PROFESSIONAL KILLERS (True Crime) by Gordon Kerr Read Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Gordon Kerr
of money, more than $1 million in its first year. He would make still more today.
He arrived at the venue at Columbus Circle and made for the platform where his sons, Anthony and Joe Jr., were working, along with around 50 of his men. There were police, TV reporters, photographers and around 4,000 people in the audience. As Joe approached the stage, a young black man filmed him up close and as he reached it, the black man, only a few feet away, suddenly dropped his camera, whipped out a pistol and fired three shots into Colombo’s head and neck. Mayhem broke out as Joe stumbled onto the steps. Joe Jr., another Colombo Family soldier and a couple of cops roughly wrestled the black man, Jerome Johnson, to the ground but as the cops pulled out their handcuffs and struggled to cuff Johnson, a short, stocky man with a pistol in his hand, pushed through the baying crowd now surrounding the assassin and leaned forward, shooting him dead. Then he was gone in the crowd.
Colombo was rushed to Roosevelt Hospital where surgeons fought to save his life. He survived, but remained in a coma for the seven remaining years of his life.
As Joe Gallo said: ‘He was vegetabled.’
Carmine ‘The Snake’ Persico
Carmine Persico is not the best-looking guy in the world. But, small and scrawny though he is, with one hand mangled from a bullet wound, he is not a man to tangle with and he has been known to carry an ice-pick around with him just in case someone annoyed him. His hand-wound is not the only injury, for Carmine has been shot some 20 times in his long and illustrious Mafia career. He is sometimes known as ‘Immortal’ on account of his ability to survive the countless attacks on him, one of which was a bomb in 1963 from which he escaped with minor injuries. However, the most popular nickname for this Mob veteran is pretty unappetising – ‘The Snake’. He was given this as a youngster because of the slyness of his crimes.
Persico is as tough as they come. Once, during the first Gallo Wars, when the brothers Joey and Larry Gallo were trying to take over the Colombo Family, of which Persico is a made member and currently head, he and an associate, Alphonse D’Ambrosio, were sitting in a car, minding their own business. Suddenly, a carful of Gallo loyalists drove by and opened fire on the car with a semi-automatic M-1 carbine. D’Ambrosio was hit in the chest and Persico took bullets in hand, shoulder and face. However, tough as old boots, Persico calmly spat the bullet out that had hit his face, started the engine and drove the car to the nearest hospital.
But you messed with The Snake at your peril. ‘Crazy’ Joe Gallo was gunned down in a clam restaurant in April 1972 as he celebrated his 43rd birthday. Persico is a suspect in that death as well as the death of ‘Crazy’ Joe’s brother Larry.
Born in 1937 in the Mafia’s top breeding ground of Brooklyn, Carmine Persico’s father was a soldier in the Genovese Family. Carmine was a chip off the old block and was known at first as ‘Junior’ in the streets of Brooklyn. As a teenager, he joined a gang known as The Garfield Boys, roaming the streets of the Red Hook district with a bunch of like-minded young thugs and hooligans. The Garfield Boys had terrorised Brooklyn since the early 20th century, only disappearing from the streets in 1971, and Persico soon became its leader.
He killed his first man at the age of 17 and with a witness known only as the Blue Angel identifying him as the shooter, it looked as if he would go to prison. However, before the Blue Angel’s testimony could be used to convict him, his older brother confessed to the murder. Taking the rap for his younger brother cost Alphonse dearly – 18 years in prison.
Persico became a made member of the Profaci Crime Family under Joe Profaci who reigned from 1928 to 1962. When Joe Colombo took over at the top, re-titling the Family in his name, Persico was promoted to capo. Meanwhile, his
He arrived at the venue at Columbus Circle and made for the platform where his sons, Anthony and Joe Jr., were working, along with around 50 of his men. There were police, TV reporters, photographers and around 4,000 people in the audience. As Joe approached the stage, a young black man filmed him up close and as he reached it, the black man, only a few feet away, suddenly dropped his camera, whipped out a pistol and fired three shots into Colombo’s head and neck. Mayhem broke out as Joe stumbled onto the steps. Joe Jr., another Colombo Family soldier and a couple of cops roughly wrestled the black man, Jerome Johnson, to the ground but as the cops pulled out their handcuffs and struggled to cuff Johnson, a short, stocky man with a pistol in his hand, pushed through the baying crowd now surrounding the assassin and leaned forward, shooting him dead. Then he was gone in the crowd.
Colombo was rushed to Roosevelt Hospital where surgeons fought to save his life. He survived, but remained in a coma for the seven remaining years of his life.
As Joe Gallo said: ‘He was vegetabled.’
Carmine ‘The Snake’ Persico
Carmine Persico is not the best-looking guy in the world. But, small and scrawny though he is, with one hand mangled from a bullet wound, he is not a man to tangle with and he has been known to carry an ice-pick around with him just in case someone annoyed him. His hand-wound is not the only injury, for Carmine has been shot some 20 times in his long and illustrious Mafia career. He is sometimes known as ‘Immortal’ on account of his ability to survive the countless attacks on him, one of which was a bomb in 1963 from which he escaped with minor injuries. However, the most popular nickname for this Mob veteran is pretty unappetising – ‘The Snake’. He was given this as a youngster because of the slyness of his crimes.
Persico is as tough as they come. Once, during the first Gallo Wars, when the brothers Joey and Larry Gallo were trying to take over the Colombo Family, of which Persico is a made member and currently head, he and an associate, Alphonse D’Ambrosio, were sitting in a car, minding their own business. Suddenly, a carful of Gallo loyalists drove by and opened fire on the car with a semi-automatic M-1 carbine. D’Ambrosio was hit in the chest and Persico took bullets in hand, shoulder and face. However, tough as old boots, Persico calmly spat the bullet out that had hit his face, started the engine and drove the car to the nearest hospital.
But you messed with The Snake at your peril. ‘Crazy’ Joe Gallo was gunned down in a clam restaurant in April 1972 as he celebrated his 43rd birthday. Persico is a suspect in that death as well as the death of ‘Crazy’ Joe’s brother Larry.
Born in 1937 in the Mafia’s top breeding ground of Brooklyn, Carmine Persico’s father was a soldier in the Genovese Family. Carmine was a chip off the old block and was known at first as ‘Junior’ in the streets of Brooklyn. As a teenager, he joined a gang known as The Garfield Boys, roaming the streets of the Red Hook district with a bunch of like-minded young thugs and hooligans. The Garfield Boys had terrorised Brooklyn since the early 20th century, only disappearing from the streets in 1971, and Persico soon became its leader.
He killed his first man at the age of 17 and with a witness known only as the Blue Angel identifying him as the shooter, it looked as if he would go to prison. However, before the Blue Angel’s testimony could be used to convict him, his older brother confessed to the murder. Taking the rap for his younger brother cost Alphonse dearly – 18 years in prison.
Persico became a made member of the Profaci Crime Family under Joe Profaci who reigned from 1928 to 1962. When Joe Colombo took over at the top, re-titling the Family in his name, Persico was promoted to capo. Meanwhile, his