What you said in this post Giacomo is basically correct. And I agree with you. Carmine Galante WAS Bonanno's "official" underboss for years. He replaced Frank Garofalo who retired to Sicily. After Galante was jailed for narcotics, John Morale (among several others) became underboss for a time during the 1960s. Especially after the trouble started for Bonanno with his family's insurrection and the borgata was split, Joe counted on Morale to serve as his eyes and ears during that tumultuous time.

*And, as you already stated (and this is important,) in his autobiography Bonanno was trying to distance himself from heroin trafficking the best he could, so he was NOT about to admit that Galante, one of the top drug traffickers in the world, was so close to him, let alone his Family underboss (his #2.) It was important for Bonanno to maintain his image in the book as a highly-scrupled "Man of Honor" who would never stoop so low as to deal narcotics. Thats why Galante is hardly even mentioned in the book. If I remember correctly, I think Joe devotes no more than one or two sentences to Galante, in a book that has hundreds of pages. This is despite that fact that Galante was one of the most important of his Family's members for about 40+ years at that point. Giacomo, THIS was a very good point that you brought out. So bravo!

And yes, not withstanding what anybody else reported to the contrary, Sonny Franzese was, indeed, installed as the "official" underboss to Joe Colombo. He served in that position for some years until he was forced to step down for the good of the Family because of all his legal troubles by the late 1960s. John Misuraca was an older man by that time, and a weak sister by comparison, and could not fulfill the duties required of him for that position. Most importantly, at the time that Colombo was installed as the new boss of the Family, he wanted a complete sweep of the upper hierarchy to "retire" or knockdown the old caporegimes and install younger and more aggressive men such as himself so as to bring more vibrancy and life to the borgata. A "changing of the guard as it were."

Joe became the youngest boss in the country and wanted younger men who would help him move the borgata in a new direction for expansion and power. Franzese was that guy! He became the underboss shortly after Joe became boss. With Franzese in that position, several things were accomplished. Franzese was young and EXTREMELY aggressive. He was highly respected and highly feared throughout the Profaci/Colombo Family (and for that matter, by all the other Families as well.) He also had Joe's back. Nobody was gonna make a move against Colombo with Franzese at his side. Not to mention the fact that Sonny and his personal men were greatly expanding and making inroads throughout the Queens-Long Island region on behalf of the Family and bringing in tons of cash to the borgata, while Joe maintained their Brooklyn/Staten Island and city nucleus. The Colombo-Franzese combo became the "Ying-Yang" of the Colombo mob.

All the Field Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation knew it. So did the NYCPD Intelligence Bureau and Nassau and Suffolk County Racket Squads, The Federal Strike Force based in Brooklyn, and other law enforcement agencies who kept track of such things.

Everybody, who was anybody, within the NY/NJ underworld (made guys and top associates) knew it (and, by extension, all the other hierarchies throughout the country.) Subsequently, the more well plugged-in rats knew it. And eventually, all the daily newspapers got wind of it from their so-called "sources" and reported it hundreds and hundreds of times over the years as well.