The Butcher: Anatomy of a Mafia Psychopath [Hardcover]

Philip Carlo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 29, 2009

New York Times bestselling author Philip Carlo, one of the foremost chroniclers of the New York Mafia and the criminal mind, returns with a shocking exploration of his most twisted and notorious villain yet

Tommy "Karate" Pitera was not like other mafiosi. He was not only a capo in the notorious Bonanno family but also a devoted student of crime—a deadly martial artist who'd been trained in Japan as a teenager. Highly skilled with knives and other lethal weapons, dressed entirely in black, Pitera murdered his way to becoming one of the premier assassins in New York City during the 1980s—he even killed at the behest of John Gotti.

Remorseless and deadly, Pitera took human lives as if he had a God-given right, while at the same time dealing high-grade Sicilian heroin and South American cocaine. There were numerous men within the New York Mafia who killed people, men who weren't afraid of anyone or anything, but all of them looked the other way when they saw Pitera coming. Word on the street was that he didn't just whack people; he made them disappear forever. In hushed whispers people spoke of Pitera's secret burial grounds and the grotesque things he did to his victim's bodies. If the Mafia had a Jeffrey Dahmer, it was surely Tommy Pitera.

Like his father and grandfather before him, Jim Hunt had a gift for bringing down bad guys. During Hunt's stellar career at the DEA, he had arrested his share of criminals and had caught many of the elusive drug lords of New York City. But nothing could have prepared him for what he encountered when he and his elite antidrug unit began investigating Tommy Pitera. What started as a routine investigation into a cocaine and heroin ring in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, grew exponentially as Hunt and his team uncovered the layers of death that surrounded Pitera. Through carefully placed wiretaps, dangerous stakeouts, and fearful informants, Hunt managed to turn Pitera's few confidants against him, but not before Pitera had killed an estimated sixty people.

Offering the first-ever look at the life and crimes of Tommy "Karate" Pitera, New York Times bestselling author Philip Carlo exposes the man behind some of the most horrific murders in Mafia history and the heroic investigator who brought him down. Getting inside the minds of both killer and detective, Carlo masterfully details the delicate and deadly game of cat-and-mouse that resulted in the capture of a Mafia killer unlike any other. A tale of murder, drugs, money, and ultimately justice, The Butcher is Carlo's most frightening portrayal yet of the depraved depths within a psychopath's mind.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A veteran chronicler of the mafiosi, Carlo (The Ice Man) turns his attention to Tommy Karate Pitera, a brutal capo in the Bonanno crime family who allegedly killed 60 people. Carlo traces the rise of Pitera, born in 1954 into a modest Brooklyn family, to an honored place with the Bonannos, whose reputation for widespread drug peddling and bloody rubouts struck fear in their rivals. After spending two years in Japan, Pitera returned home with mastery in martial arts, efficiency in killing and a love for drama, often dressing as a rabbi, a woman or in other wacky disguises to score a hit. The other fascinating character of this gangster saga is Jim Hunt, a tough DEA officer, who assembles a dragnet of smart methods, snitches and turncoats, and snares Pitera and his crew after several savage murders. Carlo's scalding depiction of this mob mad man is enhanced by 16 unpublished photos not seen by PW, but apparently so gruesome Carlo feels compelled to warn readers in an author's note. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

[Audio Review] Carlo once again delves into the world of the Mafia to bring to light a disturbing portrait of one of the most ruthless killers in criminal history and the series of events that eventually lead to his arrest. Tommy Karate Pitera rose from humble beginnings to become the Mafia's top hit man. For over a decade, he settled professional and personal scores, savagely murdering and dismembering some 60 victims. Hill does a fine job in his reading, imbuing long passages of statistics and exposition with just enough emotion to keep the listener interested. His Mafioso accents fit perfectly with the characters, especially his rendition of Pitera's well-noted high-pitched speaking voice, which brings an additional chill to the character and his crimes. A fine listen for any true crime fan. A Morrow hardcover. --Publisher's Weekly --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; 1 edition (September 29, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061744654
• ISBN-13: 978-0061744655
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (82 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #590,264 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nobodies Wanting to be Somebody, October 28, 2009

