Vinny Gorgeous: Murders, a Life Sentence, and the Death Penalty

Vinny Gorgeous Basciano is a former acting boss of the Bonanno crime family who is serving consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole for ordering two murders, running a racketeering enterprise, and plotting from behind bars to kill a federal prosecutor. Born Vincent Basciano on November 14, 1959, and raised in the Bronx, he picked up the nickname from a beauty salon he owned on East Tremont Avenue called Hello Gorgeous.¹ His case became one of the most expensive federal death penalty prosecutions in New York history, and it ended with the former boss who had preceded him testifying against him from the witness stand.

From Salon Owner to Acting Boss

Law enforcement identified Basciano as a soldier in the Bonanno family with alleged ties to the Gambinos, and he ran a large illegal gambling operation for the family while owning several Bronx beauty salons on the legitimate side.² The Hello Gorgeous shop gave him the name that stuck through decades of criminal activity and courtroom proceedings.³

He moved up from soldier to captain and became acting boss in 2004, after official boss Joseph Massino was incarcerated and much of the family’s leadership was either imprisoned or cooperating with the government.⁴ Prosecutors later argued he used violence to cement that rise, including the killing of Bonanno associate Randolph Pizzolo in late 2004.⁵

The Two Murders at the Center of the Case

The first killing was Frank Santoro, a Throgs Neck neighborhood figure. Prosecutors said Basciano ordered the hit and served as one of the shooters because he believed Santoro was plotting to kidnap one of his sons. Santoro was shot while walking his dog on February 15, 2001, in an ambush near his home; Anthony Indelicato and Anthony Donato drove and later pleaded guilty.⁶ At trial, former associate Dominick Cicale testified that Basciano was laughing afterward because the gun’s recoil had struck him in the chin, and Bonanno captain James “Big Louie” Tartaglione produced secret recordings of Basciano discussing the killing and boasting that prosecutors would struggle to convict him without forensic evidence or the murder weapon.⁷

The second was Randolph Pizzolo, a Bonanno associate whose drunken demands to be formally inducted into the family had, according to prosecutors, made him a liability.⁸ On November 30, 2004, Pizzolo was lured to an industrial section of Brooklyn and shot by Anthony Aiello, acting on orders from Basciano and acting boss Michael Mancuso.⁶ The Pizzolo killing would later anchor the government’s death penalty case.

The Boss Who Flipped on Him

The decisive turn came when Joseph Massino, the man Basciano had replaced, agreed to cooperate. Massino became the first official boss of one of New York’s five Mafia families to testify for the prosecution.⁹ A jury had already convicted him of seven murders, and he faced an additional capital murder charge; he also wanted relief from a $10.3 million forfeiture judgment that had frozen his assets.¹⁰

Massino agreed to wear a recording device while held with Basciano at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. On January 3 and January 7, 2005, he taped Basciano admitting he had ordered the Pizzolo murder and repeating threats against prosecutor Greg Andres.¹⁰ On one tape, Massino said, Basciano called Pizzolo “a scumbag, a rat, a troublemaker.”⁴

Plots Against a Prosecutor and a Judge

Among the more serious allegations was a conspiracy to murder Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Andres, the lead prosecutor on several Bonanno cases. Trial testimony traced the plot to 2004, when Basciano was angered by what he saw as disrespectful treatment of his wife by Andres.¹¹ Dominick Cicale testified that Basciano planned to carry out the hit himself at an Upper East Side restaurant Andres frequented, wearing a baseball cap as a disguise, because “the hit had to be done right.”¹² The murder was never carried out.

In 2006, while Basciano was held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, the FBI investigated him for allegedly plotting to kill the judge in his case, Nicholas G. Garaufis. The focus was a handwritten list Basciano had given a fellow inmate containing the names of Judge Garaufis, a prosecutor, and three cooperating witnesses. Handwriting analysis confirmed Basciano wrote it.¹³ His defense offered an unusual explanation: an inmate whose mother was a Santeria priestess had told him to write the names as part of a ritual to lift evil spells, place the list in his right shoe, and stamp five times every day during his trial.¹⁴

