Thomas Pitera
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Thomas "Tommy Karate" Pitera (b. December 2, 1954) was a New York mobster and, as his nickname suggests, was known as a martial arts expert.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early years
Pitera grew up in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn. Pitera became a made member of the Bonanno crime family sometime in the 1980s, and was originally a member of the faction loyal to captains Alphonse Indelicato, Dominick Trinchera, and Philip Giaccone, who opposed the leadership of Philip Rastelli and his leading captains Joseph Massino and Dominick Napolitano.
[edit] Criminal career
In 1981, Massino and Napolitano set up the murders of the three captains, and one of their supporters, Frank Lino, managed to escape from the execution site (a Brooklyn club). Massino quickly sent word to Lino that he was safe so long as he wished to remain a member of the Bonannos, and with that Massino made peace with such other Bonannos as Tommy Pitera.
Pitera earned a reputation for extreme violence and was delighted to perform hits. On August 29, 1988, Pitera furthered his reputation as a stone-cold killer when, as a favor to Gambino crime family boss John Gotti, he shot Wilfred "Willie Boy" Johnson to death as he walked to his car. Johnson had been a close associate of Gotti since the two of them were petty burglars and thieves, and Johnson had served as a driver to Gotti after Gotti became a made man and captain with the Gambinos. In 1985, it was revealed that Johnson had been a government informant since 1966, a sin that was unforgivable in La Cosa Nostra.
Pitera was close to Bonanno consigliere Anthony Spero, who headed the violent Bath Beach Crew, which was involved in extortion, loan sharking, drug dealing, and dozens of murders.
On June 4, 1990, Pitera was indicted in the Eastern District of New York for heading a drug dealing crew and for his involvement in 7 murders, including that of Johnson. Investigators alleged, based on information revealed by federal informants, that Pitera had been involved in as many as 30 murders. Pitera's crew sold about 220 pounds of cocaine per year, multi-kils of heroin, and hundreds of pounds of marijuana. FBI Agents discovered more than 60 automatic weapons, including assault rifles and pistols, as well as knives and swords, and a large collection of literature on torturing and dismembering cadavers in Pitera's Gravesend apartment located at East 12th Street.
Pitera's crew was notorious for robbing drug dealers and then selling the drugs, thereby bypassing the typical process of purchasing drugs for re-sale. Pitera murdered two Colombian drug kingpins, who Pitera stole 40 pounds of cocaine from. Pitera also killed Tala Siksik, an Arab drug supplier in his Brooklyn apartment. Pitera dismembered Siksik's body in the victim's bathtub.
Six of Pitera's victims bodies turned up at a mafia graveyard on Staten Island, located a bird sanctuary. Pitera chopped off the heads of the victims and buried them elsewhere to avoid identification through dental records.
One of Pitera's crew members, Frank Gangi, who was the nephew of Genovese crime family captain Rosario Gangi, decided to cooperate against his boss to avoid the death penalty. Gangi testified as to Pitera's role in 7 murders, including Gangi's girlfriend Pyhllis Burdi, who had gone on a drug binge with Gangi. Pitera and an unidentified shooter showed up at the Manhattan apartment the two were doing drugs in, and took Burdi into the bathroom where Gangi heard two gun shots come from. Afterward, Pitera called Gangi into the bathroom where he saw Burdi's body sitting in the bathtub with her head chopped off. Gangi also testified that during a fight with a drug dealer named Marek Kucharsky, Pitera pulled a knife and repeatedly stabbed Kucharsky, and eventually cut the man's throat.
[edit] Sentence
On June 25, 1992, Pitera was convicted of murdering six people and supervising a massive drug dealing operation in Brooklyn. After the verdict was read, Pitera smiled and gave a thumbs up to reporters sitting in the Brooklyn courtroom. Pitera would avoid the death penalty, and be sentenced to life in prison.
