Vincent “Vinny Gorgeous” Basciano the former boss of the Bonanno crime family is no longer calling the supermax prison in Florence, Colorado home.
The 56-year-old mobster has been moved out of the nation’s most secure prison to Big Sandy a federal penitentiary in Kentucky according to a NYdailynews report. Prosecutors feared that a handwritten list passed to another inmate by Basciano in 2006 containing the names of the federal judge, prosecutor, and cooperating witness in his case was a hit list. This alleged hit list landed Vinny Gorgeous in solitary confinement for 11 years under conditions usually reserved for terrorists. He maintained the list was passed along so that the inmate could put a Santeria hex on his adversaries before he went to trial.
“Vincent Basciano in Colorado supermax prison”
Basciano’s lawyer Mathew Mari called the hit list theory bogus and believed it was a ploy by the feds to isolate his client hoping it would break him and he would agree to rat on his Bonanno family pals. Mari told The Daily News “The reason Vinny survived so many years in solitary is because he is a man,” “That might sound trite, but Vinny has a personal code of conduct. It’s not about ‘omerta,’ and it’s not about loyalty, it’s just about being a man. Vinny is not a rat.” Vinny Gorgeous instead choose to work on his legal appeals while serving his two life sentences.
A former warden of the Florence , Colorado prison described it as a “cleaner version of hell” housing infamous terrorists like the Unabomber and Ramzi Yousef. The move to Big Sandy in Eastern Kentucky is a step up for the former New York mafia boss now that prosecutors no longer see him as a public threat. Along with the improved conditions, the move also brings Vinny a little closer to his old territory in the Bronx and his family. The recent prison photo from supermax of the former Cosa Nostra mobster via his lawyer shows he is still living up to his nickname.
