Questions for Massino that Scott could ask..

[newera_212]

Awesome stuff above, thanks guys. Yeah, in summary it'd be awesome to hear him touch on the rationale for keeping away from joint-family money making schemes. We obviously saw how a lot of those turned out, but it seemed like he had no problem with individual soldiers and captains of his partnering up with members of other families in smaller legit businesses and/or traditional blue collar rackets (lending, sports, etc)

The shit above and the 'lack' of labor racketeering during his reign had me thinking about their influence at the NY Post production plant, and had me thinking about that whole situation with Perrino getting killed. I feel like I read somewhere that Massino didn't want that done and it was Vitale who pushed for it. So, I was wondering if Massino would admit to any hits he may have regretted or wished he could take back. Not in the sense of him wanting to take back the actual action of killing someone...the morality and all of that... but more like if he feels there were any hits that were done by mistake or were just bad calls, after-the-fact. People they were wrong about, etc.

[B.]

Might be worth asking him about Giuseppe Bosco. An excerpt from one of the conversations between Massino and Basciano in January 2005 about recent inductees:

MASSINO: The best one out of all them guys is I told you. Joey – ah Bosco. Giuseppe Bosco.
BASCIANO: Joe Bosco. Yeah. Yeah.
MASSINO: Baldo loves him. The rest of them…
BASCIANO: Yeah, but just because Baldo loves him too Joe that’s
MASSINO: But you go to know the one thing who knows these guys better than Baldo? And now you see what you just said, I trust your judgement.
BASCIANO: … Yeah.
MASSINO: I trust Baldo’s judgement.

Seems to have a high opinion of him. And if he is the same "Joe Bosch" that Lovaglio identified, then we could get some insight into a former acting boss we know very little about

Further evidence Bosco is part of the Sicilian faction and probably Castellammarese like the other Boscos JimmyB identified as members of the CDG Family. Makes sense why he would be close to Baldo. I imagine Amato still wields influence in the Family.

A lot of the guys Massino saw as capable leaders ended up holding important positions after he cooperated, i.e. Cammarano Jr., Mancuso, and Bosco. Jerry Asaro was another though we'll see if he ever surfaces on the admin.

I mean, besides having two of the more important ones killed...did Massino trust/respect the zips? It seems like he held Baldo to high regard but at the same time, never really elevated any of them. It'd be kind of hard for Massino to keep his distance and deny the influence of that faction, especially because he himself was pretty entrenched in the Queens/Brooklyn Metro Ave border that the whole Zip world revolved around. That was Massino's old stomping grounds too, to a degree.

He said Baldo Amato was a captain for around a week. He didn't say when that was or why it was so short. I don't know if it would have been right after the Bonventre murder or another time.

He also said in his testimony he considered himself (Massino) part of the zip faction in the early 1980s. Obviously he was just referring to a political alliance, as Massino was the furthest thing from a zip. He definitely seems to have acknowledged their influence and they were the major "swing vote" in Family politics between 1979 - 1982.

[B.]

Also who was the second zip Massino had killed? The only one he had murdered was Sciascia as far as I remember. He said Sciascia personally told him he killed Cotroni and Massino said "You what?" and knew he had to kill him.

The Bonventre murder turned out to have little/nothing to do with Massino beyond being part of the contract. Gary Valenti's account of Bonventre/Amato openly disrespectig Rastelli with Asaro and conspiring afterward supports Massino's claim that Bonventre was killed for openly defying Rastelli. People have a miconception that Massino was the boss far earlier than he actually was -- people also forget Rastelli was a vicious guy who came up in the most dangerous decina, was a wife killer, etc.

Another story would love to hear more about is what Sciascia initially hinted at in the early 1990s about Vitale / Gotti plotting against Massino, later followed by Barney Bellomo confirming it.

[B.]

Another thing about Baldo Amato is Cicale said it was Amato who told him Sal Montagna went to Montreal to ask for a higher Christmas tribute amount at Basciano's request, which they reluctantly gave. Presumably Montagna was still visiting/contacting Amato in prison given their close relationship but shows Amato was being kept in the loop.

Massino could shed light on whether Montagna had been the liaison to Montreal during the previous years. We've already speculated he was probably a Montreal liaison for Sciascia given Montagna's Canadian citizenship and clean record.

[Pmac2]

i dont want him to ask about anything before massino took over as boss in 1991. all those story have been told, 1991 till he got arrested. all the shit about after gotti

[antimafia]

Also who was the second zip Massino had killed? The only one he had murdered was Sciascia as far as I remember. He said Sciascia personally told him he killed Cotroni and Massino said "You what?" and knew he had to kill him.

