Buster From Chicago - Joe Valachi

Joe Valachi

In A Man of Honor (1983), mob boss Joseph Bonanno identifies Buster as Sebastiano Domingo: According to Bonanno:

Bastiano, or Buster, was the quickest to set up and the best shot among us. He could shoot from any angle and from any direction. His specialty was the machine gun, with which he was a virtuoso.

However, Bonanno's description of Buster is very different than Valachi's. Bonanno's Buster is short instead of tall like Valachi's. Allan May argues that Buster is a character invented by Valachi to avoid acknowledging his own role in the killings of Mineo and Ferrigno. Valachi was inducted as a "made man" immediately after these killings. Furthermore, according to May, there was no obvious motive for the mob to induct him at this point. However, it must be remembered that Bonanno was attempting to recall events 30 years later. A photo of Domingo reproduced in Bonanno's book shows him, in fact, to be of medium height at least. And Maranzano had a strong motive to induct Valachi into his crime family in November 1930, after observing his role in the murder of Manfredi Mineo and Steve Ferrigno, top men in the Masseria gang, and his coolness under pressure. Maranzano would call on this asset again.

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