Bologna-hating mob boss "Vinny Gorgeous" AKA Vincent Basciano was convicted of ordering the murder of Randolph Pizzolo, a "renegade" mobster who was gunned down in Greenpoint in 2004. Basciano is already serving a life sentence for the murder, but prosecutors successfully convinced the jury that the Bonanno family crime boss was "deadly serious about rooting out" opposition to his rule, and that killing Pizzolo "would be a statement to everybody that Vinny Basciano don't play around," the Post reports. He didn't play around fashion-wise, either.
For many, Basciano's trial effectively ended when Joseph "Big Joey" Massino became the "first official boss of a New York crime family" to testify on behalf of the federal government. Such a prominent witness (along with the parade of other witness protection plan members) seemed to seal his fate. Though Basciano's attorneys failed to convey to the jury that "at times in his life, he was a hoodlum. But he didn't kill Randy Pizzolo," they are now faced with the more important task of keeping Basciano out of death row during the penalty phase of the trial, which is set to begin in a few days. Of course, some think that the death penalty is too expensive for the mobster, who is already in prison for life.
