Mob boss could be first to face execution

NEW YORK, May 17 (UPI) -- Vincent Basciano, convicted of ordering the murder of a fellow gangster, could become the first U.S. Mafia family boss to get the death penalty.

Basciano, known as "Vinny Gorgeous," was convicted in Brooklyn federal court Monday of conspiracy to commit murder, murder in aid of racketeering and a weapons charge for the death of Bonanno family associate Randy Pizzolo in 2004, the New York Post reported.

The jury will reconvene next week to decide whether Basciano, 51, will get another life term or execution by lethal injection. He is already serving one life sentence for an earlier killing.

In the trial, Joseph Massino became the highest-level mob figure ever to testify against his own.

Pointing at Basciano, he testified: "That man in the gray suit sitting there. He told me he had him killed."

The jury, swayed by wiretaps of Basciano and a series of low-level mob witnesses, reached its verdict after three days of deliberations.