2nd Mob Hit This Month? It's Getting Weird: Luchese-Linked Loanshark Killed Friday In Brooklyn

UPDATED
A 77-year-old loan shark with ties to the Luchese crime family was found dead from a gunshot wound to the head in his Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, home on Friday.

Vincent Zito lived here with son and grandson. (NYDN)

Vincent Zito had been shot in the back of the head execution style, and was found inside his three-story Sheepshead Bay home at about 3:15 p.m. on Friday.

Earlier this month, Sylvester Zottola, 71, a Bonanno crime family associate, was shot to death while waiting in his SUV for a cup of coffee at a McDonald's drive-through window in the Bronx.

Zito's grandson Joseph, who lives at the address with Zito and Zito’s son, found the body after he came home from school.

Zito was found face up on the floor next to the firearm that was used to kill him.

Zito is survived by his older brother Anthony, 82 - who was locked up for extortion in 1971.


Initially, it was believed Zito may have taken his own life, but the entry wound was in the back of the head, making suicide seem less likely, sources told the Daily News. Some reports say the murder scene may have been staged to appear like a suicide.

Police are awaiting the autopsy results before declaring Zito’s death a homicide.

A witness told the News he'd heard Zito had been shot twice. Howard Stewart, 43, a handy-man renovating Zito’s basement, said Zito’s son had told him that.

“One shot kill him on the spot. Understand? Two shot to the head? Man. It’s a setup,” Stewart said. “I worked in police in Jamaica all my life. It’s a setup.”

This shooting may also have been captured in video; reportedly there are cameras focused on the back door of the home that could reveal the shooter.

As per police sources, Zito was arrested for loan sharking in the past and has been linked to the Luchese crime family. 

His older brother, Anthony, 82, also has ties to the Lucheses and was jailed in 1971 for extortion.

Zito was described as a “schemer” by one neighbor who noted that he once sold a resident a gallon of gas for $100 after Superstorm Sandy.

“I think he was like (a snake),” one neighbor who didn’t want to be identified told the News. “He was … not good.”





Comments