Mobster Joseph "Big Joey" Massino taped Vinny Basciano ordering hit on Randolph Pizzolo

The Battle of the Bonnano family bosses kicked off in Brooklyn Federal Court today.
Former mob boss Joseph "Big Joey" Massino has started testifying against his successor Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano, who’s on trial for ordering the murder of a mob associate.
"He told me that he had him killed," Massino told the jury, describing a conversation about murdered Bonnano associate Randy Pizzolo that the two had in prison while the boss-turned-informant was wearing a wire.
"He said he was a scumbag, a rat, a troublemaker, a bad kid," Massino said of Basciano’s reasons for wanting him dead.

Randy Pizzolo had been bragging that he was the "only real killer" in the family, prosecutors said.
"Pizzolo, a Bonanno crime family associate lay dead, shot seven times, with bullets in his lower back, his neck, and the back of his head," US Attorney Nicole Argentieri told the jury in her opening remarks.
"He wore a rhinestone belt buckle with the initials "RP". In his pocket were several rolls of soggy currency - more than $1,000," she said.
Pizzolo clutched a cigarette lighter in his right hand and his eyes were still open, when the body was found, she said.
"Randy Pizzolo was killed on orders of that man - Vincent Basciano, the former acting boss of the Bonanno crime family," Argentieri told the jury.
Basciano’s lawyer, George Goltzer, said "The government couild not have it more wrong."
"The evidence will show that the order to kill was not given by Vincent Basciano," he said.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/forme...K#ixzz1JKRyAEw8

Mafia turncoat: Joseph Massino, ex-Bonnano boss, testifies against fellow mobster Vinny Gorgeous

BY John Marzulli
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

So much for Omerta.

Ex-Bonnano heavyweight Joseph Massino made Mafia history Tuesday, becoming the first crime boss to take the stand as he testified against his successor.

As mob legends turned in their graves, Massino fingered Vincent \[Vinny Gorgeous\] Basciano in the killing of a crime family associate.

Asked if there was anyone in the room who was a fellow member of his crime family, the turncoat boss pointed directly at Basciano.

"That man in the gray suit sitting there," he said.

Massino then described how he secretly taped Basciano in prison talking about killing mob associate Randolph Pizzolo in 2004.

"He told me that he had him killed," Massino explained to the jury. "He said he was a scumbag, a rat, a troublemaker, a bad kid."

Taking the stand in Brooklyn Federal Court, Massino wore a blue, two-toned warm-up jacket, zipped-up halfway to reveal a white undershirt and bowling ball sized gut underneath.

The 68-year-old Massino, who has been jailed since 2004 in eight gangland murders, said he had been a member of the Bonnano family for 33 years.

When asked what his last title was, Massino replied, "I was the boss - official boss."

"Was anyone above you?" assistant U.S. Attorney Taryn Merkl asked.

"Nobody," Massino replied.

Massino described what he did for the crime organization as, "murders, responsible for the family, make captains, break captains."

Massino became the highest-ranking Mafia rat when he agreed to cooperate to avoid the death penalty in the slaying of a Bonnano capo.

This is the second trial for Basciano on charges of killing Randolph. In 2007, a mistrial was declared in the murder case because of a hung jury, although Basciano was convicted of racketeering charges.

He faces the death penalty if convicted.

jmarzulli@nydailynews.com

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