Over the last few months, Button Guys has been able to reconstruct the so-called “Tucson Regime” that served under retired Cosa Nostra boss Giuseppe (Don Peppino) Bonanno in his later years when he lived in Tucson, Arizona.
This crew consisted of approximately 48 men,19 of whom were named by the FBI as formally inducted Mafia soldiers or “made” members, who were previously affiliated with the old Joseph Bonanno Family back in New York City and had since relocated out to Arizona.
Through our research, Button Guys has identified another 29 more loosely connected hoodlums who were also associated with this crew. These associates were organized crime-type criminals who mostly had been local hoodlums in their own right before affiliating with Bonanno and his men.
Thereafter, most of these “semi-independent” hoods would occasionally engage in various activities with the soldiers and other associates of Joe Bonanno’s crew, running various types of frauds, thefts, confidence games, some bookmaking, other forms of gambling, etc.
But, in reality, during their later years, most of the soldiers residing in Tucson — many of whom were already advancing in age — had very little to do with Tucson’s home-grown criminals. That task was left to the younger crew associates, who engaged in more street-type activities.
Most of the older, more seasoned soldiers — the Bonanno Family’s actual “made men” — and older associates had either completely retired or became semi-isolated while remaining active by running small legitimate-type businesses for themselves.
Aside from the aforementioned laundry list of businesses Button Guys listed in our previous installment about Joe Bonanno’s life and career, here are another 13 smaller business endeavors that he and his men owned and operated at one time or another around the Tucson area:
