The FBI stated that he owed $450,000 to many individuals including mobsters in other crime families. Vincent Palermo became enraged at Masella and thought of him as an embarrassment. Vincent Palermo received information that Masella was trying to ingratiate himself with the Scarfo crime family. Vincent wanted Joseph to murder his fellow DeCavalcante capo Charles Majuri who was on the three-man council of the crime family. After spending hours outside Majuri's home where they were surveilled by Majuri's state trooper neighbor, he flew to Florida and refused the contract murder. Authorities have speculated Masella's possible involvement in the failed Brinks bank robbery of $1.6 million from the World Trade Center may have been a possible reason for his killing. There are many similarities between Joseph and fictional New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano of the crime drama The Sopranos. Like the fictional Soprano, Joseph was said to have had a demonic mother like Livia, a wife like Carmela who lectured him continuously, had children who ignored him and always asked for money, and he was under constant surveillance by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). This, in no doubt, gave his mob superiors worry about whether he could handle the situation reasonably if criminal indictments were handed down in the future against him, and if he would become an informant or a cooperating witness for the FBI. He never did do this, and the main reason his death was ordered was for moneys owed ranging in the hundred thousands.