Paul Sciacca

Paul Sciacca (pronounced "SHAH-kah") (June 15, 1909 – August 1986) was a New York City mobster who became boss of the Bonanno crime family.

In 1964, a rivalry in the Bonanno crime family started when boss Joseph Bonanno promoted his son Salvatore "Bill" Bonanno to the position of consigliere over senior capo Gaspar DiGregorio. The family broke into two factions; the Bonanno faction and DiGregorio-Sciacca faction. On January 28, 1966, an attempt was made on the life of Salvatore "Bill" Bonanno, the son of Joseph Bonanno. The Bonanno's suspected Paul Sciacca and his crew, who were loyal to Gaspar DiGregorio. The newspapers began calling the Bonanno family war the "Bananas War".

The shooting war began in May 1966 with what became known as "The Troutman St. Ambush", where Bill Bonanno and three of his associates were lured to an alleged peace meeting and then ambushed from doorways, windows and rooftops along Troutman Street, but Bonanno and his associates escaped unharmed. Paul Sciacca and underling Frank Mari were suspected of masterminding the botched hit, but boss Gaspar DiGregorio was blamed for the bad publicity and added police scrutiny that surrounded the shooting.

After Joe Bonanno was deposed by the Commission in late 1964, DiGregorio was named boss by early 1965, he made Pietro "Skinny Pete" Crociata the new underboss and Nicolino "Nick" Alfano the new consigliere. By 1966, the Commission lost faith in DiGregorio's ability to lead the crime family, and Sciacca became the acting boss.

The "Bananas War" raged throughout the second half of the 1960s with Sciacca and his top lieutenant, Frank Mari leading the dissident faction of soldiers and shooters against the Bonanno loyalists. Less than a dozen men were killed during the war, but many low level soldiers and men on both sides were beaten, shot and injured, Sciacca was himself the victim of an attempt on his life. The war should have ended when deposed boss Joe Bonanno suffered a heart attack in 1968 and promised to retire to leave New York for the his home in Tucson, Arizona, where he would retire comfortably with a handful of loyal underlings at his side. Also, by 1968, Bonanno successor DiGregorio was in ill health and stepped down as boss and retired, dying only two years later. The Commission sanctioned acting boss Paul Sciacca as the new boss of the Bonanno crime family. Sciacca promoted, who he thought to be a loyal underling, Frank Mari to be his new underboss, while another Sciacca underling, Michael "Mike" Adamo was promoted to consigliere. Unknown to boss Sciacca, soon after their promotions, Mari and Adamo began to plot against him and planned to remove him from power and possibly eliminate him all together, but their plans were revealed and on the night of September 18, 1968 both men disappeared, never to be heard from again. Bonanno soldier and former Mari underling Philip "Rusty" Rastelli, a former Bonanno loyalist, who switched allegiance to the DiGregoiro-Sciacca side at the start of the war became a top suspect in the case for New York City police, having also been a top suspect in the Troutman Street ambush. Rastelli, who was promoted to caporegime of the old Mari crew, was never charged in connection with either the ambush or the disappearance, but he was promoted once again to consigliere by boss Paul Sciacca immediately following the disappearance of Adamo, while former Bonanno loyalist Natale Joe Diamonds" Evola was promoted to underboss in place of Mari.

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