Vincent Basciano was born on November 14, 1959, in Yonkers, New York. Over the following decades he would rise from the streets of the Bronx and Yonkers to become boss of the Bonanno crime family.
His start came early. As a teenager, Basciano intervened when a young kid in the Bronx was being bullied. That caught the attention of the child's family member, Dominic "Big Trin" Trinchera, a heavyweight in the Bonanno family.
Trinchera took a liking to the young Basciano and began driving him around. Basciano was regularly seen with Big Trin at weddings and other gatherings, and people wondered who the young babyface kid hanging around mobsters was.
Big Trin would try to gain power in the Bonanno family alongside a group known as the three capos, which included Philip "Lucky" Giaccone and Alphonse "Sonny Red" Indelicato. Those three would ultimately be killed in a murder known as the three capos murder.
After Big Trin's murder in the early 1980s, Basciano was already becoming known as a kid hanging around the neighborhood. He slotted in with Tony "Cole" Colangelo, a mafia associate who ran a large bookmaking operation in the Bronx on an area called Pleasant Avenue.
Tony Cole was known throughout the neighborhood and was said to have a huge numbers and gambling operation. Basciano came on as a bit of a protege, making collections and making the business easier for Tony Cole.
By the mid-1980s, Tony Cole was facing an indictment. Happy with where his business stood, he called on Basciano to take care of collections and run the operation while he was in prison. His only ask was that Basciano take care of his girlfriend, who was expecting checks each week.
On the surface it worked. Basciano was kicking up around five thousand dollars to the girlfriend. But by the end of the incarceration, Basciano had realized that if he got rid of Tony Cole, he could keep all the money instead of kicking it up.
Tony Cole was released from prison, and in 1987 he told his family that in May he was going to hang out with "the kids," referring to Basciano and his friend Anthony Donato. Tony Cole was not seen again.
In June 1987, a passerby driver in the area of Greenburgh, New York, located a body in a black bag. It was the body of Tony Cole Colangelo.
Allegedly, Basciano had Tony Cole killed and took over his big gambling operation. It was a way for Basciano to show his panache for the Bonanno family and demonstrate that he could earn.
With that money he began to acquire businesses. He operated a Blimpie restaurant in the Bronx and owned a salon called Hello Gorgeous, which is where he garnered his popular nickname, "Vinny Gorgeous."
Things were going well. Basciano had gotten married and moved his burgeoning family out of the Bronx in the late 1980s and early 1990s, settling in Scarsdale, an upscale Westchester County suburb.
By this point Basciano was becoming known around town and in the Bronx. He partnered with Patrick "Patty from the Bronx" DeFilippo, whose father had been very close to Joe Bonanno and whose family had gone back in the Bonanno family for many years.
DeFilippo knew the connection would be a burgeoning one. He and Basciano could be the eyes and ears for the Bonanno family in the Bronx, and both ran bookmaking operations. For the most part, bookmaking in Yonkers and the Bronx was in their hands.
Patty from the Bronx began introducing Basciano to high-ranking friends. Basciano was seen on government surveillance around the haunts and haunts of Joseph "Big Joey" Massino, who by then was very high up in the family and essentially its boss.
Massino stabilized the family and by the 1990s was the most powerful boss in the American mafia. He would later cooperate, but his effectiveness as a boss could not be knocked.
For Basciano, things would start to hit the skids. While he was making a lot of money and had the Blimpie restaurant and a big home in Scarsdale, one of his former cohorts, Alfred "Fat Al" Betoni, had his door kicked in by the federal government in August 1991.
Betoni was an associate of Basciano and of the Lucchese crime family through bookmaking. The feds alleged he was part of a powerful drug organization run by Eric Milan Colon.
Milan Colon was from Manhattan, and the feds alleged he ran a drug group pushing almost 100 percent pure heroin, which they dubbed "Blue Thunder." They alleged that during a five-year period, Milan Colon and his cohorts pushed about a hundred million dollars worth of heroin onto New York streets.
