Tommy Karate – The Early Days

Retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins brings you the best in mob history with his unique perception of the mafia. Gary tells short stories about the feared Bonnano killer, Thomas “Tommy Karate” Pitera. In this episode, we learn about his first mentor, Bruno “Whack Whack” Indelicato, and his early days as a young Bonanno Family enforcer. Tommy Karate survived the murder of the three Capos even though his mentor’s father was a victim and had to go on the run. This will be the first of short stories taken from the life of Tommy Karate Pitera.

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Transcript

His first guy was Anthony Bruno indelicato. And he was a guy that opened the door for Tommy Karate to come into the Bonanno Family. Anthony Indelicato was known as Whack Whack on the streets because he could kill without hesitation. He was tall and muscular, and had these dark good looks and a smile that attracted a lot of women. He started losing his hair early because of his vanity. He was one of the very first men in New York area to try a hair transplant. If you’re if you’re of a certain age, you remember what Frank Sinatra made all the headlines because he got a hair transplant. Lefty Rosenthal out in Las Vegas, he got a hair transplant. Well, hey guys, it’s good to be back here in studio gangland wire with Gary Jenkins here. You know, I recently got the Philip Carlo book. I’m kind of excited about this story. Got this book and see it back over over my shoulder here about Tommy karate Pitera It’s titled The Butcher and it’s a very detailed look at the life of this notorious mafia enforcer, Hitman and all around tough guy. I mean, they didn’t call it call him call him Tommy karate for nothing. He’s kind of the kind of a guy that low level mobster might, you know, they had a delinquent gambler, and they would loan shark customer. And so then go to him say, you know, Tommy karate is in on this, he gets a piece of this. You don’t really want me to tell him that you’re not paying D and they’ll go Oh, okay. So Tommy Karate was born to the life I’m telling you, he was born to the live, but you might check out my other show that I did a couple of months ago, about some more about his early life. I didn’t really go into quite the detail, a little more of a overview. glossing over but I got it. I’m going into detail about his life. Over a series. We’re using this book over a series of shows. But what I did report before or what I did not report before was it his first guy was Anthony Bruno Indelicato and he was a guy that opened the door forTommy Karate to come into the

