Paul Sciacca

Born in Sicily on June 15, 1909, Paul Sciacca was a member of the Bonanno Family who was catapulted to acting boss during the Family's volatile Banana War years. He was a very low-profile, longtime member of the Bonnano Family who only had one arrest in his lifetime.

For many years, he lived in Brooklyn. By the early 1960s, he settled into a high ranch-style home at 31 Lake Court in Massapequa in Long Island.

Paul Sciacca

Sciacca was a business-oriented soldier who, early in his career, gained partnerships in several large garment factories. He first operated Sands Fashions and later expanded with a second operation under the name S&S Garments Inc., both in Brooklyn.

At one point in the 1960s, his clothing firms won a government contract worth over $1,000,000 to manufacture military uniforms. This was a huge sum of money for that era and reflects the size and capacity of his “contract shops” to service the contract bid.

Sciacca was such a low-profile mob member that he was able to infiltrate and control the Hackensack Bank and Trust Co. of Hackensack, New Jersey, becoming a “director” on the board of the bank. For many decades, he blended into the “woodwork,” so to speak.

Choosing Sides

With the advent of the Bonanno War conflict in mid-1966, Sciacca was forced to take sides choosing to support his “compare” Gaspare DiGregorio in his bid for the big seat over Bonanno's son, Bill.

It’s unclear when Paul was “bumped up” to capo di decina, but by the time of conflict, he was indeed a “skipper” supervising a crew that included a brother of his.

As the war progressed, DiGregorio was clearly not up for the fight. He was a “weak sister.”

Gaspare DiGregorio

In time, DiGregorio stepped down, and Sciacca was promoted almost out of left field to the “Acting Boss” position.

He promoted several of his associates within the hierarchy, including Michael (Mikey Adams) Adamo, Frank (Frankie T) Mari, and Gaetano (Smitty) D’Angelo . These men were among the “powers” in the Family, “capable,” as they say, of the street fighting that would follow. Each was promoted to “Capo” status or higher.

In time, each would meet his maker with Adamo and Mari “disappearing” in one of the biggest blows to Sciacca’s position in 1969. In 1967, Smitty D’Angelo was machine-gunned to death in a high-profile triple killing at the Cypress Gardens Restaurant in Ridgewood, Queens.

The other two murder victims were Smitty’s brother, James, and Frank (Frankie 500) Telleri, a major policy banker for the Family.

Another victim of the fighting was Pietro (Skinny Pete) Crociata, an old-timer who had only been promoted to consigliere a short time before Joe Bonanno’s gunman shot him six times near his Ridgewood home. He survived.

Crociata was a close friend and advisor to Sciacca counted on for swaying some of the “old-timers” toward the Sciacca “rebel” faction.

In spite of support from Commission members Stefano Magaddino , Carlo Gambino, and the young boss Joe Colombo , Sciacca found it hard to consolidate the splintered factions of the Family.

The massive publicity generated over the years by the bloodletting also exposed Sciacca to a level of law enforcement scrutiny that unsettled him.

Too Much Publicity

DAs and federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Nassau called him before several local and federal grand juries investigating the war, which resulted in “contempt of court” charges.

A year or two later, Sciacca was indicted in a nationwide sweep of dozens of wholesale heroin traffickers. He was picked up at his home at 31 Lake Ct. in Massapequa one dawn by FBI agents. He and his close aide, Michael Casale, were charged with drug conspiracy.

Despite the big splash arrest, the charges were quietly dropped in the ensuing months due to a lack of evidence.

But all this was too much for Sciacca, who wanted nothing more than to fade quietly into the rafters in his retirement years.

Paul Sciacca leaves court.

Subsequently, he stepped down in favor of Natale (Joe Diamond) Evola, an influential and highly respected capo from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Evola was able to consolidate the troops largely thanks to his reputation and respect.

The Commission fully supported Evola, a veteran garment racketeer and heroin dealer. He was a defendant in the 1959 heroin trial of Vito Genovese and Carmine Galante.

Unfortunately, Evola didn’t last long. He died in 1973... but that’s a story for another day.

Paul Sciacca, on the other hand, had quietly lived out his days on the south shore of Long Island. He died on August 27, 1986, at the age of 77.

Having only sustained a burglary arrest in his youth, the contempt of court charge, and the ill-fated narcotics conspiracy charge in 1971, Sciacca had a relatively smooth “career” in his chosen profession.