In 1987, when budding Bonanno boss Joseph Massino was acquitted of taking part in the grisly 1981 executions of three family capos, his right-hand-man-in-crime Salvatore Vitale (right) was an afterthought in the trial – charged, and acquitted, of much lesser crimes. 

Today, however, Vitale – Massino’s brother-in-law and longtime underboss – has emerged as a major player in the bloody slayings that established Massino as a powerful gangster and put him in a position to take over the crime family, Gang Land has learned. 

Until now, few details about the storied murders of three Bonanno capos on May 5, 1981 have come out, even though the killings were the focus of two racketeering trials and took place at a time that the family was infiltrated by FBI agent Joe Pistone. Soon after the hits, Pistone, in the role of wannabe wiseguy Donnie Brasco, (left) was given a contract to kill a fourth capo who had missed the meeting. But Pistone never learned who the killers were or where it took place.

Vitale, who began cooperating last year, has finally filled in the blanks about the slayings of capos Anthony (Sonny Red) Indelicato, Philip (Philly Lucky) Giaccone and Dominick (Big Trin) Trinchera.

Through a variety of sources, Gang Land was able to obtain a few particulars.

Vitale was the lead gunman in the plot. It unfolded at a social club in the

Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn. It was orchestrated by Massino with important help from the family’s Sicilian faction, often called “Zips” by American-born mobsters, sources said.

When the capos arrived for what they believed were peace talks, sources said, Massino (left) and Sicilian-born wiseguy Gerlando (George) Sciascia – since slain – gave the high sign to Vitale and other gunmen who were armed to the teeth with shotguns and high caliber weapons.

Sources said one of the “Zips” who was in the club – about a dozen gangsters were present to mask the true purpose of the session – Santo Giordano, was mistakenly shot and wounded in the fusillade of bullets. He was rendered a paraplegic as a result. A licensed pilot, Giordano died two years later when a small plane he was flying crashed in Bohemia, Long Island shortly after take-off.

In court papers, federal prosecutors Greg Andres, Mitra Hormozi and Nicolas Bourtin, without naming Vitale as their source of information, say Sciascia was part of the murder plot and that he and “Massino were observed and photographed together on May 6, 1981, the day after the ‘three captains’ murders.” 

The victims went down in a hail of bullets. Massino, Sciascia, (right) Vitale and the other shooters split, sources said, leaving capo Dominick (Sonny Black) Napolitano and a team of trusted wiseguys to scrub the place clean and dispose of the bodies. Among

those in the clean up, sources said, was Benjamin (Lefty Guns) Ruggiero, a Bonanno soldier convicted of the capos’ murders in 1982, and a second who was acquitted at the same trial, John (Boobie) Cerasani. (left)

Ruggiero and Cerasani were implicated in the killings through conversations Ruggiero had with Pistone about the murders, in particular, the killing of 300 pound wiseguy, Big Trin Trinchera.

“Lefty said he tried to move him but couldn’t,” Pistone testified. “He was surprised how strong Boobie was because he moved it.”

The remains of Big Trin and Philly Lucky were never found, but Sonny Red’s body – with at least three bullet wounds – was recovered three weeks later in a shallow grave in an Ozone Park, Queens lot.

Two months after the killings, according to court papers, Massino murdered Napolitano for allowing Pistone to penetrate the crime family. Sonny Black had taken Pistone under his wing, proposed him to be “made” and had given the agent a contract to kill Sonny Red’s son Bruno, the capo who failed to show up for his intended execution.

In addition to the four 1981 slayings, Massino is charged with taking part in three murders from 1982 to 1987 in a racketeering indictment that is slated for trial in

April. In a follow up case, Massino will be tried for ordering Sciascia’s murder in 1999.

Prosecutors have six Bonanno defectors at the ready, but Vitale, who served his brother-in-law as underboss for 11 years, will undoubtedly be the prosecution’s key witness at both trials, a fact that had Massino’s lead lawyer David Breitbart (right) on the offensive when contacted by Gang Land.

“At trial, I am going to show that he is the worst example of homicidal maniac to ever take the stand on behalf of the U.S. government,” said Breitbart. “He’s going to make Sammy the Bull and his 19 murders look like a kindergarten child.”

Before he gets to that, Breitbart hopes to better his client’s odds by eliminating the three capos murder charges from the case on the grounds they violate double jeopardy statutes that bar authorities from prosecuting defendants twice for the same crime.

“The only difference between the prosecution of Mr. Massino with regard to the three captains in 1987 and the prosecution in 2004 is that they have changed the name of the crime, not anything that he is accused of. He is not accused of shooting anyone. He was acquitted of murder conspiracy 17 years ago. They are charging him with the same thing, only this time they’re calling it a substantive crime. I call it double jeopardy.”

In due course, Brooklyn Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis (left)  will make the final call on whether Massino will be tried again for the May 5, 1981 murders of three capos.

The widow Taormina – she contacted us via email; not through a more exotic medium – claims Gang Land also got her husband's mob rank wrong (She says capo; we say soldier.) and says she divorced him, not the other way around.

We'll defer to her regarding her splitup with her hubby. But despite what old Joe may have told her – and may still be telling her – Gang Land will rely on our sources when it comes to his mob rank. He was a soldier.