Nicholas Angelo "Nicky Mouth" Santora (June 21, 1942 – October 27, 2018) was the reputed underboss of the Bonanno crime family.
Biography
Early life
Nicholas Santora was born on June 21, 1942, and became known in his teens as a tough mobster from New York City. He was the son of Modesto Santora, a sidewalk soldier for the Colombo crime family under boss Joseph Magliocco. Originally a member of a youth gang, Santora became a made man along with mobsters Dominick "Sonny Black" Napolitano, Benjamin "Lefty" Ruggiero and Joseph "Big Joey" Massino in the mid 1970s.
Santora became involved with the Bonanno family while boss Philip "Rusty" Rastelli was imprisoned. Rastelli's reign was threatened by Carmine "Lilo" Galante, who felt he was the rightful boss because he had been underboss and consigliere under boss Joe Bonanno. Santora started out in a crew led by Galante-supporter Michael "Mikey" Sabella, and became heavily involved with extortion, loansharking, labor racketeering, illegal gambling, truck hijacking, and murder for hire.
By 1978, Rastelli had heard rumors of Carmine Galante being the new boss of the Bonannos, but would not tolerate it. Another caporegime, Alphonse "Sonny Red" Indelicato, would be approached by Rastelli to organize the murder of Carmine Galante. Indelicato approached Santora, whose job was to deliver the message to mobsters Dominick Napolitano and Cesare Bonventre and report back to Indelicato. Since Sabella was loyal to Galante, it had to happen without Sabella knowing it.
On July 12, 1979, Carmine Galante was murdered just as he finished eating lunch at Joe and Mary's Italian-American Restaurant in Bushwick, Brooklyn along with friend Leonard Coppola and restaurant owner/cousin Giuseppe Turano. He was murdered by Anthony "Bruno" Indelicato, Dominick "Big Trin" Trinchera, Dominic "Sonny Black" Napolitano and Louis "Louie Gaeta" Giongetti, who were all hired by Alphonse Indelicato.
After the Galante execution, several Galante supporters, including Michael Sabella, were demoted, as Trinchera, Massino, Napolitano and Bonventre were all promoted to captains of the Bonanno crime family. It is suspected his death was arranged by the heads of the other Five Families in New York, who had decided Galante's greed and ambition over the control of the multimillion-dollar heroin business were a threat to all their interests. Philip "Rusty" Rastelli was also involved and remained boss of the Bonannos.
With Dominick "Sonny Black" Napolitano as capo, The Motion Lounge crew would receive massive income as one of the most profitable crews in the Bonanno family. With soldiers Nicholas Santora, Robert Caposio, John Cersani, John Zancocchio, Edward Barberra, Benjamin "Lefty" Ruggiero, Michael Sabella, Joseph Puma, Steven Maruca, Salvatore Farrugia, Antonio Tomasulo, Anthony "Fat Tony" Rabito, Frank DiStefano, Salvatore D'Ottavio, James Episcopa, and Mafia associate Joseph "Donnie Brasco" Pistone, who was actually an FBI agent working undercover.
Napolitano, after three years of work in Brooklyn, moved operations to Florida in 1980, where he and Donnie Brasco set up loansharking, illegal gambling, extortion, and racketeering operations with the permission of longtime Florida Boss Santo Trafficante, Jr. It was around this time that Santora would be put in charge of the entire Florida operation, along with Brasco. Back in New York, the leadership of Philip Rastelli had waned in popularity, as Alphonse Indelicato was seen as a more prominent figure as boss of the Bonanno family, which is why Napolitano moved operations into Florida, in hope of squeezing the rival faction out financially. Indelicato and two other captains, Trinchera and Philip "Phil Lucky" Giaccone began planning on taking over the family.
The three capos murder
Some of the clubs in Florida were eventually shut down due to local police and more pressure on organized crime. Eventually, they got back to New York, where the rival Indelicato faction had grown larger and more powerful. On May 5, 1981, just when a new war was about to break out within the Bonanno family, Alphonse Indelicato, Giaccone, and Trinchera were shot to death in an ambush at the 20/20 Club, a night club once run by Gambino crime family underboss "Sammy the Bull" Gravano. Indelicato's body turned up three weeks later in the Ruby street lot (a known Mafia graveyard) in Ozone Park, Queens, but the remains of the other two mobsters were not unearthed until 2004.