Mob FilesPublic-domain archive of American organized crime
Viewer page 12 of Part 01 of the FBI Vault's Operation Donnie Brasco file: page two of a teletype stating that the UCA wearing a body recorder and/or transmitter will meet with Domonick "Sonny Black" Napolitiano, acting boss, Bonanno (LCN) family, with the agent's identity redacted
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FBI Vault, Operation Donnie Brasco, Part 01, viewer pp. 11-15 (July-August 1980)

Brooklyn-Queens teletypes on the undercover agent's body recorder. Page 12 says the agent would meet "Domonick 'Sonny Black' Napolitiano acting boss Bonanno (LCN) family"; page 15, in a later teletype, calls him "acting underboss." The two pages disagree, and both are shown here.

Date
1980-07/1980-08
Kind
case-file
Source
FBI Records: The Vault
Retrieved
2026-10-12
Rights
A record of the Federal Bureau of Investigation released under FOIA. A work of the United States government, public domain under 17 U.S.C. § 105. The page images of viewer pages 12 and 15 are stored here; the full scans are at the Vault URL.

Viewer pages 11 to 15 of Part 01 of the FBI Vault’s “Operation Donnie Brasco” file. They are teletypes from the Brooklyn-Queens office to the Director in a RICO matter captioned for the Withers Italian American Veterans Club, 415 Graham Avenue, Brooklyn, with a Justice Department cover letter of July 15, 1980 on page 13. The undercover agent is called “UCA” throughout, and his name is redacted.

Page 12, the second page of a July 1980 teletype, reads in the page image: “UCA wearing a body recorder and/or transmitter will meet with Domonick ‘Sonny Black’ Napolitiano acting boss Bonanno (LCN) family and other unknown associates to discuss criminal activity of Bonanno (LCN) family in New York and Florida. UCA expected to travel to New York area during week of July 14, 1980. UCA has agreed to wear body recorder and transmitter and is willing to testify in court.” It adds that AUSA Michael A. Guadagno, Strike Force, E.D.N.Y., “advised on July 10, 1980, that there was no entrapment and approves use of devices,” and that emergency authority was granted by FBI headquarters on July 11, 1980. The site’s text layer misreads both years as 1989 and the AUSA’s date as July 18; the page image shows 1980 and July 10.

Page 15 is the second page of a later teletype, which the OCR dates to August 1980. It refers to “association between acting underboss Dominick Napolitano, aka ‘Sonny Black’, Benjamin ‘Lefty’ Ruggiero” and says: “Napolitano operates the Withers Italian American Veterans Club, 415 Graham Avenue, Brooklyn, New York, where planning of thefts from interstate shipment, loansharking and gambling take place.” It records that on July 24, 1980 the AUSA advised that the facts would support an application for Title III electronic interception. The page 15 image is stored here as well.

The same file calls Napolitano “acting boss” on page 12 and “acting underboss” on page 15. A June 1981 teletype in the file calls him a capo (pp. 97-98). These are the FBI’s labels, and they disagree with each other. The court records describe him only as the captain of Ruggiero’s crew. None of these labels is placed on a chart here.

itemFBI Vault, Operation Donnie Brasco, Part 01 (1980-1982)Part 01 of the FBI Vault's "Operation Donnie Brasco" file: heavily redacted teletypes among the Brooklyn, Tampa, Milwaukee and headquarters offices. A teletype says the investigation "was instituted in March, 1980, based on information furnished by the Milwaukee Division" and the Tampa Division.itemFBI Vault, Operation Donnie Brasco, Part 01, viewer pp. 97-98 (June 1, 1981)A Brooklyn-Queens teletype of June 1, 1981: "the Bonanno LCN family is presently undergoing a power struggle that has resulted in the deaths of three family capos," Sonny Red Indelicato, Phillip Giaccone and Dominick Trinchera. It says Benjamin Ruggiero would travel to Canada.itemFBI Vault, Operation Donnie Brasco, Part 01, viewer pp. 148-154 (June 1981): the GENUS casesA two-section New York teletype of June 1981: "The GENUS code name encompasses several major cases targeted against various factions of the Bonanno LCN family." It lists the undercover operation, the Catalano investigation and the file opened on the May 1981 murders.itemUnited States v. Napolitano, 552 F. Supp. 465 (S.D.N.Y. 1982)Judge Robert W. Sweet's pretrial rulings of January to July 1982 in the RICO case against Dominick Napolitano, Benjamin Ruggiero and others, charged as members or associates of "the Bonanno Family of La Cosa Nostra." The opinion records that "Ruggiero had been told that an FBI agent, Donnie Brasco, had infiltrated his activities."