After being found guilty of murder for the second time earlier this month, Vincent Basciano a.k.a. Vinny Gorgeous is now in the midst of the "death penalty" phase of the trial, with prosecutors arguing that Basciano's "rage and desire to be a hoodlum" earn him the fate of being the first inmate to be put to death in New York state since 1954, the Times reports. A jury found that Basciano had killed Randolph Pizzolo as a "hit" to preserve the integrity of the infamous Bonanno crime syndicate. more ›

Bologna-hating mob boss "Vinny Gorgeous" AKA Vincent Basciano was convicted of ordering the murder of Randolph Pizzolo, a "renegade" mobster who was gunned down in Greenpoint in 2004. Basciano is already serving a life sentence for the murder, but prosecutors successfully convinced the jury that the Bonanno family crime boss was "deadly serious about rooting out" opposition to his rule, and that killing Pizzolo "would be a statement to everybody that Vinny Basciano don't play around," the Post reports. He didn't play around fashion-wise, either. more ›

Early yesterday morning, a Staten Island man was fatally gunned down in the Arden Heights section. The Staten Island Advance reports, "He tried to run across the street but couldn't dodge the lethal shower of lead -- seven shots, at least," and it turns out that Anthony Seccafico, 46, was a part of the Bonanno crime family. Seccafico, who was headed to his construction job in Manhattan, "had been arrested a number of times dating to the early 1980s, and in 2002 was among 20 people arrested in a sweep of a Bonanno gambling and loansharking operation in Manhattan." The Post says that Seccafico may have recognized his killer—"Killing a made man is historically forbidden in the Mafia unless it is sanctioned by higher-ups in the family, sparking fears that a gang war may erupt." A Post source referred to Seccafico as being a "head case" with a "short fuse," adding, "There's always a guy you're not surprised [gets killed]." more ›