The feds contended that Betoni was very involved with the drug conspiracy and connected it back to Basciano, who by this point had the feds wondering how he was making all his money. They suspected he may have been a financer of the operation.
Hours later, Basciano's Scarsdale home had its door kicked in as well. The feds found about 230 thousand dollars, and Basciano told them he had won the money gambling.
Basciano had also faced a case back in the 1980s involving an individual named David Rivera. The feds alleged that Basciano, alongside DeFilippo and Donato, shot a numbers runner called David Nunez. Ultimately Nunez recanted a statement and Basciano did not face problems from it.
In the Blue Thunder case, the feds thought they had good information. They caught Basciano on tape around the time of the arrests, and he was recorded telling Betoni, "We've got some problems, pal." Helicopters were noticed outside the home.
Defense attorney Ben Brafman argued that much of the talk was simply the fact that the men had known each other in bookmaking circles, and that there was no proof it was related to drugs. The first trial in the case was thrown out.
Basciano ultimately went to trial and was acquitted. He was one of only two people acquitted in the case, alongside Anthony Betoni, the son of Alfred Betoni. The feds could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Basciano was involved in drug trafficking.
In 1991, it is alleged by the federal government that Basciano was inducted into the Bonanno crime family in a ceremony at a Greenpoint, Brooklyn home. He was sponsored by his pal Patrick "Patty from the Bronx" DeFilippo.
In 1992, a couple named Rosemary and Thomas Uva were robbing mob social clubs. Once the pair were taken out by the Gambino crime family, questions circulated around New York about who had killed the Bonnie and Clyde duo.
Bonanno family boss Joe Massino wanted answers. He had heard around town that it was his family that took care of the piece of work, and Patty from the Bronx told Massino that it was Donato and Basciano who took the pair out.
Massino was approached by the Gotti regime, including John "Junior" Gotti, and was flummoxed, believing his own family had carried out the work. Someone was lying, and it was DeFilippo, who believed his two young henchmen.
Nothing ultimately happened to Basciano or Donato for telling tall tales, but it became problematic for DeFilippo, who was not truly respected after that by Big Joey Massino.
Basciano continued his ascent, making more and more money under DeFilippo. He owned businesses, got involved with construction, and people were turning up dead.
Basciano was also assembling a crew below him. Dominic Cicale slotted in, and he grabbed hangers-on from the Giannini crew, including an individual called Anthony Aiello.
In 2002, after Patrick "Patty from the Bronx" was jammed up, Basciano became the captain in the Bonanno family of DeFilippo's crew. He was becoming a very important figure in the family.
But good things never last forever, and the feds were closing in on Big Joey Massino. To that point, the Bonanno family had no informants and was run well by Massino.
Then the hammer came down. Frank Coppa cooperated, and Richard Cantarella cooperated and started talking about everybody in the family.
In January 2003, Big Joey Massino was arrested at his home. Also jammed up were his brother-in-law Salvatore Vitale and other members of the Bonanno crime family.
At his arrest, Massino asked FBI agent Jeffrey Sallet, "Did you pick up Sal as well?" Sallet responded that they had picked up Salvatore. Many people began to worry about Vitale's testimony and whether he would bring in his brother-in-law and the rest of the family.
One person who was not worried was Vincent Basciano. Basciano realized his number might be called, and that he would probably get a power position once Massino and Vitale went away.
The daily running of the family fell to a three-person triumvirate. One of the main decision makers was Anthony "Tony Green" Urso, a confidant of Big Joey Massino and really an errand boy for Joey.
Tony Urso was caught on camera and on tape at one point after Salvatore Vitale was learned to be a cooperator, which got Urso jammed up. In that recording, Urso said of a rat, "Now this one's a rat. Well, [expletive] it, he can do it, I can do it. You tell them, whoever turns will wipe your family out. If you take one kid, I hate to say it, I gotta do what I gotta do. They'll [expletive] think twice. How would Sal feel if I killed one of his kids?"
Ultimately that would jam him up, because one of the individuals in that conversation flipped as well. Tony Green was taken off the streets in 2004.
