The Massino Tapes Part 4
Image via Wikipedia In "King of The Godfathers" there is a description of the fateful meeting between Massino and Basciano in the jail holding cell during which Massino was secretly taping his loyal underling. The tapes, transcripts of which are now available, continue to give insight into the way the Bonanno family was trying to regroup itself after Massino was convicted in July 2004. Massino annointed Basciano as a street boss who was supposed to consult two or three other trusted captain. But Basciano was so smitten by the power that he considered himself a first among equals, as this exchange with Massino shows. Basciano said that other captains had to check with him before ordering hits but he didn't have to check with anybody.
Basciano: They had to check with me.
Massino: Yeah, but you don't have to check with them.
Basciano: No.
Massino: Why? What makes the difference...you understand where I'm coming from?
Basciano: ...What I did what I tried to do, Joe, I tried to give a structure because everybody was all over the fuckin' board. And what I did, by me taking the reigns, I annointed myself, through you, as acting boss. I made Michael acting underboss and Anthony acting consiglieri. I told everybody: nobody makes a move without coming to me....
Basciano was apparently talking about Michael Mancuso and Anthony Rabito. Massino seemed a bit puzzled by Basciano's remarks, saying that he should sit down with the other so-called ruling panel members to discuss things. Massino said discussion was the way to do things, even when he was the boss. "I was the boss, and I used to sit down with Tony Green and Joe C., hey discuss things." Basciano agreed with Massino.
http://tonydestefano.com/id3.html
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