Pizza i was reading the book Vinnie gorgeous. Apparently cicale was not even involved until 1999 when he was introduced to Basciano by Anthony Indelicato after he had done like 8 years for dope. Anyway Vinnie apparently took such a liking to him that he had him made in 02 and Cicale was acting capo in 04. Pretty crazy that he rose so fast.
Another interesting thing from the book is that Cicale had a reputation of having a "bad wire" on him before he became involved.
You have to wonder what Vinnie saw in him and how he could have been so off.
I don't want to sound like an asshole know-it-all. But I posted that about Cicale way before that book came out, and there are posters here who can attest to that.
He had a sealed plea in Florida. Florida! In the land of the electric chair, they went out of their way to seal this asshole's plea? Puh-leeeeze. The whole neighborhood knew it.
And Vinny's a VERY sharp guy. Unfortunately for him, the one mistake he made was a big one. For all of that Last Godfather bullshit, they never would have convicted Vinny based on Massino's testimony alone. It was Cicale that sealed his fate.
As far as the book, it wasn't DeStefano's best. The parts about Vinny strolling his Throggs Neck neighborhood like an emperor, or whatever the fuck he wrote, were pure bullshit. He was nothing like that. Nothing . . . like . . . that .
"I got news for you. If it wasn't for the toilet, there would be no books." --- George Costanza.
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