Background
Angelo Bruno was born around 1911 with the born name of Angelo Annaloro in Villaba, Sicily. Raised in South Philadelphia, where his parents operated a small grocery store.
Angelo Bruno was born around 1911 with the born name of Angelo Annaloro in Villaba, Sicily. Raised in South Philadelphia, where his parents operated a small grocery store.
Angelo Bruno was arrested in 1935 for operating an illegal still above his father's business, and in 1940 for possession of illegal gambling receipts. Apart from another gambling arrest in 1953, he remained out of jail until 1970, when he was remanded (until 1973) for refusing to answer questions put to him by the New Jersey Commission of Investigation. In 1956, because of his success in the Philadelphia rackets, Bruno was made underboss, second in command, of the crime family. By 1959, he was named boss, a rank he would hold for the next twenty-one years, during which time his criminal influence would extend into New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and New York.
Known as the "Docile Don" because of his reputation for seeking nonviolent, negotiated solutions to problems, Bruno survived anticrime campaigns in the 1960's and 1970's relatively unscathed. A combination of cunning and shrewdness enabled him to avoid arrest.
In fact, he reported and paid income taxes on earnings from a vending machine business that he owned legitimately. This business in particular provided him with the expertise and knowledge to penetrate the lucrative casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey. His success in legitimate enterprises and the decision to permit other crime families opportunities in and around Atlantic City produced tensions within his organization. Bruno's talent in legitimate business may have been his undoing.
He was increasingly cut off from the street crime upon which many of his subordinates depended, and their discontent mounted: a struggle for control of the family instigated by his top associates would eventually lead to Bruno's assassination. The Bruno crime family was not an illicit enterprise as such. Rather, it was a power structure, membership in which provided distinct advantages in carrying on illegal activities.
The organization fashioned by Bruno created partnerships in various illicit enterprises, thereby spreading and minimizing risks, and making it possible to exploit capital resources and expertise. In gambling and loan-sharking operations, for example, associates of Mafia members took a percentage of the profits earned from clients they recruited. Since their income was linked to their personal initiative, there was little need for much vigilance--everyone had an incentive to do well. And because these criminal enterprises were decentralized, the threat of criminal conspiracy prosecutions was minimized.
The system maximized independence, required low levels of administration, and insulated the family leadership from overt complicity in criminal activities. Among those who participated in family enterprises, a central principle was that the businesses of members or their associates were protected from raids by other members or by outsiders. This was a distinct advantage of membership or affiliation.
The Bruno crime family was part of a national system of crime organizations. This meant that its members could call upon contacts in other cities in their legal and illegal businesses.
Members, their associates, and their customers constituted a complex system of mutual obligations and exchange of favors. Members and associates of the Bruno family carried on their legal and illegal businesses within the informal framework of rules and obligations. The quasi-governmental functions of the family constituted the most important way that associations with the family had an impact on the business activities of those within its influence.
Bruno was killed by a shotgun blast to his head as he sat in his car in front of his South Philadelphia home.
After his death, the crime family was torn apart by warfare among its competing factions. By 1988, two family bosses who had conspired to kill Bruno were themselves killed, along with nine other Mafia members and their associates. A third boss, a protégé of Bruno's, was imprisoned for life. The strength and durability of the crime family that Bruno had carefully nurtured was severely and irreversibly damaged.
Like other prominent underworld figures, he disapproved of narcotics but could do little to stop drug dealing among his associates. He cleverly disguised his illegitimate businesses by forming partnerships and investing indirectly through friends and relatives.
Like many important organized crime figures, Bruno was still active as he approached his seventieth birthday. His chief criminal skills lay in his ability to blur the distinctions between underworld activities and legitimate business interests. The key to his longevity as an underworld leader was his capacity to ensure earnings for his associates and to minimize the violence characteristic of criminal enterprises. Few organized crime figures before him evaded notoriety and imprisonment as he had.
Bruno did not fit the image of the flashy, Capone-style gangster: he lived modestly with his wife Sue and two children and seemed more like a small-time businessman than a powerful mobster.
