Joseph Massino

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Big Joey Massino

Born	January 10, 1943 New Haven, Connecticut, USA

Joseph C. "Big Joey" Massino (January 10, 1943 - ) known in the media as The Last Don, was a Queens, New York restaurateur and former head of the Bonanno crime family. He was convicted in July 2004 of racketeering, seven murders, arson, extortion, loan sharking, illegal gambling, conspiracy, and money laundering.

1 Biography
2 Photographs
- 2.1 Mugshots
- 2.2 Surveillance Photographs
3 External links

[edit] Biography

Massino owned the CasaBlanca Restaurant, an Italian restaurant and catering firm. He was a friend of former Gambino boss John Gotti. However, Massino was upset with Gotti's flamboyance and openness to media attention and informants testified he remarked, "John set this thing of ours back a hundred years."

In October of 1986, Massino was found guilty of violations of RICO Law (one count), the Hobbs Act (one count) and the Taft-Hartley Act (9 counts). In January of 1987, he was sentenced to a ten-year prison term.

His former best friend and brother-in-law Salvatore Vitale testified against him at his 2004 trial, claiming that his family had been neglected by Massino when he was in prison.

Massino was charged with ordering the murder of Sonny Black Napolitano, who had introduced him to undercover FBI agent Joseph D. Pistone (known as "Donnie Brasco"), and Tony Mirra. Napolitano was found with his hands cut off, which prosecutors claimed was so nobody else would let a turncoat shake hands with a made man.

Massino was scheduled to go on trial for the second time for a separate murder trial, which he was also expected to lose. If convicted, he faced the death penalty, courtesy of then-Attorney General John Ashcroft's office; a first for a mob boss and for an Italian member of American organized crime. However, that was not to be.

In October of 2004, the FBI began to dig up bodies at an infamous mob graveyard in Queens known as "The Hole". They were looking for the bodies of three capos killed in a Bonanno civil war in the 70's. They also hoped to find the bodies of Gotti victims, including John Favara, who killed John Gotti's son in a terrible accident, as well as Tommy DeSimone, who was murdered for killing a Gotti crew member (as depicted in the film 'Goodfellas'), Alphonse Indelicato, Giaconne and Trinchera.

The FBI said only that this operation was based on "credible information" from an informant.

On February 4, 2005, the name of that informant was released to the press: none other than the Last Don, the last 'real' boss himself: Joseph Massino. Hoping to save his life and his assets, he began to cooperate sometime in late September 2004, recording conversations with his own hand-picked acting boss, Vincent Basciano. This is the first time that an official boss has gone informant. This may in fact represent the final unraveling of the Mafia in New York City.

On June 23, 2005, Massino was finally sentenced for his many crimes. Although he was able to dodge the death penalty because of his cooperation and information, Massino was sentenced to life in prison.

The book "The Last Godfather: The Rise and Fall of Joey Massino" by Simon Crittle was released March 7 of this year.