This particular testimony by Massino in Vinny Basciano's 2011 trial is problematic, and if Massino were to ever say this in Quebec or be quoted in print as saying such, Sciascia's relatives could sue him for defamation because of the unique slander and libel laws in the province regarding defaming the dead. French-Canadian Gérald Gallant -- a hitman for the Rock Machine motorcylce gang who was arrested in Switzerland in 2006, then brought back to Canada, and finally sentenced in February 2008 to life in prison -- formally confessed to the August 23, 1998 murder of Frank Cotroni Sr.'s son Paul Cotroni, as well as to other murders, when Gallant began co-operating in March 2009. His confession occurred more than two years before Massino testified in Basciano's trial. Gallant also confessed that an accomplice, Gérard Hubert, helped kill Cotroni. The image below from the Laboratoire de sciences judiciaires et de médecine légale, which is located in the premises for the Sûreté du Québec (the provincial police force), shows all the places on Cotroni's body where he was shot -- please see http://www1.journaldemontreal.com/2014/ ... jour4.html.

Paul Cotroni--bullets and bullet holes.png

The poster JD who used to post on the earlier incarnation of the Black Hand never went as far as to say that Sciascia directly killed Paul Cotroni. At my Evernote item to which I've linked below, you'll read what JD had posted on the older version of this forum -- this content came from the law-enforcement intelligence he is known for requesting and then writing about on his blog (https://lcnbios.blogspot.com/).

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s229/sh/ ... 08cbfb02a5

Below are excerpts from Massino's first day of testifying at the Basciano trial in 2011. If you go to the first post in the thread at viewtopic.php?p=148525#p148525, look for the PDF that fellow poster thekiduknow attached to the post. From pp. 231 and 232 of the testimony (PDF page numbers correspond exactly to transcript page numbers):

p. 231:
9 Q Now, directing your attention to a later part of the
10 '90s, 1999. Did there come a time that information came to
11 your attention regarding George from Canada?
12 A Yes.
13 Q Just to refresh the jurors' recollection, George from
14 Canada is the individual depicted in the top right corner --
15 A He's the last guy on the top.
16 Q And George from Canada you mentioned was involved in the
17 murder of the three captains?
18 A Yes.
19 Q At the time the information came to your attention
20 regarding George from Canada, what was George from Canada's
21 position in organized crime?
22 A He was a captain in Montreal, Canada.
23 Q What information came to your attention?
24 A He come and he told me that Frank Catrone's son beat up
25 his nephew and that he killed him. I said, "You what?"

p. 232:
1 He said, "I killed him."
2 Q Who had, who did George from Canada admit killing?
3 A Frank Catrone's son.
4 Q Who was Frank Catrone?
5 A Frank Catrone was a wiseguy in the Bonanno Family.
6 Q How did you react when you learned that George from
7 Canada had killed a wiseguy's son?
8 A I knew once he did that, that I was going to kill him.
9 Q What, if anything did you do to effect the murder?
10 A I gave the contract to Patty DeFilippo in the Bronx. I
11 said, you get a shot, kill him. It don't have to be tomorrow,
12 take your time. It ain't an emergency, but kill him.

Below are excerpts from Massino's third day of testimony at the same trial. If you go to
viewtopic.php?f=44&t=6098&p=149968&hili ... +3#p149968, look for the PDF that thekiduknow attached to the post. From pp. 119 to 121 of the testimony (again, PDF page numbers correspond exactly to transcript page numbers):

p. 119:
24 Q Well, when Georgie made this comment [antimafia's note: about Graziano's drug use], did that have
25 something to do with your wanting to exercise your power and

p. 120:
1 murder Georgie Sciascia?
2 A I killed Georgie Sciascia because he killed a wiseguy's
3 son. You can't kill a wiseguy's son without getting an okay
4 from the underboss, not you. As much as I didn't want to kill
5 him, I had to kill him. Otherwise, everybody would be --
6 would come back again.
7 Q Now, is this the Frank Catrone situation?
8 A Montreal, Canada. That's correct. He killed his son.
9 Q So George had the son of this wiseguy killed in Canada?
10 A Montreal, Canada, correct.
11 Q And the son had gotten into a fight with one of Georgie
12 Sciascia's relatives?
13 A I believe it was his nephew.
14 Q And the son who got killed, he broke the nephew's jaw?
15 A Correct.
16 Q And did Georgie Sciascia ask for your permission?
17 A No, he didn't.
18 Q He didn't get your okay?
19 A No. That's why he died.
20 Q He died because he refused to go -- Georgie Sciascia
21 died, in your view, because he killed somebody without getting
22 an okay, right?
23 A Correct, the wiseguy's son.
24 Q And that was a very serious violation in your view,
25 right?

p. 121:
1 A As far as I was concerned, yes.
2 Q That was a violation in which it had to be dealt with?
3 A He had to die, yes.
4 Q As much as you --
5 A Didn't want to do it, I had to do it.
6 Q It hurt you to do that?
7 A Yes, it did.

