Carmine Persico
Carmine Persico, known as Junior and as Immortal, had a projected prison release date of the 20th of March 2050. By then he would have been 117 years old. The sentence behind that date began in 1987, and he served 32 years of it. Yet the Colombo crime family of New York, which he had led since 1973, never stopped answering to him. From a cell he still shaped who ran the family, and the fights over that question cost lives.
His story raises hard questions. How does a teenager arrested for murder become the head of a Mafia family? Who turned on him, and whom did he turn on? And what happens to the men around a boss who refuses to let go?
In March 1951, police in Brooklyn arrested a 17-year-old named Carmine Persico and held him without bail. He was charged with the fatal shooting of Steve Bove, who was 26. Police said they were also looking for Persico's brother in connection with the killing.
Persico had been born in Brooklyn on the 8th of August 1933, the son of Carmine John Persico Sr. and Assunta Plantamura, who was called Susan. His father worked as a legal stenographer for several law firms in Manhattan. The family lived in the Carroll Gardens and Red Hook sections of Brooklyn. Two of his brothers, Theodore and Alphonse, nicknamed Allie Boy, would also become caporegimes in the Colombo family. His own son, another Alphonse, was known as Little Allie Boy and became a capo as well.
At 16, Persico dropped out of high school. By then he led a Brooklyn street gang called the Garfield Boys. One contemporary source instead places him in 1950 with the South Brooklyn Boys, a successor to that gang.
In the early 1950s, a longtime capo named Frank Abbatemarco recruited Persico into the Profaci crime family, the forerunner of the Colombo family. He started with bookmaking and loan-sharking, then moved on to burglaries and hijackings. He was arrested more than 12 times in that decade yet spent only a few days in jail. Along the way he began working with Joe Gallo and Gallo's brothers, Albert and Larry.
On the 25th of October 1957, two men with scarves over their faces burst into the barbershop of the Park Sheraton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan. They shoved the barber aside and opened fire on Albert Anastasia, who was relaxing in the chair. Anastasia was the former leader of Murder, Inc. and the boss of what was then the Anastasia family. Persico allegedly took part in the killing.
According to the account, Anastasia's underboss Carlo Gambino wanted control of the family. He conspired with Genovese family boss Vito Genovese and with Profaci boss Joe Profaci. Profaci allegedly handed the job to Persico and the Gallo brothers. After the first volley, the stunned Anastasia reportedly lunged at his attackers. He had actually charged their reflections in the wall mirror. The gunmen kept firing until he was dead.
No one was ever charged in the killing. Within a few years, Persico and the Gallos would be shooting at one another.
The First Colombo War began on the 4th of November 1959, when Profaci's gunmen killed Frank Abbatemarco on a Brooklyn street. By then Persico and the Gallos were increasingly unhappy with Profaci. He demanded high tribute payments from his men and was seen as a wealthy autocrat. Abbatemarco had stopped paying earlier that year with the Gallo faction's backing. Some speculate that Carlo Gambino and Lucchese boss Tommy Lucchese urged the Gallos on, since both were enemies of Profaci. When Profaci stripped the Gallos of Abbatemarco's lucrative rackets, open warfare followed.
On the 27th of February 1961, the Gallos, led by Joe Gallo, kidnapped four of Profaci's top men. They were underboss Joseph Magliocco, Profaci's brother Frank, capo Salvatore Musacchia and soldier John Scimone. Profaci himself escaped and flew to sanctuary in Florida. While the hostages were held, Larry and Albert Gallo sent Joe Gallo to California. Capo John Franzese, nicknamed Sonny, negotiated with the Gallos, and every hostage was released peacefully.
The peace did not last. On the 20th of August 1961, Profaci ordered the murders of Gallo members Joseph Gioielli, called Joe Jelly, and Larry Gallo. Gioielli was allegedly killed after being invited on a deep-sea fishing trip. Larry Gallo survived an attempt to strangle him at the Sahara club in East Flatbush, carried out by Persico and Salvatore D'Ambrosio, because a police officer intervened. The Gallos began calling Persico "The Snake" for his betrayal of them. The war went on and produced nine murders and three disappearances. Persico was indicted that year for the attempted murder, but the charges were dropped when Larry Gallo refused to testify.
Profaci died of cancer on the 6th of June 1962, and Magliocco became boss. The fighting with the Gallos continued. In early 1963, Persico survived a car bombing. His enforcer Hugh McIntosh was shot in the groin while trying to kill Larry Gallo. Then, on the 19th of May 1963, Gallo gunmen ambushed Persico in the Gowanus section of Brooklyn. A panel truck pulled alongside his car, and two men shot him in the face, hand and shoulder. Persico reportedly spat out the bullet that had entered his face.
