Mob FilesPublic-domain archive of American organized crime
PDF page 13 of Reagan Library folder JGR/Department of Justice (3 of 5): an FBI briefing outline with sections headed "The Club," "Specifics of Indictment" and "Proofs Used in Case," ending with the line "Testimony of UCAs (Pistone)"
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FBI announcement and briefing outline, "LCN Commission Indictment," February 26, 1985

The FBI's announcement of the Commission indictment, forwarded to John Roberts at the White House, lists "Philip Rastelli, Boss, Bonnano Family." Its briefing outline says the Commission "authorized the murders of" Galante, Coppola, Alphonse Indelicato, Trinchera, Giaccone and "Anthony Indelicato, solider," and lists "Testimony of UCAs (Pistone)."

Date
1985-02-26
Kind
case-file
Source
National Archives Catalog, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library (John Roberts' subject files)
Retrieved
2026-10-12
NAID
118568050
Rights
FBI and Department of Justice documents, works of the United States government. Public domain under 17 U.S.C. § 105. The National Archives catalog marks the folder's access and use as unrestricted.

A note of February 26, 1985 from Roger Clegg, Office of the Deputy Attorney General, to John Roberts (“Per our conversation”), in the Reagan Library folder “JGR/Department of Justice (3 of 5)” (NAID 118568050). It forwards the FBI’s announcement of that day and an internal briefing outline. The scan is uneven, and quotations follow the legible text.

The announcement says Director Webster “announced today the indictment of nine individuals” charged as the “Commission” of La Cosa Nostra, listed with their FBI titles, among them “8. Philip Rastelli, Boss, Bonnano Family.” It says that “in 1979, with expanded use of undercover Special Agents, highly placed informants and electronic intercepts, the FBI was able to infiltrate the Bonanno family.”

The outline (PDF page 13, stored here) lists the “Specifics of Indictment.” Item 3 reads: “Authorized the murders of: (a) Carmine Galante, former Boss, Bonanno family. (b) Leonard Copolla, Galante associate. (c) Alphonse Indelicato, capo, Bonanno family. (d) Dominick Trichera, capo, Bonnano family. (e) Philip Giaccone, capo, Bonanno family. (f) Anthony Indelicato, solider, Bonanno family.” The spellings are the outline’s. Under “Proofs Used in Case” it lists “4. Immunized testimony of LCN Boss Joseph Bonanno,” with an asterisk note that “This information should not be made public,” and “6. Testimony of UCAs (Pistone).” The folder has since been released without restriction.

The outline puts Anthony Indelicato in the list of murders the Commission authorized. The court record makes him a defendant in the Galante killing, not a victim. The en banc Second Circuit states that he and two other men shot Galante, Turano and Coppola, and that he was convicted. He was also named, in May 1981 FBI reports, as the target of a contract who went into hiding (Vault, pp. 133-136). Both statements are given here. The FBI line is the outline’s pre-trial wording and is not repeated as fact. The FBI titles in the announcement are the Bureau’s and are not charted.

itemUnited States v. Salerno, 868 F.2d 524 (2d Cir. 1989)Second Circuit opinion on the appeal from the Southern District of New York trial of Anthony Salerno and seven other defendants, decided January 31, 1989.itemUnited States v. Indelicato, 865 F.2d 1370 (2d Cir. 1989) (en banc)The en banc Second Circuit holds that Anthony Indelicato's part in three murders committed in a single transaction could form a RICO pattern. Its account of the evidence begins: "In 1979, the boss of the Bonanno family was Carmine Galante."itemJoseph D. Pistone, answers to the subcommittee, April 22, 1988 (S. Hrg. 100-906, pp. 207-217)Pistone's answers to Senators Nunn and Roth after his opening statement, testifying behind a screen. He describes the 1979-1981 struggle "within the Bonanno family," the contract he was given to find Bruno Indelicato, and the end of the operation, "I think it was July 27."