He was a capo in the DeCavalcante crime family, and he was also a part of Roulette records, which had r&b artists Count Basie, Sammy Davis Jr,Sarah Vaughn, and many others. John Gotti shared a cell with him in MCC, and decided that Vastola was going to rat, and pressured DeCavalcante boss John Riggi to murder him.


On May 3, 1988, Vastola was convicted of extortion and two counts of racketeering conspiracies and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. In late 1990, Vastola lost his final appeal and was sent to prison. In May 1998, Vastola was released from prison.