Mobsters have a sacred rule against hitting on each other’s women – but apparently not putting a hit on them.
Former Bonanno captain Dominick Cicale said yesterday his boss, Vincent “Vinny Gorgeous” Basciano, wanted Cicale’s girlfriend whacked after Basciano found out she’d tattled to his wife that he sired a child with another woman – getting the mob boss kicked out of his own house.
Testifying at Basciano’s murder trial yesterday in Brooklyn, Cicale said an incensed Basciano kept asking for his OK to kill the loose-lipped lady, Lynette Ayuso.
“I had several discussions not to kill Lynette,” said the stone-faced Cicale, who was Baciano’s protégé before he flipped for the feds.
But that didn’t stop Basciano from trying – especially when he sensed Cicale might be feeling weak.
“When I would be on the phone with her in the car – and at that time we were fighting a lot – I would get off the phone and Vincent Basciano would say, ‘Let me just kill her! Let me just kill her!’ ” Cicale said under questioning from defense attorney James Kousouros during cross examination.
“Of course, I said no,” said Cicale.
“Mr. Basciano never laid a hand on Lynette?” demanded Kousouros.
“He wanted my OK,” Cicale replied. “If I had said, ‘Yes,’ he would have sent someone to kill her.”
To protect her, Cicale told Ayuso to “keep her mouth shut and stay out of the neighborhood.”
Under questioning from Kousouros, Cicale confirmed that Basciano had been seeing his mistress, Debra Kalb, for 20 years, that she had once worked at his Bronx beauty salon, “Hello, Gorgeous,” and later at his video store – and that it was news of the child, not the affair, that really rankled Mrs. Basciano.
Basciano is on trial in federal court for allegedly killing a Genovese-family associate, Frank Santoro, in 2001, because he heard Santoro was plotting to kidnap one of his sons for ransom. Basciano was already tried on the murder last year, but a lone holdout juror forced a mistrial when he refused to vote for conviction.
Cicale also confirmed that Basciano had an artistic bent and was, oddly, trying to produce a film about animated ferrets.
“There was a movie being produced, right?” asked Kousouros. “And it really was a movie about ferrets, right?”
“Yes,” said Cicale, adding that a gambling associate of Basciano’s was helping to fund it.
stefanie.cohennypost.com