# Thomas Pitera

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**Thomas Pitera** (/pɪˈtɛərə/; born December 2, 1954) is an American [mobster](/source/Mobster) in the [Bonanno crime family](/source/Bonanno_crime_family) of [New York City](/source/New_York_City). Pitera, a [soldier](/source/Soldato) and later on a [captain](/source/Caporegime) of his own crew, was suspected by law enforcement of as many as 60 [murders](/source/Murder).[citation needed] Pitera was well known for his use of [karate](/source/Karate) and other [martial arts](/source/Martial_arts) when fighting, a skill he had learned at a young age and which earned him nicknames like "Tommy Karate", and "The Karate Guy". Pitera is serving a life sentence at [USP Big Sandy](/source/USP_Big_Sandy) in [Inez, Kentucky](/source/Inez,_Kentucky).

## Early years

Thomas Pitera grew up in the [Gravesend](/source/Gravesend,_Brooklyn) neighborhood of [Brooklyn](/source/Brooklyn), [New York City](/source/New_York_City), the son of Joseph "Joe" Pitera, an [Italian-American](/source/Italian_Americans) from [Campagna](/source/Campagna) independent [concession stand](/source/Concession_stand) wholesale candy salesman.

Pitera attended the [David A. Boody](/source/David_A._Boody) Junior High School at 228 Avenue S in Gravesend, where he left little impression with his teachers, daydreamed a lot and was [bullied](/source/Bullying) by his peers because of his high-pitched voice.[citation needed] Before he became interested in [martial arts](/source/Martial_arts) he wanted to become involved in [professional baseball](/source/Professional_baseball) but was too ostracized by fellow students to join the varsity baseball team. He later broke into Boody and stole the school baseball team's equipment as an act of [revenge](/source/Revenge) and sold it to "fences" in the neighborhood.

He was later arrested and charged for the burglary but was convicted as a juvenile and his record was sealed. He attended a [Dojo](/source/Dojo) in [Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn](/source/Sheepshead_Bay,_Brooklyn), and quickly rose to the top of his class. He had a daily regimen of working out, lifting weights, reading about [Kyokushin](/source/Kyokushin) fighting strategies and tactics and watching violent films, mostly [kung fu films](/source/Kung_fu_film).

### Martial arts

At the age of 12, Pitera had been a huge fan of the 1966 *[The Green Hornet](/source/The_Green_Hornet_(TV_series))* television show and actor [Bruce Lee](/source/Bruce_Lee) starring alongside [Van Williams](/source/Van_Williams), triggering his lifelong interest in [martial arts](/source/Martial_arts). It was later solidified in 1969 with the release of the film [*Marlowe*](/source/Marlowe_(1969_film)) starring [James Garner](/source/James_Garner) and Lee as "Lee Wong". He let his thick, straight, black hair grow down past his ears despite disapproval by his parents for not wanting him to look like a "[hippie](/source/Hippie)", started eating [sushi](/source/Sushi) as a regular part of his diet and immersed himself in [Eastern philosophy](/source/Eastern_philosophy). [citation needed]

After winning a [kumite](/source/Kumite) competition in [Sheepshead Bay](/source/Sheepshead_Bay,_Brooklyn), Pitera spent 27 months in [Tokyo](/source/Tokyo,_Japan) training under [Shihan](/source/Shihan) Hiroshi Masumi in the ways of the [Ko-ryū](/source/Ko-ry%C5%AB) [Ninjutsu](/source/Ninjutsu).

His mother and aunt Angelina Bugowski went to visit him and were impressed with the change to his physical appearance, maturity, sensibility and understanding of the [Japanese culture](/source/Japanese_culture) and people. He was trained to use the [tonfa](/source/Tonfa), [nunchucks](/source/Nunchucks) and [katanas](/source/Katana). While in Japan, he grew his hair down to his shoulders.[citation needed] After his scholarship ended, he sought work in a [chopsticks](/source/Chopsticks) factory to underwrite his stay and earn more money. This led him to acquire the nickname "Tommy Karate" by friends and fellow [mobsters](/source/Mobster), despite that he specialized in [Togakure-ryū](/source/Togakure-ry%C5%AB) and not [karate](/source/Karate).[citation needed]

