Philip "Rusty" Rastelli, 73, a former organized crime boss in New York City who also was known for his tempestuous marriage, died of liver cancer June 24 at a hospital here.
He had been released from federal prison in Springfield, Mo., where he was serving a 12-year sentence for labor racketeering, because he was dying.
Until recently, Mr. Rastelli was boss of the Bonanno crime family, one of the city's five Mafia groups, and presided over its virtual disintegration during the 1980s.
He emerged as a leader of the family in the early 1970s, after the retirement of family founder Joseph Bonanno. His power increased with the slaying in 1979 of Carmine Galante.
Mr. Rastelli spent about half his life in prison, according to his attorney. Although he continued to command the loyalty of a faction of the Bonanno family from behind bars, his effectiveness after 1976 was greatly diminished and the family became weaker.
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One senior organized crime prosecutor said the Bonanno idea of a family meeting was "to sit around in a circle and shoot at each other."
Mr. Rastelli's wife, Connie, was gunned down in 1962, reportedly after she told federal agents that her husband was a drug trafficker. Before that, it was said that she had participated in the family's rackets.
But upon learning of what she believed to be her husband's infidelity, she beat a younger woman she believed to be her rival unconscious. A later confrontation between husband and wife ended with her shooting him twice. When she was told her marriage was over, she threatened to talk to law enforcement officials.
Several mob officials were convicted with the help of information she supplied. But before her husband was indicted, she was killed.
Mr. Rastelli's survivors include a brother, Carmine, who is serving a sentence in the federal prison at Allenwood, Pa.
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