Cowboy boot led to Gangsters discovery

Alphonse "Sonny Red" Indelicato was a capo of New York's Bonanno crime family, deeply entrenched in the world of organized crime. Born in 1931, he followed in his father’s criminal footsteps, rising to power within the Mafia.
Indelicato’s most infamous involvement was in the 1981 “Three Capos Murder,” where he, along with Dominick Trinchera and Philip Giaccone, conspired to overthrow the Bonanno leadership. Their plot was discovered, leading to their violent deaths. On May 5, 1981, Joseph Massino, a rising figure in the Bonanno family, lured the three capos to a peace meeting at the 20/20 Night Club in Brooklyn. Following Mafia tradition, they arrived unarmed.
The meeting turned into a bloodbath. When the signal was given, gunmen, including Montreal mobster Vito Rizzuto, stormed the room. Massino himself subdued Giaccone and prevented Indelicato from fleeing. In a storm of submachine gun fire, all three capos were executed, marking the brutal end of their rebellion.
Indelicato’s body was later buried in a Gambino-controlled lot in Queens, arranged by John Gotti. However, the burial was poorly handled. Weeks after the massacre, children playing in the area discovered Indelicato’s body when they spotted his distinctive red cowboy boots sticking out of the ground, ironically the source of his nickname, “Sonny Red”.
Although Indelicato’s body was found shortly after the murder, the remains of Trinchera and Giaccone were not discovered until 2004, identified by personal items buried at the same location. In 2005, Massino, seeking to avoid the death penalty, became a government witness and admitted to orchestrating the murders, earning a life sentence.