Former Mob Boss Explains Mob Lingo to Jury in Murder Trial
A “brokester,” in Mob speak, refers to someone with no money, jurors learned yesterday at the federal murder trial of alleged New York crime family acting boss Vincent Basciano.
According to the New York Times, much of yesterday was spent explaining Mafia terminology to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York jury, after they heard secretly recorded conversations between Basciano and other alleged Bonanno crime family leaders.
Basciano, who is on trial for the 2004 murder of Randolph Pizzolo, is currently serving a life sentence for murder and racketeering, in a separate case.
In one of the recordings, Basciano’s former boss Joseph C. Massino, now a government witness, asks Basciano if he used two men “to clip Randy,” referring to Pizzolo, and seeming to mean “kill.”
“It wasn’t me, you know what I’m saying,” Basciano states in another recorded conversation. But according to Massino, “it wasn’t me” doesn’t necessarily mean what it sounds like, in crime family speak.
“It wasn’t him, but it really was him,” Mr. Massino said, according to the Times.