By Matthew Monks
Joseph “The Last Don” Massino admitted to ordering a hit on a Mafia captain at his sentencing in Brooklyn federal court last week in a plea deal that lets the deposed Howard Beach kingpin keep his life but lose his freedom and the bulk of his ill-gotten fortune – including the Maspeth restaurant where the rotund mobster oversaw the Bonanno family's gambling and loansharking empire. “As the boss of the Bonanno crime family, I gave the order,” Massino, 62, said in a near whisper last Thursday standing before Eastern District Judge Nicholas Garaufis. “And the order was what?” the judge asked. “Kill George from Canada,” said Massino, using the Mafia alias for Gerlando Sciascia, a heroin smuggler whose bullet-ridden body was dumped in a Bronx street in March 1999. The murder was one of eight gangland hits Massino admitted to engineering during his 25-year-reign over the Bonannos. He was convicted of seven of them last year and ordered to forfeit $10.3 million and a slew of Queens properties, including two family homes in Howard Beach and the now boarded-up Casa Blanca Italian restaurant at 60-15 60th Lane in Maspeth.As part of the plea deal, Massino will hand over to the government just $9 million, including Casa Blanca and two cafes on Fresh Pond Road in Maspeth. He will also be expected to testify against Vincent “Vinny Gorgeous” Basciano, a family under-boss who allegedly plotted to kill a federal prosecutor. Massino became the highest-ranking Mafia songbird in history when he recorded prison conversations with Basciano in January discussing the hit, prosecutors said.”He was facing the death penalty. He decided to cooperate with the government,” said Edward McDonald, Massino's attorney. Gaurafis sentenced Massino to two concurrent life sentences for the murders, bringing a cheer from a row of his victims' family members. “Yeah! That's right,” shouted Laura Trinchera, 40, daughter of Dominick “Big Trin” Trinchera, one of three capos Massino helped gun down in a Brooklyn nightclub in 1981. “He took away the most important thing in our lives,” Trinchera said outside the courtroom. “I think of him as a disgrace.” Donna Trinchera, Dominick Trinchera's second wife, had even stronger words for the Last Don. “He got what he deserved,” she told reporters as she left the courthouse. “He's a sissy.” Reach Matt Monks at news@timesledger.com or 718-229-0300 Ext. 156.
