When John Gotti and Sammy Bull Visited Brooklyn...

Gotti, left, Gravano, back in the good
old days of "La Cosa Nostra."
John Gotti and Salvatore "Sammy Bull" Gravano drove into Bath Beach in Brooklyn to visit Tommy "Karate" Pitera.

At a diner, the trio -- the Gambino boss and underboss, and a soldier in the Bonanno crime family -- discussed a mob hit. (Why they'd enjoy a meal in a diner in the midst of so many delectable Italian restaurants, this writer doesn't know. This writer does have a strong notion what the agenda was, however. Read on, please...) 

The Bath Ave. Crew noticed the three men seated at a table in the eatery and "showed their respect" with a bottle of bubbly."





We know this because a former crew member revealed details of the event at the March 2001 trial of Bonanno consigliere Anthony Spero.

"We sent over a bottle of champagne from the boys on Bay 23rd," the turncoat testified.

The turncoat later learned that Pitera had been "loaned" out by the Bonannos to Gotti's Gambino family to help with the hit.

As noted on this blog, Thomas "Tommy Karate" E. Pitera (born December 2, 1954) had a peculiar reputation within the mob. He was known to be a fiendish, bloodthirsty homicidal maniac having more in common with Roy DeMeo than a typical mafioso.

Tommy "Karate" Pitera, following his nose-busting arrest
at the hands of aggressive DEA agents.

Pitera is in the minority of American Cosa Nostra in that he derived pleasure from torture, killing and his body-disposal method, which mimicked in many ways the DeMeo crew's "Gemini method."

He is suspected by law enforcement of as many as 60 murders. His nickname is derived from his love of martial arts, including karate -- a skill which he learned at a young age and practiced with great skill for the rest of his mob life. Pitera's love of being able to defend himself with his hands likely had more to do with insecurity stemming from years of being bested by high school bullies than from any desire having to do with competition or athleticism.

Perhaps fueling the insecurity: "He had a particularly high pitched effeminate falsetto voice that was compared by biographer Philip Carlo to Michael Jackson's but having even more falsetto. Mob associate Frank Gangi thought Pitera sounded more like Mickey Mouse or Minnie Mouse."

According to Carlo, Pitera, whatever his motivation, took martial arts very seriously, spending more than two years training in Tokyo under one Hiroshi Masumi. During this time in Japan, he even grew his hair long to emulate his hero, Bruce Lee.

After returning from Japan, Pitera hooked up as an associate with the Bonannos and quickly evolved into one of the most feared connected guys on the streets, made or not.

Pitera belonged to a family faction headed by captains Alphonse "Sonny Red" Indelicato, Dominick Trinchera and Philip Giaccone, the three capos who ended up murdered in the infamous basement triple-whacking planned out by Massino and Dominick Napolitano, who were protecting themselves as well the family's imprisoned boss, Philip "Rusty" Rastelli, with full commission approval to "defend yourselves," as then-Gambino boss Paul Castellano informed Joe Massino when Massino sought out his approval.

During the 1980s Pitera became a made man with the Bonannos for Anthony Spero, who put him with Frank Lino (a survivor of the three-capo takedown, quick thinking enough to sprint out of the basement room before a bullet could find him).

It is alleged in the Carlo book that Pitera shot to death Wilfred "Willie Boy" Johnson as he walked to his car. Johnson had been a close associate of Gambino crime boss John Gotti since the days when the two of them had been petty burglars and thieves. The two men indeed were very close. But in 1985, Gotti discovered that Johnson had been a government informant since 1966. Pitera murdered Johnson as a favor to Gotti (who at the time was close friends with then-Bonanno boss Joe Massino, who would later claim that Gotti wanted him, Massino, dead, but that is another story).

It is this writer's belief, based on research confirmed by a source, that on that night in Brooklyn, the trio were discussing the murder of "Willie Boy" Johnson...