He turned blood into gold.
Former Bonanno boss Joseph “Big Joey” Massino’s family home in Howard Beach was Queens’ answer to Fort Knox.
“The Last Don” was full of bullion at the time of his arrest, he testified today in the murder trial of his hand-picked successor, Vincent “Vinny Gorgeous” Basciano.
Asked by Richard Jasper, Basciano’s attorney, whether he had owned some three hundred gold bars that he had been required to forfeit when – to avoid facing the death penalty — he became a federal informant in 2005, he said no.
“It was more than that – maybe four or five hundred [gold bars],” Massino replied. “I had them in my basement.”
The weight of the gold bars and their value when he handed them over to Uncle Sam was not clear.
But that wasn’t all that Massino had tucked away in his home’s nooks and crannies.
He also hid kept bundles of cash totaling $7 million tucked away in the same house.
“It was in my attic. I had it all up there,” Massino said.
His cooperation agreement with the feds allowed him to keep five houses, including one each for his wife and mother, while he forfeited five other properties, he said on the stand.
Massino, 68, is the first official New York mob boss in history to become a government informant and testify against his fellow mobsters.
Massino insists he didn’t turn rat to avoid lethal injection.
“Weren’t you concerned or weren’t you afraid because you were facing the death penalty,” a defense lawyer asked Massino during cross examination today.
“No,” Massino replied.