Stefano (Stevie Beef) Cannone

Although bouncing around the underworld for decades, with a serious criminal record to prove it, Steve Cannone was generally not known to the general public. He was first identified as a mafia “associate” back in the early 1950s. By the early 1960s, he was documented as an “inducted” member. During the 1966-1968 period, he was allegedly serving in a capo post. And by the 1970s, he was firmly being carried by the FBI as the new Bonanno Family “Consigliere.”

And while he operated relatively low-key and under the radar in various rackets throughout the years, all that changed in 1979 with the sensational gangland execution of mob boss Carmine Galante .

Stefano Giuseppe Cannone - aka Steve Canone, Joe Cannon, and Stevie Beef - was born on April 8, 1913, in Lower Manhattan to Ignazio Cannone and Maria (nee Ruffino), who both immigrated from Sicily. Stevie was raised at 314 Mott Street and operated his entire life in the Little Italy section of Lower Manhattan.

314 Mott Street

After getting married, his wife soon gave birth to a son followed by a daughter, and by the mid-1960s, they moved to another, larger apartment at 224 Elizabeth Street, a street in the neighborhood where many fellow Castellammarese resided.

Side Note: He was said to be the blood uncle of Frank and Ignazio (Sonny) Cannone. They were the sons of his brother, who was also thought to have been a mafioso in Manhattan before relocating up to Binghamton, New York, with his family.

Frank and Sonny later became soldiers in the Bufalino Family under the tutelage of the iconic Castellammarese-born, Binghamton-based boss Joe Barbara . At 32 years old, Sonny Cannone was one of the youngest attendees at the infamous 1957 Apalachin Meeting in Upstate New York.

Besides being nephews to Steve Cannone, the Cannone brothers were also nephews of former Bonanno boss Natale (Joe Diamond) Evola, another iconic leader and respected old-timer.

Steve Cannone stood at a stocky 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighed 180 pounds. He had thinning dark brown hair that turned white, brown eyes, and a roundish face with smooth features. Not typically a flashy hood, by the 1970s, Stevie was nonetheless said to be tooling around in a green 2-door Cadillac Coupe.

An early mugshot of Steve Cannone

Cannone was generally low-keyed and operated his mob career quietly. He reportedly rose to a hierarchy position as an underboss, and later became the longtime consigliere of the Bonanno clan. Yet, Stevie Beef was never known to be a good earner. He was put in a hierarchy position by various bosses, but allegedly “held down” as far as his earning abilities went.

By the early 1970s, he had purchased an inexpensive co-op apartment for $4,200 and was residing in a third-floor unit at 299 Pearl Street, Apt # 3-B. The maintenance was said to be $252 monthly.

He also kept another apartment in the 6th Ward off North Moore Street, near the Chinatown and Little Italy border. He was also said to keep a summer home out east at Luther’s Road in Mattituck, Long Island.

FBI # 583480, NYCPD # B-103635, NYSID-0041741J

His NYPD criminal record dates to the 1930s and 1940s, with numerous local arrests for:

1932 - robbery, assault and armed robbery, gun possession (15 years at Elmira)

1934 - disorderly conduct

1934 - vagrancy, suspicious person

1938 - possession of narcotics (4 years at Leavenworth)

1938 - selling narcotics (at Attica Prison)

1938 - Harrison Act (narcotics)

1941 - violating parole at Buffalo, NY (returned for 2 years to Attica)

1967 - contempt of court (30 days)

1968 - civil contempt (30 days)

1970 - criminal contempt of court (30 days)

1980 - criminal contempt (indeterminate jail term)

He also had a lengthy record of “out of state” arrests. Cannone had numerous arrests in Washington, DC, and Kansas City, Missouri, for violation of the Harrison Act, possession and sale of heroin (thrice), and conspiracy to distribute narcotics.

In 1934, and again in 1938, he was sent upstate to Elmira State Reformatory for unspecified convictions, where he served two terms back to back behind bars. With his prison release in approximately 1941, Cannone managed to go twenty-five years arrest-free. His name wouldn’t come to prominence again until the 1966-1969 internal “Banana War.”

Surveillance photo of Steve Cannone.

Cannone was then named by informants, hit the newspapers again, and became a target of law enforcement. It was noted in his FBI files that back in 1967, the FBI decided to try and target Cannone as a candidate for its TE “Top Echelon Informant Program” to see if they could “turn” the mafioso into becoming a rat. But after interviewing him several times, FBI agents deemed him way too uncooperative for consideration.

