Bananas Wars
During Joseph's two-year absence, Bonanno mobster Gaspar DiGregorio took advantage of family discontent over Bill's role to claim family leadership. Supported by the Mafia Commission, DiGregorio revolt led to four years of strife in the Bonanno family, labeled by the media as the "Bananas Wars".
In early 1966, DiGregorio allegedly contacted Bill about having a peace meeting. Bill agreed and suggested his grand-uncle's house on Troutman Street in Brooklyn as a meeting site. On January 26, 1966, as Bill and his loyalists approached the house, they were fired on by people inside. A fierce, but short gunfight took place. No one was wounded during this confrontation, which led many observers to conclude that it never happened.
In 1968, after a heart attack, Joseph ended the family warfare by agreeing to retire as boss and move to Arizona. As part of this peace agreement, Bill also resigned as consigliere and moved out of New York with his father. In later years, Bill made the following observation about this period:
"I always say I had only one goal in the '60s - actually two goals. When I got up in the morning, my goal was to live to sunset. And when sunset came, my second goal was to live to sunrise."
Read more about this topic: Salvatore Bonanno
Famous quotes containing the words bananas and/or wars:
“I never liked bananas much anyway. Two-thirds of the way down even one banana I am willing to concede defeat smilingly and give the rest to the nearest monkey.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)
“Lechery, lechery, still wars and lechery. Nothing else holds fashion.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)