early 1970s) for tasks. But to say that specifically Galante had (and even more specifically) "imported them", is a far stretch in my book.

So, what is Selwyn Raab´s sources on this?
Page 722:
"Details of Carmine Galante´s history were derived from FBI and NYPD intelligence reports; [That is] arrest records; and reporting in New York newspapers of Galante´s narcotics-trafficking trials. [That would be the 1962 trials, I presume.] The account of Galante´s attempts to gain control of the Bonanno Family is based mainly on testimony by admitted members of the Bonanno Family at the 2004 RICO trial of Joseph Massino. [This is confusing. Raab mentions in his book that Galante WAS the boss of the Bonannos (look at page 710) and yet dismisses testimonies of the same admitted members who said that they were led to believe that Lilo was the boss at the time.]"

As I mentioned, Raab´s "Five Families" is a VERY good read. But don´t consider it a bible, if you know what I mean.
I wish Selwyn Raab would become a member of this forum. If you read this, Mr Raab please post. I have tons of questions for you.

DeMeo, you have hinted that you are about to write a book on the Mafia. That sounds interesting. Would you care tell us little about the book?

"All you need is love" - The Beatles.

End of discussion.

That oath doesnt mean as much as it used to. Nobody fears the mob that much anymore because they have that security blanket called the FBI They love making cases against italians!!!!

If you question Selwin Raab's book, you should not take The Sixth Family as gospel either.



You have to be absolutely sure to state that Galante was shelved. Bill Bonanno is not regarded as a reliable source. I remember an earlier discussion about this when you stated this as a fact, while it now seems that you only presumed it.

But it's good that you have an alternative view of the Bonannos. It definitely adds to the discussion. It's better to keep an open mind than to use wikipedia as a source, as many seem to do.

Carlo Gambino was both! (wise old fox)

I can give you the run down from my time in the philly area. Angelo Bruno feared and loved
Chicken man Testa feared and hated
Nicky Scarfo FEARED and hated
Joey Merlino feared and loved
John Stanfa hated
Ralph Natale a joke and hated
Joe Ligambi loved