Cannone listed his employment for over 30 years as a “piece” presser and dress operator at Annette Contractors Ltd. It was a dress factory located on the 11th floor of an industrial building in the heart of Manhattan’s garment district at 325 West 38th Street. He made a salary of $225 weekly.

The New Consigliere

He was first identified as a mafia “associate” back in the early 1950s. By the early 1960s, he was documented as an “inducted” member. During the 1966-1968 period, he was allegedly serving in a capo post for Gaspare DiGregorio’s administration. And by the 1970s, he was firmly being carried by the FBI as the new Bonanno Family “Consigliere.”

Stevie was said to have first opened and operated a mob social club on Mulberry Street in the late 1950s era. He later operated out of the Sorrento Social Club along Prince Street, between Mott and Elizabeth Streets, near his old boyhood home. Stevie Cannone was also known to frequent a mobbed-up bar at the corner of Peck Slip and South Streets along the dock area of New York Harbor in the 4th Ward.

The best information available to authorities had Cannone actively engaged in bookmaking and policy numbers in the old 4th and 6th Ward Districts of Lower Manhattan. He was also thought to be active behind the scenes operating a small but steady, weekly Little Italy-based alternating card and dice game at his private social club. Shylock loans with a 5% overnight interest charge were typically also offered to those losing players who wanted to stay in the card or dice game.

In this same period, he was also thought to be active in the garment rackets through his suspected hidden “ownership” of the R. & Z. Dress Company, which later did business as Annette Contractors Ltd. Over the years, the business address would move from W. 38th Street to 119 W. 23rd Street.

Federal investigators also took note that Cannone was closely associated with Lucchese capo Joseph (Joe Beck) DiPalermo, who coincidently was a fellow resident of iconic Elizabeth Street. DiPalermo was a notorious and three-times convicted narcotics trafficker. So the close relationship between the two mafiosi peaked law enforcement’s radar as to Cannone dabbling in the narcotics trade as well. It was an activity for which he had previous arrests and convictions.

Joe Beck DiPalermo

Stevie Cannone lived his entire life in a neighborhood that is considered absolute ground zero for Cosa Nostra in this country, the Mulberry Street section of Manhattan’s Little Italy.

Among his closest and most important underworld associates and buddies included such iconic mafiosi as:

Joseph (Joe Bananas) Bonanno - An original boss who the borgata was named after. Cannone had a 30-year personal affiliation with Bonanno.

Gaspare DiGregorio - A top capo who was later elected boss during the conflict with Joe Bonanno in the mid-1960s. He was the first to elevate Cannone to a hierarchy “position.”

Carmine (Lilo) Galante - Iconic underboss who rose to power after having served a 20-year sentence. Cannone was a member of the hierarchy during Galante’s tenure.

Philip (Rusty) Rastelli - Interim boss on several occasions until finally securing the top spot with Galante’s killing in which Cannone played a pivotal conspiracy role.

Nicholas (Nicky Eyeglasses) Marangello - Longtime driver and bodyguard to Joe Bonanno. Later rose to serve as underboss. A Galante intimate who, along with Cannone, operated the infamous Toyland Social Club at 94 Hester Street, which also served as the de facto headquarters of the Bonanno clan.

Salvatore (Sally Fruits) Ferrugia - Another Queens-based, low-key mafioso and capo. He was another member who was thought to have served as an acting boss for a short duration in the early 1970s.

Salvatore (Toto) Catalano - A Sicilian-born, Queens-based mafiosi and narcotics kingpin of Pizza Connection fame who later became an underboss.

Anthony (Tony) Lisi - He was born, raised, and operated on the Lower East Side his entire life. Lisi had the well-earned reputation of a strong-arm man and gunman, prolific thief, and narcotics merchant. He favored Manhattan’s 4th Ward where he ran a neighborhood tavern that doubled as his den and mob headquarters.

Alfred (Al Walker) Embarrato - A longtime soldier, waterfront racketeer, and narcotics trafficker.

Michael (Mimi) Sabella - Near iconic capo of their Mulberry Street crew. An intimate of Galante who was immediately demoted after Galante’s execution in 1979.

They are but a smattering of the New York mob’s glitterati. And although he himself tried to stay well below the radar, Cannone generally knew and associated with them all.

