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Thread: Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano Sentenced to LWOP

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    Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano Sentenced to LWOP


    Vincent (Vinny Gorgeous) 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.

    The possibility of Basciano representing himself came after the judge dismissed court-appointed lawyer Jane Smith from the case.

    Garaufis noted the law only provides for two court-appointed lawyers. Basciano still has three, yet lead attorney George Goltzer is whining they can't be ready for the trial unless Smith returns.

    "[Basciano] says to me point-blank ...'Goltzer, if you can't be ready, I'm going to ask this judge to go pro se," Goltzer said, using the legal term for representing oneself at trial.

    "It's not something I even want to begin to contemplate."



    http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/07/20/2009-07-20_vinny_gorgeous_vows_to_act_as_own_lawyer.htm

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    Bonanno crime boss Vincent 'Vinny Gorgeous' Basciano gets sweet deal: visits from ex-wife & mistress



    The mob has a new don - Don Juan.

    Bonanno crime boss Vincent (Vinny Gorgeous) Basciano has persuaded the feds to bend the rules and let his ex-wife and his mistress visit him on alternate weeks in jail.

    The flamboyant gangster is locked up at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, serving life for racketeering while awaiting a death-penalty trial for a murder.

    He's caged 23 hours a day under conditions usually reserved for terrorists because he's suspected of plotting to kill a federal judge and prosecutor.

    Normally, only relatives would be allowed to visit him under prison policy.

    But as prosecutor John Buretta explained in court Thursday, the warden has agreed to allow Basciano's goumada, Debra Kalb, to visit every other week.

    Defense lawyer Richard Jasper wanted to make sure Kalb's visits would not interfere with visits by Basciano's ex-wife, Angela, and their four sons.

    "He shouldn't have to choose between relationships of natural family members," Jasper said. "He has a relationship with his former wife as well."

    Buretta explained that the government wasn't trying to limit either woman's time with Basciano.

    But he said every no-contact visit - Basciano and his visitor are separated by a mesh screen - must be monitored by an FBI agent.

    "It's just a question of manpower," Buretta said.

    Angela Basciano got an uncontested divorce in Bronx Supreme Court one month after her hubby was convicted of racketeering and murder in 2006.

    But they're still in touch - just like Kalb and the 10-year-old love child she had with Basciano.

    Brooklyn Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis - targeted on an alleged hit list seized at the jail - was asked if Basciano could have another break.

    "Can he have a contact visit so he can give his son a new year's hug? It's a human request," Jasper said.

    Garaufis said the marshals are in charge of security and he would not tell them what to do but would ask.

    "I certainly, as a parent, sympathize with the request," he said.

    The marshals nixed the hug.

    Outside her Rockland County home, Kalb declined to talk about her quality time with Vinny Gorgeous.

    "I've got no idea what happened in court. I've got nothing to do with that," she snapped.

    http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/01/01/2010-01-01_mobbed_in_jail_ex_gal_pal_sons_love_child_to_vi sit_vinnie.html

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    Brooklyn mobster closer to death row after losing court appeal

    By JANON FISHER

    Last Updated: 3:58 PM, March 23, 2010

    Posted: 3:57 PM, March 23, 2010

    Former mob boss Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano is one step closer to death row.

    A federal appeals court gunned down the glamorous gangster's request to toss some of the charges from the current indictment against him on a double-jeopardy argument, clearing the way for his death penalty case to proceed.

    Basciano's lawyers argued that he had already been tried, convicted and sentenced to life in prison for running the Bonanno family's illegal gambling operation, extortion shake-downs and murders.

    The feds socked him again in 2005 with another racketeering indictment while he was in prison awaiting trial on those charges, for running the crime family from behind bars, including ordering the hit on wiseguy Ralph "Randy" Pizzolo.

    Basciano wanted to increase his power over the family by making an example of Pizzolo, who had botched a construction job, according to the feds.

    "You want to know why? Because he is a f-----g dangerous kid that don't f-----g listen. I thought this kid would have been a good wake-up call for everybody," Gorgeous was recorded saying on an FBI phone tap.

    Pizzolo was found shot multiple times on Nov. 30, 2004, in an industrial section of Williamsburg, with his car running and $1,000 in his wallet.

    The mobster's lawyers claimed that these charges amounted to double jeopardy and should be dismissed.

    The appellate judges agreed, in part, about the racketeering charge against Basciano, and tossed one count of the indictment that had already been decided in the previous trial.

    However, the judges decided that Pizzolo's murder was a fresh act and could proceed to trial.

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    NY judge: Death penalty would cost gov't dearly

    NEW YORK (AP) - The judge overseeing the upcoming murder trial of the reputed mob boss known as Vinny Gorgeous says the government should reconsider seeking the death penalty in the case.

