Updated news on the Gambino, Genovese, Bonanno, Lucchese and Colombo Organized Crime Families of New York City.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Vinny Gorgeous green lighted rubout of mob associate flipped Bonanno capo Dominick Cicale testifies


Vincent (Vinny Gorgeous) Basciano (left) with Dominick Cicale in undated photo.
Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano (left) with Dominick Cicale in undated photo.


An ex-Bonanno capo testified Monday he carried out ex-boss Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano's order to whack a mob associate.
Dominick Cicale put the plan to kill Randolph Pizzolo into action after the feds arrested Basciano in 2004.
"Randolph Pizzolo was killed on the orders of Vincent Basciano," Cicale told Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicole Argentieri in Brooklyn Federal Court.
The testimony is particularly damaging because Cicale was Basciano's right-hand made man on the street.
"I was basically his protégé," he said.
Cicale's statement also bolsters a tape secretly recorded by ex-Bonanno boss Joseph Massino in which Basciano admits that he gave the order to kill Pizzolo.
Cicale, 44, previously testified against Basciano in 2006, helping the feds convict the mob boss for the murder of Frank Santoro, a Bronx junkie who had threatened to kidnap Basciano's son.
Still, federal prosecutors had wavered on calling Cicale for a return engagement on the witness stand.
When he entered the courtroom, his appearance was dramatically changed - the once- muscular thug looked hollow-cheeked and gaunt, with his blue double-breasted suit hanging loose.
Cicale sounded like he was talking about another person's body when he described his tattoos, which included an executioner, a grim reaper, a devil wielding an axe, a panther and a dragon.
He said he earned his cred with Basciano by passing bizarre tests while socializing with his mob mentor.
While hanging out in Bartinis club in Forest Hills, Basciano instructed his mistress Deborah (Shorty) Kalb to rub Cicale's leg and flirt with him to see the mob wanna-be's reaction.
Later Basciano told Cicale he was impressed by how Cicale handled his booze and Kalb's amorous advances.
Another time, Basciano summoned Cicale to meet him at a Mexican restaurant in Manhattan, only to time how quickly he got there from the Bronx, Cicale said.
Basciano, sentenced to life in prison for the Santoro murder, faces the death penalty if convicted of ordering Pizzolo's death.



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