
Joseph "Joey O" Masella (9 November 1948 - 11 October 1998) was an associate of the DeCavalcante crime family. He was killed in 1998 for his inability to pay off his gambling debts.
Biography[]
Masella was born in 1948 to an Italian-American family in Brooklyn, New York. In his childhood, he became friends with many future mobsters, like Vincent Palermo, John D'Amato and Charles Majuri, and followed them into the DeCavalcante family in New Jersey. Masella became Vincent Palermo's bodyguard and driver, and he stayed in his good graces by providing him with tremendous amounts of income through his illegal gambling operation. However, Masella was also a degenerate gambler, and over the years, owed a lot of money to various mobsters, including members of the Gambino crime family. He had personal problems as well, having gone through a tumultuous divorce with his first wife and practically living as a recluse in his Staten Island home with his second wife fearing that one of the people he owed money to would try to kill him. Masella sought to become a made man in the family, and an opportunity presented itself in 1998 when Vincent Palermo wanted his rival Charles Majuri killed. Masella and other culprits waited in a car outside Majuri's home in Linden hoping for him to come out, but had to drop the plan after Majuri's state trooper neighbor noticed their presence, after which Masella flew to Florida, disappointed that his chance to step up had been thwarted. Eventually, Palermo got sick of Masella's growing debts, which amounted to about $450,000, and ordered his death. Masella was lured to a golf course in Brooklyn by one of his debtors who told him he wanted to pay him his money. After arriving there, he was confronted by several gunmen, who shot him to death inside his car.