Yup, seen it all before. Don't think I learned a single thing from this. It was a good re-hash...good production value, but nothing new.
If someone wants to break new ground on this subject, there's one white whale still to be caught; somebody has got to get Big Joey on screen.
He's already a rat, why not tell his side of the story and try to justify it to the TV audience?
Forget his name but would love to see the filmmaker who did "Fog of War" do the Joey story in that style - just Joey on screen being asked questions from off screen interspersed with archival footage and re-enactments.
I'd watch.
Doesn't even have to be Joe Massino. They could get Sal Vitale. It would be interesting to hear his side of the story. A similar one to that told by Phil Leonetti, except it hasn't been run in to the ground yet. Here's a guy who was forging a respectable career for himself as a corrections officer working with drug offenders. Still an impressionable young man, he's led astray by his older brother-in-law and becomes a mobster, rising to the rank of underboss under Joe's tutelage. After a while, Vitale becomes frustrated with his lack of autonomy, having plateaued while Massino entrusts other men as his eyes and ears. The feds close in on the Bonanno leadership in the early 00s and Massino grows suspicious of Vitale becoming an informant, putting a hit on his wife's brother. Vitale does indeed flip and is soon followed by Massino himself.
It's a fascinating story. The boss and underboss both flip. Both men are free. As far as we are aware, Massino is still married to Vitale's sister. What is their relationship like now? Assuming they still have one.
There have been books written about Basciano and Massino and even Basciano's disciple, Dominick Cicale. But we've yet to hear directly from one of the main players in what was a tumultuous period in the Bonanno crime family's history; probably the last period of bloodshed and intrigue in contemporary mafia lore, following on from the Gambino power struggle in the 80s and Lucchese and Colombo bloodshed in the early 90s.
I'm sick of Gravano and Leonetti and Alite and Junior. But this is something that would definitely pique my interest again. Massino seems like he'd be a charismatic and interesting guy to listen to as well.
