Bonanno gives good detail about his life through the end of the Castellemmarese War (1930-31). Thereafter, he generally tries to portray himself as a legitimate businessman, and only generalizes about the Mafia. Never admits to being involved in criminal enterprises. He also claims that his cousin, Stefano Magaddino, the Don of Buffalo, NY, kidnapped him and held him for over a year, out of jealousy. Others have speculated that Joe himself took it on the lam to avoid prosecution on a variety of racketeering charges. So, he doesn't really shed any enlightenment on most of the years of his Donship.
Mick: the US has a crazy-quilt of laws and jurisdictions--local, state and Federal (nationwide) law. The later includes all crimes that might be construed as being of an "interstate" or nationwide nature. Let's say you're a con man in Chicago, trying to sell nonexistent real estate plots in the state of Illinois. I live in another state, New Jersey. If you try to con me by sending me a solicitation via US mail that contains a phony brochure and asks for money, Federal agents can prosecute you for "using the mails to defraud," or "mail fraud" for short. If you used the telephone from one state to try to con me in another state, you'd also could be prosecuted for "wire fraud." Usually the Federal government lets the states file charges under their own laws that prevent fraud. But if the Feds have it in for someone, they can act on their own. In Bill Bonanno's case, he fraudulently used a credit card belonging to another person in his mob. Technically, the state in which he tried to use the card could have prosecuted him for fraud. But the Feds wanted him really badly, so they concluded that he had committed "mail fraud" or "wire fraud" because the credit card was issued in New York but the attempted use was in Arizona, and the authorization attempt was made via phone lines.