Mob FilesPublic-domain archive of American organized crime
Viewer page 97 of Part 01 of the FBI Vault's Operation Donnie Brasco file: an immediate teletype of June 1, 1981 from Brooklyn/Queens to the Director, captioned Genus-Greenpoint, reporting the deaths of three Bonanno family capos and stamped received June 1, 1981
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FBI 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.

Date
1981-06-01
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 image of viewer page 97 is stored here; the full scans are at the Vault URL.

Viewer pages 97 and 98 of Part 01 of the FBI Vault’s “Operation Donnie Brasco” file. The teletype is dated June 1, 1981 (011820Z JUN 81), from Brooklyn/Queens (183A-1808) to the Director, captioned GENUS-GREENPOINT. It refers to a telephone call to the Bureau on June 1, 1981. Quotations are from the page image.

It reads: “For the information of Legat, 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. Indelicato’s body was found on May 24, 1981, and the other two are still missing.” It continues: “It is believed that Dominick Napolitano, aka ‘Sonny Black’, and Joseph Messina, both capos, are responsible for the family realignment under the direction of Phillip Rastelli, presently in federal prison.”

“BQ has learned that Benjamin Ruggiero, aka ‘Lefty’, a member of Napolitano’s crew, who may have been directly involved in the deaths of the three capos, will be travelling to Canada,” possibly on June 2, 1981, to conduct business on behalf of Napolitano (page 98). The Bureau was asked to pass the information to the legal attaché in Ottawa.

“It is believed” and “may have been” are the FBI’s words. They report what the office believed in June 1981, not a finding. The ranks are the FBI’s labels. The court record of the killings is the 1982 New York indictment as the Eleventh Circuit summarizes it.

itemFBI Vault, Operation Donnie Brasco, Part 01, viewer pp. 133-136 (May-June 1981)New York teletypes of May and June 1981. The first reports a source's information that Alphonse Indelicato, Philip Giaccone and Dominic Trinchera were killed on or about May 5, 1981, and that Anthony "Bruno" Indelicato was hiding with a contract on his life. The second records the surveillance of Ruggiero's flight to Montreal.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.itemFBI Vault, Dominick Trinchera file, viewer p. 123 (March 9, 1982)A Newark memorandum recommending that the Trinchera file be closed: "NY investigation reveals subject Trinchera was murdered along with Alphonse 'Sonny Red' Indelicato and Phil 'Lucky' Giacone on 5/5/81." It doubts the two missing bodies will ever be recovered.itemUnited States v. Ruggiero, 754 F.2d 927 (11th Cir. 1985)The Eleventh Circuit rejects Benjamin Ruggiero's and John Cerasani's double-jeopardy challenge to a 1983 Florida RICO indictment. It summarizes the 1982 New York case, in which Ruggiero was convicted of RICO conspiracy and sentenced to fifteen years, and says "Ruggiero was a member of the 'crew' captained by Napolitano."