Gay hitman renounces Mafia life of crime

A former hitman renounced his membership of the Mafia in a New York courtroom yesterday - and chose the moment to tell the shocked presiding judge he was gay.

Robert Mormando, a divorced father of two sons, was being sentenced for his part in the shooting of shop owner Angelo Mugnolo in a botched hit in 2003.

According to an unidentified mobster cooperating with the FBI, Vincent Gotti - younger brother of the Mafia godfather John Gotti - had ordered the murder because he thought Mugnolo was having an affair with his wife.

Mugnolo says he was targeted because he had refused to go into business with Gotti. Either way, Mugnolo survived the hit after driving himself to hospital.

According to Mormando's lawyer, Nancy Ennis, her client was handed the contract to kill Mugnolo only a month after being inducted into the Cosa Nostra in 2002 and quickly realised the error of his ways. "He was summoned to perform an act that he found totally unacceptable afterwards," she said.

"He found the incident to be so disagreeable that he started having strong thoughts about leaving the Mob." Since then, she said, he had been living in hiding "not from law enforcement, but from La Cosa Nostra".

Another reason for going into hiding was that he came out as gay soon after the botched hit on Mugnalo. Homosexuality is frowned upon in the Mafia: John D'Amato, a former acting boss of the DeCavalcante crime family, was murdered in 1992 because he was gay.

However, it is debatable whether Mormando has most to fear because of his homosexuality or the fact that he became an FBI informant shortly after the botched hit.

Yesterday, Judge Jack Weinstein allowed Mormando to walk free after he publicly renounced his Mafia blood oath before the court.
 
"That's the first time I've heard this in court," said Weinstein who has been on the bench for 42 years. Depending on what becomes of Mormando and his gay partner in the coming days, it could well be the last. ·