November 10, 2015
Provided by Mastronardo family/For PhillyVoice
Joseph Vito Mastronardo and his son Joe pictured at a party in recent years. The former died in prison on Monday, Nov. 9, 2015. HIs family says he would be alive if he'd gotten the medical attention he received while not in prison.
When Joseph Vito Mastronardo was sentenced to 20 months in prison on federal gambling charges, the then-64-year-old “gentleman gambler” was described as “rail-thin and sallow-faced … gripping a cane and breathing through an oxygen tank.”
At the federal courthouse that February day, his attorney said the penalty related to a big-money "gambling empire" – the type that saw PVC pipes packed with $1.1 million in cash buried in a backyard – was akin to a death sentence.
Turns out, he was right.
On Monday morning, Mastronardo called his wife Joanna from the Federal Medical Center Devins in Ayer, Mass.
“He rushed her off the phone,” said Mastronardo’s son, Joe. “She said his voice sounded weak.”
"What’s the variable here? He wasn’t home. He was at a place with obviously no means to take care of him. It’s absolutely disgusting. The judge, the prosecutors, they killed him.” – Joe Mastronardo on his father, who died Monday
Later in the day, the phone again rang in the Mastronardo’s Jenkintown home. It was the prison chaplain calling with news that Joe Vito Mastronardo, son-in-law of former Mayor Frank Rizzo, had passed away. He was 65.
Joe Mastronardo told PhillyVoice on Tuesday that he blames federal prosecutors who pushed for incarceration in a “victimless crime” for his father’s death.
“He shouldn’t have died at all. He wasn’t close to dying. He just put on 20 pounds. If he was home, he’d have been able to be treated, like he was countless times at Abington Hospital,” said Joe of his father’s battles with aspiration pneumonia.
“Every time I got him to the hospital when he was symptomatic of it, they’d treat him and he’d be OK. Similar problems were coming up lately. What’s the variable here? He wasn’t home. He was at a place with obviously no means to take care of him,” he continued. “It’s absolutely disgusting. The judge, the prosecutors, they killed him.”
According to a sentencing memo from prosecutors in the case, the initial sentence sought during trial at the federal courthouse in Philly was 46 months with a possible maximum sentence of 152 years.
“Now, with his health failing, the defendant wants his medical needs to suppress a custodial sentence for his six most recent years of criminal behavior in a lifetime of the same,” it read. “The government is recommending a sentence that addresses the defendant’s crimes, as well as his medical needs.”
When we talked to Joe Mastronardo last month in advance of the play about his grandfather Frank Rizzo, he said his father's sentence had been reduced to the point where he would be coming home in February 2016.
Prosecutors indirectly acknowledged as much in their sentencing memo for a “career criminal,” which stated that, “Given the defendant’s current health, it is extremely unlikely that he will resume his bookmaking activities.”
It continued:
“The government has never disputed the fact the defendant is facing serious medical issues and needs serious medical attention. It is clear from this record that the defendant will receive first-rate medical care in the BOP [Bureau of Prisons]. It is understandable that the defendant would prefer to continue consulting his own doctors in Philadelphia. However, the fact the defendant finds himself in this position is entirely his doing.”
While both sides acknowledged the inmate’s health status, Mastronardo’s son vehemently disagrees with any sense that the government showed compassion in regards to his father's condition.
“There is absolutely no reason he should have been in that jail. Spite. The whole case was basically a vendetta,” he said. “At sentencing, our doctors were adamant that this person cannot go to jail, that it’s a ridiculous risk with the health issues he’s facing.
"In no way, shape or form should he have gone to jail. It’s absolutely disgusting. They are despicable people. They killed him. My dad was a man of great integrity and those people have none. They knew there was a great chance of this happening, and they didn't care.”
Details about local services for the deceased Mastronardo have yet to be determined as Joe Mastronardo said the prison hasn't yet contacted his mother with details about the death.
