Alleged Bonanno boss charged in decades of old slaying of crime captain
By Anthony M. DeStefano, Newsday January 10, 2003
A fabled, 20-year-old FBI undercover operation resurfaced to shock the underworld yesterday, leading to the arrest of Joseph Massino, the reputed boss of the Bonanno crime family – and, feds say, the only Cosa Nostra boss still out on the street.
FBI agents arrested Massino, 60, early yesterday morning at his home on 84th Street in Howard Beach on racketeering conspiracy, murder and other charges. Also nabbed were reputed. underboss Salvatore Vitale, 55, of Syosset, and alleged crime family captain Daniel Mongelli, 36, of Staten Island. “The last boss to have remained at liberty” was how Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Roslynn R. Mauskopf described Massino, referring to his status as the only major mob leader to have stayed out of prison throughout most of the 1990s, a time when other bosses were being picked off by prosecutions. Mauskopf said Massino, who was convicted of racketeering in 1987, had acquired great wealth but would not be specific. “In the early years of the 20th century, the structure of traditional American organized crime was established in New York, in large measure here in Brooklyn,’ Mauskopf said “At the beginning of the 21st century as a result of law enforcement’s determined, sustained, and outstanding effort, the heads of the five families and a significant number of their members have been before the bar of justice.”
Prosecutors said the most serious charges in the indictment – murder and murder conspiracy stem from the efforts of former FBI agent Joseph Pistone, who, using the alias Donnie Brasco, penetrated the Bonanno crime family in the 1970s until he surfaced publicly in May 1981 to testify in open court and help to convict mobsters from all over the country. When officials revealed Pistone’s role as a mob mole, Bo-nanno crime family members feared family captain Dominick Napolitano would cooperate and had him murdered, authorities said. Napolitano’s body was found in a swampy area of Staten Island in August 1982 and tests show he died of a gunshot wound to the head, prosecutors said. Investigators say Napolitano, who introduced Pistone to the crime family, had been depressed about Pistone’s infiltration and just before his disappearance was going to visit high-rank-ing crime family members to discuss the situation. The indictment charged that Massino and reputed captain Frank Lino, who was arrested in October, took part in the plot to kill Napolitano. In a memorandum filed to deny Massino bail, prosecutors said they intend to prove his role in the Napol-itano killing by the defendant’s own statements and testimony of a “high ranking member” of the crime family. The charges yesterday expanded an October indictment
that did not name Massino and came amid other bad news for the Bonanno mob, which takes its name from its patriarch the late Joseph Bonanno. Yesterday’s indictment also involved two other killings, Vitale was charged with murder and murder conspiracy in he death of Robert Perrino, a delivery superintendent at the New York Post. Bonanno crime family members had exerted some control over the newspaper’s distribution units, officials say and they believe Perrino was killed in 1992 during a probe labor racketeering and fraud related to the crime family. His body was never found. Massino, Vitale and Mongelli were held without bail yesterday after pleading not guilty. A bail hearing was set for Jan, 23. Defense attorney Matthew Mari said he believed Massino could beat the case, but Mari said he might be disqualified from representing Massino because he had previously represented the Cantarella family members, who may be witnesses.’’
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