Salvatore Bonito became a soldier in the Stefano Magaddino crime family of western New York. Based in Niagara Falls and Buffalo, the crime outfit's operations extended to Ontario and the Ohio Valley to the west. Bonito began his life in crime with a vagrancy charge in November 1935. Nicknamed "Georgie Raft" Bonito, was one of five men arrested in a counterfeiting operation. Federal agents and local police broke it up in April 1937. The ring flourished in an area from Ohio to Boston in the east. Later in his life Bonito was associated with gambling, particularly horse track betting.