Leonardo Nardo Coppola, 40, was killed on July 12, 1979, at Joe & Mary’s Italian-American Restaurant on Knickerbocker Avenue in Brooklyn when masked gunmen walked through the dining area to a rear patio and opened fire at close range. The attack also killed Carmine Lilo Galante and Giuseppe Turano; the restaurant owner’s teenage son was wounded. Reports describe Coppola arriving about an hour after Galante and Turano, initially sitting apart before being drawn into the group that became the target.

Federal filings later portrayed the patio slaying as a planned execution tied to Bonanno crime family politics: shooters stole a getaway car, wore ski masks, and carried multiple firearms, then reported back into the Mafia hierarchy. The killings were used in the government’s racketeering case and the Mafia Commission Trial to illustrate organized crime’s methods of enforcing leadership changes. Anthony Bruno Indelicato was convicted in connection with the murders and, in January 1987, received a lengthy federal sentence and fine for the deaths of Galante, Coppola, and Turano.