‘Last Don’ Found Guilty of Murder

NEW YORK —  Joseph Massino, the head of the Bonanno organized crime family, was found guilty of murder and racketeering Friday in a trial marked by massive defections from the mob.

The jury, which began deliberating Monday, also found him guilty of arson, money laundering, loan sharking, gambling and extortion. Massino, 61, faces a mandatory life sentence.

As the verdicts were read, Massino stood silently in court in Brooklyn. Afterward, he turned to his wife, who regularly attended his nine-week trial, and shrugged.

The most damaging testimony came in a classic case of betrayal. His brother-in-law Salvatore Vitale, the Bonanno family’s underboss, cut a deal with the government.

On the witness stand, Vitale said he took part in 11 murders -- seven of them while following orders from Massino.

“I did many murders for Mr. Massino,” he told the jury.

The murder that would prove most prominent was the slaying in August 1981 of Dominick “Sonny Black” Napolitano, a Bonanno captain. Napolitano made the mistake of befriending an FBI agent posing as a jewel thief code-named “Donnie Brasco.” The undercover operation, which lasted years, led to more than 120 convictions -- and a 1997 movie of the same name starring Johnny Depp and Al Pacino.

Vitale, 56, told the court he met Massino 45 years ago. He said Massino brought him into the mob in the 1970s, promoted him to captain and later to Bonanno family underboss.

“Every dollar I made, I would split with Joseph Massino,” Vitale said. “He made me who I was.”

Vitale’s appearance was bolstered by testimony from seven other mob defectors.

Robert Henoch, a federal prosecutor, told the jury that one man who was killed on Massino’s orders was cut up, and his remains were placed in barrels. He said another was buried in a shallow grave, and Massino helped block the escape of a third victim who tried to flee the social club in which he was executed.

During closing arguments, prosecutor Greg D. Andres recalled testimony from witnesses that Massino was present when four of the killings occurred.

Andres said that Massino rose through the ranks using “bullets and guns” and that he was not the peacemaker defense lawyer David Breitbart had portrayed him to be.

In his closing argument, Breitbart called Vitale “a corrupt liar, a degenerate liar” and attacked the credibility of the other mob turncoats, stating they also had reasons to lie.

Breitbart said that an order to murder someone could only be issued by the head of the Bonanno family, who until 1991 was Philip Rastelli and that the slayings Massino was accused of engineering took place during Rastelli’s reign.

Government lawyers countered that Massino consolidated his hold over the mob family years earlier and was the power behind the killings, which included three rivals. Massino’s sentencing is set for Oct. 12.

Massino has been called the “Last Don” for his longevity in eluding the law while leaders of New York’s four other crime families served prison terms.

As the boss of the Bonanno family, Massino worked tirelessly to camouflage his stature.

He frowned upon members of the Bonanno family attending funerals of other mobsters, where they were photographed by police and the FBI. He would also travel to Mexico to discuss schemes to avoid being overheard.

Massino even told subordinates never to mention his name and merely to tug on one of their ears when speaking of him -- a practice that resulted in his being nicknamed “the Ear.”