SHE has the figure of a former model and wants you to know she loves her husband as much today as the day they got married.
“Actually, I love him more. Then I was young, now I am an adult,” said Josephine Massino, who, hard to believe, is 61.
The lady has been married to reputed Bonanno crime boss Joe Massino for 44 years.
She sits in court from gavel to close, hearing the name Salvatore Vitale spoken dozens of times a day. It’s her brother and he’s testifying against her husband.
Staring straight ahead, she portrays little emotion despite the fact friends say she’s devastated.
“Her own brother, can you imagine on top of all this. It’s been tough, very tough but she is strong,” said Joe Massino’s brother John.
Vitale is portraying his boyhood friend as “the last of the Dons.”
It was suggested that Josephine’s husband certainly wasn’t an angel.
But “believe me he is nothing, nothing like he is being painted,” Mrs. Massino said.
“He is the sweetest, most generous man you could imagine. But don’t ask me, ask anyone who knows him.
“When one of our four grandchildren came home and said their school couldn’t afford a Christmas party, my husband was quick to act.
“He immediately paid for a party for the whole school and even supplied the entertainment.”
Dave Breitbart, Massino’s lawyer, said the teachers at the school, Saint Helen’s in Queens, “all say Joe is the most caring grandfather at the school.”
Massino’s brother John added, “Ask other people, like the people who rent some of Joe’s property, who cannot pay their rent. My brother says to them, ‘Hey whenever you’ve got it.’ Ask those people.”
“I only have to look at a sports jacket, he buys it for me. He always paid for my parents’ vacations for years. Please go ahead and ask other people about my brother.”
“His spirits are very high, and he’s always writing to me every week, little jokes.”
Of course, the prosecution doesn’t see Massino as being very funny.
“My husband is strong and when things like this happen, people tend to get stronger,” Josephine said.
It will take some strength when Vitale enters the witness box in Brooklyn federal court and meets his sister’s gaze.