Mob FilesPublic-domain archive of American organized crime

Record

Press release

2005-06-27

U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York (archived release)

U.S. Attorney, E.D.N.Y.: release on the superseding indictment of Vincent Basciano (June 27, 2005)

The U.S. Attorney announces new charges against "Bonanno family acting boss Vincent Basciano," including a conspiracy to murder a Bonanno captain and the solicitation of the murder of a federal prosecutor. The release calls Joseph Massino "the incarcerated official boss of the Bonanno family."

Date
2005-06-27
Kind
press-release
Source
U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York (archived release)
Retrieved
2026-10-12
Rights
A press release of the U.S. Department of Justice, a work of the United States government prepared by federal officers or employees as part of their official duties. Public domain in the United States. 17 U.S.C. § 105.

The Eastern District of New York’s archived release of June 27, 2005, issued by U.S. Attorney Roslynn R. Mauskopf with the FBI’s New York field division. It announced a superseding indictment that charged a criminal defense attorney with racketeering, murder conspiracy and obstruction of justice. The attorney is not named here. The same indictment added predicate acts to the racketeering charges against “Bonanno family acting boss Vincent Basciano”: “a conspiracy to murder rival Bonanno family captain Patrick DeFilippo, and solicitation of the murder of a federal law enforcement official.” The release says Basciano and two others were already charged with the murder of Randolph Pizzolo, which it dates December 1, 2004. Later records give November 30, 2004.

As the release describes the indictment and detention memorandum, the attorney carried messages in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn “between Joseph Massino, the incarcerated official boss of the Bonanno family, and Basciano, a captain who rose to the position of acting boss while Massino was in jail.” It says Basciano “admitted as much in a recording of a meeting with Massino at the MDC-Brooklyn on January 3, 2005,” and quotes his reply: “I did say that.” The release does not say that Massino was cooperating. The court record of that is the 2011 E.D.N.Y. opinion.

The release states that “the charges contained in the indictments are merely allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.” The ranks are the U.S. Attorney’s description of the charges. The release prints the defendants’ dates of birth, which are left out here.

itemUnited States v. Basciano, 763 F. Supp. 2d 303 (E.D.N.Y. 2011)Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis rules on Vincent Basciano's pretrial motions in the capital case over the killing of Randolph Pizzolo. The opinion quotes the court's earlier finding that "Joseph Massino, the then-head of the Bonanno crime family, agreed to become a government informant and taped conversations in prison that he had with Basciano."itemIn re Basciano, 542 F.3d 950 (2d Cir. 2008)The Second Circuit denies Vincent Basciano's petition to have Judge Garaufis recused from his capital case. Its background states that Basciano was indicted on August 14, 2003, was found guilty after trials in 2006 and 2007, and "On March 31, 2008, he was sentenced to life imprisonment."itemU.S. Attorney, E.D.N.Y.: release on Bonanno family convictions (July 12, 2006)Release on the convictions of Bonanno family soldiers, in which U.S. Attorney Roslynn R. Mauskopf said more than seventy Bonanno members and associates had been prosecuted, among them "Bonanno family boss Joseph Massino" and the men who led the family after him.