Turncoat Bonanno Boss Confidential: Joe Massino Lived As ‘Ralph Rogers,’ Enjoyed Food, Casinos In Cleveland Before Dying In Glen Cove

He was just a regular Joe named Ralph in his last years of life being lived out in the Witness Protection Program. Once, he was even recognized, almost outed as the former boss of bosses in the New York mafia living in hiding under an assumed identity in the Cleveland area. Nonetheless, it was a quiet, humble existence for a man who was the Big Apple’s last old-school mob boss to die free and the only one to ever wire-up and testify against the mafia in open court.

New details have surfaced regarding Massino’s years in the Witness Protection Program where he spent the final decade of his time on earth in the American Heartland, Ohio to be exact, minus the last few months when he came back to the East Coast to see his family and die back at home in New York. Jeff Nadu at The Sitdown — A True-Crime History Podcast broke the news in a video posted Saturday afternoon.

Joe Massino, the highest-ranking mob boss ever to become a witness for the United States government died at a Glen Cove nursing home on Long Island on September 14, 2023, He was 80 years old and far removed from the glitz and glamor and pomp and circumstance of his previous life as a Godfather. According to sources, less than 75 people attended his wake and funeral.

While a don, Massino led the Bonanno crime family in one capacity or another for roughly 30 years until he flipped after a conviction at a racketeering and murder trial in 2004. Due to his historic cooperation, he walked out of prison in 2013 and was immediately placed in an upscale retirement community in a suburb of Cleveland and rechristened Ralph Rogers, per sources. Rumors and reports of time spent in Florida in the early years of his time in WITSEC were inaccurate.

Massino enjoyed the food of Cleveland’s Little Italy — “pleasantly surprised how the Midwestern Italian dishes compared to his old Queens stomping grounds — and the gambling at the city’s downtown casino, these sources claim. His favorite restaurant was the Timber Lodge in Medina, Ohio, about a 30-minute drive south of Cleveland’s city limits. Mostly rolling solo or with one close friend from his retirement home, he frequented the neighborhood TGI Friday’s and Ruby Tuesday’s. He spent a good deal of time at church taking counsel with a priest to try to atone for his past sins.

During one trip to the casino in the late 2010s, Massino encountered someone insisting he recognized him, per sources. Massino responded that the man was mistaken and that his name was Ralph Rogers. The man found him at his retirement home and confronted Massino again about his true identity, but again, Massino told him his name was Ralph Rogers and he was a born and bred Buckeye. Reporting the incidents to the FBI and U.S. Marshals, Massino was instructed to relocate, however, refused and never had any problems with the man again. Gambino mob soldier Carmine (The Bull) Agnello, the one-time son-in-law of deceased Gambino boss John Gotti (d. 2002), lives in Cleveland these days and reportedly has a small crew of NYC expats around him, per sources. It’s unknown if the person who recognized Massino was connected to Agnello or his alleged crew.

Ralph Rogers fuck off did he that’s hilarious

He shouldve at least use "Raffaelo" instead of Ralph lol it remindes of that kid from The Simpsons lol

In Massino's defense, he does look like a Ralph Rogers lol

Haha !

Cleveland IDK I would prefer a more sunny place Cali or Puerto Rico probably.

Ralph Rogers! Why not Fat Albert ?
seriously, Ralph Rogers sounds so damn fake.

Ralph Rogers obviously was a made up name to fuck with the guy who thought he recognized him. Will we ever know the real name he was given after entering Witness Protection? Probably not.

This name is so ridiculous it can’t be real. Where is this article from rushstreet? It sounds like another Scott Bernstein special

The name is so hilarious though I’m going with it, imagine a boss and murderer like that walking round as Ralph rogers

He should of said his name was Justin Time.

Or for that matter, so long as Massino was going that way...he might as well have called himself "Roy Rogers" WTF! Lol

Maybe an even better name for Joe Massino would have been, "Trigger," Roy Roger's horse. After all, that fat bastard was as big as a horse.

LOL. Hey I sent you a PM, check it out and get back to me.

Thank you!

And he was a Lifeguard when he was Younger and it’s funny he was Slim at one point still can’t Believe it

I din't like Massino a bit, but the man bothering him about his identity should have been taken in by the feds for stupidity. I can't see what his purpose was. Massino was wrong to rat, but since he was in witness protection, he would have been right in calling the feds who protect him in. He told the man once that the was not Massiono, then the guy followed him later to a nursing home? Strange.

The guy was a Sandwich Man he Never pulled a Trigger in his Life he would of been a Nobody if Rusty Rastelli didint Vouch for Him and his Brother who ran the Lunch Wagons he Worked for and the Midwest doesn’t Surprise me for a guy as Fat as him wouldint be Able to handle the Florida weather he would had a Heat Stroke or Heart attack not to Mention someone would’ve Definitely recognized him there if he was Recognized in Cleveland

Realistically and I’m not sure what age he was at here but Massino was a tough bastard and not much is gonna phase him. Unless this guy was some serious threat he probably did not give a flying fck what this guy was gonna do

You mean a Tough Bastard compared to Midwesterns I Hope ?

Even though I love women from Ohio (Cleveland ones fasho) there is no way I’m taking a WPP assignment there. They sending me somewhere nice

Is there still a Cleveland family?

I would have thought these guys get moved to places with no links to any crime family.

Yes you would think a place like Arizona or Reno Nevada would be better than Cleveland.

i think for massino, its a fitting end to his life. the cleveland is mafia purgatory so putting him there makes sense, obviously there is no active family left if the feds put him there. with possibly only agnello to worry about, agnello being another exiled member and former son-in-law of john gotti. and why reward massino for what he did? the reward is that after his coop the feds didnt send him to the gas chamber. so gas chamber...or cleveland? perhaps a hard choice for some.

I cracked up cause a friend of mine is named Rogers and I have a question. I wonder if Joe ever ate at Etna? Good food, but I prefer Tucci's. I ask cause right before covid hit, my friend said he and his son ate there close to sundown, and in the corner table facing the door, he said he seen a guy who looked like Joe Massino along with another old man. Didn't think nothing of it until now. Ralph Rogers. Good name considering there are a bunch of Rogers near Kentucky between Columbus.

More like Ralph Kramden !!

‘Goldie’ Leisenheimer, who helped convict crime boss Joseph Massino, gets time served, handshake from judge

https://www.nydailynews.com/2024/01...ict-joe-massino-handshake-federal-judge/

Agreed on that, some of this story seems like BS, esp the guy tracking him down in the nursing home and the FBI doing nothing

Theres no Cleveland family anymore. They called it quits at a meeting in Reno on January 9, 2007

Even if there’s a couple retired inactive guys in Cleveland, they aren’t looking for Joey around there, not even in their radar, plus I doubt they knew what he looked like in his older years to even identify him as Joey.

What many people don't know is that once he went into the witness protection program another agreement was that he was to drop atleast 100 pounds. Which makes sense considering it would leave him unrecognizable to the majority, especially if he was relocated. Joe was not always a heavy set man, that came later in life as he grew older. He knew how to shed the pounds if necessary.

He would have been basically unrecognizable he dropped 100lbs