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Non-Tech : Auric Goldfinger's Short List -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: StockDung who wrote (14505)	2/4/2005 7:38:46 PM
From: scion	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19428

An offers-over you can't refuse: Mafia home up for sale on eBay The Scotsman Tue 1 Feb 2005 JEREMY CHARLES thescotsman.scotsman.com IT IS an offer Mafia devotees will find hard to refuse - the home of Godfather Joe "Bananas" Bonanno has been put up for sale on the online shopping site eBay. Bonanno, boss of bosses of the New York Mafia, retired to the three-bedroom house in Tuscon, Arizona, after he gave up his life of crime due to failing health. The house, which boasts a swimming pool, several concealed safes and a bombproof shelter, has remained empty since the don died, aged 97, in May 2002. But now Bonanno’s family have decided to sell up and have put the house, with an asking price of $495,000 (£263,000), on the internet site along with a selection of his suits, ties and a grey Cadillac car with built-in anti-listening devices. Bonanno’s nephew, Anthony Tarantola, 45, is handling the sale."The price is negotiable, but I don’t think I’ll stray too far from there," he said. "It’s priced to sell. I’ve had a lot of interest, but at this point nothing firm. Quite honestly, the place has been empty since he passed away and we finally cleaned it out and are trying to move on, so to speak. It’s time to sell. "It’s a great family house in a great neighbourhood, and ultimately what I’d like to see is a family move in that could really enjoy it." Bonanno’s daughter-in-law Rosalie said: "He had a mystic aura about him and he still has a lot of admirers. We thought putting the house up for sale on the internet would be the best way to get the message out to as many people as possible." Throughout his long reign as a Mafia godfather, Bonanno spent hardly any time in jail - his longest stretch was 22 months, when he was convicted in 1980 of obstructing the course of justice. He was born in Sicily but moved to New York with his family as a boy. He was a close associate of Chicago mobster Al Capone but it was in New York that Bonanno’s crime empire lay, and where he built up his power in traditional Mafia rackets such as protection and smuggling. An "old school" mobster to the end, in his autobiography he always denied involvement with drugs and prostitution. Bonanno was the youngest-ever Mafia godfather to take control of his own "family" when he was only 26. Under his control, his New York empire prospered and extended into cheese and clothing factories as well as funeral homes. It was through his control of undertakers that Bonanno created the "double coffin" to dispose of victims - the body being placed under that of the official deceased. New York City police do not know exactly how many of Bonanno’s enemies were disposed of in this way but they estimate the figure is in the hundreds. In the mid-1960s a murder attempt on Bonanno’s son, Salvatore, sparked the so-called "Bananas War" during which dozens of rival mobsters were killed. Tit-for-tat killings continued for several years and the feud only ended when Bonanno suffered a major heart attack, forcing him to take a step back from organised crime. Bonanno’s crime family was said to be the inspiration behind many efforts to popularise the Mafia myth, including the Godfather series of books and films, and the television series The Sopranos. The family was also the subject of the film Donnie Brasco, based on the true story of an FBI officer who went undercover as a jewel thief to infiltrate the Bonanno family. The agent’s evidence has since put more than 120 Mafia members behind bars. • Italian police raided houses and hideouts around the Sicilian city of Catania yesterday and arrested 45 Mafiosi accused of cocaine trafficking, extortion and kidnapping. Among them was Giuseppe Ercolano, 68, who is believed to be the head of the clan and was released from prison a year ago.