| rdfs:comment | - Rastelli was born and raised in Maspeth, Queens in 1918. He had three brothers (Carmine, Marinello, and Augustus) and two sisters (Justina Devita and Grace Iacomini). Rastelli was married to Connie Rastelli. Rastelli was heavily involved in loansharking, extortion and drug trafficking activities before joining the Bonanno crime family. Rastelli also had a lunch wagon business. After moving to Greenpoint, Brooklyn where he lived until his incarceration, he met and became close friends with Dominick Napolitano, Carmine Galante, Joseph "Bananas" Bonanno and Joseph Massino.
|
| abstract | - Rastelli was born and raised in Maspeth, Queens in 1918. He had three brothers (Carmine, Marinello, and Augustus) and two sisters (Justina Devita and Grace Iacomini). Rastelli was married to Connie Rastelli. Rastelli was heavily involved in loansharking, extortion and drug trafficking activities before joining the Bonanno crime family. Rastelli also had a lunch wagon business. After moving to Greenpoint, Brooklyn where he lived until his incarceration, he met and became close friends with Dominick Napolitano, Carmine Galante, Joseph "Bananas" Bonanno and Joseph Massino. On December 3, 1953, Rastelli and an associate allegedly shot Michael Russo in Queens. However, Russo survived the shooting and Rastelli, fearing identification, went into hiding. Over the next year, Rastelli's wife Constance repeatedly approached Russo's wife Rose with an offer of $5,000 if her husband did not identify Rastelli. Rose refused the bribe each time. In early December 1954, Russo was shot again and killed in Brooklyn. On December 13, 1954, Connie Rastelli was indicted on charges of attempting to bribe a witness. No one was ever charged in the Russo murder. Constance Rastelli was a legend in the New York Underworld for her history of aiding her husband's career in crime, going so far as the drive his getaway car in several capers. She kept track of his gambling records and loansharking customers and managed his illegal abortion mills. When Rastelli was indicted, it was Constance who bribed the witnesses against him. She could be wildly jealous. Legend says that on one occasion concerning her husband's infidelities, she emptied a pistol at him, but missed every shot. Another time she reacted to his cheating by going to the FBI and swore out a statement that Rastelli was a drug dealer. She was visited by Lucchese narcotics boss "Big John" John Ormento, who warned to keep quiet. When she kept talking to the FBI the end came. She was shot to death by persons unknown in 1962. In 1969, in an attempt to restore order to the Bonanno family, the Commission appointed a three-man panel to run the family. This panel included Rastelli, Joseph DiFilippi, and Natale Evola.
|