The "Banana War"

Dating to the so-called “Banana War” of 1966-1969, Cannone was listed as an important Bonanno member by investigators and was subpoenaed before several grand juries probing the bloodshed of this deadly internal mob civil war.

On June 6, 1968, Cannone was one of eighteen Bonanno mobsters repeatedly paraded before a Kings County Grand Jury probing the war. He was listed as a “Sciacca” sympathizer, who was in the faction opposed to Joe Bonanno maintaining power. Others subpoenaed along with him were Joe Bonanno himself, Natale Evola, rebel faction leader Paul Sciacca, and soldiers Steve Menna , Peter Pomaro, Joseph Messina, Pietro Magaddino, Guy Musillo, Jerry and Joe Chilli, Vito Licata, among several others.

Seven of them were later indicted on civil or criminal contempt of court charges for clamming up when questioned or answering in an evasive manner. These included soldiers Anthony Lisi, Nicholas Marangello, and associate Carmine Castellano. Lisa and Marangello had been jailed several times for at least 60 days and fined $1,000 each for refusing to testify.

Stevie Beef appears before the New Jersey State Crime Commission.

Cannone received 30 days civil in jail on June 24, 1969, for contempt. He subsequently received an additional 30 days when hauled before the same grand jury probe a second time.

In 1970, Cannone was again among a gaggle of top hoods subpoenaed to testify before the New Jersey State Crime Commission. They questioned him and Genovese capo Cosmo (Gus) Frasca about their legitimate business interests in the Garden State.

Although he did manage to get his name and photo in local newspapers reporting on underworld happenings several times and was compelled to answer subpoenas from mob grand juries, that’s pretty much as far as those cases went.

But by far the most public exposure that Cannone ever experienced by the media, and his most serious criminal case, was from law enforcement in the immediate aftermath of Carmine (Lilo) Galante’s assassination on a hot, sweltering summer afternoon in July of 1979.

The Cigar is Snuffed Out

Cannone’s shadowy “stop and go” mob career unwittingly came to a screeching halt once agents of the FBI, New York City Police Homicide Unit, Brooklyn’s Rackets Squad detectives, and a host of other local and federal law enforcement agencies all converged like vultures onto the Galante murder scene. In the coming weeks, months, and years, Cannone’s photograph and likeness started showing up on prime-time news reports, and various images of his were soon released to the general public.

Surreptitious FBI surveillance films of Cannone and other mafiosi filmed the very day Galante was murdered were later used as evidence before several local and federal investigative grand juries that were seeking indictments of him and several mob associates.

Important Side Note: In the very days both just before, and right after, Galante was slain, both Cannone and Marangello traveled together to visit Rusty Rastelli in prison to report and consult with him. This confirmed for investigators that Rastelli was being viewed as the true new boss of the Family as well as being in on the overall murder conspiracy.

Rusty Rastelli

Cannone figured into several major criminal cases, all aimed at solving the Galante murder, not the least of which culminated with the infamous “Commission Case,” personally prosecuted by a then, new young top U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Manhattan named Rudolph Guiliani. One of the linchpin charges in the lengthy, 15-count indictment was the conspiracy to orchestrate the gangland murder of Galante in order to take over control of the Bonanno Family.

Side note: In 1978, the Bonanno hierarchy back in NYC became very worried about the arrest of former boss Joe Bonanno. At the time of his arrest, the FBI had seized numerous personal papers, writings, and documents of Bonanno's that he had thrown into garbage pails at his home in Tuscon, Arizona. It was all part of a deep investigation the FBI had started on Bonanno's current and former activities.

It was alleged by mob informants that Steve Cannone was among several former members under Joe Bonanno who were overheard being very worried about what he had written, or what he might have said about his former mafia associates. Cannone specifically made the statement that “I done a lot of work for him,” and he was concerned because there was no statute of limitations on murder.

In the coming years, all this exposure would bring problems for Cannone. It helped to continuously keep his name before law enforcement. He was repeatedly subpoenaed to testify before many different grand jury probes because of it.

Galante's murder makes headlines.

An example of this was in March of 1980 when eight mobsters were indicted by a Manhattan grand jury on multiple counts of criminal contempt of court after they refused to answer questions about the alleged gangland “contract” murder of Galante. Each contempt count was punishable by up to four years in prison. The prosecutor made sure to hit “Stevie Beef” with four counts of first-degree criminal contempt.