    Brooklyn federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis, in a letter Thursday to Attorney General Eric Holder Jr., said the pending capital trial of Vincent Basciano already has cost the government more than $3 million in legal fees.

    The reputed acting boss of the Bonanno organized crime family is accused of the 2004 rubout of a mob associate.

    He already is serving a life sentence without parole for the killing of another gangland rival.

    The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment.

    http://www.wcax.com/global/story.asp?s=12482498

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    Ex-mob boss Vincent (Vinny Gorgeous) Basciano caught red-handed with porn in prison

    He's under 23-hour lockdown, but former mob boss Vincent (Vinny Gorgeous) Basciano still managed to get his hands on porn in federal jail, officials revealed.

    The feds got a tip that the ex-Bonanno chief was trying to pass messages through another inmate in a legal-research room at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

    "In exchange, Basciano would provide the other inmate with contraband items, such as stamps and pornographic and other DVDs," prosecutor Taryn Merkly said in court papers.

    Investigators searched the room and found a DVD stashed there and "unauthorized magazines" in Basciano's cell, Merkl said.

    The DVD was not identified, but sources said it was X-rated. One of the magazines was "Esquire," which is not on Basciano's approved list of reading material.

    Basciano's commissary privileges were suspended for 30 days and he was moved to the notorious "10 South" terrorist wing at the lockup in Manhattan.

    In a letter to Judge Nicholas Garaufis, who is presiding over the mobster's upcoming murder and death penalty trial, Basciano called the magazine violation "innocuous."

    But prosecutors have suggested that Basciano might be secretly communicating with the outside world, claiming he seems to speak in code during visits with his son.

    Basciano is being held under conditions reserved for terrorists after he was accused of scribbling a "hit list" with the names of the judge, a prosecutor and cooperating witnesses five years ago.

    Yet federal officials marvel at how his hair is always immaculately groomed and his skin remains mysteriously tanned.

    He even persuaded the judge to allow prison visits from his ex-wife and mistress on alternating weeks.

    Defense lawyer George Goltzer said he would respond to the allegations in writing.


    Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_c...#ixzz150ArbjuX

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    Judge: Stop notes

    This mobster doesn't know write from wrong.

    A federal judge has ordered former Bonanno crime-family boss Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano to stop flooding him with letters.

    The photogenic mobster is a prolific jailhouse correspondent, and for some time now, Judge Nicholas Garaufis has been his favorite pen pal. But it's a one-sided conversation, and the Brooklyn judge has grown weary of being inundated by Basciano's missives.

    "This court ORDERS Defendant [Basciano] to cease sending letters directly to the court," Garaufis wrote.

    "Any letters the court receives directly from defendant, including the most recent letter, will remain unopened and unread."


    But the judge's directive fell on deaf ears.

    Basciano has continued writing, sending several more letters in recent weeks to the judge -- either directly to the court or passing them through his defense attorneys.

    In response, Garaufis issued two more orders for the wiseguy to stop.

    It is an odd turn of events, given that Basciano -- a former beauty-salon owner and ranking New York mobster -- once listed the judge on a piece of paper that prosecutors argued was a hit list.

    Basciano, whose nickname was derived from the "Hello Gorgeous" salon he once owned in The Bronx, denied the 2008 document was a hit list, but instead a Santeria curse that named the judge.

    Wherever the truth lies behind the list, one thing is hard to dispute: Basciano has a lot of time on his hands.

    Sitting in solitary confinement while he awaits trial for the murder of a fellow mobster, Basciano -- already in prison for life on a previous racketeering and murder conviction -- writes letter after letter filled with highly technical observations about how to fight the charges against him. They also include minutiae of his daily prison life and focus on matters that sometimes seem mundane.

    To him, the points are anything but small.

    "My death-penalty case is right around the corner," Basciano wrote the judge. "I want to be consulted about the very important issues and decisions that will ultimately affect my life."


    Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/b...#ixzz19VICKukO

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    Judge won't delay mobster's murder trial

    The New York murder trial of former mob boss Vincent Basciano will begin on March 2 with no more delays, a judge has ruled.

    "This case is over 5 years old," U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis said Thursday. "… No further requests to postpone the trial date will be entertained."

    Basciano, the Bonnano family boss and a former New York hair salon owner known as "Vinny Gorgeous," is in solitary confinement in a Brooklyn federal detention center awaiting trial in the 2004 killing of mob associate Randolph Pizzolo, the New York Post reported. He already is serving life for a previous racketeering and murder conviction.

    Last week, Garaufis ordered Basciano to stop sending him letters from jail, attempting to circumvent his own lawyers and make legal points directly to the judge.

