Johnny Martorano

John James Vincent Martorano (born December 13, 1940) also known as "Vincent Joseph Rancourt", "Richard Aucoin", "Nick", "The Cook", "The Executioner", "The Basin Street Butcher", is a former hitman for the Winter Hill Gang in Boston, Massachusetts, who has admitted to 20 mob-related killings.

John Martorano was born in Somerville, Massachusetts, in 1940. He is the older brother of James Martorano by eleven months. His father was an immigrant from Riesi, Sicily. He was raised Catholic and served as an altar boy.

The Martorano family moved to the Irish enclave of East Milton. John attended Thayer Academy in Braintree with his brother Jimmie in grades 6 and 7. He later enrolled in Mount Saint Charles Academy in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, from which he graduated. During high school, he played football with future CBS News television journalist Ed Bradley, whom he affectionately referred to as "Big Ed". Earlier, he had been a grammar school classmate of future congressman Bill Delahunt.

In a 60 Minutes interview with Steve Kroft he claimed that when he was young his father told him, "You're the oldest son and this is your heritage" (referring to his father's connections to organized crime). "You've got to take care of your family and be a man."

After graduating from high school, Martorano turned down seven football scholarships and instead stayed in Boston. Hanging out in the Combat Zone, Martorano fell under the guidance of Stephen Flemmi, and by the age of twenty-five had become a professional mobster. He committed his first murder at 24, when he allegedly killed Patriarca crime family made man Robert S. Palladino, who was going to testify in a case involving the murder of prostitute Barbara Sylvester in his father's restaurant.

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