NEW YORK DAILY NEWS:
THE BONANNO CRIME FAMILY'S BOSS, JOSEPH MASSINO, HIGEST RANKING NON INCARCERATED MOBSTER IN NEW YORK
Reputed Bonanno leader Keeps Low Profile
By MICHELE McPHEE
Daily News Staff Writer
September 17, 2000
It’s lunchtime at
the Casablanca Restaurant in Maspeth, Queens, and reputed Bonanno crime family
boss Joseph Massino occupies a table near the door, enjoying a meal of homemade
linguine and sauteed roasted peppers with his pals.
After a waiter in a tuxedo
serves him from a gleaming brass cart, Massino, 57, banters lightly with his
sidekicks, trading jokes and picking ponies.
When not running the
Bonanno crime family, Massino enjoys dining at the three-star restaurant he
owns in Queens.
From the outside, the
Casablanca appears to be a nondescript storefront pizzeria. But its regulars
know the restaurant serves some of the best Italian cuisine in the city. The
Daily News reviewed Casablanca in 1998 and gave it three stars.
Its walls are festooned
with framed pictures of celebrities who have dined there — Johnny Depp,
Hugh Grant, Elizabeth Hurley — alongside posters of Humphrey Bogart.
There is also a life-size statue of the tough-guy film icon.
Massino is part-owner of
the restaurant, and on this day he is the only New York Mafia boss free to
savor the rewards of hard work, authorities say.
With the Sept. 6 arrest of
acting Luchese crime boss Steven Crea in a massive construction scam roundup,
four of the five organized crime leadersare behind bars.
Massino, tall and robustly
built, is known as an electronics whiz with a penchant for secrecy and
discretion. He lives modestly with his wife in Howard Beach, Queens, a few
blocks from the home of his friend, the imprisoned-for-life Gambino crime boss
John Gotti.
Former mafioso Joseph
Bonanno now lives in Arizona. "He’s careful. He’s a very smart
guy," said one NYPD organized crime detective. "He’s wise to
surveillance, and he lives by the old-school rules. He believes in keeping La
Cosa Nostra secret."
Another co-owner of
Casablanca, who declined to be identified, characterized his partner as
"just one of the owners of the restaurant who comes in for lunch once in a
while."
Massino has denied any
involvement in La Cosa Nostra and has accused the federal government of bias
against Italian Americans. He did not return phone calls for this story.
His principal source of
legitimate income, authorities say, is King Caterers, a Farmingdale, L.I.,
business that provides food to street vendors.
But according to law enforcement
sources, he began his underworld career as a truck hijacker and quietly rose in
rank.
He became the Bonanno boss
in 1993, months after he was released from federal prison, sources said, just
as the crime family was near extinction.
Its members, considered
mob "outlaws," did not have a seat on the Mafia’s fabled
Commission, the governing group that oversees the city’s five crime
families. An internal war left several members dead. And rampant drug dealing
in the family brought intense pressure from the Drug Enforcement Administration
and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
For six years in the early
’80s, FBI agent Joseph Pistone immersed himself in the workings of the
Bonanno family by posing as jewel thief Donnie Brasco. During that undercover
assignment, he got to know many gangsters, including Massino.
Johnny Depp, whose image
now graces Massino’s restaurant, played Pistone in the movie "Donnie
Brasco."
Pistone’s work was a
factor in Massino’s 1986 conviction on charges stemming from the Bonannos’
control of Teamsters Local 814, the union that represents furniture movers.
During his trial, when
Pistone walked past Massino on his way to the witness stand to testify against
him, the adversaries eyed each other. "Hey, Donnie," Massino reportedly
said. "Who’d you get to play me in the movie?"
While Massino was in
prison, Manhattan prosecutors accused him and his brother-in-law Salvatore
Vitale of racketeering and murder.
The two were leaders in a
bloody interfamily war that erupted after the 1979 murder of Bonanno boss
Carmine Galante, according to testimony. Massino was allied with the winning
faction headed by Philip (Rusty) Rastelli, prosecutors said.
The losers were Alphonse
(Sonny Red) Indelicato, Philip Giaccone and Dominick Trinchera, three Bonanno
captains who were slain in 1981. Both Massino and Vitale were acquitted on
charges of murdering the three men during their 1987 trial.