## Criminal career

Upon returning to Brooklyn, Pitera joined the [Bonanno crime family](/source/Bonanno_crime_family) and quickly became one of their most feared hitmen. He belonged to a Bonanno faction headed by *[caporegimes](/source/Caporegime)* [Alphonse "Sonny Red" Indelicato](/source/Alphonse_%22Sonny_Red%22_Indelicato), [Frank Lino](/source/Frank_Lino), [Dominick Trinchera](/source/Dominick_Trinchera) and [Philip Giaccone](/source/Philip_Giaccone). This group opposed the current leadership under [boss](/source/Crime_boss) [Philip Rastelli](/source/Philip_Rastelli) and his leading *capos* [Joseph Massino](/source/Joseph_Massino) and [Dominick Napolitano](/source/Dominick_Napolitano). In 1981, Massino and Napolitano set up the murders of the three rival *capos* in a Gravesend club co-owned by [Sammy Gravano](/source/Sammy_Gravano). After their deaths, Massino made peace with the rest of the leaderless faction, including Pitera. During the 1980s, Pitera became a [made man](/source/Made_man) of the Bonanno family and was assigned to Lino's crew by Bonanno *[consigliere](/source/Consigliere)* [Anthony Spero](/source/Anthony_Spero).[citation needed]

On August 29, 1988, Pitera allegedly ambushed and murdered [Wilfred "Willie Boy" Johnson](/source/Wilfred_Johnson) as he walked ahead to their car. Johnson had been a longtime associate and driver for [Gambino family](/source/Gambino_crime_family) boss [John Gotti](/source/John_Gotti). The hit was reportedly delegated to Pitera and fellow gunman Vincent "Kojak" Giattino after Gotti had discovered that Johnson had been a government informant since 1966. Pitera was charged with the Johnson murder but [acquitted](/source/Acquittal) at trial.[citation needed]

Pitera was close to Spero, whose [Bath Beach crew](/source/Bath_Beach) were involved in [extortion](/source/Extortion), [loan sharking](/source/Loan_sharking), [drug dealing](/source/Drug_dealing) and murder, as well as [robbing](/source/Robbery) drug dealers and then reselling their product. Pitera's associates, Lloyd Modell and Frank Martini, murdered two [Colombian](/source/Colombian_people) dealers and stole sixteen kilograms of [cocaine](/source/Cocaine). The killers intended to drive their car to [Staten Island](/source/Staten_Island) to bury the bodies, but as they could not drive a [stick shift](/source/Stick_shift), they left the car – with the bodies inside the trunk – in a Brooklyn parking garage. [citation needed]

Martini moved back to Sicily and continued his relationship with the Bonanno crime family while Pitera killed Tala Siksik, a [Middle Eastern](/source/Middle_East) drug supplier, in his Brooklyn apartment. Pitera shot Siksik four times in the back, chopped the body up into six pieces, and then buried it at a secret dumping ground. Investigators eventually found six of Pitera's victims in a mob graveyard in Staten Island near the [William T. Davis Wildlife Refuge](/source/William_T._Davis_Wildlife_Refuge). Pitera had [decapitated](/source/Decapitation) the bodies and buried the heads separately to impede their identification using [dental records](/source/Dental_record).[citation needed]

Pitera's approach to murder and body disposal was cold-hearted and clinical. He used the Staten Island graveyard because he believed that the damp soil would accelerate [decomposition](/source/Human_decomposition) and the wildlife refuge would ensure the bodies were not discovered during construction projects. Pitera studied books on [dissection](/source/Dissection) and carried a special tool kit for cutting up bodies. He always insisted on burying corpses deep enough so that [police dogs](/source/Police_dog) could not locate their scents. Before burying body parts, he either wrapped them in plastic or placed them in suitcases. Pitera's weakness was that he enjoyed keeping jewelry and other souvenirs of his work.[citation needed]

On June 4, 1990, Pitera was indicted for heading a drug dealing crew and for his involvement in seven murders, including the 1988 Johnson murder.[1] Investigators alleged he had been involved in as many as 30 murders.[2] Pitera's crew sold about 220 pounds of cocaine per year, multiple kilos of [heroin](/source/Heroin) and hundreds of pounds of [marijuana](/source/Marijuana). [Drug Enforcement Administration](/source/Drug_Enforcement_Administration) (DEA) agents discovered more than sixty automatic weapons, knives, swords, and literature such as *The Hitman's Handbook* and *Kill or Be Killed*, which dealt primarily with assassination techniques as well as [torture](/source/Torture) and the dismemberment of [cadavers](/source/Cadaver), in Pitera's apartment in Gravesend.[3]

