Tuesday, February 8, 2005
In Today’s column: GUESS AGAIN DONNIE BRASCO, THE 'LAST OF THE REAL GANGSTERS' IS TALKING, AL CAPONE FOREVER..., RALPH NATALE IS SENTENCED
In July 2004, a jury in Brooklyn convicted Joseph Massino, the boss of the Bonanno Cosa Nostra Family, of seven gangland murders and multiple other crimes involving loansharking, extortion, gambling, and money laundering. In one of the murders, Massino was involved in the killing of Dominick "Sonny Black" Napolitano, a captain in the Bonanno Family, who had unwittingly allowed FBI undercover agent Joseph Pistone to infiltrate the crime family, posing as “Donnie Brasco.”
Joseph "Big Joey" Massino Is A Survivor
After his arrest last November, 2004, Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano, 45, met "a high-ranking member of the Bonanno family" for a joint court appearance in federal court. Vinny Gorgeous allegedly proposed killing Brooklyn Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Andres, who has prosecuted scores of Bonannos, including Joseph "Big Joey" Massino, (his weight was once nearly 400 lbs.) the family’s boss. In January Andres was under 24-hour guard. Vinny Gorgeous took his street name from the beauty salon called Hello Gorgeous on East Tremont Avenue in the Bronx that he formerly owned.
On Thursday, January 27, 2005 another indictment charged Vinny Gorgeous in the December 2004 slaying of mob associate Randolph "Randy" Pizzolo, who was found lying face down with four bullet wounds late last year in an industrial section of Brooklyn.
Unbeknownst to Vinny Gorgeous, the FBI was recording his plotting with the help of "the high-ranking member." Vinny Gorgeous was to make Mafia history as the first gangster ever double-crossed by the official boss of a crime family.
Joseph Massino, 62, the Bonanno don and seven-time convicted killer, is the "high-ranking member" mentioned in the indictments. Big Joey has been cooperating with the feds since September, 2004. Big Joey directed FBI agents to a mob graveyard in Queens, the Ruby Street lot, where the bones of two wiseguys he ordered killed were found.
In fact, it was Big Joey Massino who recorded at least two prison conversations with Vinny Gorgeous in early January, 2005. Massino has exposed Vinny Gorgeous to the death penalty by giving the feds the key to two murders, including the rubout of an alleged Genevese boss's son.
Massino decided to help prosecutors indict Vinny Gorgeous, his street boss, on the Pizzolo murder charges, according to law enforcement and legal sources, as well as court records. Pizzolo's bullet-riddled body was found in Brooklyn near his brand new BMW on Dec. 1, 2004.
Massino told investigators that Vinny Gorgeous suggested murdering the chief crime family prosecutor, Greg Andres. The indictment detailed the discussions about killing Andres but did not charge Vinny Gorgeous with a related crime. Benjamin Brafman, Vinny Gorgeous's attorney, called the omission evidence that the alleged plot was "tough talk" that never became a criminal plot.
Word that Joseph Massino wore a wire to avoid lethal injection — and hold onto $10.3 million in mob booty — left defense lawyers reeling and wiseguys crazy with anger and disbelief.
Mob experts say that never in the history of the New York Mafia did an official boss of a crime family lay a trap like the one Massino sprang on Vinny Gorgeous. That betrayal ranks as one of the most stunning violations of omerta, the Mafia code of silence, in the history of American organized crime. Joseph Massino's decision to cooperate makes him the highest-ranking New York mobster to cooperate. In the 1990s Alphonse D'Arco, the acting Lucchese Crime Family boss, more of a caretaker leader, turned government witness. Joseph Massino secretly recorded Vinny Gorgeous plotting the assassination of a federal prosecutor.
Big Joey Massino was scheduled to be tried for the murder of Gerlando "George from Canada" Sciascia. Gelando Sciascia was found dumped in the Bronx in March 1999 with five bullet holes in his head and torso. The coiffed Sicilian ran the Bonannos's Montreal franchise. According to court documents, he quarreled with another captain, Anthony Grazino, over the latter's supposed cocaine use. Massino, the government claims, backed Grazino and said Sciascia "had to go." This is the one murder charge that doesn't date back to the Reagan years, and Massino could be executed for the crime because it occurred after '94--when a federal murder-in-aid-of-racketeering law was updated to include the death penalty.
