On this day‬ in 1981, Philip Giaccone, a Bonanno capo who was know as The Priest was shot and killed by Joe Massino loyalists in a Brooklyn Nightclub.

He was one of three capos killed that night, the other two were Trinchera and Indelicato.

One of the gunmen was Vito Rizzuto, the Montreal mobster, and John Gotti was responsible for burying the bodies as a favor to Massino. A few weeks later Indelicato’s body was found. In 2004 the bodies of Trinchera and Giaccone were discovered after 23 years of lying undiscovered, the following year in 2005 Massino pled guilty.

On this day in 1981, Philip Giaccone, a senior capo within the Bonanno crime family, was shot and killed alongside two of his fellow captains in what would become one of the most significant and far-reaching internal power struggles in the history of New York's Five Families. Giaccone, known by the nickname "The Priest," was 48 years old at the time of his death, a trusted and established figure within the borgata whose fate was sealed not by law enforcement, but by the ruthless political manoeuvring of an ambitious rival.

The murders took place at a Brooklyn club and were orchestrated by Joe Massino, a rising force within the Bonanno family who had grown increasingly threatened by a faction of powerful capos who opposed his authority and that of then-boss Rusty Rastelli. Giaccone was killed alongside fellow capos Dominic Trinchera and Alphonse Indelicato in a coordinated ambush that demonstrated the cold, calculated brutality with which internal Mafia disputes were so often resolved. The three men had reportedly been manoeuvring to seize control of the family, and Massino was not a man inclined to wait and see how that played out.

Among those present as a gunman that night was Vito Rizzuto, the powerful Montreal mobster and head of the Sicilian-rooted Rizzuto crime organisation in Canada. His involvement illustrated the transnational reach of American organised crime and the web of alliances that connected the New York families to criminal networks far beyond the city's boroughs. Adding another layer of notoriety to the evening's events, a young John Gotti — later to become the infamous Gambino boss known as the "Dapper Don" — was said to have assisted in the disposal of the bodies as a favour to Massino, underscoring the interconnected nature of mob loyalties during this era.

The aftermath of the killings played out over decades. Indelicato's remains were discovered just weeks later, but the bodies of Trinchera and Giaccone lay undiscovered for an extraordinary 23 years, finally located in 2004 after cooperating witnesses provided investigators with the burial sites. The following year, in 2005, Massino himself pleaded guilty to multiple charges, having made the historic and deeply controversial decision to become the first sitting boss of one of New York's Five Families to turn government witness.

The murders of Giaccone, Trinchera, and Indelicato remain a defining moment in Bonanno family history, a vivid reminder of how swiftly and violently power could shift within the ranks of American organised crime.