Vincent Basciano Trial Update

The Vincent Basciano case could have an interesting turn, some legal sources have said. The sources, none of whom wanted to be identified, believed there was a chance that the U.S. Court of Appeals for The Second Circuit could reverse a lower court ruling that the current racketeering indictment against him didn’t violate the Double [...]

New Jersey based Bonanno arrested for Loan-sharking

A North Arlington man who allegedly ran New Jersey for the Bonanno organized crime family is being held without bail following his arrest on federal loan-sharking charges.
Joseph “Sammy” Sammartino Sr., 55, a reputed Mafia captain since 2003, was among 15 captains, acting captains, soldiers and associates of the Bonanno family rounded up the FBI last [...]

Mob boss admits role in massacre

Vito Rizzuto, named as the Godfather of the Mafia in Canada, yesterday admitted his personal role in a notorious gangland massacre, accepting a 10-year sentence but avoiding a damaging and embarrassing trial in New York.
The guilty plea marks the end of his charmed life as one of the untouchables, a man who [...]

Bonanno rat Massino still helping Fed’s

Any reader of “King of The Godfathers” knows how Joseph Massino became a government informant, implicated Vincent Basciano in various crimes, some of which may get him the death penalty. That is all spelled out in Chapters 27 and 28.
Well, it looks like Massino left some tracks in the latest Bonanno crime family case in [...]

Bonanno Wiretap : Leaders thumbed nose at former boss Massino

What a bunch of Bozos.
The troubled Bonanno crime family took another crippling blow from the feds yesterday as 15 reputed mobsters were hit with a sweeping racketeering indictment — based partly on the grand-jury testimony of boss-turned-stoolie Joseph Massino.
Secretly recorded tapes show the latest crop of mob leaders thumbed their noses [...]

Bonanno Family Bust

The Brooklyn US Attorney’s office unsealed a bombshell, 33-count indictment this morning charging 15 members of the Bonanno crime family with extortion, racketeering, bank fraud, drug trafficking and illegal gambling after a former boss dropped a dime on them, authorities said.
Among those busted include Joseph Sammartino, 55, also known as “Sammy,” who [...]

Former Bonanno Family Boss Basciano Appeal Set

The federal Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has scheduled arguments for October 27th on Basciano’s appeal on his earlier case and how it might interfere with the upcoming trial.
The appeal is why the upcoming case isn’t expected to start until early 2010. Gearing up for that trial, Basciano’s lawyers are still pressing to [...]

Feds To Call on Massino

Break out the copies of “The King of The Godfathers.” Federal prosecutors said in a letter dated September 4, 2009 that they expect to call former Bonanno Boss Joseph Massino as a witness in Vincent Basciano’s federal death penalty trial.
Prosecutors have said as much previously in court hearings that Massino would highly likely to be [...]

Vinny Gorgeous vows to act as own lawyer at death penalty murder trial

Mobster Vincent (Vinny Gorgeous) Basciano is threatening to play lawyer at his own death penalty murder trial – possibly cross-examining his ex-boss turned mob rat, fallen Bonanno chieftain Joseph Massino.
The truth-is-stranger-than-fiction twist could pit the two Mafia heavyweights against each other in a Brooklyn federal courtroom in October.
Basciano, already imprisoned for life on a separate [...]

Bonanno Boss Salvatore Montagna booted back to boondocks

The reputed acting boss of the Bonanno crime family is getting a one-way ticket to Canada, courtesy of the feds.
Salvatore (Sal the Ironworker) Montagna will be kicked out of the U.S. in the next five days and deposited in Montreal, his lawyer said Tuesday.
Montagna was arrested April 6 by FBI and [...]