July 12, 1979, Bonanno family boss Carmine Galante was eating on the private back patio at Joe & Mary’s Italian-American Restaurant at 205 Knickerbocker Ave. in Bushwick, Brooklyn.
At the time of his final meal, Galante, who had been the head of the Bonanno family for five years, was embroiled in a tense series of power plays between the five families of the New York City mafia.
The Brooklyn restaurant was a dining hotspot for mob members, but Galante wasn’t worried about a potential attack from a rival family. He was even quoted saying, “No one would ever kill me, they wouldn’t dare.”
A distant relative of Galante’s own Joe & Mary’s and he, and his two bodyguards, gathered at the restaurant to say goodbye to a relative who was going on vacation. The men had just finished eating their meal so Galante lit a cigar.
Suddenly, at roughly 2:45 PM, three men in ski masks rushed inside the restaurant and riddled Galante with bullets and shotgun blasts before fleeing the scene. Galante and two other men were killed in the barrage of bullets. His two bodyguards did nothing to protect him in the attack and afterward, they just left the restaurant. (source)
Galante was slain because he hijacked the position of boss from the Bonanno family’s official boss while that boss was in prison. Rastelli communicated his plight to members of the Commission. The Commission—having grown tired of Galante what with his hatred of the Gambino family, small army of zips, moves to control drug trafficking, psychotic need to be Bonanno boss, and ongoing efforts to expand his power base—agreed and approved the hit. (source)
