Greed and Glory by Sean Deveney

Author:Sean Deveney
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sports Publishing
Published: 2018-04-24T16:00:00+00:00

PART V

Reckoning

32

TO HIS FACE, YOU COULD call Carmine Persico “Junior” or “Carmine,” but the moniker you would probably want to avoid was the one most used behind his back: the Snake. It was fitting, though, because all through his rise from a truant kid in the Red Hook neighborhood to the top of the Colombo family, Persico had been known as especially violent, quick-tempered, and duplicitous. That reputation could be traced back to the summer of 1961, when Persico had arranged a meeting with friend and associate Larry Gallo at the Sahara Club in Brooklyn. Persico and Gallo were supposed to discuss strategy in their battle against Mob boss Joe Profaci, who had been skimming too much profit from the rackets Persico and Gallo had been running. Instead, Profaci got to Persico and offered him a bigger cut of profits if he would betray Gallo. That was all it took. When Gallo entered the club, Persico jumped toward him from behind and wrapped a rope around his neck. It was Gallo’s good luck that a police sergeant happened to enter the club before the hit was complete, and Persico bolted, leaving Gallo wheezing on the floor and opening a long, bloody war between the Gallo and Profaci factions. Persico, the following year, was ambushed while in traffic heading downtown, taking three bullets, including one to his teeth. He survived, though, and even spat out the bullet that hit his mouth. His attempt at the Gallo murder fell short, but Persico’s reputation was made. He was the Snake.

Persico had been brought in late to the roster of defendants at the Commission trial, and he proved to be a beneficial addition for lead prosecutor Michael Chertoff. In the weeks before the trial, Persico let Judge Richard Owen know that he planned to represent himself. The lawyers and other seven defendants tried to talk him out of it, but it was useless. Of the chiefs of the five Mafia families who were facing trial as part of the Commission case the following month, Persico was the most hard-headed, and agreed to a hearing before Owen to argue for his ability to defend himself. Persico’s reasoning was simple: He had been through the legal system so many times over the years, going back to his involvement in a truck hijacking in 1959, that he had as much expertise as any lawyer he could hire. Perhaps of more importance was Persico’s drained legal fund—Persico and the Colombo family had only recently been found guilty on racketeering charges for a trial that had taken eight months, and Persico’s lawyer, Frank Lopez, said he had not been paid for at least a year. Another motivation: Persico was not on any of the recordings that the prosecution would be presenting, because he had been in jail when most of the recordings were made. He would do well to keep himself separate from the others in the minds of the jury. At the hearing, Owen, who was skeptical of

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