Soon afterward he went to prison on extortion charges. By the fall of 1963, Joey Gallo was imprisoned too, and the shooting war ended with Magliocco the winner.
In late 1963, Magliocco tried and failed to take over the Commission and was forced into retirement. Joseph Colombo, who had warned the Commission about the plot, replaced him. The Profaci family became the Colombo family. Colombo rewarded the jailed Persico by making him a capo.
By the late 1960s, Persico's crew had become one of the most profitable in the Colombo family. Once made a capo, he was constantly out on the streets. His rackets included labor racketeering, extortion, loan-sharking, hijacking, illegal gambling and, above all, murder for hire.
In 1968, he was convicted on federal hijacking charges after five separate trials stretching back to 1960. The trial is remembered for the one appearance of former mobster Joseph Valachi as a prosecution witness. Persico finally went to prison on the 27th of January 1972.
His freedom before that was nearly cut short by a different case. On the 11th of November 1971, he went on trial in state court on 37 counts of extortion, usury, coercion and conspiracy. The charges grew out of a loan-sharking operation run from a Manhattan fur shop. On the 8th of December a jury acquitted him of everything, because all 12 prosecution witnesses said they could not identify him.
Meanwhile, the family's leadership was collapsing. Joey Gallo left prison in February 1971. On the 28th of June, Joseph Colombo was shot and badly wounded at the second annual Italian-American Civil Rights League rally in Manhattan. The shooter, an ex-convict named Jerome Johnson, was immediately killed by Colombo's bodyguards. Colombo lived on, paralyzed, until the 22nd of May 1978. Police concluded that Johnson acted alone. Law enforcement and the Mafia both assumed Gallo had arranged it. In prison he had built ties with black gangsters, and after his release he threatened a new gang war unless he received $100,000.
On the 7th of April 1972, Persico gunmen shot Joey Gallo dead at Umberto's Clam House in Little Italy, where Gallo was celebrating his birthday. Albert Gallo wanted revenge. He sent a gunman from Las Vegas to the Neapolitan Noodle restaurant in Manhattan, where acting boss Joseph Yacovelli, Alphonse Persico and Gennaro Langella were dining. The gunman did not recognize them and shot four innocent diners, killing two. Yacovelli fled New York, leaving Persico as the new boss.
In 1973, Persico was back behind bars on hijacking and loan-sharking charges, with an eight-year sentence. His brother Alphonse had just been released after 17 years in prison, and Persico named him acting boss. Gennaro Langella and Theodore Persico served as underboss support. Langella supervised the family's labor rackets, including its stake in the "Concrete Club" and its control over unions such as Cement and Concrete Workers District Council, Local 6A. Persico was released from federal prison in 1979.
His release did not last either. On the 11th of August 1981, he pleaded guilty to trying to bribe an IRS agent in 1977 and 1978, while in federal custody. A recording captured him offering the agent $250,000 for an early release. On the 9th of November, he received five more years in federal prison.
On the 14th of October 1984, Persico and the rest of the Colombo family leadership were indicted on multiple racketeering charges in what became known as the Colombo Trial. When the indictment was published, Persico vanished. On the 26th of October, the FBI began a national manhunt and named him the 390th fugitive on its Ten Most Wanted list.
He hid in Hempstead, New York, at the home of his brother-in-law Fred DeChristopher, a minor mob associate. Persico did not know that DeChristopher had been feeding information to the FBI for two years, after being caught in a sting operation. The Bureau already knew where Persico was. The manhunt was staged to protect DeChristopher, who would later become a key prosecution witness against him.
Persico was arrested at DeChristopher's home on the 15th of February 1985. An FBI agent phoned the house and told Persico it was surrounded. He and another associate who was visiting surrendered peacefully. Persico was the only head of a Mafia family ever to appear on the Ten Most Wanted list. He later autographed one of the wanted posters for an FBI agent.
On the 1st of July, Persico pleaded not guilty alongside 11 other New York Mafia leaders in a second racketeering case, the Mafia Commission Trial. Prosecutors hoped to strike at every crime family at once by going after their shared Commission.
At the start of the Commission trial, Carmine Persico decided to act as his own lawyer. He believed his long record of convictions had given him enough experience. His co-defendants vehemently disagreed. The judge warned that Persico would be giving up incompetent counsel as grounds for an appeal. Lawyers still sat beside him to guide him when prosecutors questioned him.
