New York teletype on the FBI interview of Salvatore Vincent ("Bill") Bonanno, Tucson, December 31, 1964: "Organization of Joseph Bonanno" and the death of Maranzano

An urgent FBI teletype reporting agents' interview of Bill Bonanno after his father's reported abduction in October 1964. On its fifth page the son said his father had been "the boss" since about 1930 or 1931; when agents put to him the date of the death of Salvatore Maranzano, "who was boss prior to Joseph Bonanno's taking over," he said it "must have been around that time." His statement as the FBI recorded it.

Date

1964-12-31

Kind

case-file

Source

FBI Records: The Vault, Joseph Bonanno Part 02 (viewer pages 285–291)

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. No page image is stored here; the scans are at the Vault URL.

Viewer pages 286 to 291 of Part 02 of the FBI Vault’s Joseph Bonanno file are an urgent teletype from the New York office (file 92-3501 in the OCR) to the Bureau and to Buffalo and Phoenix, captioned “Unsubs; Joseph Bonanno – Victim.” A routing slip on viewer page 285 says it sets out the interview of Bill Bonanno by agents in Tucson. This archive has no page for Part 02 as a whole. The pages were read from the viewer’s OCR, which has words missing and redactions.

The teletype reports that Salvatore Vincent Bonanno, “also known as Bill, son of victim,” was interviewed at the Pima County Jail, Tucson, “from approximately twelve fifty AM until five o’clock AM, December thirty one, sixtyfour,” about the alleged kidnapping of his father on October 21, 1964. Most of it concerns that disappearance and the dispute inside his father’s group.

Its fifth page is headed “Organization of Joseph Bonanno.” It records the son as saying that this was “the first time I have ever made this positive statement to you people,” and that his father had been “the boss” since “nineteen thirty” (the OCR loses the following words). It continues that a date in September was “mentioned to him as being death of Salvatore Maranzano, who was boss prior to Joseph Bonanno’s taking over,” and that “Bill replied, must have been around that time.” The OCR does not give the full date the agents put to him, and this archive does not supply one.

The dating came from the agents, and “boss” is the teletype’s report of the son’s words. It is a statement recorded by the FBI, not a finding, and this archive does not put Joseph Bonanno or Maranzano on a chart from it. The police record of Maranzano’s death, September 10, 1931, is at pp. 227–233.