    "My death penalty case is right around the corner," Basciano wrote. "I want to be consulted about the very important issues and decisions that will ultimately affect my life."

    http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2010/...4751293807253/

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    As death trial nears, judge deals with mobster Vinny Gorgeous Basciano's list of jailhouse gripes

    Not surprisingly, former Bonanno boss Vincent (Vinny Gorgeous) Basciano is getting more high maintenance by the day on the eve of his federal death penalty trial in Brooklyn.

    Basciano, 51, unloaded a new set of complaints Thursday for Judge Nicholas Garaufis to consider - he's suffering from asthma and a degenerative hip disorder. The judge sounded skeptical.

    "This is the first time you're discussing asthma with me," said Garaufis, who has had the gangster on his docket since 2003.

    Basciano has been jailed in the terrorist wing of Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan since the feds found an alleged hit list containing the names of Garaufis, a prosecutor and three turncoat witnesses.

    After recently complaining about "cold and moist" jail conditions, Basciano was moved to a different cell with a weatherproof door, authorities said. The stress appears to be getting to Basciano, who faces the death penalty if convicted of ordering the murder of mob associate Randolph Pizzolo.

    First, he refused to leave the jail Thursday because it was his visiting day, but U.S. marshals hauled him to court. Then he wished the prosecutors seeking his execution "good luck."

    But the most damning evidence he's losing it? Basciano's perfectly coiffed head is being overrun by white hair.

    http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_c...se_gripes.html

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    Jury selection delayed in NYC murder trial of mobster 'Vinny Gorgeous'

    NEW YORK -- Jury selection in the capital murder trial of former Bonanno crime-family boss Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano was set to begin Tuesday, but now the immaculately-groomed mobster is refusing to come to the courthouse to review a questionnaire for potential jurists.

    For months, Basciano has been complaining that he cannot properly prepare for the trial with his defense attorneys because he is in a high-security wing of the Manhattan federal detention center where he must converse with the lawyers through a glass window, which also makes it difficult to review legal papers.

    After receiving dozens of letters and legal motions from Basciano and his lawyers complaining about the situation, Judge Nicholas Garaufis finally ordered the US Marshals Service to dedicate a special team to transport Basciano to the Brooklyn federal courthouse where the mobster will meet face-to-face with his attorneys in a private cell to prepare for the trial.

    Prior to the judge's order, the Marshals Service had protested that the operation was very expensive and drained its manpower resources, but the judge ordered the unusual arrangement over their objections out of concerns that the issue would further delay the start of the mobster's trial.

    But now Basciano, who is already serving a life sentence on an earlier conviction, is refusing to leave his solitary confinement cell and come to the courthouse to meet his attorneys, fearful that the US Marshals guarding him will eavesdrop on his discussions with the defense team, a source told the Post.

    The development is yet another stumbling block in a death penalty case that has dragged on for six years -- partly due to such delays.

    So far, the legal defense in Basciano's death penalty trial has cost taxpayers nearly $4 million -- and the trial does not even start for another two months.

    http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/news/...5-ncx-20110214

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    When this trial starts it will be better entertainment than Sunday Night HBO!

    Vinny Gorgeous tossed out of court after shouting match with judge; says it's a 'kangaroo court'

    Former Bonanno crime boss Vincent (Vinny Gorgeous) Basciano was ejected from the courtroom Monday after a shouting match with a federal judge.

    The mobster wigged out after Judge Nicholas Garaufis suggested he was paranoid for refusing to use a special room set aside in the court for him and his lawyers to review jury questionnaires.

    Basciano, whose facing capital murder charges, believes U.S. marshals will be eavesdropping on their conversations because the isolation room has a microphone link to the marshal's operations center in case someone in the room needed help.

    "My paranoia is legitimate!" he bellowed, defying the judge's order to speak through his lawyer.

    That's when Garaufis ordered him forcibly removed from the courtroom.

    "This has been a kangaroo court all along with you in it!" yelled Basciano.

    Before he was hustled out, Basciano shouted out to his son sitting in the front row.

    "Take care Steven," he said, adding: "Behave yourself."

    The judge warned defense lawyer George Golzer that if there is an outburst by Basciano during the trial "he'll watch it from a television set in a cell."

    Several hundred prospective jurors will report to the courthouse Tuesday to fill out questionnaires.

    Basciano, who has already been convicted of murder and sentenced to life without parole, is facing the death penalty for ordering the murder of mob associate Randolph Pizzolo.

    The outburst Monday is the latest crack in his meticulously groomed armor; he's appeared to come unhinged as Tuesday's jury selection for his death penalty trial in Brooklyn Federal Court approached.

    Federal prosecutors intend to call a cavalcade of cooperating witnesses, including former Bonanno boss Joseph Massino, the highest ranking Mafioso from a crime family in New York to turn rat.

    Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_c...#ixzz1DzLNibZO

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