Persico tried to seem friendly to the jury. He urged them to set aside what they thought they knew about "the Mafia" or "Cosa Nostra". Many observers believe he hurt himself, because his cross-examinations of prosecution witnesses ended up acknowledging criminal activity.
On the 14th of June 1986, Persico was convicted of racketeering in the Colombo Trial. On the 17th of November he received 39 years in prison. Judge John F. Keenan nonetheless praised his courtroom work, telling him: "Mr. Persico, you're a tragedy. You are one of the most intelligent people I have ever seen in my life."
Two days later, Persico and the other Commission trial defendants were convicted on all charges. On the 13th of January 1987, Keenan sentenced him to 100 years, to run after the 39-year term. The sentence also carried a $240,000 fine and no option of parole.
According to Colombo hitman and FBI informant Gregory Scarpa, Persico and Gambino boss John Gotti backed a plan in late 1986 to kill the lead prosecutor, future New York mayor Rudy Giuliani. The rest of the Commission rejected it.
Selwyn Raab, a longtime organized crime reporter for The New York Times, judged the Colombos the family most damaged by the trial. In his book Five Families, he noted that Persico was only 53, by far the youngest boss in New York. He had already led the family for 14 years and was, in Raab's words, "at the peak of his abilities." The other bosses were in their 70s and would probably have handed power to Persico's generation anyway.
Persico was sent to the United States Penitentiary near Marion, Illinois, to serve a combined 139 years. From there he would keep trying to rule.
Soon after his sentencing, Persico accepted that he would probably die in prison. He was determined that the family's money would keep flowing to his relatives. He first named his brother Allie Boy acting boss, but Allie Boy was soon arrested on loan-sharking charges. Persico then installed a three-man panel. In 1988, he dissolved it and picked Victor Orena, called Little Vic, a loyal Brooklyn capo, as temporary acting boss.
Orena received unusual powers for an acting boss, including the right to induct members and order murders on his own authority. Even so, Persico made clear that Orena was only a placeholder until Little Allie Boy was released from prison. Little Allie Boy would be 40 by the time he was paroled. Persico chose Orena partly because Orena led Little Allie Boy's old crew.
In June 1987, Persico ordered acting boss Joel Cacace to kill William Aronwald, a retired prosecutor who had allegedly been disrespectful to the Mafia. Cacace handed the job to two hitmen, who mistakenly killed Aronwald's father George. The other New York families were outraged. Cacace recruited two more gunmen to kill the first team, and then he killed the second pair himself. Cacace pleaded guilty to the Aronwald murder in 2004. Persico was never charged.
In 1990, the government moved Persico to the penitentiary at Lompoc, California. There he founded an Italian Cultural Club for inmates. He socialized with Patriarca family consigliere Joseph Russo and Lucchese associate Anthony Senter. Together they formed a band called the Lompoc Four, with Russo on guitar and Persico on drums.
By 1991, Orena was tired of the constant stream of orders from Persico's cell. He also resented that he would have to hand the family to Little Allie Boy. John Gotti, a longtime enemy of Persico, encouraged the rebellion and even branded Persico a "rat", the worst accusation in Cosa Nostra.
In the spring of 1991, Orena asked consigliere Carmine Sessa to quietly poll the Colombo capos on whom they wanted as boss. Orena hoped enough support would persuade the Commission to recognize him instead of Persico. Sessa instead told Persico. Persico then allegedly ordered Sessa to lead a hit team against Orena. On the 20th of June, Sessa and five men waited near Orena's Long Island home. Orena recognized them as he drove down the street and sped away. The Commission brokered months of peace talks but refused to take Persico's side.
The Third Colombo War began on the 18th of November 1991, when Orena lieutenant William Cutolo sent a hit team after Persico loyalist Gregory Scarpa in Brooklyn. By the end of that year, the two factions had traded several successful murder attempts. Public outrage pushed law enforcement to pour resources into the case. The result was 68 indictments, 58 convictions and ten mobsters turning state's evidence. In December 1992, Orena was convicted of racketeering and murder and sentenced to life. His faction dissolved, and the Persicos were in control again.
With Orena gone, Persico built yet another ruling structure, a committee of his brother Theodore, Joseph Baudanza and Joseph Tomasello. Little Allie Boy was facing new charges at the time. In 1994, Andrew Russo came out of prison, and Persico disbanded the committee and made Russo acting boss. When Russo went back to prison in 1996, Persico replaced him with Little Allie Boy, by then released. In early 1999, with his son in legal trouble, Persico turned to Joel Cacace.
