In the late 1970s, after the Bonanno crime family reopened its books for Mafia membership in January 1976, Alphonse “Sonny Red” Indelicato was inducted as a made man in the first wave of ceremonies. Within just a couple of years, he had risen to the rank of captain. But the crew he commanded included several mobsters whose own careers would take dark and violent turns. William “Cappy” Capparelli was one of Sonny Red’s men.
Born in the 1930s, he was indicted in 1967 at age 32 for the murder of a 300-pound bouncer named Stephen Setford. According to newspaper reports, Capparelli surrendered to a Queens detective six months after the indictment, outside Astoria General Hospital. The murder took place after an argument in an Astoria bar, during which Setford allegedly slapped a barmaid. Police said she made a phone call, and four men, including Capparelli, arrived a short time later, resulting in a confrontation where six shots were fired.
Setford was struck twice in the chest and his body was later found in the street. Capparelli was reportedly inducted into the Bonanno family around March 1976, at age 41, once the membership books had reopened. He was later believed to have served in the crew of Alphonse “Sonny Red” Indelicato. However, when Indelicato was murdered in 1981 along with two other captains, Capparelli avoided the ensuing internal power struggle because he was already incarcerated serving a narcotics sentence.
After the infamous “three captains” hit, he was moved to another crew and by 1985 was under captain Frank Lino. In 1993, Capparelli pleaded guilty to grand larceny and extortion for shaking down contractors and forcing them to launder money. Another mobster in Sonny Red’s crew was Joseph “Joe Beans” Campanella. Born in 1938, he was inducted into the Bonanno family around 1978 at age 40.
He became most famous for being part of the hit team that killed the feared Carmine Galante in 1979. Many reports state it was Russell Mauro who personally fired the fatal shot into Galante, though Campanella was part of the crew involved in the assassination. Russell Mauro was also part of Sonny Red’s crew. Some sources claim Mauro was killed because Bonanno family boss Joe Massino viewed him as a threat.
However, after Massino became an informant, he stated that Mauro was probably killed because of his drug use and wild behavior, including shooting up a Gambino family bar. The crew also included Trin Cera, who was inducted into the Bonanno family in 1977 at age 40, and JB Indelicato, a long-time soldier inducted in the same year at age 46. Another member was Calabro, inducted in the spring of 1978 at age 50. The three captains—Sonny Red Indelicato, Dominic “Big Trin” Trin Cera, and Philip “Phil Lucky” Giaccone—were all gunned down in May 1981 in what became known as the “three captains hit.
” Their rebellion against imprisoned boss Philip “Rusty” Rastelli led to their deaths, but many of the men in Sonny Red’s crew survived by being incarcerated, switching allegiance, or being moved to other crews in the aftermath.