By Maryclaire Dale
Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA — The underboss of the Philadelphia mob has been sentenced to more than 15 years in prison for racketeering.
The sentence for 62-year-old Joseph “Mousie” Massimino was issued Thursday. A day earlier, Massimino told a federal judge “I’m no boss of nothing.”
Reputed boss Joseph Ligambi and others are awaiting an October retrial after a jury this year deadlocked on much of the racketeering, gambling and extortion case.
But Massimino was convicted of the central racketeering charge.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank Labor urged a lengthy sentence because, he says, the Philadelphia mob keeps springing to life every 10 years under new leaders.
However, evidence in the Ligambi case was less violent than the bloody reign attributed to earlier bosses.
Copyright 2013 Associated Press