It's Showtime For Vinny TV

In the wake of Massino’s conviction – and his decision to become the first New York Mafia boss to defect – there have been numerous acting leaders, or “street bosses” who are said to have been entrusted with the difficult task of resuscitating the beleaguered and embattled Bonannos.

The latest, by most accounts, is Vincent (Vinny TV) Badalamenti, a 53-year-old Brooklyn-based capo whose active Bensonhurst social club has been the scene of one tragic death, and quite a bit of angst, over the last year or so.

You first read about Badalamenti here last year when guest Gang Land columnist Tom Robbins disclosed that Vinny TV, the former proprietor of an electronics store, had taken over the Banner Social Club where an aging caretaker died of a heart attack during a joint NYPD-FBI raid in April, 2009.

Sources say Badalamenti, whose mob resume includes a 13-month bit for a federal lonsharking rap in 2003 and 90 days home confinement for hanging around with wiseguys too soon after he completed his prison term, is running all things Bonanno with the help of two aging Queens mobsters, Nicholas (Nicky Mouth) Santora, and Anthony Rabito.

But Santora, 68, and Rabito, 76, were both released from short federal prison stays last year and they’re not likely to show up near the Banner Social Club anytime soon for fear of going back to prison, As a result, sources say, as far as the Bonannos are concerned, it’s pretty much the Vinny TV show these days.

Last December, Badalamenti and two cohorts, capo Anthony Calabrese and associate James Malpeso, were detained for several hours – and then released with no charges lodged – when DEA agents raided a Christmas party at the club on the mistaken belief that a mob induction ceremony for Malpeso was about to take place.

A year earlier, months before Badalamenti’s increased mob stature was noted here, he was dissed by Genovese capo Anthony (Tico) Antico, who had been told by a deadbeat fruit vendor that he would first see Vinny TV about his debt, according to court papers filed in Brooklyn.

Antico replied that he didn’t care who the produce man had to see, he wanted his money: “Tell ‘em he can bring Vinny TVs, he can bring Vinny Magnavox, everybody.”