### Trial

One of Pitera's crew members, Frank Gangi, the nephew of [Genovese family](/source/Genovese_crime_family) *capo* [Rosario Gangi](/source/Rosario_Gangi), decided to testify against Pitera. Frank had been arrested for [driving under the influence](/source/Driving_under_the_influence) and allegedly started reliving Pitera's worst atrocities in his mind while sitting in the holding cell. Frank confessed to all the murders he was involved in with Pitera, and provided information on other Pitera murders. Gangi also testified that during a fight with a drug dealer named Marek Kucharsky, Pitera pulled a knife and repeatedly stabbed Kucharsky and finally cut his throat. [citation needed]

In Pitera's trial, chief [prosecutor](/source/Prosecutor) David W. Shapiro demanded the [death sentence](/source/Capital_punishment_in_the_United_States) for the "heinous, cruel and depraved" murders committed by Pitera. He called Pitera a "heartless and ruthless killer," explaining in detail how Pitera tortured one victim by slowly, deliberately shooting him seven times in various parts of the body, in one of a series of murders carried out in a deliberately barbaric manner. The prosecution also produced a DEA agent who testified to digging up graves containing the dismembered bodies of some of Pitera's victims.[citation needed]

Pitera's defense lawyer, David A. Ruhnke, urged the jury to reject the [death penalty](/source/Death_penalty) on the grounds that Pitera had no prior [criminal record](/source/Criminal_record) and that other participants in the murders were allowed to plead guilty to lesser charges. Moreover, only two of the murder victims, Richard Leone and Solomon Stern, were killed on March 15, 1989, after the Federal death penalty law went into effect.[4] The four other murders took place earlier, so those counts carried maximum sentences of [life in prison](/source/Life_in_prison). Pitera's aunt, sister-in-law and two cousins testified on Pitera's defense that he was a loving and caring family member.[5]

### Life sentence

On June 25, 1992, Pitera was convicted of murdering six people and supervising a massive drug dealing operation in Brooklyn. However, Pitera was acquitted in the 1988 Johnson murder.[6] During the deliberation on sentencing, the jury rejected the death penalty for Pitera.[7] In October 1992, alluding to evidence that Pitera brutally killed his victims and dismembered their bodies, Judge [Reena Raggi](/source/Reena_Raggi) sentenced him to life in prison, saying, "Mr. Pitera, nobody deserves to die as these people died."[8]

After the verdict was read, Pitera smiled and gave a [thumbs up](/source/Thumbs_signal) to reporters sitting in the Brooklyn courtroom; he had avoided the death penalty. However, Pitera was irritated that Gangi was petitioning Judge Raggi for a reduction of his 10-year prison sentence. As Pitera later remarked,

Gangi said he was sorry about killing five people and that he became an informer because he wanted to start a new life. He gets 10 years, a good deal, and he goes whimpering and weeping to the judge looking for a break. If you're really sorry for killing five people, you take your punishment like a man.

Later in 1992, Judge Raggi again refused a motion to reduce Gangi's sentence.[9] On April 3, 2012, the [U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals](/source/U.S._Second_Circuit_Court_of_Appeals) denied Pitera's motion for [DNA testing](/source/DNA_testing) of the guns and other evidence in three of Pitera's murders. As of April 2017, Pitera is serving a life sentence at the [United States Penitentiary, McCreary](/source/United_States_Penitentiary,_McCreary) near [Pine Knot, Kentucky](/source/Pine_Knot,_Kentucky). Pitera's inmate number is 29465-053.[10]

## References

1. [DEA arrests 25 on drug, murder charges, including 'Tommy Karate'](https://www.upi.com/Archives/1990/06/04/DEA-arrests-25-on-drug-murder-charges-including-Tommy-Karate/3966644472000/) William K. Rashbaum, [United Press International](/source/United_Press_International) (June 4, 1990) [Archived](https://archive.today/20241215230221/https://www.upi.com/Archives/1990/06/04/DEA-arrests-25-on-drug-murder-charges-including-Tommy-Karate/3966644472000/) December 15, 2024 at archive.today

