February 21, 1910 - Carmine Galante
Galante rose through the Bonanno crime family to become its de facto boss, overseeing an operation that law enforcement linked to between 80 and 100 murders alongside a narcotics trafficking network of considerable scale. His criminal record stretched back to 1926 and spanned murder, assault, robbery, and drug trafficking — a career broad enough in scope and duration to mark him as one of the more formidable figures in mid-twentieth-century organized crime in New York. Even after serving time on federal drug charges, he returned to power, suggesting an institutional resilience that made him difficult for both rivals and law enforcement to contain.
From Wikipedia
Carmine Galante (Italian: [ˈkarmine ɡaˈlante]; February 21, 1910 – July 12, 1979) was an American mafioso who was de facto boss of the Bonanno crime family of New York City. Law enforcement have accused Galante of participating in between 80 and 100 murders, with an extensive arrest record dating back to 1926 for murder, assault, robbery, grand larceny, alcohol tax violation and narcotics. According to FBI files, Galante served as an enforcer for Vito Genovese during the 1930s and 1940s. During the 1950s, he ran an international narcotics ring with Joe Bonanno. Galante also attended the infamous October 1957 Apalachin meeting.
In 1958 and 1960, Galante was indicted for drug trafficking. In 1962 he was sentenced to twenty years in prison and was paroled in 1974. Galante was rarely seen without a cigar hanging from his mouth, leading to the nickname "The Cigar" and "Lilo", named after the Italian slang word for "a stubby little cigar".
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