Bonanno, as noted is tied to B&t Cheese of Hellam, Pennsylvania. Bonanno sought permanent residency status in Canada in May of 1964. At his immigration hearing, he introduced as evidence a letter on Saputo company stationery that said Bonanno would help expand Saputo's business. Bonnanno did not stay in Canada. He was ordered deported because he had lied when he told the Canadian authorities later that he had acquired 20% of other Saputo businesses. Bonanno's involvement in the activities of these and other companies, and the companies ties to OC figures has led Vermont authorities to reject the application of Jolina Cheese Company for the construction of a cheese plant in that state. Jolina Cheese, a newly formed corporation, had been created by Saputo, B&T Cheese of Pennsylvania, and another Saputo distributor, California Olive Oil.

During a licensing hearing in New York, the Crime Commission provided evidence from subpoenaed records of B & T Cheese and a local bank that indicates that a portion of a $51,000 cash payment for cheese purchased from Produits Caillette in December 1977 by B & T Cheese ultimately found its way to Joseph Bonanno in Tucson. A $1,000 currency wrapper bearing the name "National Central Bank" (now Hamilton Bank, Lancaster, Pennsylvania), that was later traced by Commission agents and bank employees directly to one of the partners of B & T Cheese, was found a few days later during the course of the "trash cover" conducted at Bonanno's Tucson residence. The license for the firm, Utica Cheese Inc. (of wich Emmanuel "Lino" Saputo, an owner of G. Saputo & Sons Ltd., is the major stockholder). Through his wife, Fay, Bonanno had an interest in Grande Cheese. Fay Bonanno owned 150 of the 2,000 shares of Grande Cheese stock as of 1971. According to Vincent Falcone, an associate of OC figures who testified before the Crime Commission in early 1980, Bonanno was a very close friend of John DiBella, a one-time owner of Grande Cheese. Bonanno was said to have frequently visited DiBella for two to three days at a time at the Grande plant.

Grande Cheese was born out of a bloody Chicago gang war in 1939. At least five men were killed, including the owner of Grande, whose body was found stuffed in the trunk of a car. Rising out of this war came Chicago crime boss Ross Prio, who took control of the Wisconsin company. In the mid-1940's, control passed to Dibella and his sister, Rose. Rose took over her brothers stock when he died in 1964 and sold it to the Candela and Gaglio families. The Gaglios moved to California and formed their own company, but the Candelas stayed in Wisconsin to operate Grande Cheese. John DiBella and Vincent Falcone and his two brothers founded a new company, Gourmay Cheese of Lomira, Wisconsin. Gourmay is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Grande Cheese.

I knew Joe Bonanno was the Big Cheese.

^^^^^ Or the Head Cheese one or the other.

I'm not surprised at all.

Oh, man. Head cheese ain't easy to look at .

A pig's head and its legs, or just the head and neckbones makes excellent pozole, and a cow's head can be used for barbacoa.

Do you find tripe, or the honeycombed stomach of a cow that's in cooked in menudo or pancita to be gross too?

I don't find it or any of that stuff gross including tripas in tacos but if you are not used to it you may find it gross, or different.

It also has to be cleaned and prepared correctly. I've had menudo and pozole in restaurants and in people's homes where the person cooking it did not clean the meat or cook it for as long as you're supposed to multiple times, and it does not taste right then.

Relax, Cornuto. It wasn't a cultural comment. Re-read my post. All I said was, Head cheese ain't easy to look at. And it's not. I never said it didn't taste good .

I love all that stuff. I grew up on calves brains and soffritto and liver and especially a trippa. Italians make it the best. I love it and still eat it all the time. We even have a thread about it from before you signed up here. Here it is:

http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/ubbthr...true#Post634109

trippa mmmm.

OK I didn't take it as a cultural comment. No it's not fun cooking with the head of an animal but it does produce good food.

I have always wondered what Joe was up to in the cheese business. Given what Joe and his family were up to, you have to wonder if they were moving narcotics along with the cheese. It would be a great cover, especially the nice smelly cheeses.

Down here in Texas, the hispanics love to make Cabrito, often with the goat head. Barbacoa is some of the most tender beef I have ever eaten when cooked properly.

Bonanno started bringing zips over in the late 50's to handle distribution of narcotics per his 57 meeting in Sicily. The zips were set up in what of all things? Pizza parlors....wanna guess who provided the cheese???
moving smack out one end and buying legit chesses at the other....genius!

Here's a pdf file on this if anybody is interested. This is more of a detailed report.
www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/70579NCJRS.pdf

Great find.

Great post