(During the time of this post the story below can be seen on the front page of Yahoo.)
NEW YORK – A jailed former Mafia boss who once ordered a payback killing in the infamous "Donnie Brasco" case made gangland history Tuesday by becoming the highest-ranking member of the city's five Italian organized crime families to break their sacred vow of silence and testify against one of their own.
Joseph Massino took the witness stand at the Brooklyn trial of Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano, who served as one of his captains in the Bonanno crime family. Prosecutors say that Massino secretly recorded Basciano admitting he ordered a hit on an associate who ran afoul of the secretive Bonannos.
"You will hear the defendant did not tolerate being disrespected or disobeyed and that the penalty for both was death," Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicole Argentieri said in opening statements.
Moments after being sworn in, Massino pointed across the courtroom and identified Basciano — "the guy sitting in the gray suit" — as the crime family's former acting boss. The defendant stared back at the government's star witness, steadily chewing on a piece of gum.
In clipped tones, Massino gave the anonymous jury a colorful tutorial on the Mafia.
By cooperating, he explained, he was violating a sacred oath he took during a 1977 induction ceremony to protect the secret society. It was understood, he said, that "once a bullet leaves that gun, you never talk about it."
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Must be some kind of macho man to be able to share sacred information to the public like this man did. Question, how is he still breathing? I mean from all the many movies that we've-all-seen, I mean what's going on?
Anyway, members; non-members and or soon-to-be members of the PromoSquad Blog, you know what its time for. Share your thoughts. What would you do if you were in Joseph's shoes? Would you tell or would you keep it to yourself? Dont be afraid to get descriptive. We enjoy the Web Blog Wednesday discussions.
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