COLOMBO MOB BOSS CARMINE PERSICO DIES IN JAIL
Storied Colombo boss Carmine Persico dies in prison at 85
One of New York’s most storied mob bosses met his end in prison Thursday — old and sick, and mired in a lawsuit over his medical treatment.
Carmine (The Snake) Persico, longtime boss of the Colombo crime family, died at age 85, the Daily News has learned.
Persico was convicted of racketeering and murder in the famous mid-’80s “Commission trial,” which put three of the city’s five crimefamily bosses in prison in one fell swoop. He was the last surviving defendant in that notorious case.
He was serving his sentence at the federal prison in Butner, N.C. when he died, confirmed his lawyer, Benson Weintraub. Among his reported pals at the mediumsecurity prison was Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff.
Persico spent the last 32 years of his life behind bars, serving a staggering 139-year sentence. But by most accounts, he remained the titular Colombo boss.
In 2016, Persico’s lawyers described a litany of health problems and called his 100year term a “virtual life sentence.”
Persico sued the prison warden and a doctor there in December, alleging “deliberate indifference” to his deteriorating medical condition and calling for his compassionate release. He had serious infections in his legs, and was trying to block doctors from amputating his leg above the knee.
Wientraub said he suspected Persico died of the leg infections, which he said “spread as a result of deliberately indifferent treatment.”
Persico was known to his friends as “Junior” and to his enemies as “The Snake.”
He was born Aug. 8, 1933, and grew up in the workingclass Brooklyn enclaves of Carroll Gardens and Red Hook. His dad was a lawfirm stenographer, while his mother stayed home to raise Carmine and his siblings – fellow future mobsters Alphonse and Theodore, and their sister, Dolores.
Persico was a high school dropout and ran with a local street gang. His first arrest was at 17 in the fatal beating of another youth during a melee in Prospect Park.
When the charges were dropped, he was recruited to the world of organized crime, and worked in bookmaking and loan-sharking.
By his mid-20s, Persico was a made man in the family headed by Joe Colombo.
He became affiliated with fellow Brooklyn mobsters the Gallo brothers – (Crazy) Joey, Larry and Albert, aka Kid Blast. Their crew was credited with the execution of mob boss Albert Anastasia, famously whacked inside a Manhattan barber shop.
The hit led to an internal war, with the Gallos taking on boss Joe Profaci over what they felt was a slight following the Anastasia hit.
Persico turned on the Gallos, aligning himself with Profaci in the war that left nine dead, three missing and 15 wounded. He was reportedly involved in the attempted strangling of Larry Gallo inside a Brooklyn bar, a hit interrupted by a cop.
He later survived an attempted hit by the Gallos before a truce was declared in 1963.
Persico, though in prison for hijacking, ruled over a powerful crew inside the Colombos. After the 1971 shooting of boss Joe Colombo, he and his brothers grabbed control of the family. Persico ran the family from the outside after he was released from prison in 1979 — but his time on the street was short.
He was indicted for racketeering in 1984 and arrested in the home of an FBI informant. He was also charged with the heads of the other four families in the “Commission” prosecution led by then-U.S. Attorney Rudy Giuliani.
Persico’s reply was to put out a contract on Giuliani.
He got a 39-year term in the first case. In the second, where he acted as his own attorney, Persico was hit with a 100-year-term – ensuring his death behind bars.
One small victory: Federal Judge John F. Keenan hailed Persico as “one of the most intelligent people I have ever seen in my life” for his performance as a lawyer.
While Persico ran the family from behind bars, the Colombos descended into an internal bloodbath pitting Persico loyalists against supporters of new boss Victor (Little Vic) Amuso. The war destroyed the family, which was decimated by a dozen murders and as many defectors to the government side.
Persico appealed his conviction in 2016. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals shot down his request in 2017, and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to take the case later that year.