The Last Godfather is the epic inside story of Joseph Massino, the mob boss of New York�s Bonanno crime family for more than 20 years, who was betrayed by his closest friend, underboss, and brother-in-law, Salvatore Vitale. Based on interviews with Massino's family and friends, as well as law enforcement officials and confidential sources, The Last Godfather for the first time reveals:

The close relationship between Joseph Massino and John Gotti

How Massino set up the 1981 execution of three rival Bonanno crime family captains in a Brooklyn social club

The bloody mob war of 1980�81 that brought Massino to power and how, after the imprisonment of John Gotti and Vincent �Vinnie the Chin� Gigante, Massino emerged as the most powerful gangster in America

How Massino was involved in the murder of Sonny Black, an incident portrayed in the film Donnie Brasco

He was the last of his kind�a mob boss with old-world values, a man steeped in omerta, the mob code of silence, and a man who valued loyalty above all else. While his arrogant friend John Gotti was being secretly recorded by the FBI, Joseph Massino, head of the Bonanno family, quietly became known as �The Ear� by ordering his men to point to their ear instead of saying his name out loud. And while the heads of the four other New York families were behind bars, Massino stayed out of the spotlight�and out of jail.

For more than twenty years Massino ran what was called the largest criminal network in the U.S., employing over 250 made men and untold numbers of associates. The Bonanno family was responsible for over 30 murders, even killing a dozen of its own members to enforce discipline and settle scores. Massino ran a tight organization, obsessively checking his social club for bugging devices and frustrating FBI surveillance by declaring that his crew shouldn�t go to funerals and wakes. But in the end Massino would be brought down from the inside by the underboss who was not only his closest and most trusted friend�but also his brother-in-law.

The Last Godfather is the epic inside story of the rise and fall of Joseph Massino, written by a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who interviewed Massino's family and friends, as well as law enforcement officials and confidential sources. It�s the story of the brutal mob war that made Massino head of the Bonanno family and the most powerful gangster in America. The family made millions of dollars smuggling heroin into the U.S. and running rackets involving loansharking, gambling, theft, and extortion. Ultimately, The Last Godfather is a Shakepearean tragedy of epic proportions, as Salvatore �Good Looking Sal� Vitale, Massino�s childhood friend and brother-in-law, cooperates with the FBI to convict him on charges of racketeering and murder.

And in the end, faced with the federal death penalty and the prospect of leaving his family penniless, Massino played his only card and finally talked to the FBI. His tragic fall marked the end of a Mafia tradition�and maybe even the death blow to the Bonanno family.

Anthony M. DeStefano was part of the team of New York Newsday reporters who won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the August 1991 subway crash in Manhattan. He has covered organized crime for Newsday and been the lead reporter on several major criminal trials, including that of subway gunman Bernard Goetz.