The good news for ex Bonanno boss “Vinny Gorgeous”is the feds are making sure he has new suits everyday for his upcoming mob murder trial, but the bad news is, the feds want to see poor Vinny buried in one of them too. The one consolation for “gorgeous Vinny” is he gets to look like a swaggering mafia model, even if he has to “ride-the-needle” for capital murder . Read The Story By MITCHEL MADDUX Ny Post
Vincent “Vinny Gorgeou” Basciano already has the perfectly coiffed hair, but at his upcoming capital-murder trial, the former Bonanno crime-family boss will also have a personal valet — courtesy of the US Bureau of Prisons.
A federal judge has ordered prison officials to make available to the mobster a selection of five coordinated business outfits each day of his death-penalty trial.
The judicial order skirts the perennial questions bedeviling men’s fashion, such as:
Paisley or pinstripes? Brogues or semi-brogues? A half-Windsor or a four-in-hand?
But it also suggests that New Yorkers can look forward to the most stylish mob trial since the flashy-gangster days of the Dapper Don himself, John Gotti.
“The court now orders that the [federal Manhattan detention center] accept up to five sets of clothing, including but not limited to undershirts, socks, shoes, dress shirts, suit pants and suit jackets, be made available to Basciano prior to each court date in this case,” Judge Nicholas Garaufis wrote.
The judge’s unusual order — most defendants are lucky if they have a single suit arranged by their lawyers — was prompted by a request from Basciano’s defense attorneys aimed at ensuring that the mobster’s trial in Brooklyn federal court will not be marred by the sort of wardrobe malfunction seen at his 2007 murder and racketeering trial.
That’s when Basciano ran out of freshly laundered dress shirts and was forced to borrow a shirt-and-tie combination from the judge himself.
In that trial, when Basciano showed up to court in a gray suit over a white undershirt, Garaufis asked his size and sent out for a dress shirt. “I would do my shopping here,” the grateful Bonanno boss joked while changing.
Garaufis referred to the episode during a recent court hearing, saying he hopes that Basciano will have an ample array of clothing at his disposal.
Although he spends his days behind bars in solitary confinement, Basciano appears in court with an immaculately proportioned haircut that looks as if it were sculpted at a pricey Madison Avenue salon.
Hair care is a subject Basciano knows something about: He used to own a beauty salon in The Bronx, Hello Gorgeous, from which his nickname is derived.
Last week, at the start of jury selection, Basciano appeared in a well-tailored suit but privately groused that the length of his pants’ cuffs was not to his taste.
Basciano, who is already serving a life sentence on an earlier conviction, faces new charges of murdering a mob associate. By MITCHEL MADDUX Ny Post
