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Joseph Massino

Joseph Charles Massino
Joeymassinocrop.jpg
2003 FBI mugshot
Born (1943-01-10) January 10, 1943 (age 74)
New York City
Other names Big Joey, The Ear, The Last Don, Joe Wagons
Occupation Mobster (Bonanno family boss), food services
Predecessor Philip Rastelli
Successor Michael Mancuso
Criminal penalty 10 years imprisonment (1987)
Life imprisonment (2005)
Criminal status Sentence reduced to time served and supervised release for life in 2013
Spouse(s) Josephine Vitale Massino (m. 1960)
Allegiance Bonanno crime family
Conviction(s) Labor racketeering (1986)
Murder (2004, 2005)
Arson, extortion, loansharking, illegal gambling, money laundering (2004)

Joseph Charles Massino (born January 10, 1943) is an American former mobster. He was a member of the Mafia (Cosa Nostra) and was the boss of the Bonanno crime family from 1991 until 2004, when he became the first boss of one of the Five Families in New York City to turn state's evidence.

Massino was a protégé of Philip Rastelli, who took control of the troubled Bonanno family after the assassination of Carmine Galante. Originally a truck hijacker, Massino secured his own power after arranging two 1981 gang murders, first a triple murder of three rebel captains, then his rival Dominick Napolitano. In 1991, while Massino was in prison for a 1986 labor racketeering conviction, Rastelli died and Massino succeeded him. Upon his release the following year he set about rebuilding a family that had been in turmoil for almost a quarter-century. By the dawn of the new millennium, he was reckoned as the most powerful Mafia leader in the nation. Massino became known as "The Last Don", the only full-fledged New York boss of his time who was not in prison.

In July 2004 Massino was convicted in a murder and racketeering indictment based on the testimony of several cooperating made men, including Massino's disgruntled underboss and brother-in-law Salvatore Vitale. He was also facing the death penalty if convicted in a separate murder trial due to be held later that year, but after agreeing to testify against his former associates he was sentenced to life imprisonment for both indictments in 2005. Massino testified twice for the government, helping win a murder conviction against his acting boss Vincent Basciano in 2011, and was resentenced to time served in 2013, though he will be on supervised release for the rest of his life.


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