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Bonanno family and Indelicato was known as Whack Whack on the streets because he could kill without hesitation. He was tall and muscular, and had these dark good looks and a smile that attracted a lot of women. He started losing his hair early because of his vanity. He was one of the very first men in New York area to try a hair transplant. If you’re if you’re of a certain age, you remember what Frank Sinatra made all the headlines because he got a hair transplant. Lefty Rosenthal out in Las Vegas, he got a hair transplant, whack whack. indelicato was a heavy heavy cocaine user. I’ve been near on those early days of cocaine if you were, you know, you were among the heavy hitters and slick people and the Fast and the Furious people, you use cocaine, and it was a party drug at the time. And now his father was Sonny red indelicato and his Uncle Joe Indelicato. And they were pretty important Capos in the Banano family and they always looked out for him and and they actually sent him the drug rehab once or twice I’m not sure how many times but you know, whack whack Indelicato live the usual life of a cokehead and go into rehab. Come back out all healthy and fit but slowly and surely he’d fall back into his addiction. I don’t know if you got a relative like this or friends you know what the deal is? Now, when Whack Whack Indelicato and Tommy karate first met they kind of felt an instant connection According to Philip Carlo. And they because they both embrace this philosophy that society’s rules were not near as important as the mafia rules. Whack Whack Bruno took Tommy under his wing and taught him the ropes. Bruno was already schooled in making the body disappear. And this is where Tommy learned about dismembering like Roy DeMeo I imagine Roy DeMeao learned it from the same people but like Roy DeMeo, Indelicato learned the butcher’s method of separating limbs from the body trunks and knew just where to cut through the bone in the cartilage and was not easy. That’s not always an easy thing to do. They perfected the cutting the body into six pieces and buried it in separate places around Brooklyn. And I know that said that common karate was always cut off the head and buried someplace way apart from the body. He’s gonna end up putting a lot of parts in a William T. Davis wildlife refuge on Staten Island and we’ll get more into that later on. Not in this show, though. I’m gonna deal with that later. I probably said that. I probably said this before but coming but Tara was born and bred graves in Brooklyn area boy who looked up at the Capos like Joe Massino and Anthony Spero were his heroes name became his mentors later on in life during his Tommy’s formative years the Bonanno family had a split and by his formative years, I mean his formative years in the mob. The Bonanno family had a split the old boss Carmine Galante was murdered. This brought on a war between Bonanno factions. Joe Massino put together a team to take out three Bonanno Capos that refused to make peaces and allow Phil Rastelli to take over the Bonanno family. This is the murder of three capos was a really famous murder. If you don’t know it. Just Googled murdered three Capos you’ll find a lot about it. The three caporegimes were Alphonse “Sonny Red” Indelicato, Dominick Trinchera and Philip Giaccone. Now Bruno Indelicato’s father was Sonny Red Indelicato and he was one of those Capos even one of those captains and he was murdered along with Philip Giaccone and Dominic “BigTrin” Trinchera. This put Bruno Whack whack Indelicato on the run and his father was killed. He was actually he was out you know, because they killed his father. He took his friend Tommy prepare into hiding they barricaded themselves in a remote Long Island house. Tommy karate, you know this is a guy that’s always prepared. He’s cool headed, you know, Whack Whack would have been on cocaine and he would have been emotional about the same time of Karate was not emotional and he was a planner. He brought a duffel bag filled with guns. Philip Carlo claims that while Whack whack bargained for his life, the run out to pay phones and calling people and he’s got to like somehow get himself back in and and assure them that he’s not going to take revenge for his father’s death. While he was doing that with Joe Massino, a calm Tommy karate Pitera was methodically taking apart and cleaning and oiling his guns over and over again. This guy is the guy you want to go to war with. Bruno made peace, like what made peace and he agreed to let his father’s murder slide for the good of the family. And for his own personal good because it was either that or he had to go into hiding the rest of his life or get killed himself. He returned to the streets of Brooklyn over the next few years Whack whack Indelicato kept using cocaine to access and party and more and more and he started spending a lot more time in that crazy cocaine world of beautiful coke horrors and, and tons of cocaine from Colombia down in Miami and Tommy karate. Pitera was a guy who prided himself on having a physically fit body having a disciplined lifestyle and his martial arts and and he really lost respect for his grand wack wack Indelicato over these years. Anthony Spero was well liked and a really successful Bonanno Captain and he took and he took notice of young Tommy Pitera as Whack Whack went deeper into the cocaine haze. Spero drew Tommy into his group. You know one thing about Anthony Spero, he had a big fireworks company and and you know John Gotti is well known for his yearly fireworks displays in Bensonhurst. Well before him. He actually was copying off the Anthony Spero who put on a really large Fourth of July party on Bath Avenue and and he put on an amazing firework show for the neighborhood and provided enough food they say to feed all of Bensonhurst and he also he had a multimillion dollar fireworks business anyway. And you know what’s interesting? I don’t know if you notice you study this mob stuff. These guys a lot of like this fireworks business, there’s a lot of them in the fireworks business and I asked and then Kansas City we’ve got several mob associates or Mob members actually that are in the fireworks business as firework stands and guidance in the know told me as well. He said they make about $100 to $150,000 Every season, every fireworks season plus has primarily been a cash business now that’s changing now, after COVID Everybody’s using credit cards, but for a long time that’s been like 100% Almost cash business and mob guys love cash businesses like bars and casinos and and anything that gets a lot of Cash into it because you can watch your own money through there’s a lot of ways to avoid paying taxes when you got a lot of guys coming through. So they like that fireworks business and that’s why I never could figure out why I was going to notice it. But that’s just a small part of the entire life of Tommy Karate Pitera story and I’ll get back to more later. Like for example, the time the DEA found his mob graveyard at the William D. Davis Wildlife Refuge in Staten Island. Thanks a lot, guys. And don’t forget, I like to ride motorcycles. And if you have PTSD, be sure and go to the VA website and find that hotline number. We have a relative or somebody has been in the military. He’s got PTSD problems, go to that VA website and get that hotline number. There’s a lot of help available there. Thanks a lot guys.

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