On February 1, 2005 federal prosecutors signalled that they are going to remove the threat of the death penalty from Joseph Massino for his alleged participation in the murder of Gerlando Sciascia, since he is cooperating with investigators.
One hears that Adeline Massino, Joseph Massino's daughter, claims she has no idea why her father decided to become an informant. One hears that Joseph Massino is likely to lose his wife, Josephine Massino. Ostensibly, Josephine Massino, 61, was devastated by the news that her spouse had become a turncoat against Vinny Gorgeous. Josephine Massino claims that she was unaware of Joseph Massino’s decision to help the FBI to save himself from the death penalty and save some of his assets for his wife. As a part of the United States of America v. Joseph Massino et al. Defendants, 2004 judgment, Joseph Massino’s assets forfeiture includes the separate residences of his wife in Howard Beach and mother in Maspeth.
On Monday, January 31, 2005, after two months in jail on separate charges of murder, racketeering, arson and other crimes, Vinny Gorgeous pleaded "not guilty" to the charge that he killed mob associate Randolph "Randy" Pizzolo.
One wonders whether these claims are true or whether instead they are examples impression management propagated by Joseph and Josephine Massino. Now that Joseph Massino has saved his wife’s Howard Beach home and his mother’s Maspeth home, will either woman be able to continue living safely therein?
Cooperating Witnesses and the Bonanno Cosa Nostra Family
When we read statements made by Anthony Spero and/or Tony Green concerning the families of cooperating witnesses it is readily apparent that some high-ranking members of the Bonanno Cosa Nostra Family have radical opinions about the use of violence against the families of cooperating witnesses.
Anthony Spero
Anthony Spero is the aging and ailing former consigliere of the Bonanno Crime Family. He was indicted on a racketeering and murder charge and found guilty in 2001. Anthony Spero was sentenced to life in prison.
When Anthony Spero was convicted in 2001, he was the first member of the Bonanno hierarchy---boos, underboss, consigliere---to go down on racketeering charges in 15 years. The last Bonanno biggies to be convicted of racketeering charges went to trial in 1986---boss Philip "Rusty" Rastelli and then capo Joseph Massino.
Spero was charged with ordering three murders from 1990 to 1993, including the execution of a neighborhood thief who burglarized Spero's daughter Jill's apartment in 1991. A fourth murder charge was dismissed shortly before the jury selection process began.
Turncoat Alphonse D'Arco, the former Lucchese Crime Family acting boss, testified in court that Anthony Spero made statements in favor of the breaking of long standing mob taboos in regard to the mob's perpetration of violence against the family members of cooperating witnesses. These statements predate the recording of insensitive statements on the same topic spoken by Anthony "Tony Green" Urso, then the Bonanno Crime Family acting boss and acting cosigliere.
According to the Mike Claffey article, "Rat Fingers Mob Boss, Testifies on Bonanno Link," in the March 13, 2001 edition of the New York Daily News,
'One of the highest-ranking mob turncoats fingered accused murderer and racketeer Anthony Spero as the one-time acting boss of the Bonanno crime family yesterday.
Alphonse D'Arco, a former acting underboss of the Luchese family, detailed Spero's Mafia ties on the witness stand in Brooklyn Federal Court, where he proved a font of knowledge about mob lore and etiquette.
The trim, balding D'Arco is testifying for the 10th time in a mob case since he began cooperating with the government in 1991. His criminal career, he told jurors, began at age 14, when he punched out another youth with brass knuckles in Manhattan's Little Italy.
As top men in their respective families, D'Arco said, he and Spero met over the years to work out disputes over gambling machines and labor rackets.
At a 1991 meet, D'Arco testified, Spero "shocked" him by saying the relatives of mob rats, "women and children and everything, should be murdered." D'Arco said he was taken aback by the statement because it was an accepted mob rule that "you don't go into people's personal families."'
