Michael (Mike Adams) Adamo: Caught in the Conflict

Michael (Mike Adams) Adamo was a capo in the Bonnano Family who was active in gambling and shylocking. For most of his mob career, he was a shadow who played a major role in the Family administration meetings, which resulted in Gaspare DiGregorio being selected as the first new boss of the Family after Joe Bonanno was ousted from leadership.

Michael (Mike Adams) Adamo was born in 1902. There is no positive information about whether his place of birth was in Sicily or America. By at least the early 1960s, he lived at 212 N. Walnut Street in North Massapequa on Long Island and alternately at 217 N. Chestnut St.

He had a brother, Antonio (Tony Adams), a Family soldier, and a cousin, Frank Bonomo , who was also a Family soldier.

Adamo's activities included gambling and shylocking . He had only one arrest on a charge of homicide and no convictions.

Michael (Mike Adams) Adamo

His associates included Gaspare DiGregorio, Paul Sciacca , Frank Mari, Michael Casale , Antonio Adamo, Frank Bonomo, Sereno Tartamella, and Nicholas DiStefano.

Many of his key Family members chose to locate very near to each other on Long Island, including Gaspare DiGregorio (Babylon), Anthony DiGregorio (Babylon), Paul Sciacca (Massapequa), Mike Casale (N. Massapequa), Nicholas "The Battler" DiStefano (Babylon), James Genna (Massapequa), and John "The Ambassador" Petrone (Massapequa). These men, among others, all lived within a roughly one to five-mile radius of one another.

In 1968, Adamo was said by the Nassau Rackets Squad to have been behind the recent growth of private “social clubs” operated in both Nassau and Suffolk Counties where high-stakes card games and shylocking took place.

Adamo was considered the “hidden force” behind the operations, with Capo Michael (Mike the Sailor) and Casale actually overseeing the activities through various Family associates.

Adamo was a shadow -- an unknown -- almost his entire career in the mob.

During the Family conflict of the mid-1960s, and with the advent of DiGregorio to the acting boss seat, Adamo and Casale, as his “right-hand man,” began to branch out both on Long Island and in New York City, absorbing and expanding various gambling operations on behalf of the new Family leadership.

Then, one day in early 1969, Adamo and Frank Mari suddenly disappeared. They had been picked up and chauffeured to a “top-level meeting” by Adamo’s cousin Frank Bonomo of Valley Stream, who dropped them off at a pre-arranged location in the city and departed. They were left to attend to what was supposed to be a Family business “meet." They were never seen again!

Adamo was a longtime veteran of the Bonanno Family. He served as a senior “Capo di decina” for many years until the advent of the Bonanno War in the mid-1960s. Law enforcement said he played a major role in the family administration meetings, which resulted in Gaspare DiGregorio being selected as the first new boss of the family after Joe Bonanno was ousted from leadership.

By late 1968, Adamo had been elevated to either consigliere or underboss, with Frank Mari as “Acting Boss.” Authorities believed this may have been the catalyst for their subsequent disappearance and presumed murder.

Law enforcement theorized that Mari, in concert with Adamo, attempted to “seize” the Family leadership from Sciacca and/or others in power within the Family without proper authorization from the ruling “Commission” governing Cosa Nostra. This led to their being “set up” for the slaughter and permanent disappearance.

Whatever the actual circumstances surrounding their disappearance, (Mike Adams) Adamo was 66 at the time of his “Houdini act!"

Until next time..."The Other Guy"

Michael (Mike Adams) Adamo: Caught in the Conflict

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Michael (Mike Adams) Adamo: Caught in the Conflict

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