__________________________

Frank Cotroni Sr. was in jail when Paul Cotroni was murdered. Pierre de Champlain (buonanima) wrote in his 2014 book (p. 404) that Frank Sr. refused the offer by the prison authorities to give him a special pass to attend Paul's funeral arrangements, part of which were held at the Rizzuto-clan-owned Loreto funeral home (which is also where Frank Sr.'s visitation was held when he died in 2004). While Mr. de Champlain had once commented on the board about Paul Cotroni getting into fights a lot, he might have forgotten that Le Journal de Montréal had written three days after Cotroni's murder that he had previously attacked one of Vito Rizzuto's sons -- see the article found at http://www1.journaldemontreal.com/2014/ ... 998-p2.pdf.

According to the report that will be found at https://www1.journaldemontreal.com/2014 ... chines.pdf,

* Frank Cotroni Sr. might have very well cautioned both Paul and Frank Jr. to stay away from the 81s, which is precisely what the Rock Machine had warned both sons about two months before Paul was killed (Paul ignored the Rock Machine's warning, perhaps even his own father's advice)

* A Rizzuto -- first name unknown -- became apprised of one of two contracts that Johnny Plescio was arranging, the one that was for the murder of Paul Cotroni, but this Rizzuto kept their distance, i.e., didn't meddle. (Plescio was a founding member of the Rock Machine.)

The organized-crime reporters Félix Séguin and Eric Thibault wrote a book about Gallant that was published in 2015: Gallant : confessions d'un tueur à gages. I think there is an existing TBHF thread about Sciascia's murder -- maybe I'll post some book excerpts in that thread.

[Pmac2]

Is it 100 percent massing? I feel like Vitale would be the guy looking to make a name and a buck. But there conflicting reports on Vitale. Massino made it sound like everyone hated him but I forgot which informant recently said Vitale was cool

[Pmac2]

Vitale could fill in a lot of history in Bohannon family from 83 to 03 he was there more then massing. Either one will be a great book. Scott wrote the book with leonetti I think which was great. Maybe 20 years late but still a great book in the water down true crime turncoat division

[CabriniGreen]

Ask him if he knew Basciano dealt heroin. I find it inconceivable he didn't know how Basciano made money. He was tied in with the Zip crew, Basciano was at Bonos wedding, like.... he really didn't know how he made his money? How is that possible?

Did he know Basciano went behind his back to Canada for weed and pills? Or did he know? Did he authorize this?

What was the name of the " Strip club" Vito opened for him? Where was it? Still open? Probably not... right?

It's weird, How is he supposed to know Montreal, but in the dark about the Bronx, a borough in NY?

Ask him about the Bonnanos interest in sports gambling up there. The whole consortium thing with the " Book", how did it evolve like that?

I thought one of the main catalyst for Bonnano placing his flag up there was to remind bookmakers fleeing Keafauver in NY that they were still under the Bonnanos...

What are the Bonnano rackets in Canada?

[CabriniGreen]

Another thing about Baldo Amato is Cicale said it was Amato who told him Sal Montagna went to Montreal to ask for a higher Christmas tribute amount at Basciano's request, which they reluctantly gave. Presumably Montagna was still visiting/contacting Amato in prison given their close relationship but shows Amato was being kept in the loop.

Massino could shed light on whether Montagna had been the liaison to Montreal during the previous years. We've already speculated he was probably a Montreal liaison for Sciascia given Montagna's Canadian citizenship and clean record.

I thought Daniel Renards book confirmed this.... something like.." he wouldn't hesitate to drive the 6 hours to whisper in a guy's ear.." And that it was mainly the Arcuris that facilitated Montagnas integration into the Canadian milieu....

[dave]

He testified that the Bonanno Family operated in California, Vegas, Jersey, and Connecticut while he was the boss. Can he elaborate on who was operating in these locations, and what rackets?

[Antiliar]

He testified that the Bonanno Family operated in California, Vegas, Jersey, and Connecticut while he was the boss. Can he elaborate on who was operating in these locations, and what rackets?

+1

Add Chicago to the list.

[CornerBoy]

Where in Cali?
Los Angeles?

[motorfab]

Did Montreal really break up with NY after the murder of Sciascia ?

[Pogo The Clown]

He testified that the Bonanno Family operated in California, Vegas, Jersey, and Connecticut while he was the boss. Can he elaborate on who was operating in these locations, and what rackets?

The following Bonanno members based in these locations while Massino was Boss.


California - Ronald “Ronnie” Lorenzo
Las Vegas - Vincent “Vinny” Faraci, Thomas “Tommy Las Vegas” Ferreri
Chicago - Vincent "Elmo" Amarante
NJ - Joseph Taoromina, Joseph "Sammy" Sammartino, Louis Civello, Joseph "Joe Lefty" Loiacono and John Balsamo
Connecticut - ??? I'm drawing a blank here


Pogo