Questions for Massino that Scott could ask..

[Pogo The Clown]

Some other NJ based Bonanno members during Massino's reign.


Joseph “Jersey Joe” Bonanno (not the former Boss. This member flipped and wore a wire in the mid-2000s)
Mark Meleo
Anthony “Jersey Joe” Palmiotto

[dave]

Thanks Pogo!

[Philly d]

Some other NJ based Bonanno members during Massino's reign.


Joseph “Jersey Joe” Bonanno (not the former Boss. This member flipped and wore a wire in the mid-2000s)
Mark Meleo
Anthony “Jersey Joe” Palmiotto

what became of the other two?

[Pogo The Clown]

They are still alive as far as I know. Don't know if they are active or not.


Pogo

[B.]

After prison Giovanni Ligammari was also in NJ under Massino until he and the son killed themselves. The son was a member but not sure if he lived in NJ like the father.

[JeremyTheJew]

Great questions n all ….
But we’re kinda jumping the gun a little
Lol Scott hasn’t even came on to say anything and we allready got full blown detailed questions lol.
I will tell u one thing…. Massino gonna be like … “who the hell r these guys n why do they wanna know more then the fbi lol.”

Lol probably could teach him a thing or two even lol

[stubbs]

Great questions!

It would be interesting to hear a former boss’s perspective on mafia protocol on other, smaller families becoming extinct, defunct, etc. Like, the consensus on the board here seems to be if a smaller family only has one remaining made member, they’re still recognized by the remaining families, even if that one member is no longer a criminal. Would be interesting if he says otherwise, and also if this situation ever came up while he was in power.

Second, did he have any interactions with any families outside of New York / New Jersey? If so, which families?

Third, it would be interesting to hear Massino’s perspective on events in Buffalo and Canada post him flipping. Obviously he’s no longer involved, but I’m sure he’s seen headlines and read newspaper articles on the mafia post-2004. And if he has, I’m sure his opinions would be interesting.

Last, are the Rizzutos in Montreal today completely independent of the Bonannos? If so, are they their own family or just non-LCN affiliated?

[nizarsoccer]

Great questions!

It would be interesting to hear a former boss’s perspective on mafia protocol on other, smaller families becoming extinct, defunct, etc. Like, the consensus on the board here seems to be if a smaller family only has one remaining made member, they’re still recognized by the remaining families, even if that one member is no longer a criminal. Would be interesting if he says otherwise, and also if this situation ever came up while he was in power.

Second, did he have any interactions with any families outside of New York / New Jersey? If so, which families?

Third, it would be interesting to hear Massino’s perspective on events in Buffalo and Canada post him flipping. Obviously he’s no longer involved, but I’m sure he’s seen headlines and read newspaper articles on the mafia post-2004. And if he has, I’m sure his opinions would be interesting.

Last, are the Rizzutos in Montreal today completely independent of the Bonannos? If so, are they their own family or just non-LCN affiliated?

Judging by Andre Scoppa's book, I don't think even Montreal knows what they are.

[Tonyd621]

How many calories he consumes in a day? And how could Frank Coppa smoke all that crack and still be fat?

[SonnyBlackstein]

How many calories he consumes in a day? And how could Frank Coppa smoke all that crack and still be fat?

Gold.

Post of the day.

[B.]

I'd throw a hypothetical his way.

You're eating dinner with Frank Coppa and there's one breadstick left. Do you get it because you're the boss or do you let Coppa have it so he doesn't pull a Castellano on you?

[Mikeymike12]

Why did he choose Vinny Gorgeous As his acting boss?
What was his opinion of the other bosses in the other family’s and the last meeting they all had
What was his biggest mistake as boss

[Ryan98366]

When will Scott interview Massino?

My guess is never

Massino will be o. Dateline or 20/20.

[SonnyBlackstein]

When will Scott interview Massino?

That's not a good question to ask Massino.

[Rocco]

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.

Finally the TG disrespect was all BS