The FBI file I mentioned in an earlier post seems to contain the background as to why Massino said what he said when he testified in April 2011 at Vinny Basciano's murder trial. I wish I had the copy of the FBI file but I don't.

From NYT article:

"Ex-Mob Boss Joseph Massino Details a Few Murders"
By LIZ ROBBINS
APRIL 14, 2011

The cross-examination of a Mafia turncoat started quietly and predictably enough on Thursday. Joseph C. Massino, the former boss of the Bonanno crime family, spoke matter-of-factly about having to kill one of his closest associates, simply because he had disobeyed protocol.

“As much as I didn’t want to kill him,” Mr. Massino said of the 1999 murder of Gerlando Sciascia, “I had to kill him.”
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Article I've quoted from below was originally found at http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/th...rticle-1.111623 and published on April 22, 2011, 4:00 am. This story by John Marzulli is no longer available on the newspaper's site; however, you'll be able to find the whole article in two threads on this forum, as well as be able to find excerpts in two other threads.

"Tape in Vinny Gorgeous trial reveals mob king Dominick (Quiet Dom) Cirillo OKed his son's murder"

Investigators have previously theorized that the elder Cirillo, who was estranged from his son, approved the murder because assaulting a made member of the Mafia carries the penalty of death. Cicale was already a wiseguy and Basciano's son was up for induction into the mob at the time.

But killing the son of a Mafioso would also be a death sentence. Massino acknowledged that he gave the order to kill Bonanno capo Gerlando (George from Canada) Sciascia - despite his fondness for the gangster - because Sciascia had murdered the son of a made man in Canada.
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Years ago, someone had uploaded on YouTube this testimony by Massino. The individual who posted seemed to have pointed the camera down toward the courtroom floor so that they wouldn't get caught filming. You were able to hear the audio. I remember that there were quite a number of hours of Massino's testimony uploaded over a number of video clips. While I recall being able to determine which clip contained the specific testimony by Massino about Sciascia's murder, I also recall not looking forward to listening to a YouTube clip for a few hours--I never listened to it and ever since I've regretted this instance of laziness.