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Carmine Persico dead: Notorious mafia boss dubbed ‘the Snake’ dies aged 85 after serving 33 of 139-year sentence
He had been serving what was effectively a life sentence at a federal prison in Butner, North Carolina
THE notorious mafia boss dubbed "the Snake" has died aged 85 after serving 33 of a 139-year sentence.
Longtime boss of the infamous Colombo crime family, Carmine Persico, died on Thursday, his attorney confirmed.
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He had been serving what was effectively a life sentence at a federal prison in Butner, North Carolina. He died at the Duke University Medical Center.
Also known as "Junior" and "Immortal", he was the longtime boss of the Colombo crime family since 1973.
Persico was among eight defendants convicted in a 1986 prosecution called the "Commission Trial".
At the time, it was the biggest legal assault to date on the heads of the Mafia's five families, and Persico was convicted of racketeering and murder and sentenced to a century behind bars.
The son of a law firm stenographer and a stay-at-home mum, Persico was a high school dropout who was part of a local street gang.
His first arrest was at age 17, over the fatal beating of another youth during a brawl in Brooklyn's Prospect Park.
When the charges were dropped, he was recruited to the world of organised crime - working in bookmaking and loan-sharking operations.
By his mid-20s, Persico was a "made man" in the family headed by Joe Colombo, and worked his way up.
MAFIA BOSS ON TRIAL
Prosecutors said Persico took over the murderous New York-based Colombo organisation in 1973, two years after the leader was shot and paralysed.
The commission trial indictment said Persico and his fellow mobsters ran "La Cosa Nostra" in a racketeering pattern that included murders, loan-sharking, labour payoffs and extensive extortion in the concrete industry.
He wasn't charged in the murders, but prosecutors said during the trial Persico was involved in the legendary assassinations of two other mobsters - Albert Anastasia and Joseph Gallo.
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Persico acted as his own lawyer at the trial and famously questioned prosecution witness Fred DeChristopher, his cousin by marriage, who admitted turning him in for a $50,000 reward.
At the sentencing, US District Judge John F. Keenan suggested that Persico could have been a great man, if he'd chosen another calling.
"Mr. Persico, you're a tragedy," he said. "You are one of the most intelligent people I have ever seen."
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