Racketeering Convictions and a Life Sentence

Basciano’s first federal trial, in the Eastern District of New York before Judge Garaufis, ran from February 27 to May 9, 2006. The jury convicted him of racketeering conspiracy and gambling offenses but deadlocked on the murder counts, including the Santoro killing.¹⁵ A second trial in 2007 produced a conviction on all counts, including the Santoro murder as a racketeering predicate, and Judge Garaufis sentenced him to life imprisonment on March 31, 2008.¹⁶

The Death Penalty Trial

With a life sentence already in place, the federal government pressed a separate capital case for the Pizzolo murder, filed under a January 2005 indictment and charging murder and conspiracy to murder in aid of racketeering, along with a firearms count.¹⁷ The decision to seek death, begun under the Bush administration and ratified under the Obama administration, drew sharp criticism from the bench. Judge Garaufis wrote to the Department of Justice calling the pursuit “expensive and futile” given Basciano’s existing life sentence and restrictive confinement. A spokesman for the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney’s office responded: “We don’t prosecute cases based on what it costs. We just don’t put a price tag on it.”¹⁸

The trial lasted more than five weeks. On May 16, 2011, the jury found Basciano guilty of murder, racketeering, and conspiracy.⁸ During the penalty phase, prosecutors argued he was a “cold-hearted killer” who remained dangerous even in prison, having ordered the Pizzolo hit while incarcerated. Massino returned to the stand to testify about the plot against Andres and reinforce the government’s continuing-threat argument.¹¹ Total costs were later estimated at over $10 million in public money, with defense costs alone reaching $4.3 million.¹⁸

Why the Jury Spared His Life

On June 1, 2011, after roughly two and a half hours of deliberation, the jury unanimously voted for life without parole instead of death. Jurors gave two reasons. They were not convinced by the government’s “future threat” argument, and they found it unfair to single Basciano out when other organized crime figures convicted of equal or worse crimes had not faced capital charges.¹⁹ Ten jurors signed a note stating that “there are other members of organized crime that have admitted to an equal or greater number of serious crimes that are not facing the death penalty, much less incarcerated.”¹⁸

At the time, federal prosecutors had sought the death penalty in more than 30 New York cases, with only one death sentence returned, and that one was subsequently overturned. New York no longer maintained its own death penalty statute.¹⁹

Appeals and Where He Is Now

Basciano challenged both convictions. In February 2012, a three-judge Second Circuit panel unanimously rejected his bid for a new trial on the Pizzolo conviction, ruling that evidence prosecutors had allegedly withheld merely “suggests only that it would have been helpful to the defense to argue that others had a motive” for the killing.²⁰ The Second Circuit also rejected his appeal on the Santoro conviction.²¹ He remains incarcerated, serving consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.

1
New York Post. Hoods a Real Beaut — Gorgeous Busted
2
New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement. Vincent J. Basciano Exclusion Order
3
New York Daily News. From Hello Gorgeous to Hello Prison
4
BBC News. Ex-Mafia Boss Joseph Massino Testifies Against Former Lieutenant
5
New York Times. Brooklyn Jury Convicts Bonanno Captain in Mafia Killing
6
U.S. Department of Justice. Press Release – Bonanno Family Members Plead Guilty
7
New York Post. Gorgeous Tressed to Kill
8
BBC News. Vinny Gorgeous Gets Life Over Mafia Murder
9
New York Times. About New York – Joseph Massino Takes the Stand
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New York Daily News. Mob Boss a Rat — Say Massino Wore Wire to Bust Chief in Rubout Plot
11
New York Times. Massino Returns to Stand to Testify Against Basciano
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New York Daily News. Vinny Gorgeous Eyed Hit on Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Andres, Mob Turncoat Testifies
13
New York Times. Mob Figure Is Investigated in Plot to Kill Judge in Case
14
GovInfo. United States v. Basciano, 03-CR-929 – Memorandum and Order
15
New York Times. Former Salon Owner Is Convicted of Racketeering but Not Murder
16
FindLaw. United States v. Basciano
17
CaseMine. U.S. v. Basciano, 05-CR-060
18
New York Times. A High Price for Seeking the Death Penalty
19
Death Penalty Information Center. Expensive Federal Death Penalty Case Ends With Life Without Parole
20
New York Post. Appeals Court Upholds Conviction of Ex-Mob Boss Vinny Gorgeous
21
New York Daily News. Court Rejects Appeal of Mobster Vincent Basciano’s Murder Conviction