http://iajournal.com/ex-mob-boss-joseph-massino-to-be-freed-from-prison/The biggest rat in mafia history is being let out of his cage reports the New York times.
Joseph Massino, the former mob boss who admitted killing 12 men in his rise to the top of the Bonanno crime family, was given his freedom from two life sentences on Wednesday because of his cooperation with prosecutors.
Massino, who headed the vicious mob family from 1991 to 2003, was facing life in prison for eight gangland slayings.
Instead, he will be released from prison in two months and relocated with a new identity in the witness protection program and remain under FBI supervision for the rest of his life.
His only words Wednesday were an apology of sorts. “I pray every night for all of the people I hurt, especially the victims’ families,” he said.
Massino was convicted at a 2004 trial on charges he had a hand in multiple gangland murders, including the shotgun slayings of three rival gangsters and the execution of another mobster who vouched for FBI undercover agent Joe Pistone in the 1990s. Pistone’s story became a movie starring Johnny Depp and Al Pacino in Donnie Brasco.
After offering to cooperate, Massino secretly recorded his jailhouse conversations with the then-acting boss of the Bonannos, Vincent “Vinny Gorgeous” Basciano. He then testified at a 2011 trial that resulted in Basciano’s conviction.
