By George Anastasia, BIG TRIAL
Joe Vito Mastronardo, the “Gentleman Gambler” who lived life on his own terms and moved to the beat of a drummer that only he could hear, died in a federal prison this afternoon where he was serving a 20-month sentence for bookmaking.
The cause of death was believed to be complications from pneumonia, although no official word was released from the Federal Medical Center Devens, in Ayers, MA, where Mastronardo was doing time after entering a guilty plea earlier this year in the high profile case.
He was 65.
Mastronardo was considered one of the premier odds makers in the Philadelphia area and one of the best in the country. His betting line — the “Joe Vito line” — was an industry standard. Mastronardo, who got his start taking bets while working as a teenaged caddy at a suburban country club, made millions over the years and was constantly the focus of law enforcement attention.
This came in part because of his high volume business, but also because he was the son-in-law of former mayor and police commissioner Frank L. Rizzo. Joe Vito married Rizzo’s only daughter, Joanna. They had one son, Joseph F.
“He had a beautiful heart,” said Dennis Cogan, Mastronardo’s friend and former defense attorney. “He would never do anything to hurt anyone and he was generous to a fault.”
That applied to customers as well as friends, Cogan noted, pointing out that no one who bet with Mastronardo was ever the victim of violence or threats of violence.
Rest is here.
For more coverage and analysis of Joe Vito Mastronardo, see here.
