Alphonse "Sonny Red" Indelicato was a capo in New York City's Bonanno crime family.
He is the father of mobster Anthony Indelicato.
In 1979 the Bonnano boss Carmine Galante was shot dead by Sonny Red's son, Anthony "Bruno"
Indelicato. Sonny Red Indelicato wanted to take over as boss but others in the Family disagreed
and wanted former boss Phillip Rastelli
(who was then in prison) to take charge. One of those in favor of Rastelli taking over was Dominick "Sonny Black" Napolitano. Sonny Red and
Sonny Black
were soon on a collision course.
On May 5, 1981, Sonny Red Indelicato and two of his associates, Philip Giaccone and Dominick
"Big Trin" Trinchera, were shot to death in an ambush in a Brooklyn social club. Indelicato's body
turned up three weeks later in a shallow grave in Queens, but the remains of the other two were
not unearthed until 2004.
Later it was known that Sonny Red's corpse was supposed to be hacked into pieces before it was
disposed of, but was instead simply buried in a hasty manner. Indelicato's body was wrapped in
a painter's drop cloth discovered by a pair of children who saw the heel of his cowbooy boot sticking out
of the ground. The two capos, Giaccone and Trinchera were dismembered and placed in plastic green
garbage bags.
The remains of Sonny Red
According to FBI agent Joe Pistone, the murderers involved in the assassination of Alphonse
Indelicato was Sonny Black, John "Boobie" Cerasani, Joe Massino, his future underboss and brother-in-law
Salvatore Vitale, Joseph DeSimone, Montreal mobster
Vito Rizzuto,
a life-long felon Louis Giongetti, Sicilian mobster Gerlando "George from Canada" Sciasca and Frank
"Curly" Lino. Benjamin Ruggiero, Sonny Black and John "Boobie" Cerasani were sent in after to clean
up the massacre and dispose of the bodies.
Alphonse's capo son, Anthony Indelicato, a.k.a. Bruno was supposed to be slain too, but he did not
turn up at the meeting that saw his father ambushed. FBI agent Joe Pistone, undercover with the mob
as "Donnie Brasco," was tasked with finding and killing Bruno, which quickened Pistone's being
removed from the operation.
Joe Massino, who later became boss of the Bonanno Family, was convicted in 2004 of ordering seven
murders, including those of Indelicato, Giaccone and Dominick Trinchera. The informant, Salvatore Vitale
(Massino's brother-in-law), confessed to being another one of the gunmen involved in the slaying.
The mob war following Galante's death was witnessed by FBI agent Joseph D. Pistone, who was
undercover as Donnie Brasco. In the movie, Donnie Brasco, Sonny Red was played by Robert Miano.
Unlike the movie, in reality, Joe Pistone was never involved with the murder of Alphonse Indelicato.
Indelicato was never ambushed in his home, but called to a Brooklyn social club with the promise of
peace talks.
Birth: February 25, 1931 - Brooklyn