Putting pieces together from court records we were already able to identify two of the four government informants as former Bonanno crime family bosses Joseph Massino and Sal Vitale. Now a third informant has been identified as Gaspare “Gary” Valenti a cousin of reputed Bonanno family captain Vincent Asaro. Valenti implicated Asaro in the infamous Lufthansa Heist in 1978 and the 1969 murder of Paul Katz. Valenti himself has a long criminal past that includes insurance and welfare fraud among other crimes and was considered to be a confidant by his cousin Asaro. Court documents show the mob informant repeatedly charging Asaro and even went as far as wearing a wire for the feds secretly recording conversations with his wiseguy cousin.
Valenti had pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy according to court documents but sources close to the case claim his decision to cooperate was influenced more by Asaro’s harsh treatment over the years. Court papers also claim that Valenti saved a fellow relative in the mid-1980’s from a murder plot of Asaro’s. The source close to Valenti said his children and family were totally outraged that he had decided to cooperate with authorities and flipped on his own relative. He also implicated Lufthansa Heist mastermind Jimmy “The Gent” Burke in the 1969 Paul Katz murder saying Katz was killed because Burke thought he was an informant.
Its seems that the turncoat hopes to follow a similar path as fellow rat and Lufthansa Heist informant Henry Hill and join the federal witness protection program in exchange for his cooperation. Their is still one unnamed mafia informant in the case according to court documents.