Anthony "Tony Green" Urso
High-ranking capo, James "Big Lou" Tartaglione, secretly agreed to tape Bonanno Cosa Nostra Family top-level meetings. The investigation captured suspects discussing the assassination of family members of cooperating witnesses.
"Why should rats' kids be happy, where my kids or your kids should suffer because I'm away for life." Anthony Urso, 67, then the Massino Family acting boss and acting consigliere, also known as "Tony Green," allegedly said during a Bonanno Family meeting. "If you take one kid, I hate to say it, and do what you gotta do, they'll....think twice."
Anthony Spero and Tony Green have radical opinions about the use of violence against the families of cooperating witnesses. These opinions form much of the social environment in which Joseph Massino's wife and mother find themselves. Joseph Massino's family will have to enter the witness protection program.
President Dwight Eisenhower's notion of a "row of dominoes"
continues to be used as a theory of political science. But, President Dwight Eisenhower's "row of dominoes" is also analogous to the study of contemporary organized crime.
If You Can't Beat 'em, Join 'em
In the United States of America v. Joseph Massino et al. Defendants, 2004, Joseph "Big Joey" Massino faced eight mob rats. It seems his court experiences with those rats had a great impression on Big Joey Massino. Today, Big Joey Massino himself is a mob rat.
Richard "Shellackhead" Cantarella, acting underboss, his son Paul Cantarella, and Frank Coppa Sr., the capo, were the first to break omerta:
Richard "Shellackhead" Cantarella, acting underboss, began to cooperate after being hit with charges of racketeering and the 1991 murder of New York Post deliver superintendent Robert Perrino. Perrino was an ex-cop who doubled as a Bonanno Family loanshark.
Paul Cantarella, Shellackhead's son, was accused of a kidnapping/home invasion robbery.
Frank Coppa Sr., capo, who began a three year stretch for securities fraud at a federal prison in Fort Dix in July 2002, was the first to roll over, agreeing to cooperate in early November 2002. Coppa Sr. was named in three extortion counts.
Salvatore "Goodlooking Sal" Vitale is the first underboss since Salvatore “Sammy Bull” Gravano to testify against his boss. Goodlooking Sal has been at the pinnacle of New York's underworld for two decades. Goodlooking Sal began to cooperate with the feds in the last week of April 2003. As a turncoat, Goodlooking Sal was instrumental in the July 2004 racketeering and murder convictions of Joseph Massino, his brother-in-law. Goodlooking Sal would have been a key witness at Massino's murder trial in 2006.
Vitale's decision greatly strengthened the government's case agains Massino and his confederates. Vitale took part in seven mob hits with Massino, according to court papers, and he is also an important witness against the leaders of other families.
There had been a paucity of high-level turncoats since 1991 when Salvatore "Sammy Bull" Gravano, the Gambino underboss and Alfonse "Little Al" D'Arco, the Lucchese acting boss, turned on the mob. Then along came Goodlooking Sal Vitale.
Goodlooking Sal knows the current crop of top guys in the mob having served as Massino's emissary with other families.
Massino and Vitale were hit with racketeering and murder charges January 9, 2003: Massino for the 1981 murder of Bonanno capo Dominick "Sonny Black" Napolitano, Vitale for the 1992 murder of Robert Perrino, the former New York Post delivery superintendent.
James "Big Louie" Tartaglione, a Bonanno capo and longtime Massino ally who wore a wire and tape-recorded dozens of conversations with top Bonanno Crime Family gangsters. Sources close to the jailed Massino say he was more personally hurt by the defection of Big Louie than he was of that of even his brother-in-law, Goodlooking Sal.
Frank "Curly" Lino, is the Bonanno soldier who began cooperating with the feds in 2003. He is charged with taking part in the 1981 massacre of the three insurgent Bonanno capos.
Joseph D'Amico was a member of Cantarella's crew, and the nephew of a Bonnano mobster who spent years on the New York Post payroll, the late capo Al "Al Walker" Embarrato, who died 2001 at the age of 91. D'Amico began cooperating in March, 2003.