Later in 1999, either Carmine or his son Alphonse ordered the murder of William Cutolo. Alphonse had just been released and faced new federal charges, and the Persicos feared Cutolo might seize the family. On the 26th of May 1999, Alphonse ordered Cutolo to meet him at a Brooklyn park. Cutolo was taken to a mob associate's apartment and killed, and his body was buried on Long Island. Police did not recover the remains until November 2008.
On the 20th of December 2001, Alphonse pleaded guilty to loan-sharking charges, accepted a 13-year sentence and agreed to forfeit $1 million. On the 14th of October 2004, he was indicted on federal racketeering charges, including conspiring to murder Cutolo and Joe Campanella. No charges were filed against Carmine. The first Cutolo murder trial ended in a mistrial when jurors deadlocked. On the 28th of December 2007, a second trial convicted Alphonse and a codefendant named DeRoss of the Cutolo murder. Like his father, Alphonse received a life sentence.
In 2004, Persico was transferred from Lompoc, which was being converted to a different kind of facility, to the Federal Correctional Complex at Butner, North Carolina. It is a medium-security prison with medical facilities for elderly inmates. In March 2010, Reuters reported that he had been socializing there with convicted swindler Bernard Madoff. The New York Post added that Persico loved playing pinochle and bocce with other mobsters and telling stories from his past.
In 2011, Persico was still the official boss. Andrew Russo served as street boss, John Franzese as official underboss, Benjamin Castellazzo as acting underboss and Richard Fusco as consigliere.
Selwyn Raab wrote in Five Families that Persico's efforts to protect his own position and install his son nearly destroyed the Colombo family. By Raab's estimate, Persico's "deceitful schemes" led directly to 70 fellow mobsters and associates being sent to prison, as well as 12 deaths.
Persico died at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, on the 7th of March 2019.
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Common questions
Why was Carmine Persico called The Snake?
The Gallo faction gave him the nickname after he turned on them in 1961. He joined the attempt to strangle Larry Gallo at the Sahara club in East Flatbush, and the war that followed produced nine murders and three disappearances.
How did Persico end up on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list?
After the racketeering indictment of the Colombo leadership in October 1984, he went into hiding. The FBI named him the 390th fugitive on its Ten Most Wanted list, and he is the only head of a Mafia family ever listed.
Who betrayed Persico while he was in hiding?
His brother-in-law Fred DeChristopher had been informing for the FBI for two years. The manhunt was staged to protect him, and he later testified against Persico.
How long were Persico's prison sentences in the Colombo and Commission trials?
He received 39 years in the Colombo Trial and 100 years in the Mafia Commission Trial, to run one after the other. The combined sentence was 139 years, with a $240,000 fine and no option of parole.
What was the Third Colombo War?
It was a conflict that began on the 18th of November 1991 between Persico loyalists and the faction of Victor Orena, who had tried to take over the family. It led to 68 indictments, 58 convictions and ten mobsters turning state's evidence. Orena was sentenced to life in December 1992.
When and where did Carmine Persico die?
He died on the 7th of March 2019 at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina.
