A panel truck pulled alongside Persico's car and two men shot him in the face, hand and shoulder. [73] Raab wrote in Five Families that Persico's attempts to protect his own position and ensure that his son succeeded him nearly destroyed the Colombo family. [56], On December 28, 2007, in a second trial, Alphonse Persico and DeRoss were convicted of Cutolo's murder. [55] Knowing that Little Allie Boy would be 40 years old by the time he was paroled, Carmine wanted to ensure that his son would be able to inherit the family's riches as soon as he was released. Press reports indicated he had become friends with convicted fraudster Bernie Madoff.[51]. According to underworld informers, the murder was initiated by Carlo Gambino, who was Mr. Anastasia’s underboss, and sanctioned by Mr. Profaci and other Mafia bosses who feared that Mr. Anastasia was trying to become the nation’s dominant mob leader. On October 25, 1957, Anastasia entered the barbershop of the Park Sheraton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan. By the late 1960s, Persico's crew was one of the most profitable in the Colombo family. Police concluded that Johnson was the sole shooter. [47] On January 13, 1987, Keenan sentenced Persico to 100 years in prison, to run consecutively with his 39-year sentence in the Colombo trial, fined $240,000, and given no option for parole.[48][49]. [10][11][12] He was indicted later that year for the attempted murder of Gallo, but the charges were dropped when Gallo refused to testify.[13]. [27] On April 7, 1972, Joey Gallo was shot and killed by Persico gunmen as he was celebrating his birthday at Umberto's Clam House in Manhattan's Little Italy.[28]. Federal and city investigators suspected that Mr. Persico and the Gallo brothers were members of the assassination team later called “the Barbershop Quintet,” so named because Mr. Anastasia was shot dead while he was being shaved in a hotel’s barber shop in Midtown Manhattan. Carmine Persico, boss of the Colombo Crime Family, poses for a portrait September 15, 1986 at the Metropolitan Correctional Center during the "Commission" trial. [23], After the Colombo shooting, underboss Joseph Yacovelli assumed the role of acting boss. In addition to Alphonse, Mr. Persico and his wife, Joyce (Smoldone) Persico, had two other sons, Michael and Lawrence, and a daughter, Barbara Persico Piazza. [64], On December 20, 2001, Alphonse Persico pleaded guilty to the loan-sharking charges, accepted a 13-year prison sentence and agreed to forfeit $1 million. He was serving a total of 139 years in federal prison from 1987 until his death on March 7, 2019. His first arrest was at age 17 in the fatal beating of another youth during a melee in Prospect Park. His role in uprooting three entrenched mob emperors brought him national attention and helped him become mayor of New York in 1994. By his mid-20s, Persico was a made man in the family headed by Joe Colombo. The shooter, a black ex-convict named Jerome Johnson, was immediately shot dead by Colombo's bodyguards. Investigators said that Mr. Persico, confined at the Federal Penitentiary in Lompoc, Calif., directed his loyalists to eliminate Mr. Orena and his supporters. [21], On November 11, 1971, Persico went on trial in state court on 37 counts of extortion, usury, coercion and conspiracy, all stemming from a loan-sharking operation out of a Manhattan fur shop. [24] After this assassination attempt, Yacovelli fled New York, leaving Carmine Persico as the new boss,[25][26] with Carmine himself coordinating the suppression of the Gallos. [52] In 2004, Cacace would plead guilty to the Aronwald murder. He believed that his history of convictions gave him sufficient experience to defend himself. [15] Persico reportedly spat out the bullet that had entered his face. Mr. Persico and the Gallo brothers expected that Mr. Profaci would hand over Mr. Abbatemarco’s illegal enterprises to them. agents, all of whom he held responsible for his long prison sentences. In 1998, Michael Lloyd, a convicted bank robber who was a government informer, testified that Mr. Persico had told him while they were together in prison that he had authorized “contracts” to kill two F.B.I. [56], By 1991, Orena had become disgruntled with the current leadership scheme and was tired of the constant stream of orders that he received from Persico in prison. Mr. Persico, who ultimately would be indicted in 25 separate cases, compiled more than a dozen arrests in the 1950s and early ′’60s. [57] For the next several months, the Persico and Orena factions engaged in peace negotiations brokered by the Commission. [8][10] The Gallos then began calling Persico "The Snake"; he had betrayed them, the war continued on resulting in nine murders and three disappearances. [4] In the early 1950s, Persico was recruited into the Profaci crime family, the forerunner of the Colombo family, by longtime capo Frank Abbatemarco. His penchant for double-crossing his mob allies earned him his underworld nickname, the Snake. However, the gunman did not recognize the mobsters and shot four innocent diners instead, killing two of them. During this decade he was arrested over 12 times but spent only a few days in jail. In 1973, Persico was imprisoned on hijacking and loan-sharking charges, and sentenced to eight years in prison. During his tenure, his gang reaped millions of dollars a year in illegal payoffs from labor racketeering, gambling, loan-sharking and drug trafficking, mainly in the New York region. agents as well as Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Marcu, blaming them for his prison terms. An armistice was arranged in the mid-’90s with a Persico loyalist, Joseph (Jo-Jo) Russo, who was also Mr. Persico’s cousin, installed as acting boss. He would not identify the children. The cousin’s husband, Fred DeChristopher, collected a $50,000 reward for telling the F.B.I. “Mr. Persico spent the last 36 years of his life behind bars, serving a staggering 139-year sentence. 1077 (1972) - pp107711240 - Leagle.com", "Tozzi Knew All Three of the Gallo Brothers", "The Colombo Family: The Return of Crazy Joe", "THE CITY; Persico Trial Put Off On Bribery Charges", "United States v. Local 6A, Cement & Concrete Workers, 663 F. Supp. With the end of the war with Orena, Persico had to set up another ruling structure for the family. The extent of Mr. Persico’s influence and authority in the Mafia was exposed at a watershed federal trial in 1986 in Manhattan. Since Little Allie Boy was facing prosecution on new charges, Persico installed a ruling committee comprising his brother, Theodore, mobster Joseph Baudanza and Joseph Tomasello. There was satisfaction among law-enforcement officials at the fact that the Snake’s gang had been further enfeebled by the willingness of members and associates to inform on their comrades. [11] In early 1963, Persico survived a car bombing and his enforcer Hugh McIntosh was shot in the groin as he attempted kill Larry Gallo. In addition, Mr. Persico suffers from anemia and a multitude of cardiac issues that require periodic medical attention.”. Mr. Persico’s son Alphonse pleaded guilty in 2000 to gun possession charges in Florida and was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison. Mr. Persico’s brother Alphonse died of cancer in 1989 while serving a prison term. This time he decided to be his own defense lawyer. However, later in 1999, either Carmine or Alphonse Persico ordered Cutolo's murder. It was his first serious encounter with the law, and when the charges against him were dropped, his reputation for boldness and cunning was enhanced. Persico then allegedly ordered Sessa to lead a team to kill Orena. Law-enforcement officials maintain that even when he was serving prison terms from the 1960s into the late ’90s, he remained a potent force in two bloody mob wars and in the running of the Colombo family’s network of criminal operations.