Duane “Goldie” Leisenheimer, a little known mob associate of Irish and German descent, was a teenager growing up in Maspeth, Queens New York when he met Massino as the burly gangster was establishing himself as a wiseguy to be both loved and feared. Massino befriended the impressionable youngster, and used him to run errands and help out with his coffee truck wagon. Before long, Massino was a hero to young Goldie, much the same way a wide-eyed Henry Hill was portrayed in Goodfellas as he grew up with Lucchese wiseguys, according to a source familiar with Leisenheimer’s background.
But, a funny thing happened on the way to the United States of America v. Joseph Massino et al. Defendants, 2004, Massino’s last trial, Leisenheimer got married and became the father of twin sons. The boys are now 15, about the same age that Goldie was when he met Massino in the early 1970s.
Goldie changed his ways after starting a family. According to court records, on July, 2003 Leisenheimer pleaded guilty to racketeering charges and agreed to cooperate. He moved out of his home and was transferred with his family to a new location under the federal witness protection program.
Somebody once said, "tough times don't last, tough guys do." Big Joey Massino experienced the domino effect of organized crime.
President Dwight Eisenhower's "Row of Dominoes"
In a April 7, 1954 press conference, President Dwight Eisenhower introduced the Domino Theory, i.e. if Vietnam fell to communism, the rest of Southeast Asia would soon follow.
The Domino Theory was a main reason why the United States got involved in the war in Vietnam. See: http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst306/documents/domino.html
According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition, 2000, the Domino Theory is,
"1. A theory that if one nation comes under Communist control, then neighboring nations will also come under Communist control. 2. A theory that one event will set off a train of similar events."
When powerful men, whether confederates in a criminal organization or men engaged in a legitimate business, are under pressure, they behave in predictable ways. This is the point of the Domino Theory of organized crime.
The Domino Theory of Organized Crime emerges from definition number 2 above, i.e. "A theory that one event will set off a train of similar events."
The Domino Theory of Organized Crime
Domino theory the notion that when an individual who is strategically placed in an organized crime organization becomes a rat, other individuals of relative strategic value to the organization are more liely to follow, like dominoes falling in a line.
Will Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano Cut and Roll?
Joseph Massino's recent exhibitions of cut throat duplicity and treachery are just more evidence that everybody has a price, e.g. street sweepers, beggermen, spitoon cleaners, thiefs, kings, everybody has a price.
Now that Big Joey Massino has flipped, there is less reason for the rank and file in the Bonanno Crime Family to continue to obey the law of omerta. Who will Vinny Gorgeous foil by means of the rat betrayal?
Who Will Vinny Gorgeous Foil?
When Joseph Massino was first imprisoned, the Bonanno Cosa Nostra Family was governed by a three man ruling panel which consisted of Vinny Gorgeous, Anthony "Tony Green" Urso and Joseph "Joe Saunders" Cammarano. Tony Green, Joe Saunders and 25 others were hit with racketeering charges, based primarily on the testimonies of a slew of family turncoats, including Salvatore "Goodlooking Sal" Vitale. Massino brother-in-law and former Bonanno underboss.
Vinny Gorgeous might betray his predecessor Anthony "Tony Green" Urso to the feds. Joseph "Joe Saunders" Cammarano is another possibility.
As more and more significant players begin to rat, the level of interpersonal trust among members of the criminal organization falls to unprecedented lows. This fact will make it very hard for Vinny Gorgeous to find the kind of foil he will need to help him escape the death penalty.
Is Joseph Masino Currently The Biggest Elite Mob Rat of Them All?
Per the Tuesday, 30 November 2004 edition of the "Sho 'nuff Mob Study," i.e. "Is Whitey Bulger The Biggest Mob Rat of Them All?," we note that Joseph Massino, the Bonanno chieftain, became the biggest rat in the history of the American Mafia to try to weasel out of some of the $10.3 million debt he owes the feds. Therefore, the name “Joseph Massino” must be added to the "elite mob rats" list.
James J. “Whitey” Bulger has yet to cut and roll. Whitey Bulger has a very great top eschalon (TE) potential as a mob rat. If he surrenders or is apprehended and begins to cooperate, Whitey Bulger will do a lot of damage to a lot of people, both "legitimate" and criminal.
