Extortion victim tells jury how Bonanno gangster John ‘The Maniac’ Ragano told him to undress

Vincent Martino’s pants were around his ankles and his shirt was rolled over his head when he realized he had to escape the wrath of Bonanno soldier John “The Maniac” Ragano, the extortion victim turned witness, a Brooklyn jury told.

Martino, 47, gave his second day of testimony Wednesday at the imposing Brooklyn mobster’s racketeering trial, giving jurors insight into how the gang collected its debts with implicit threats and, in one episode, anger and the promise of violence when gangsters thought he was wearing a wire.

Martino, the owner of a Long Island construction company who was in debt, went to the Mafia for financial help, including Ragano, to whom he owed $150,000, he testified.

He had been paying the $100,000 interest regularly weekly until September 2021, when he, Ragano and the entire leadership of the Colombo crime family were arrested in connection with an indictment against the union.

Ragano, 62, who also goes by the nickname “Bazoo,” had pleaded guilty to several charges in that case – including previously extorting Martino over the loan.

John “Bazoo” Ragano, left, in federal custody, leaves FBI headquarters in New York City, Thursday, January 23, 2013. (Joe Marino / New York Daily News)

He went to prison for 57 months starting July 10, 2023, but he still wanted the principal on that loan repaid, Martino said.

So Martino went to the FBI and agreed to carry a wire, and after a few “friendly” meetings with an intermediary where he made $1,000 payments, he asked to meet with Ragano to end the agreement.

That meeting took place on July 5, 2023, at A & G Auto Dismantlers in Ridgewood, Queens, where Ragano worked. Jurors heard a recording of the encounter, which Martino described.

Martino first met a group of FBI agents at a schoolyard a few blocks away, then met Ragano at the used auto parts store in a “dark…dirty” warehouse area.

The conversation quickly turned controversial, when Martino accused Ragano of being an informant himself, saying, “Bro, you damn king betrayed me” and “I have to put an end to this.”

That immediately set off the Bonnano gangster, who asked him, “Are you trying to act stupid to me?” and “What, are you going crazy? I’m going to prison for 57 months!”

He then accused Martino of being a traitor and wanted to check him on a wire, bellowing, “Take your damn shit off right now, my man.” Take off your damn pants right now!’

Martino described what he did next.

“John and I had an argument and… (he) asked me to get naked. My shorts and underwear went down to my ankles.”

Ragano also demanded his money and shouted, “So if I fucking beat you up, you’re going to tell me? … I tried to make it a friendly affair.”

Martino then realized that two men were coming after him with what he thought was a tire iron and some other metal object, so he pulled up his pants, walked to the door, ran back to his car and called his FBI handler.

“I was a little shocked,” he said, describing himself as “anxious and scared.”

“At the end of the day, I knew somewhere along the way…someone was going to come and collect that money,” he said.

Ragano’s attorney, Joel Stein, disputed his account of what happened and tried to poke holes in Martino’s credibility, at one point telling him how he bought sexual favors at a massage parlor for about four years. He also accused Martino of committing some form of extortion himself, threatening a man nicknamed “John Next Door” in text messages about money he was owed.

He relied on Martino’s claim that he believed Ragano had betrayed him to the FBI about a marijuana distribution ring they were trying to start.

“I still believe that to this day,” Martino said, and when Stein asked, “Even though he’s sitting here in the courtroom?” Martino replied: “One hundred percent.”

Stein also accused Martino of lying about why he started borrowing money from the Mafia – a total of $430,000 from four mobsters. Martino testified Tuesday that he had to bail out his failing business after COVID hit, but Stein pointed out that he also had hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax debts and legal judgments from years before the pandemic.

“You don’t expect to pay all that back, do you?” Stein asked, referring to the Mafia’s debt.

“Potentially not,” Martino said.

Stein continued, “It’s all free money to you, isn’t it?” and Martino pushed back. ‘No, you’re wrong. … I don’t know, sir, who’s coming to collect the money.”