The Bonninos

**The Bonninos**, also called the **Bonnino Gang**,are an organized crime syndicate, who serve as the main antagonists for the first half of *Guns, Gore & Cannoli*. Their boss, Sonny, had a wiseguy called Frankie kidnapped for information on the unexplained happenings that threw Thugtown into chaos, requiring Vinnie, who was hired by their rival family, to rescue him.

## Biography

The Bonninos, a typical Italian *cosa nostra*, are situated in Thugtown and control the southern part of the city, beginning at the harbor and ending at the river, that cuts through the city. They, like all Prohibition era crime families, specialized in the illegal smuggle of alcohol, imported from out of town, though they primarily, and most profitably, ran a speakeasy, featuring cabaret showgirls, dancers and strippers. They were widely known by the townsfolk, who often used their services and were good customers of theirs, even going as far as to publicly advertise with criers, who wore sandwich boards listing various offers. They were only rivaled by the Belluccios, another local mafia, nationally known for being a big player in the alcohol trade. The two were always at odds with one another, having escalated into a gang war prior to the Thugtown Incident, apparently for years.

On the 17th of March in 1928, while Saint Patrick's Day was commencing, one of their low-ranking members, a local wiseguy named Frankie the Fly, tried to tell the Don of the family, Sonny, that something terrible was going to happen. Apparently having not specified the danger or the boss simply not caring for Frankie's ramblings, Sonny paid him no mind, continuing business as usual. It was only some days later, that a city-wide unrest had broken out, apparently through excessive consumption of alcohol, dubbed "The Drunken Riots". As time went on, however, it became painfully clear that the "rioters" were out for more than just alcohol and vandalizing, having killed and cannibalized multiple policemen, before the Army was sent in.

Both crime families had already sealed themselves in their respective bases of operations, with patrols regularly keeping the zombies at bay and continuing the war through attacks on each other's defenses. Sonny had at this point come to the conclusion that Frankie had more knowledge on the riots than he thought, having remembered their talk on Saint Paddy's and orders his kidnapping to extract information out of him.

## Guns, Gore & Cannoli

While defending the outskirts of their nightclub, the Bonnino patrols were ambushed and killed by an unknown fedora-clad hitman, who then launched a full-on assault on their base. Sonny and some of his men wait for the assailant in the club's bar, as he fights his way through the front entrance and showrooms. He easily destroys their barricades and demands to be given the location of Frankie. Sonny refuses and sends his goons to kill him. Sonny flees to the back of the nightclub, where Frankie is held captive and interrogates him about the riots and the man looking for him. The attacker, a mobster named Vinnie, leaves a trail of bodies as he gets to the speakeasy's warehouse and battles Sonny and his remaining henchmen, which ends with Vinnie winning, who kills all the enforcers and executes the patriarch of the Bonnino gang with a shot through the head, ending the Bonninos' reign over south Thugtown and its nightlife once and for all.

## Known members

* Sonny Bonnino (The Don, Boss)
* Louie (Soldier)
* Cheech (Soldier)
* Frankie the Fly (Possibly made-man, either Soldier or Associate)
* Rusty (Associate/Client)

## Trivia

* The Bonninos, at least by name, are likely a reference to the Bonanno crime family, infamous for having once been the most brutal of the Five Families of New York City, popularly known for having been infiltrated and brought down by undercover FBI agent Joseph Pistone, alias Donnie Brasco.