33 Facts About Thomas Pitera

Thomas Pitera is an American mobster in the Bonanno crime family of New York.

Thomas Pitera was well known for his use of karate and other martial arts when fighting, a skill he had learned at a young age and which earned him nicknames like "Tommy Karate", and "The Karate Guy".

Thomas Pitera is serving a life sentence at USP Big Sandy in Inez, Kentucky.

Thomas Pitera grew up in the Gravesend neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City, the son of Joseph "Joe" Pitera, an Italian-American from Campagna in Province of Salerno, and Catherine Bugowski, of German and Polish descent from Rhineland-Palatinate.

Thomas Pitera's father was an independent concession stand wholesale candy salesman.

Thomas Pitera later broke into Boody and stole the school baseball team's equipment as an act of revenge and sold it to "fences" in the neighborhood.

Thomas Pitera was later arrested and charged for the burglary but was convicted as a juvenile and his record was sealed.

Thomas Pitera attended a Dojo in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn and quickly rose to the top of his class.

Thomas Pitera had a daily regimen of working out, lifting weights, reading about Kyokushin fighting strategies and tactics and watching violent films, mostly kung fu films.

At the age of 12, Thomas Pitera had been a huge fan of the 1966 The Green Hornet television show and actor Bruce Lee starring alongside Van Williams, triggering his lifelong interest in martial arts.

Thomas Pitera let his thick, straight, black hair grow down past his ears despite disapproval by his parents for not wanting him to look like a "hippie", started eating sushi as a regular part of his diet and immersed himself in Eastern philosophy.

Thomas Pitera was trained to use the tonfa, nunchucks and katanas.

Thomas Pitera belonged to a Bonanno faction headed by caporegimes Alphonse "Sonny Red" Indelicato, Frank Lino, Dominick Trinchera and Philip Giaccone.

Thomas Pitera was charged with the Johnson murder but acquitted at trial.

Thomas Pitera was close to Spero, whose Bath Beach crew were involved in extortion, loan sharking, drug dealing and murder, as well as robbing drug dealers and then reselling their product.

Martini moved back to Sicily and continued his relationship with the Bonanno crime family while Thomas Pitera killed Tala Siksik, a Middle Eastern drug supplier, in his Brooklyn apartment.

Thomas Pitera shot Siksik four times in the back, chopped the body up into six pieces, and then buried it at a secret dumping ground.

Thomas Pitera had decapitated the bodies and buried the heads separately to impede their identification using dental records.

Thomas Pitera used the Staten Island graveyard because he believed that the damp soil would accelerate decomposition and the wildlife refuge would ensure the bodies were not discovered during construction projects.

Thomas Pitera studied books on dissection and carried a special tool kit for cutting up bodies.

Thomas Pitera always insisted on burying corpses deep enough so that police dogs could not locate their scents.

Thomas Pitera's weakness was that he enjoyed keeping jewelry and other souvenirs of his work.

On June 4,1990, Thomas Pitera was indicted for heading a drug dealing crew and for his involvement in seven murders, including the 1988 Johnson murder.

Investigators alleged that Thomas Pitera had been involved in as many as thirty murders.

Thomas Pitera's crew sold about 220 pounds of cocaine per year, multiple kilos of heroin and hundreds of pounds of marijuana.

Frank confessed to all the murders he was involved in with Thomas Pitera, and provided information on other Thomas Pitera murders.

Thomas Pitera then cut Burdi's corpse into six pieces in the bathroom.

Gangi testified that during a fight with a drug dealer named Marek Kucharsky, Thomas Pitera pulled a knife and repeatedly stabbed Kucharsky and finally cut his throat.

Thomas Pitera called Pitera a "heartless and ruthless killer," explaining in detail how Pitera tortured one victim by slowly, deliberately shooting him seven times in various parts of the body, in one of a series of murders carried out in a deliberately barbaric manner.

Thomas Pitera's aunt, sister-in-law and two cousins testified on Thomas Pitera's defense that he was a loving and caring family member.

On June 25,1992, Thomas Pitera was convicted of murdering six people and supervising a massive drug dealing operation in Brooklyn.

However, Thomas Pitera was irritated that Gangi was petitioning Judge Raggi for a reduction of his 10-year prison sentence.

Thomas Pitera gets 10 years, a good deal, and he goes whimpering and weeping to the judge looking for a break.