Baldassare Amato
Baldassare Amato is a Sicilian gangster and a member of the Bonanno Mafia family in New York City. At age 18, he emigrated from Castellammare del Golfo, Italy, to New York City. He was one of two bodyguards to Carmine Galante who lured their own boss to the scene of his assassination in 1979. New York Times correspondent Ralph Blumenthal describes Amato as "...looking like a fierce Alain Delon, darkly handsome, a wave of thick black hair, deep-set sparkling eyes, full, sensuous lips." He told police that he was a deli owner.
In 2006, he was sentenced to life in prison for the 1992 murders of Sebastiano DiFalco and Robert Perrino. DiFalco was a restaurant owner, and prosecutors argued that Amato removed him so that he could take over his business. The Bonannos were concerned that Perrino, a delivery supervisor for the New York Post, would expose their infiltration of the newspaper's delivery operations.