This was good news for Vinny Gorgeous. At that point he assumed control of the Bonanno crime family, going from saving a kid on the street from being bullied all the way to the top of the Bonanno crime family.
The Joe Massino trial began in May 2004. Not one, not two, not five, but seven informants testified against Big Joey Massino.
On July 30, 2004, Joey Massino was found guilty of multiple murders and faced the death penalty. As soon as he was convicted, he decided he wanted to speak to agent Jeff Sallet, with whom he had become close.
Massino asked to speak with the judge and then did the unthinkable: he decided to cooperate against his Bonanno cohorts. Sallet and the FBI were smart and realized Massino now faced life and would be held in MDC for a long period of time.
Things were coming together for the FBI. They realized they had Big Joey Massino and decided to wire him for sound. Basciano was ultimately arrested in November 2004.
By this point Basciano had been known around town as a wild child, but he was also a smart, manipulative guy who made a lot of money and became a powerful figure. The problem was he went off the deep end.
People started telling Basciano before he was arrested that maybe he should stop killing people, as people were starting to turn up dead. In December 2004, he asked underlings Dominic Cicale and Michael Mancuso, as well as Anthony Aiello, to take care of an individual who had disrespected him on the street.
Many of the people involved in the crime tried to tell Basciano that maybe they should not kill people right then, with the boss of the family on trial. They tried to stall for a long period of time.
Once Massino was found guilty and got life, they told Basciano they would do it. In December 2004, on Monitor Street in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, Randy Pizzola was killed.
The government had Joey Massino wired for sound. He ran into the bullpen and started talking to Vinny Gorgeous, asking him about the hit on Randy Pizzola.
In his cooperation testimony, prosecutor Taryn Merkl asked Massino whether he had ever had a discussion with a member of the Bonanno family about what happened to Randy Pizzola. Massino responded, "Yes I have, with Vincent Basciano. He told me he had Randy killed in 2004."
Asked what year the conversation took place, Massino said 2004, at the MDC detention center in Brooklyn. Asked whether Basciano told him why he killed Randy Pizzola, Massino responded, "Yes he did. He said he was a scumbag, he was a rat, a troublemaker and a bad kid."
This was problematic for Basciano. He was jammed up in the murder, and he was also involved with conspiracies to kill Patrick DeFilippo and the girlfriend of Dominic Cicale.
Ultimately Dominic Cicale flipped. Joey Massino flipped. Pretty much everyone involved with the conspiracy flipped, and Basciano faced the end of the road in the conspiracy as well.
The government alleged he also killed an individual called Frank Santoro, and tried to include charges that he ordered the assault of an individual called Frank Porco. The Porco assault was allegedly done for Sylvester "Sally Daz" Zottola, a Bonanno associate and associate of Basciano.
Zottola was a big-time joker poker machine wise guy in the Bronx. In 2019, his body was found in a McDonald's parking lot.
The writing was on the wall for Vinny Gorgeous. He faced trial and in July 2007 was found guilty on most counts, including multiple murders.
He also had to face another trial in the hit on Randy Pizzola. In that trial he faced the testimony of his former friend Dominic Cicale.
During that time, Basciano sent a letter to a girlfriend. Of Cicale's testimony he wrote, "It broke my heart after learning about the testimony of Dom Cicale." The two had been friends and partners forever, and it was the treachery the mob is sometimes all about.
Basciano was found guilty and faced the death penalty. In July 2011, he received life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Basciano has moved around in the years since and still sits in federal prison. He still looks similar, with the quaffed hair and the look he was known for.
In a letter penned to a reporter several years ago, Basciano talked about his life in the mob and where he goes from here, as he likely will die in federal prison. He wrote, "I'd rather die than compromise my values. I'm one of the few that followed the rules."
Being a rat in the mob is trendy nowadays, but one individual who never wavered on who he was is Vincent Basciano. Was he a lunatic? Absolutely. Did he do some things late in his career as boss? Absolutely.
But the rise he had in the mafia was incredible. He was probably one of the last of the Mohicans in the American mob.