Son of One-Time Mafia Chief Jailed for Role in Bogus Housing Repair Scheme

OAKLAND — The son of one-time Mafia chief Joseph Bonanno Sr. was jailed Friday for his involvement in a housing repair scam while officials consider a probation proposal to let him work for an AIDS researcher and lecture against crime.

Salvatore (Bill) Bonanno, 57, was arrested immediately after the ruling by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Joseph Karesh. Bonanno’s voice cracked with emotion as he hugged family members and shook hands with reporters.

Karesh scheduled a Sept. 15 hearing to determine whether to order Bonanno to begin a four-year state prison sentence or, as Bonanno’s attorneys have suggested, allow him to serve the time under house arrest, during which he would do clerical work for an AIDS researcher, make restitution and give college lectures on crime.

Bonanno was sentenced in March, 1986, but it was delayed pending appeals and to allow Bonanno to be tried in a federal mail-fraud case that also involved his brother. Bonanno was acquitted in that case. He had been free on bond most of the time since being indicted in the housing scam in 1981.

Served Nine Years

Bonanno previously has served nine years in prison for mail fraud and perjury in New York and extortion and probation violation in Northern California, said the prosecutor, state Deputy Atty. Gen. Derald E. Granberg.

Bonanno was convicted in December, 1985, on eight counts of a 19-count grand jury indictment charging conspiracy and grand theft of more than $100,000 in the late 1970s. He was convicted of bilking four elderly Alameda County women of $43,000.

According to trial testimony, Bonanno was a partner in a bogus home repair operation in which elderly women were approached with contracts for remodeling, roofing and floor repair jobs. Money from the scheme made its way into Bonanno’s mattress factory in Los Gatos, Calif.