JOE MASSINO tugs at his right ear. It’s a signal when a wiseguy approaches him not to mention Massino’s name.
The habit has caught on, and every time a wiseguy is about to mention Massino’s name, they instead tug their ears.
“If you don’t mention his name, it won’t appear on a wiretap,” prosecutor Robert Henoch told a jury in Brooklyn federal court.
In opening statements yesterday, prosecutor Henoch gave a calm, professional delivery. But most of his address was a history lesson on mob law. Unfortunately, it was vintage “Valachi Papers” of a generation ago.
Nothing new – but I never knew about the ears.
Sort of like “ears to you.”
From the get-go, I’m quite sure Joey is a hood, but the feds are up to their old tricks again.
First, as always, they hit the mob guys with a zillion charges, overwhelming a jury, and hope something sticks.
Seven murders, attempted murder, arson, several conspiracies, extortion, loan-sharking, money laundering, racketeering and running Joker Poker. If it is all true, this guy Massino was busier than a one-legged man in a derriere-kicking contest.
But there’s serious belief the feds are stacking the odds to get who they call the last of the dons. David Breitbart, veteran criminal attorney, got straight to it. He invoked the Biblical Psalm of David, which talks of “men who do violence as readily as they breathe.”
“These men who will give evidence against Joe Massino indeed do violence as readily as they breathe,” said Breitbart.
Breitbart reeled off seven former top capos who have turned rat on Massino – and their rap sheets look like they should have gotten kickbacks from the funeral parlors for providing business.
Massino’s brother-in-law, Sal Vitale, alone has offed 11 humans, and he’s one of the main prosecution witnesses.
“These are men who would have spent life in prison or even be given the death penalty for what they have done before making a deal,” Breitbart said outside the court.
I feel a “Sammy Bull” retort coming – you know, “Sammy Bull did 19 homicides and he went home.”
Look, there are too many decent men and women in the Justice Department to allow some zealot to haul monsters into court and put them on the stand to get a notch on their gun handles.
No question the feds have made the mob as rare as hens’ teeth – but at what price?
Don’t reward monsters by taking the easy way out.
Instead, do old-fashioned investigative work and nail them without rats.
How ’bout those ears?