Deranged Mafia Hitman “Tommy Karate”
Wikimedia CommonsThomas Pitera was known as “Tommy Karate” for his proficiency in martial arts.
Unlike most other Mafia hitmen, Thomas Pitera was well-trained in martial arts. Born on Dec. 2, 1954, in Brooklyn, New York, he was raised by first-generation Italian immigrants from Salerno. By his 40th birthday, he would be suspected of as many as 60 murders for the Bonanno crime family.
Dubbed “Tommy Karate,” Pitera was a dutiful soldier for the crime family before he became a caporegime, or captain of his own crew. While he killed on orders from his boss, Pitera also took personal pleasure in his murders — and routinely kept trophies like wedding bands as souvenirs.
And if he suspected anyone of knowing too much about his personal life, he killed them, too. That included friends and members of his crew. Drug dealers were killed at will, with Pitera taking their stash and selling it for his own profit. Anyone suspected of being an informant was killed by Tommy Karate with abandon.
Mafia News/FacebookThomas Pitera serving life in prison.
“Tommy was a psychopath, an animal,” said Jim Hunt, assistant special agent in charge of the New York DEA. “He’d walk into a social club and the guys would all turn to face him. No one wanted their back to Tommy Pitera.”
Hunt would ultimately arrest Pitera in 1990, but only after three years of rigorous investigation and a slew of dead bodies Pitera left in his wake. One of the victims was a woman named Phyllis Burdi, who was tragically present when Pitera’s wife died of a drug overdose. Pitera shot Burdi in her sleep and dismembered her.
But then, one time Pitera took a killing too far, even by the Mafia’s relaxed standards. According to Frank Gangi, an associate who eventually flipped on Pitera, he witnessed Pitera take a bath with the corpse of an alleged informant whom he dismembered while sitting naked in the tub. Arrested for drunk driving, Gangi requested to speak to a detective and gave authorities the locations of Pitera’s victims.
Convicted of six first-degree murders on June 25, 1992, Pitera was sentenced to life in prison — while Gangi received a 10-year sentence.
