Vincent Asaro ws arrested, tried, then acqitted on charges that he was involved in the 1978 $6M Luthnsa flight heist, at JFK“We need to handle this,” the elderly mafioso purportedly snarled while holed up in the Manhattan Detention Complex on his new case. “And not f–k up like Vinny.”
Prosecutors claim Asaro was referencing Vincent “Vinny Gorgeous” Basciano, the former boss of the Bonanno crime family.
Vincent “Vinny Gorgeous” Basciano, currently serving a life sentence for murder after a failed attempt to silence a federal judge, federal prosecutor and cooperating witnesses, during his murder trial, according to the same filing
Basciano, 57 currently is serving a life sentence for murder after a failed attempt to rub out his own prosecutor, according to the same filing.
Vincent Basciano spent 11 years in solitary confinement, under strict conditions, while awaiting trial in New York City on racketeering and murder charges, then later at the supermax prison in Florence, Colo., which has been described by a former warden as a “cleaner version of hell.”
Basciano was deemed as extremely dangerous after a handwritten slip of paper that he passed to another inmate in 2006 which contained the names of a federal judge, federal prosecutor and cooperating witnesses, was recovered.
Prosecutors feared it was a hit list, while Basciano maintained he simply wanted the inmate to put a Santeria hex on his adversaries before his trial.
Victorious Vincent Asaro emerges from Brooklyn Federal Court after he was acquitted of participation in the 1978 $6M heist of a Lufthansa flight in 1978, at JFK
In the case of Vincent Asaro, the letter detailing the threats follows an attempt by defense attorney Elizabeth Macedonio to spring her elderly client on bond in his 2012 arson case.
Brooklyn prosecutors had said Asaro was a member of the team of gangsters that lifted $6 million in cash and jewels from the JFK Airport cargo terminal, the same heist immortalized in Martin Scorsese’s 1990 film,“Goodfellas.”
The elder Valenti and Asaro had been close for decades.
Vincent Asaro [right] would snuff out his “rat cousin” Gaspare Valenti [left], who turned FBI informant
Then, in 2008, Valenti began recording their conversations and turning the tapes over to the feds.
Asaro on trial for helping to plan the 1978 heist was acquitted ultimately, because jurors didn’t believe the elder Valenti, the star witness.
They cleared the Bonanno crime-family capo of his alleged role in the heist, as well the 1969 killing of mob informant Paul Katz.
Asaro was also allegedly overheard saying he would snuff out his “rat cousin” Gaspare Valenti if he ever saw him again. Valenti, who is now in the witness protection program, was a key witness in the Lufthansa trial.
Macedonio did not return messages.
Hopefully the USAO secures a change in venue in this case to prevent any biased jurors during voir dire or any form of jury tampering. For the better of New York City, it’s worth picking up the tab for relocation of the Judge, Attorneys, Defendants and Marshals if it means securing a conviction and getting this POS off NY’s streets for good! These guys don’t care if they take out a Judge or Prosecutor and as history has proven, this is all they know and it’s difficult to get an unbiased jury in these Mob cases when community-wide biases exist. There’s approximately 8.5 million people in NYC metro alone, about 3.5 of those are Italian. Although that absurd code of silence referred to as, “Omerta” has long been broken, there’s still more Italians that believe in that than not. As for the rest of the population, there’s a large majority of people who idolize these criminals. Most of them don’t know what these guys are capable of. Most of them have not been “on the inside” and haven’t seen what actually goes on in that life “from the inside”. Most have formed their opinions of organized crime after watching “Goodfellas” or “Casino”. The chance of getting any of these people on a Jury are too high to even chance it.
Although parasites like this guy have a long history of murder and other crimes, they somehow appeal to the public and claim they are either “no longer in the life” or they are “sick” and “ailing” or “poor and elderly” and just want to spend what little remaining time they have on this Earth with their grandchildren and playing with puppies or being “Mother Theresa”. I personally know several high-ranking members, from Boss down, who have used the same excuse to their advantage. One, in particular used the excuse of prior cardio bypass as an excuse for leniency. The Court bought it. What the Court didn’t know (or failed to see), was that he was committing crimes, shaking people down, threatening people and giving Orders even before he got out of jail. Asaro and his attorney are doing the same thing and whining about his so-called poor health. It’s a tool they use to seek leniency. That’s all it is, a “tool”. There is NO such thing as a Mobster or Wiseguy that is “too old” or “two sick” to commit a crime or to commit murder. That doesn’t exist!
