From Hitmen To Statesmen: Bonanno Mob’s Johnny Joe & Bruno Indelicato Catalysts To Don ‘The Nose’s’ Comeback

February 19, 2025 — To the pleasant surprise of many LCN powers across New York City, Bonanno crime family underboss John (Johnny Joe) Spirito and Anthony (Bruno) Indelicato have been linchpins to boss Michael (Mikey Nose) Mancuso righting the ship in a borgata that seemed to be careening off the rails just two years ago, per multiple sources high-up in several of the Five Families. After losing standing with bosses in other crime families because of the infighting and for-all-to-see dramatics occurring inside the Bonannos from the late 2010s into the summer of 2022 and winter of ’23, Mancuso and his ruling cabinet are getting rave reviews these days for their successful stabilization efforts by those same bosses who worried about how to deal with Mancuso’s volatility and thirst for retribution in the pretty recent past, a number of sources allege.

Prior to moving into administrative posts, Spirito, 66, and Indelicato, 77 — both convicted murderers — were known as tough-guy wildcards, not savvy, even-headed politician type wiseguys who could calm waters as easily as they have, these sources say. “Johnny Joe” flawlessly oversaw the borgata’s day-to-day affairs from the end of 2023 until the summer of 2024 while the increasingly-sly-in-his-old-age 69-year old “Mikey Nose” was away in the feds doing a year for violating his supervised-release conditions, according to these sources, and was one of the main supporters of convincing Mancuso to bump up Indelicato to consigliere as a means of mending fences with the Bonanno mob’s Brooklyn previously-shelved Cammarano faction and loyalists to former boss Vincent (Vinnie Gorgeous) Basciano in the Bronx. Mancuso and Basciano fell out in 2005 following Basciano’s arrest and Mancuso refusing to take orders as Basciano’s front boss. Mikey Nose and his then-acting boss Joseph (Joe C) Cammarano, Jr. were at odds from 2017 until just the past few months, claim sources. Indelicato and Basciano are best friends.

Cammarano, Jr. tried seizing control of the crime family before Mancuso finished a prison bid for facilitating the November 2004 gangland slaying of mob associate Randy Pizzolo on the incarcerated Basciano’s say-so. In July 2022, a shunned Cammarano, Jr. engaged in a physical altercation with three Mancuso-sent lieutenants at his father-in-law’s funeral and him, his brother Dino dodged at attempts on their lives in subsequent months. Convincing Mancuso the benefit of harmony and letting bygones be bygones for the greater good, Spirito and Indelicato have built a bridge for loyalists of Cammarano, Jr. and Basciano to return to the fold in the Bonanno clan, per sources. There’s even been talks of bringing “Joe C” himself back and allowing him to reestablish himself as king of the Brooklyn rackets, sources report, although nothing is in cement and Cammarano, Jr. has told people he’s happy being out of the Life.

Some people predicted with Mancuso gone for the year, the Bonannos would descend further into disarray, however, Spirito and eventually Indelicato — brought into the administration in early 2024 — shined in their newfound roles as statesmen and peacemakers, per sources intimately familiar with the crime family dynamics. Spirito has impressed other borgata shot callers in their interactions with him since he assumed his post as Mancuso’s No. 2 man and acting boss, seen as a calming influence to a notoriously hair-triggered Mikey Nose and Indelicato has demonstrated a maturity and more deliberate advising style to those he’s dealt with in his fresh set of duties, sources claim.

Spirito did the better half of two decades in the can for participating in the 1998 murder of Bonanno mob skipper Gerlando (George From Canada) Sciascia in a hit. Sciascia was killed for insubordination. Mancuso was implicated by informants in the George From Canada hit, but was never charged in the case. Mikey the Nose did time in state prison for manslaughter for the 1984 death of his wife. Bruno Indelicato was famously part of the hit squad that gunned down Bonanno mob don Carmine (The Cigar) Galante in a July 1979 assassination plot carried out on a Brooklyn restaurant back patio that garnered worldwide headlines. His dad and co-conspirator in the palace coup, Bonanno mob capo, Alphonse (Sonny Red) Indelicato, was murdered in the notorious so-called Three Captains slayings three years later. The younger Indelicato did fed time for his role in the Galante execution and more recently did 17 years for the 2002 murder of mob associate Frank Santoro after Santoro threatened to kidnap and kill Basciano’s sons. Basciano’s convictions for the Santoro and Randy Pizzolo homicides is under appeal and legal experts believe Basciano has a decent shot at getting the Pizzolo murder beef tossed on grounds of entrapment.

It is a lot calmer in the family.