All sources
76 references cited across the entry
- 1BookFive Families: the Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia EmpiresSelwyn Raab — Thomas Dunne Books — 2005
- 2Colombo capo gets 12 years for ordering murder while attending grandmother's wakeJohn Marzulli — May 29, 2014
- 3NewsBoy 16 arraigned as gang slayerMay 14, 1950
- 4Raab, p. 322
- 5NewsMore Than Close Shave In This ChairMark Kriegel — April 21, 1997
- 6Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires, pg. 726
- 7NewsFrankie Abbatemarco is the opening casualty in the Profaci family civil warDavid J. Krajicek — September 19, 2010
- 8BookJerry Capeci's gang landJerry Capeci — Alpha Books — 2003
- 10Capeci (2001), p.303
- 11Raab (2006), pp.321-324
- 12TruTV Crime LibraryAnthony Bruno
- 13BookWITSEC inside the Federal Witness Protection ProgramPete Earley — Bantam Books — 2003
- 14News2 More are Sought in Mafia CrackdownAugust 21, 1965
- 15Capeci (2001) p.305
- 16News5Shots from Truck Hurt Two Ex-ConsMay 20, 1963
- 17The Colombo Family: Trouble and More TroubleAnthony Bruno
- 18NewsRetrial for Persico RefusedMarch 18, 1972
- 20BookThe complete idiot's guide to the MafiaJerry Capeci — Alpha Books — 2004
- 22Raab, pp. 195-197
- 23NewsPersico on Trial on Usury ChargesLacy Fosburgh — November 11, 1971
- 24NewsPersico is Freed in a Usury TrialLacey Fosburgh — December 8, 1971
- 25The Colombo Family: The Return of Crazy JoeBruno Anthony
- 27Capeci (2001), p.306
- 28Raab, p. 325
- 29MagazineThe Mobs Maneuver1972-05-08
- 32NewsPersico Submits a Plea of Guilty to a ConspiracyJoseph P. Fried — August 12, 1981
- 33NewsPersico, on Tape, Discusses $250,000 Payoff to I.R.S AgentM. A. Farber — November 13, 1985
- 34NewsPersico Rank Rankles as He Is Given 5 YearsJoseph P. Fried — November 10, 1981
- 36News11 Indicted by U.s. as the Leadership of a Crime FamilyArnold H Lubasch — October 25, 1984
- 37NewsF.B.I. Hunting 4 Indicted as Colombo Mob ChiefsArnold H. Lubasch — October 28, 1984
- 38Chronological Listing of The FBI's "Ten Most Wanted Fugitives" March 14, 1950 - March 1, 2010Federal Bureau of Investigation
- 39NewsReputed Leader of Colombo Crime Group Is Arrested as a Fugitive on L.I.Arnold H. Lubasch — February 16, 1985
- 40News11 Plead Not Guilty to Ruling Organized Crime in New YorkJuly 2, 1985
- 41NewsCrime Bosses Considered Hit on GiulianiJohn Sullivan — October 25, 2007
- 43Raab, p. 293
- 44Raab, p. 295
- 45NewsPersico Convicted in Colombo TrialArnold H. Lubasch — June 14, 1986
- 46NewsPersico, His Son and 6 Others Get Long Terms as Colombo GangstersArnold H. Lubasch — November 18, 1986
- 47Raab, p. 349.
- 48NewsU.S. Jury Convicts Eight as Members of Mob CommissionArnold H Lubasch — November 20, 1986
- 49NewsJudge Sentences 8 Mafia Leaders to Prison TermsArnold H. Lubasch — January 14, 1987
- 50BookFederal Government's Use of Trusteeships Under the RICO StatuteUnited States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Governmental Affairs. Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations — 1989
- 51Raab, p. 309.
- 52NewsBernie Madoff's closest prison pal is a crime-family bossRyan Vlastellca — New York Post
- 53NewsThe Whack-y Wiseguy World - Mob Boss Charged in Botched '87 RuboutKati Cornell Smith — January 23, 2003
- 54NewsMob Figure Admits Roles In Murders, Including Judge'sWilliam Glaberstone — August 14, 2004
- 55Raab, pp. 328-329.
- 56NewsDoin' Hard Time Gangster StyleJerry Capeci — September 29, 1996
- 57Raab, pp. 332-335
- 58NewsCapo: Gotti Sr. Ignited a WarStephanie Cohen — October 13, 2006
- 59NewsPeace Efforts By Mobsters RecountedArnold H. Lubasch — November 24, 1992
- 60The Colombo Family: Junior's WarAnthony Bruno
- 61Raab, p. 340
- 62Raab, p. 344
- 63NewsActing Crime Boss Is Convicted of Murder and RacketeeringArnold H. Lubasch — December 22, 1992
- 64NewsAllie Boy Going Bye-bye for HitStephanie Cohen — December 29, 2007
- 65NewsBody Identified as Missing Mobster'sOctober 7, 2008
- 66NewsMob Big Cuts 13-year Jail DealKati Cornell Smith — December 21, 2001
- 67NewsBusts in Mob Whack - Wiseguy Duo IndictedKati Cornell Smith — October 15, 2004
- 68NewsMistrial Is Declared in Mob Murder CaseNovember 4, 2006
- 70NewsColombo boss Alphonse (Allie Boy) Persico sentenced to life in prison for 1999 Cutolo hitJohn Marzulli — February 27, 2009
- 71NewsThe brutal rise and bloody fall of the ColombosBrad Hamilton — 2011-01-30
- 72NewsMadoff assaulted by another inmate in December: reportMarch 17, 2010
- 73NewsMob Jail Hiss and TellZach Haberman — September 25, 2006
- 75Raab, p. 348
- 76Legendary New York Mob Boss Carmine Persico, Head of Colombo Family, Dead at Age 85nbcnewyork.com — 7 March 2019