Bonanno underboss, informant gets less than 8 years

Describing Bonanno-family killer Salvatore Vitale as the "most important" cooperator in modern law enforcement history, a federal judge in Brooklyn on Friday sentenced the mob informant to less than 8 years in prison - time served - despite his role in 11 murders.

U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis, after listening to a statement from a tearful Vitale and letters from the wife and daughter of one of his victims, said his decision to let Vitale leave court a free man was pragmatic.

"The efficacy of our criminal justice system is dependent upon the cooperation of criminals in the prosecution of other criminals," Garaufis said. "And this cooperation does not come without a cost."

Vitale, 63, formerly of Dix Hills, was a sidekick of former Bonanno boss Joseph Massino and became his underboss before beginning to cooperate in 2003. His testimony led to 50 convictions, including 35 for murders, and brought down Massino, his brother-in-law, and successor Bonanno regimes.

Long held in protective custody, Vitale was reunited with a 9-year-old dark suit in the courthouse before sentencing, his lawyers said, allowing him to look sharp and live up to his nickname - "Good Looking Sal."

Twice dabbing away tears during the sentencing, Vitale said he had "disgraced" himself, his name, his father and his son.

"I take full responsibility," he told Garaufis. "I have committed some truly horrible crimes which I will always be ashamed of. I pray for forgiveness."

The mobster, a Vietnam vet suffering from heart problems, also said he had changed from a man who idolized mobsters to a man who idolizes hardworking law enforcement agents, and told Garaufis that he "prays for the souls of his victims."

Prosecutors supported leniency, but Garaufis insisted that they also read aloud letters from Rosalie Perrino and Nicki Laronga, the wife and daughter of Robert Perrino, a New York Post distribution manager with mob ties killed on Vitale's orders in 1992.

Both of them opposed leniency. "He showed no compassion for my family or other families in his decision to ruthlessly order murders," Laronga wrote. "Salvatore Vitale is a calculating murderer and a predator on society."

Vitale's lawyers, in court filings, said he had taken anger management classes and become close to a priest during his years in custody. And Vitale, in a letter to the judge, said he was wracked by remorse for the "devastation" he caused to families.

But Garaufis noted that Vitale was in trouble with his mob family in 2003 when he turned. "This court is under no illusion that Vitale cooperated for any reason other than self-interest and self-preservation," he wrote.