Vincent Basciano
Mobster Vincent (Vinny Gorgeous) Basciano is threatening to play lawyer at his own death penalty murder trial – possibly cross-examining his ex-boss turned mob rat, fallen Bonanno chieftain Joseph Massino.
The truth-is-stranger-than-fiction twist could pit the two Mafia heavyweights against each other in a Brooklyn federal courtroom in October.
Basciano, already imprisoned for life on a separate murder conviction, insists he’s not bluffing about representing himself.
“It’s not a threat your honor,” Basciano told Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis, according to a transcript filed last week.
The flamboyant mob thug is trying to force Garaufis to reinstate a fourth lawyer to his defense team. His lawyers, paid for with tax dollars because Basciano says he’s broke, have already cost $1.7 million.
The judge hasn’t balked. “I’m not going to make my decisions based upon some veiled threat,” Garaufis said.
Basciano is accused of murdering a mob associate and plotting to kill Bonanno-buster prosecutor Greg Andres. He’s also suspected of drawing up a hit list naming Garaufis and several turncoats as targets
He faces the death penalty if convicted of the murder.
Basciano appears to be ripping pages from the playbook of jailed-for-life Colombo boss Carmine (The Snake) Persico, who represented himself at his 1986 trial and allegedly put out a hit on prosecutor William Aronwald. The hapless death squad staked out the wrong address and wound up killing the prosecutor’s 79-year-old dad, George, an administrative law judge.
Key evidence against Basciano is a conversation between him and Massino in jail – secretly recorded after Massino became the highest-ranking active New York mob chieftain to flip
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Comments
men of honor are hardworking,sincere and dedicated sons,husbands and fathers,not murdering, thieving pricks
FOUR LAWYERS? THREE LAWYERS? I can’t take a vacation but I have to help pay for his lawyers — my and your taxes. Go figure!
This will be a La Costra Nostra till the day I die !!!!!!!