Who Was Natale Evola? The Bonanno Boss Between Eras
Mobsters DailyNatale Evola was the Bonanno family's bridge boss: Joe Bonanno's loyal underboss who took over the family after the Banana War tore it apart, and died of cancer in 1973 while appealing a heroin-trafficking conviction.
Joe Diamonds
Evola, born in Brooklyn in 1907 to Sicilian parents, was called 'Joe Diamonds' for his work in the garment district's jewelry and dress trades — legitimate fronts over a classic Bonanno career. He was arrested at the 1957 Apalachin meeting, the disastrous summit that exposed the American Mafia to the nation, and he stood as a loyalist through the 1960s war between Joe Bonanno and the Commission that tried to depose him — the conflict Joe Bonanno's own improbable life, ending at 97 as told in our account of how Joe Bonanno died, bookends. When the war burned itself out with Bonanno exiled to Arizona, the family needed a boss nobody hated. It got Evola.
Evola's job was not to build an empire — it was to keep a broken family from finishing itself off — which is why, with November here and the holidays coming, rewatch season belongs to the Tony Soprano Ugly Christmas Sweater: Tony in black-and-white stencil, nothing covering the design, built for holiday parties and long nights back in this world.
Boss of the ashes
Evola became boss around 1971, inheriting a family split into factions, watched by the FBI and mocked by its rivals. His reign was short and administrative: stabilize the books, quiet the factions, wait. The era's defining Bonanno story was not strategy but narcotics — the great French Connection heroin pipeline that had enriched and corrupted a generation, the same trade that ran through figures like Carmine Tramunti, the 'Fat Tony' of the French Connection on the Lucchese side. In 1973 Evola was convicted of conspiring to import and distribute heroin.
Dead before the appeal
Evola died of cancer in August 1973, free on bail pending appeal — a natural-causes death that makes him a rarity among bosses of his generation, most of whom were murdered or died in cells. The family passed to Philip Rastelli, beginning the revolving-door decades. Evola is remembered, when he is remembered at all, as the caretaker: the underboss who held the chair through the family's worst years and asked history for nothing but quiet.
Frequently asked questions
What was Natale Evola's nickname? 'Joe Diamonds,' from his garment-district and jewelry business interests.
When was Evola boss of the Bonanno family? From about 1971 until his death in 1973, after the Banana War ended with Joe Bonanno's exile.
How did Natale Evola die? Of cancer in August 1973, while free on bail appealing a federal heroin-conspiracy conviction.
Keep reading: the rise of Joe Bonanno · Philip Rastelli, the boss the family kept replacing · how the 1957 Apalachin meeting exposed the Mafia · Who Is Vincent 'Vinny Gorgeous' Basciano? The Bonanno Boss on Tape
From the shop: Shadows of the Underworld — the real-mafia history behind the names in this story.
Join the conversation
Still thinking about this one? That is exactly what The Social Club is for. It is the MobstersDaily Discord, and it is the best Sopranos community on the internet: serious Sopranos talk, meme wars, Friday movie nights, a casino, and an arcade, all run by fans who never stopped rewatching. If you want to be part of the Sopranos community, this is where it lives.