I once heard a Wiseguy talk about his high-ranking Wiseguy/murderer/father to a group of church members. He mentioned his ailing father that was “blind” from age and poor health and that he was in jail and would be 100 yrs old when he got out of jail. Then I heard the church members sigh and “aw” and express their condolences. What the son failed to tell the congregation was that his father, at his old age, was still calling the shots and still giving orders and still shaking people down and threatening to kill people and still committing crimes although he was 93 and will continue to do so when he’s release in June of this year, 2017.
The public seems to feed on that and actually buy into that garbage but what they fail to see, what I have seen personally, is that after the “poor me” speech, these guys are passing messages to/from lockup, thru their families and friends. When their families visit, even their wives, grandparent and children, messages are passed. To clarify a long misconception, there isn’t a wife or girlfriend, or mother in existence in the Mob life that doesn’t or hasn’t known what her husband or boyfriend or son does for a living.
If a mobster orders a hit on a Federal Prosecutor or Judge or any person, that’s because they expect it to be carried out. In that “life” one does not “joke” about such things or even mention a “hit” on somebody ever in a joking manner. And for somebody as ruthless and evil as this person is in the article, being responsible for yet another person’s murder is nothing new. The worst case scenario is that he’ll face yet another Indictment and possibly another Trial for yet, another murder, but this time it’s a Federal Prosecutor. Then, he’ll go free again, after a Mistrial or Acquittal or because of something that was “mishandled” in his case or because a Federal Agent “lost” the evidence against him. The People have heard this to many times!
And he won’t care because these wiseguys always “give the order” to carry out a hit. Meaning, they don’t have the stones to do it themselves. They solicit others to do it for them. Then, they try to blame the hitman.
The New York Daily News and the New York Post will write about this Prosecutor for about a weak and then everybody will go on about their lives and people will forget all about this Prosecutor who was only doing her job – her duty! The families of these victims are the ones that seek but never receive closure, nor do they ever receive Justice. Our Prosecutors, whether on a county, state or federal level, have taken an Oath to protect the public and bring criminals like this man to justice. This is the second time that a mobster has ordered a hit on a Federal Prosecutor in the Eastern District, simply because they claim the Government is prosecuting them for no reason. As this murderer’s attorney has claimed, he blames the Prosecutor and the FBI for his being in jail. Nevermind the fact that he’s committed a federal crime that put him there and he’s a life criminal and a murder and he DESERVES to be locked up for the rest of his life.
As a person who knows and has seen what mobsters like Asaro are capable of, the best thing for New York City is to get him off the street for good. If holding a Trial in NYC means this man walking away with an Acquittal or Mistrial and the People of NYC not being safe simply because of a biased Jury, then a Change of Venue is a constitutionally adequate remedy for securing an impartial Jury to help make NYC safe! I’m happy to see that he wasn’t granted bail. Once these guys are cut loose on bail, pending Trial, they use that time to conspire with other wiseguys. And they know they’re being watched but that doesn’t stop them. They know they can’t consort with other known organized crime members (wiseguys) so they use somebody (a wiseguy) who doesn’t have a criminal record on file to pass info to other members. The use the “funeral” or “wake” or “sick mother or child” as an excuse to meet with other wiseguys and pass info. It’s much easier than doing it in jail and over the phone. Although they do that as well. I know Wiseguys that are still able to go to visit other Wiseguys (even Bosses) in prison and pass messages.
But they’re able to do it because they don’t have a record and so their name doesn’t trigger a red flag on a Wiseguys visitation list. Hopefully the Eastern District will take this threat seriously enough to NOT cut him any deals as they have done in the past. Hopefully this threat will be taken seriously enough to know that by the time the news has posted an article like this, a couple of other degenerates like him have probably already driven past their home or family member’s work or school and by the time a Prosecutor even gets wind of a hit on them, these guys already know where they live and how to reach their families.