500 gold bars, $7million and five houses: The price former mob boss 'Big Joey' Massino paid to the feds to become an informant

By Rachel Quigley
Updated: 06:14 EST, 15 April 2011

Day three: Massino revealed the extent of the fortune he handed over to the government to become an informant

In day three of the mob boss trial, Joseph 'Big Joey' Massino revealed the extent of the riches he handed over to the government to become an informant and insisted that he did not do it to escape the death penalty.

The former Bonanno boss, who became the first official New York mob boss in history to become a snitch and testify against his fellow mobsters, was testifying for the third day against Vincent 'Vinny Gorgeous' Basciano.

According to the New York Post, he was asked by Richard Jasper, Basciano's attorney, if he had owned three hundred gold bars which he had to forfeit to the feds when he turned informant in 2005.

Massino said: 'It was more than that - maybe four or five hundred. I had them in my basement.'

He then revealed that he had $7million in cash hiding in his house that he also handed over.

He said: 'It was in my attic, I had it all up there.'

This was just a portion of the fortune that 'The Last Don' accumulated throughout his years as boss of the Bonanno family.

He also gave the government five out of his ten properties and was allowed to keep the others to keep his wife happy as well as the one his mother lived in.

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His wife Josephine was said to have been unaware that he became an informant to keep her in the style to which she was accustomed and came close to leaving him when she found out he became a rat.

Alias: Massino was referred to as the 'Last Don' by the media because at the time, he was the only official head of the Five Families not in prison

Wearing a black velour tracksuit, he insisted during cross examination that he did not turn rat to avoid lethal injection.

Mr Jasper asked: 'Weren’t you concerned or weren’t you afraid because you were facing the death penalty.'

Gorgeous: Basciano is on trial for ordering the death of Randy Pizzolo, another member of the Bonanno family

He said: 'No I was not concerned about that.'

He also revealed that a crooked FBI boss tipped them off about a planned raid and allowed him to go into hiding for two years.

He said: 'The FBI agent never gave a bad tip. Any time he told us something, we could take it to the bank.'

In three days on the witness stand in Brooklyn, the 68-year-old has detailed a quarter-century's worth of murder, racketeering and other crimes he committed as he rose through the ranks of the Bonannos.

On Thursday, he admitted extorting $5,000 a month from trucking firms at John F. Kennedy International Airport in exchange for keeping hostile union labour away.

Yesterday, recordings of conversations between he and Basciano were played to the court.

Massino agreed to wear a wire in jail to extract a confession out of Basciano about ordering a hit on Randy Pizzolo, another member of the Bonanno clan.

Lawyers for the defendant say Basciano actually knew nothing about the killing and was only playing along to prevent a close mob associate from being punished for it.

If convicted, he faces the death penalty.

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