What Now, The "Bonanno Crime Family" Again?
Joseph Massino changed the name of the Bonanno Cosa Nostra Family to the “Massino Cosa Nostra Family” because Joseph Bonanno violated the code of omerta when he published A MAN OF HONOR: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOSEPH BONANNO, St. Martin's Press, ISBN: 0312979231. Federal wiretaps showed that Bonanno Crime Family’s rank and file were adhering to Joseph Massino’s order. Does anyone in the underworld still call the former Bonanno Crime Family the “Massino Crime Family?”
It will be interesting to see whether or not a "Massino Cosa Nostra Family" still exists and/or how long it will continue to exist.
Here's some text from the JOSEPH PISTONE/DONNIE BRASCO INTERVIEW conducted last year on GANGSTERS INCORPORATED. Sho 'nuff asked Donnie Brasco/Joseph Pistone (DP/JP) what, at the time, seemed to many to be a ludicrous question.
Sho nuff:
If he is sentenced to death, will Joseph Massino decide to turn state's evidence?
DP/JP: No. To me he is the last of the real gangsters. He won't talk.
See: http://gangstersinc.tripod.com/PistoneInterview.html
The Untouchables: Capone Rising (2006)
Will interest in Al "Scarface" Capone ever cease? Still another movie about Al Capone is 'in production.' The Untouchables: Capone Rising (2006) is "The story of Al Capone's arrival in Chicago, his dealings with cop Johnny Malone, and his subsequent rise to power." See: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0425602/
Brian Koppelman, see: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002718/, and David Levien, see: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0505522/, the script writers of both the "Knockaround Guys (2001)" and "Tilt (2005)," the television series, have the honors.
Antoine Fuqua, who had his project "Tru Blu" cancelled late last year, is scheduled to direct. See: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0298807/.
Why is the production called "The Untouchables?" Probably because Antoine Fuqua, Brian Koppelman, and David Levien et al. think that magic phrase is somehow more marketable. It's all about money.
Antoine Fuqua, Brian Koppelman, and David Levien et al. should just pick up a history book and include all the major players and events of Chicago gangland and it will be good.
Fuqua et al. go the made up Hollywood route, then, The Untouchables: Capone Rising, 2006 will suck.
Time Machine On History Channel: The St Valentine's Massacre, Feb. 14
On the 14th Time Machine will air a 2 hour segment on the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.
The times are:
10pm-12am PST, 10pm-12am EST, 8pm-10pm MNT., & 9pm-11pm Central.
Here's the description below:
Time Machine
February 1929: Al Capone takes on "Bugs" Moran in a battle for Chicago's underworld. Then: a burst from a Tommy gun and only one boss remained. Rare films and recreations offer the inside dope on organized crime's greatest mass murder. Narrated by Paul Sorvino.
RALPH NATALE IS SENTENCED
Ralph Natale, the former boss of the Philadelphia-South Jersey Cosa Nostra Family, is the first boss to testify in court against his own men.
On Friday, January 21, 2005, Ralph Natale, 69, the first mob boss to cooperate with authorities while still running a crime family, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Camden, N.J., to "13 years with time served," i.e. Natale will be given credit for five years already spent in jail.
Since federal prisoners routinely serve about 85 percent of their sentence time, Natale would have to spend about six more years in prison before he could be released.
Two other elite mob rats, Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano and Philip "Crazy Phil" Leonetti, were sentenced to about five years in prison despite their criminal careers and the multiple murders to which they had confessed.
Ralph Natale agreed to cooperate after being indicted on narcotics trafficking charges in June 1999. A twice-convicted drug dealer, he was looking at a life sentence when he struck the deal with the FBI that August. The case against Natale appeared airtight when he agreed to cooperate.
He pleaded guilty to the drug charges and to bribery and racketeering charges that included eight murders and four attempted murders.
Although he testified at four trials, the only person convicted of murder based on the testimony of Ralph Natale is Ralph Natale.
Ralph Natale was without question the only sitting mob boss ever to cooperate until Joseph Massino, the boss of the Bonanno Cosa Nostra Family, recently joined the rank.