"Joey Massino was
aligned with Rusty Rastelli during the Bonanno War. Rusty won, and when he died
in 1991, Massino was the obvious choice for boss," said a law enforcement
source.
Massino was seen as the
levelheaded leader who could stem the erosion of the family power. He promptly
shut the Bonanno social clubs and avoided other situations that might invite surveillance.
"He’s a very
low-key guy," said a law-enforcement source. "He only surrounds
himself with close allies."
Though Massino’s
allegiance to Gotti solidified his power, law enforcement sources say the
Gambino boss played no part in his neighbor’s ascension to family don.
Massino's contact with the
Gotti family (including John Jr, pictured above) helped make him the successful
crime lord he is today. "The Bonannos picked Massino because he was
friends with Gotti and the family was obsessed with getting a seat back on the
Commission," a law enforcement source said. "But like everything the
Bonannos do, it backfired.
"Gotti was [angry]
that he was not consulted before Massino was bumped up to boss."
Despite that initial
tension, Massino’s reign has been a successful one, run with tight fists
and tight lips. The Bonanno family has regained its seat on the Commission and
its crews have beefed up longtime interests in narcotics, unions, loansharking,
gambling and Joker Poker machines, sources said.
And even as
"made" members of the other four families have taken the witness
stand against their bosses, not one Bonanno mobster has broken omerta —
the vow of silence all gangsters take when they are inducted into the Mafia.
But high-profile drug
trafficking by Bonanno crews still brings heat. Last week, two Bonanno
soldiers, Fabritzio DeFrancisci, 30, and Joseph Benanti, 66, along with an
associate, Tommy Reynolds, 30, pleaded guilty in federal court to murder and
drug dealing conspiracies stemming from charges they ran a crack cocaine ring
in South Brooklyn.
In a related case, the
family’s elder statesman, capo Anthony Spero, 73, has been indicted with
South Beach club baron Chris Paciello, a Miami celebrity and alleged mob
associate who dated supermodel Niki Taylor and counts Madonna as a friend.
Spero will go on trial in
February on murder and obstruction of justice charges. Paciello’s trial
on charges of murder, racketeering and burglary will begin Oct. 17.
Assistant U.S. Attorney
Jim Walden, who is prosecuting Spero and Paciello, refused to comment on
whether Massino is under investigation.
"Our policy is to not
confirm or deny any ongoing investigations," Walden said.
The Bonanno organization,
however, has shown remarkable resiliency and staying power, perhaps best
demonstrated by the family’s namesake, 95-year-old Joseph Bonanno, long
retired and living in Arizona.
"When a crime boss
runs a tight ship and keeps himself out of the limelight, it becomes much
harder for law enforcement to penetrate and obtain damning evidence," said
Prof. Robert Castelli, an organized crime expert at John Jay College of
Criminal Justice.
"In the case of the
Bonanno crime family, it has regrouped since the late 1970s. The boss is well
insulated, his second in-command is reputedly his brother-in-law and there are
no known cooperating witnesses. It’s a much tougher nut to crack."
Less than 120 members
Acting Boss: Steven Crea,
facing state charges of enterprise corruption in Manhattan after he was
arrested this month in a construction rigging scam.
Jailed in Rikers pending
bail hearing. Presides over a family in increasing disarray.
About 120 members
Boss: Carmine Persico,
serving 139 for murder and racketeering.
Acting Boss: Alphonse
“Allie Boy” Persico, serving an 18 month sentence for illegal gun
posession in Miami. His hold on his father’s organization is said to be
tenuous.
Less than 200 members
Boss: John “Dapper
Don” Gotti, serving life sentence jail for murder and racketeering. His
son, John “Junior” Gotti, was a short-lived acting boss before he
pleaded guilty and was imprisoned for six years on extortion conspiracy last
year.
Acting Boss: Peter Gotti,
the boss’ brother.
About 250 members
Boss: He once wandered
Greenwich Village in a bathrobe, now Vincent “The Chin” Gigante,
72, is serving a 12-year sentence for racketeering and extortion conspiracy in
a Fort Worth, Tex., prison hospital. He has delegated many duties but still
controls a large and influential organization.
Bonanno Crime Family
About 130 members
Boss: Joseph Massino, 57,
lives in Howard Beach, Queens.
Underboss: Salvatore A.
Vitale, of Dix Hills, Long Island — Massino’s brother-in-law.