Mob boss Joe Bonanno looks chipper in this picture taken by photographers in sunny Arizona after his arrest on May 21, 1959, for conspiracy to obstruct justice regarding the 1957 Apalachin mafia meeting.
He was one of 27 mobsters arrested throughout the country that day, all of whom had attended the meeting, and all of whom were being charged with the same offense.
He was so chipper, he tried to shake the mayor’s hand, but the mayor was having none of it. He even joked with the waiting reporters, told them he didn’t know why he was being brought in, and then told photographers, “Have fun boys.”
Later, in November 1959, as his son Bill Bonnano was entering a courthouse to appear before a grand jury about organized crime in Arizona, he told questioning reporters, “Mafia? A fantasy, a monster created for public sensationalism.”
