In what’s being billed as a first, a boss of one of the five New York crime families took the stand Tuesday to testify in court for the government.
No New York boss had ever done that before, though it’s generally accepted that the code of silence aint’ what it used to be in the mob.
Joseph C. Massino, 68, who headed the Bonanno Crime Family in New York for 14 years, and is now behind bars, testified in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn against his successor, Vincent Basicano, who is accused of killing Bonanno associate Randolph Pizzolo, the New York Daily News reported. Basciano is already serving a life sentence for a murder and racketeering conviction in 2007.
Massino testified Tuesday that while in prison with Basicano, he recorded him talking about the killing, the Daily News reported.
“He told me that he had him killed,” Massino testified. “He said he was a scumbag, a rat, a troublemaker, a bad kid.”
The New York Times reported that Massino became a government snitch after his July 2004 conviction for murder and racketeering. At the time, the government talked about going after the death penalty against Massino. But Massino, as part of his plea, pleaded guilty to eight more murders and got two consecutive life terms. On the upside, his wife and daughter were allowed to keep their homes.
After his conviction, the Times reports, that Massino offered up info that Basciano was plotting to kill a federal prosecutor and U.S. District Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis, who is presiding over the current trial.
Attorney Barry Levin, who represented Basciano in a 2006 trial, told the Times that Massino was a “pathological liar” and that the government “had welcomed him with open arms only to prove they could break a boss.” He also said the prosecution was a waste of millions of dollar of government money considering Basciano is already serving a life sentence.
Basciano faces a possible death sentence if convicted.
