Son of a pioneer American family of Swiss-English descent, Bonelli was born in Kingman, Arizona and moved to Los Angeles in 1912.

[4] Bonelli, who was seen as an opponent of the George E. Cryer administration, declared in his inaugural address after being elected president that the council should "use its efforts to prevent the police department from being swayed from its duty by 'outside control.

'"[5][6] Nevertheless, when Bonelli himself was running for mayor in 1929, he was criticized for sending an appeal for votes and an attack on Chief James E. Davis and the Police Commission in letters bearing his office title to two thousand members of the department.

[7][8] As a council member, he was a supporter of a $6 million bond issue that would develop a city-owned airport on any one of the three sites — Mines, Vail and Sesnon — then under consideration.

Bonelli was indicted by a Los Angeles grand jury in November 1939, along with six others, on charges of soliciting bribes in a $10 million "annual liquor license pay-off scandal.

"[10] A series of articles in the Los Angeles Mirror in 1953 accused Bonelli of a long involvement in kickbacks on liquor licenses, bribery and criminal associations.

[12][13] He had a running battle with the Los Angeles Police Department and Harrison Gray Otis's and Harry and Norman Chandler's Times — which he likened to "a black-jack, a bludgeon, a weapon to be used in behalf of their friends and against their enemies."