Copyright 1986 The New York Times Company  
The New York Times
October 9, 1986, Thursday, Late City Final Edition
SECTION: Section B; Page 3, Column 5; Metropolitan Desk

LENGTH: 619 words

HEADLINE: SLAYING OF GALANTE IN '79 IS DETAILED AT MOB TRIAL

BYLINE: By ARNOLD H. LUBASCH

BODY:
A jury heard dramatic testimony yesterday from the son and daughter of the owner of the Brooklyn restaurant where Carmine Galante, the boss of the Bonanno crime family, was shot to death in 1979.

The testimony, presented in the Mafia commission trial of eight men in Federal District Court in Manhattan, provided the most detailed account so far of the murder of Mr. Galante and two others at Joe & Mary's Restaurant.

The owner's children, Constanza and John Turano, who were teen-agers at the time of the murder, testified in almost inaudible whispers about how their father, Giuseppe Turano; a family friend, and Mr. Galante were killed on July 12, 1979.

''I was in the kitchen,'' Miss Turano recalled, when Mr. Galante arrived. She said Mr. Galante, who was her grandmother's cousin, stopped to talk to her grandmother ''about old times.''

''He joined my father in the back for lunch,'' Miss Turano continued. She added that they were soon joined by a family friend, Leonard Coppola, and two other men, identified as Baldassare Amato and Cesare Bonventre.

Suddenly, at about 2:45 P.M., she heard her father saying ''What are you doing?'' Then she heard shots, she said, and she quickly began ''hiding behind the refrigerator.''

''I just saw people running,'' she said, adding that ''they had ski masks on'' and that ''they were carrying guns.''

Afterward, she looked into the rear patio of the restaurant, where her father, Mr. Coppola and Mr. Galante were ''lying on the floor.''

''I saw Baldo crouching behind a table,'' she said, referring to Mr. Amato, ''with a gun in his hand.''

After her brief testimony, her brother told of seeing Mr. Galante arrive, followed by Mr. Coppola, Mr. Amato and Mr. Bonventre. But when the prosecutor, Michael Chertoff, asked about details, he repeatedly said he could not remember.
 
'Afraid to Testify'

Discussing the reluctant witness outside of the jury's presence, Mr. Chertoff told Judge Richard Owen that ''he told me he was afraid to testify.''

Mr. Turano was prodded by the prosecutor into recalling that Mr. Amato and Mr. Bonventre had arrived wearing leather jackets, even though it was a hot summer day. The two men have been portrayed by the authorities as Galante bodyguards who conspired in the killing.

''Three masked men walked into the restaurant,'' Mr. Turano said, resuming his testimony, his head down and his voice low. He said one of the men pointed a gun at him and ''he told me not to move.''

As the men went into the rear patio, he said, he shouted a warning to his father, then he himself was shot and wounded by one of the gunmen.

''I heard shots going off,'' he continued. Then, in the rear patio, he found ''just the bodies.''

The Galante murder is one of the racketeering acts included in the charges in the trial. One defendant, Anthony (Bruno) Indelicato, is accused of participating in the murder.

In another courtroom in the same building, Mr. Amato is one of the defendants in the continuing ''pizza connection'' drug case. Mr. Bonventre was killed sometime after the Galante murder.

Before the testimony about the murder, a former undercover agent testified in the commission trial about a power struggle in the Bonanno family. The witness was Joseph D. Pistone, who retired recently as an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Mr. Pistone repeated his testimony from previous trials about how he infiltrated the Bonanno organization by posing as a burglar called Donnie Brasco. He said he had learned that ''the commission was the governing body of La Cosa Nostra, or the Mafia, throughout the country.''

He testified that there was a Mafia rule against killing a boss without the commission's approval.