Topic: John Martorano

John Vincent Martorano also known as "Vincent Joseph Rancourt", "Richard O'Coin", "Nick", "The Cook" and "The Executioner" (born December 13 1940), is a former hitman for the Winter Hill Gang in Boston, Massachusetts who has admitted to 20 gang-related killings.

Johnny Martorano was born in Somerville, Massachusetts in 1940. He is the older brother of James Martorano. His father, Patriarca crime family associate Luigi Martorano, was an immigrant from Emilia-Romagna, Italy. His Irish-American mother was a full time homemaker. The Martorano family soon moved to the Irish enclave of East Milton, Massachusetts. He later attended Mount Saint Charles Academy in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. During high school, he played football with future CBS News television journalist Ed Bradley whom he affectionately referred to as "Big Ed". On the football field he earned the moniker "The Millkman" because as Ed Bradley would say, "... he always delivered." He also attended grade school with Bill Delahunt. He graduated with his younger brother James from Milton High School in 1959. Some of his criminal associates mispronounced his last name as "Marterannos". He attended Boston College and was enrolled in a class he shared with future FBI agent John Connolly. After becoming a mob turncoat, Martorano agreed to have Bradley interview him on 60 Minutes, but Bradley died before this could occur. Steve Kroft interviewed Martorano in Ed Bradley's place shortly after Bradley's death.

After graduating from high school, John had turned down seven football scholarships and instead stayed in Boston. Hanging out in the Combat Zone, Martorano fell under the guidance of Stephen Flemmi, and by the age of twenty-five had become a professional mobster.