By Matthew Monks
The Howard Beach Bonanno boss, who was sentenced to life in prison this past summer for masterminding seven gangland murders, taped two jailhouse conversations with Vincent “Vinny Gorgeous” Bosciano on Jan. 3 and Jan. 7 at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, the indictment filed in Brooklyn federal court last week said.The two allegedly discussed executing a top Mafia prosecutor and the murder of family associate Randolph “Randy” Pizzolo, whose body was found face-down riddled with bullets on Dec. 1 in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.Bosciano, who became the acting family boss following Bonanno's arrest in 2003, was apprehended on Nov. 14 on charges of murdering Pizzolo, the indictment said.”I thought this kid would have been a good wake-up call for everybody,” Bosciano allegedly told the informant, who was identified in the indictment only as “a high-ranking member of the Bonanno family incarcerated at the MDC.”A law enforcement source identified the informant as Massino, which would make him the first head of a New York City crime family to submit to the government.On the other hand, Massino joins a long line of other Bonanno family members to break the fabled code of “La Cosa Nostra.”The rotund 61-year-old was sentenced to life in prison in August based on the testimony of a handful of family turncoats, including brother-in-law Salvatore “Good Looking Sal” Vitale.They described Massino as a “one-man army” who over 25 years built a gambling and racketeering empire in western Queens largely operated from the defunct Maspeth restaurant Casa Blanca.His betrayal marks the further deterioration of the Bonanno clan, one of the five original New York City crime families. The family got its first jolt in the 1980s when federal agent Frank Pistone infiltrated one of its crews in a case dramatized in the film “Donnie Brasco.”Since then, dozens of high-ranking family members and associates have been put behind bars, according to Roslynn Mauskopf, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.Reach reporter Matthew Monks by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 156.