Besides Cannone, Bonanno capo Nicholas (The Battler) DeStefano, underboss Nicky Marangello, and Gambino figures Lenny DeMaria, Armand Dellacroce, Eddie Lino, and the Palmieri brothers, were among those picked up.

But everything would finally come to a head at 8:30 am sharp on the morning of June 26, 1985. That's when a team of FBI agents rang Cannone’s front doorbell with a federal RICO warrant for his arrest.

RICO Comes A-Knocking

As a courtesy because of his ill health, instead of cuffing his hands in the back and placing him in a squad car to haul him back to the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) based in Lower Manhattan to await processing, his hands were cuffed in front. He was kept in the company of federal agents while Assistant U.S. Attorney, Michael Chertoff, worked out bail conditions with Cannone’s defense attorney before the Court. Cannone's personal physician was also present at the bail hearing.

On June 28, a federal judge ruled that the very sickly consigliere be confined to his home with an ankle monitor to track his movements 24/7. After relinquishing his passport, he was kept free on a $500,000 bail package, secured by property.

He, as well as Gambino underboss Aniello Dellacroce, who was also deathly ill with cancer, would each later plead “not guilty” through their respective attorneys.

Side Note: Cannone had several well-documented and life-threatening medical conditions such as a recent triple heart bypass surgery and a ruptured aorta. These were serious issues to be considered by any judge.

Steve Cannone heads to court.

The fifteen-count, all-star lineup of the RICO indictment included four LCN bosses, one acting boss, two underbosses, one consigliere, and one soldier. This case was referred to as “The Commission Case.” As the Bonanno consigliere, Cannone was charged with having participated in all Bonanno Family decisions, and many activities of the “Commission.”

He was specifically hit with racketeering counts for having approved and then directed the 1979 murder of his former boss Carmine Galante, and the murders of Lilo’s two dining companions that day, capo Leonardo (Nardo) Coppola and restauranteur and soldier Giuseppe (Joe) Turano. There were additional counts of bribery and obstruction of justice for trying to influence potential witnesses as well as various other overt racketeering counts.

As a Commission member, Cannone was one of several in Cosa Nostra’s hierarchy responsible for giving the order to kill Galante. Key evidence of his participation in the murder conspiracy was provided to the jury who heard the case.

The FBI provided film reels taken on the sidewalk in front of the infamous Ravenite Social Club on Mulberry Street of Cannone shaking hands, hugging, and giving congratulatory Continential-style kisses to top capo Alphonse (Sonny Red) Indelicato and his son, then up-and-coming soldier Anthony (Bruno) Indelicato, literally minutes after the young mafioso allegedly committed the storied gangland hit inside Joe & Mary’s Restaurant in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

Steve celebrates Galante's demise with other Family members.

On November 19, 1986, guilty verdicts were returned against the leaders of what federal prosecutors had declared was the summit of underworld power in this country. Men with notorious names like Anthony (Fat Tony) Salerno, (The Snake) Carmine Persico, Anthony (Tony Ducks) Corallo, and Salvatore (Tom Mix) Santora. They were sent up the river for the rest of their natural lives. Each was sentenced to a whopping 100 years in federal prison and fined $250,000.

The young mafioso Bruno Indelicato received a “break” of sorts. He got a mere 40 years behind bars and a $50,000 fine. It technically made him eligible for eventual release after he served several decades in prison, of course.

Some of the indicted mafiosi didn’t last long enough to even sit through the criminal trial. For these defendants, the trial results didn't matter

A good example is Gambino boss Paul Castellano who would be slaughtered in a fabled hit on the streets of Manhattan only months later in December of 1985. A second key defendant was Castellano’s longtime underboss Aniello (Neil) Dellacroce, who died of cancer only several weeks before that. Bonanno boss Philip (Rusty) Rastelli was another defendant severed from the case early on because of serious, life-threatening health issues.

Our man, the venerable Steve Cannone, would never make the trial date either. He succumbed to the grim reaper quietly at home, dying of natural causes from a faulty ticker, on September 11, 1985.

The shadowy Stefano (Stevie Beef) Cannone was 72 years old.

Until next time...”The Other Guy!”

Stevie Beef Cannone on Mob Fireside Chat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AcUI7UOAm8

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