1. [DEA Smashes Mafia Drug Ring](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-06-04-mn-590-story.html) *[Los Angeles Times](/source/Los_Angeles_Times)* (June 4, 1990) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20241215230247/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-06-04-mn-590-story.html) December 15, 2024 at the Wayback Machine

1. [Bonanno drug and murder ring responsible for at least seven homicides](https://www.upi.com/Archives/1990/06/05/A-drug-and-murder-ring-linked-to-the-Bonanno/3247644558400/) William K. Rashbaum, [United Press International](/source/United_Press_International) (June 5, 1990) [Archived](https://archive.today/20241216004917/https://www.upi.com/Archives/1990/06/05/A-drug-and-murder-ring-linked-to-the-Bonanno/3247644558400/) December 16, 2024 at archive.today

1. [Specter of Execution Hangs Over Murder Trial](https://www.nytimes.com/1992/05/06/nyregion/specter-of-execution-hangs-over-murder-trial.html) Arnold H. Lubasch, *[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)* (May 6, 1992) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20180116122628/https://www.nytimes.com/1992/05/06/nyregion/specter-of-execution-hangs-over-murder-trial.html) January 16, 2018 at the Wayback Machine

1. Lubasch, Arnold H. (July 2, 1992). ["Federal Jurors Considering Death Penalty for Mobster"](https://www.nytimes.com/1992/07/02/nyregion/federal-jurors-considering-death-penalty-for-mobster.html). *New York Times*. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20120205092608/http://www.nytimes.com/1992/07/02/nyregion/federal-jurors-considering-death-penalty-for-mobster.html) 5 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 8 April 2012.

1. Thomas, Pitera (June 26, 1992). ["Reputed Mobster Guilty In Six Narcotics Murders"](https://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/26/nyregion/reputed-mobster-guilty-in-six-narcotics-murders.html?scp=1&sq=%22Thomas%20Pitera%22&st=cse). *New York Times*. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20160306222924/http://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/26/nyregion/reputed-mobster-guilty-in-six-narcotics-murders.html?scp=1&sq=%22Thomas%20Pitera%22&st=cse) 6 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 8 April 2012.

1. Lubasch, Arnold H (July 3, 1992). ["Jurors Reject Death Penalty for Mobster"](https://www.nytimes.com/1992/07/03/nyregion/jurors-reject-death-penalty-for-mobster.html). *New York Times*. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20150526052308/http://www.nytimes.com/1992/07/03/nyregion/jurors-reject-death-penalty-for-mobster.html) 26 May 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 8 April 2012.

1. ["Life Prison Term in 6 Drug-Case Murders"](https://www.nytimes.com/1992/10/25/nyregion/life-prison-term-in-6-drug-case-murders.html). *New York Times*. October 25, 1992. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20120205092613/http://www.nytimes.com/1992/10/25/nyregion/life-prison-term-in-6-drug-case-murders.html) 5 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 8 April 2012.

1. Capeci, Jerry (April 4, 1995). ["FISH MART RAP'S A FLUKE, HE SEZ"](http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/fish-mart-rap-a-fluke-sez-article-1.687456). *New York Daily News*. Retrieved 8 April 2012.

1. ["Thomas Pitera"](https://archive.today/20121213005938/http://www.bop.gov/iloc2/InmateFinderServlet?Transaction=NameSearch&needingMoreList=false&FirstName=Thomas+&Middle=&LastName=Pitera&Race=U&Sex=U&Age=&x=51&y=10). *Bureau of Prisons Inmate Locator*. Archived from [the original](http://www.bop.gov/iloc2/InmateFinderServlet?Transaction=NameSearch&needingMoreList=false&FirstName=Thomas+&Middle=&LastName=Pitera&Race=U&Sex=U&Age=&x=51&y=10) on December 13, 2012. Retrieved 8 April 2012.

## External links

- [Wilfred “Willie Boy” Johnson: Part Two - Source Wahoo – Out Sourced](http://www.americanmafia.com/Allan_May_12-13-99.html) by Allan May
- Reppetto, Thomas *Bringing Down the Mob: The War Against the American Mafia.*, Macmillan, 2006. ISBN 0-8050-7802-9

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Thomas Pitera](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Pitera) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Pitera?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.