John Tartamella (1892– July 12, 1966) was

consigliere Consigliere ( , ; plural ) is a position within the leadership structure of the Sicilian, Calabrian, and Italian-American Mafia. The word was popularized in English by the novel ''The Godfather'' (1969) and its film adaptation. In the novel, a c ...

for over 30 years to

Joseph Bonanno Joseph Charles Bonanno (born Giuseppe Carlo Bonanno; ; January 18, 1905 – May 11, 2002), sometimes referred to as Joe Bananas, was an Italian-American crime boss of the Bonanno crime family, which he ran from 1931 to 1968. Bonanno was born ...

and his family. He was considered a very wise and shrewd elder-statesman who was respected throughout La Cosa Nostra.David Critchle
The Origin of Organized Crime in America
The New York City Mafia, 1891-1931 page 77 Born in

Castellammare del Golfo Castellammare del Golfo (; scn, Casteddammari; la, Emporium Segestanorum or ) is a town and municipality in the Trapani Province of Sicily. The name can be translated as "Sea Fortress on the Gulf", stemming from the medieval fortress in the ha ...

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

, he "devoted much of his time to the cause of the barbers". His son was Sereno (Bobby T) Tartamella - a Bonanno soldier and top aide to rebel faction bosses Gaspare DiGregorio and

Paul Sciacca Paul Sciacca (June 15, 1909 – August 27, 1986) was a New York City mobster who succeeded Joseph Bonanno as boss of the Bonanno crime family in 1968. He was succeeded by Natale Evola in 1971. Bonanno family war In 1964, a rivalry in the B ...

acting as a courier between them and

Stefano Magaddino Stefano "The Undertaker" Magaddino (; October 10, 1891 – July 19, 1974) was an Italian-born crime boss of the Buffalo crime family in western New York. His underworld influence stretched from Ohio to Southern Ontario and as far east as Montreal ...

, boss of the

Buffalo crime family The Buffalo crime family, also known as the Magaddino crime family, Buffalo Mafia, The Arm, the New York State crime family, the Upstate New York Mafia, and the Todaro crime family, is an Italian-American Mafia crime family based in Buffalo, Ne ...

during the bloody "Bonanno War" during the mid/late 1960s. Sereno became a union official for the Beauty Culturist Union. He also was well known for his "joke telling", able to make even the most vicious mob boss smile. Tartamella worked as a union organizer in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

where he led his "local" into the CIO after a break with the

AFL AFL may refer to: Sports * American Football League (AFL), a name shared by several separate and unrelated professional American football leagues: ** American Football League (1926) (a.k.a. "AFL I"), first rival of the National Football Leagu ...

. He was expelled by the Italian-American Labor Council "because of his radical views". On July 12, 1966, Tartamella died of natural causes at his home in

Copiague, New York Copiague ( ) is a Hamlet (New York), hamlet on Long Island (and census-designated place) in Suffolk County, New York, Suffolk County, New York (state), New York, United States. The population was 23,429 at the 2020 census. Copiague is an unincorp ...

References

1892 births 1966 deaths Bonanno crime family American gangsters of Sicilian descent American trade unionists of Italian descent People from Castellammare del Golfo People from Copiague, New York Consiglieri Italian emigrants to the United States {{Crime-org-stub