By 

C. W. Emblom "Bill Emblom" (Ishpeming, Michigan USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Butcher: Anatomy of a Mafia Psychopath (Hardcover)

Greed and fame (infamy) are the reasons individuals choose to join the mafia. Forget the oath of omerta. When it comes to saving one's skin mafia members will turn on one another. Paranoia reigns! "I better kill him before he kills me." An early grave or a prison sentence await their members. I enjoy reading about gangsters while keeping in mind there is nothing cool about being one. In the case of Tommy Pitera the man with the Minnie Mouse voice became a target for bullies while growing up in a Brooklyn neighborhood that preyed upon the vulnerable. The die was cast.

Philip Carlo has done a wonderful job in bringing the tragic case of Tommy Pitera to life. It is even more tragic for the many individuals he murdered and cut up into six pieces before depositing the bodies on Long Island or in a wildlife refuge on Staten Island. Especially gruesome was his habit of placing the dead body in a bathtub, stripping naked, and carving up the corpse. Even other mafia members felt this went over the line particularly with the corpse of a woman. Pitera would also save rings and other jewelry from his victims, chopping off digits if necessary. This provided additional evidence of those he killed. Author Carlo does an excellent job in describing the job of law enforcement in getting these thugs off the street.

It wouldn't be proper for me to say I enjoyed this book, but I did find it to be a riveting read and hard to put down. I also appreciated the fact that the author spared us much of the gory details just for the sake of including them in the book. He included what was necessary while not getting carried away. If you enjoy reading books on the mafia this is one to include in your library. These people are thugs pure and simple. Certainly not anyone to look up to.

53 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The Butcher, May 3, 2010

By 

Allen Rosen "Panama Allen" (Panama) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Butcher: Anatomy of a Mafia Psychopath (Hardcover)

I'm a lazy guy. I like to read books, but normally can't be bothered to write reviews. I also don't like negative reviews. It is all too easy to sit in the comfort of your home or office and trash a book to which someone else has devoted countless hours of hard work.

That said, I'm going to make an exception in the case of this book. Someone needs to warn all the innocent readers out there that this is a truly dreadful book. I can't remember the last time I read a book this badly written. People go to jail for lesser assaults on the human senses. The subject matter itself is interesting -- a psychopathic mafia killer named Tommy Pitera, who likes to kill people and chop them up into pieces, then stuff the bits into suitcases and bury them in a bird sanctuary.

So far, so good. This could have been a fascinating story. Most of us are intrigued by such individuals. And then, of course, there is the sheer fun of reading about Mafia guys whacking other Mafia guys, which, for the most part, is what they seem to spend their free time doing. Well, I guess it isn't exactly "free time", since it is part of the job, but you get the idea.

The problems is -- and it's a big problem -- that the author's prose is abominable. Have you every heard anyone refer to "urban cities"? Neither had I, until I read this book. Another reviewer said that the writing reminded him of a dime store novel. That is probably about right, though perhaps too unkind to dime store novels. The author, Philip Carlo, loves adjectives -- apparently any and all adjectives. No sentence appears to satisfy him unless it is larded with cliches and over-the-top prose. I could go on, but why bother?

Reader be warned: unless you are i) just starting to learn English as a second language, ii) struggling to complete your G.E.D., or iii) have very campy tastes -- think of a literary version of Reefer Madness -- you will be as appalled by the quality of the writing in this book as I was.

24 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars interesting story poorly told, November 7, 2009

By 

Terry R. Nye (Kingsport, TN) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Butcher: Anatomy of a Mafia Psychopath (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

"The Butcher" is billed to be an "anatomy of a mafia psychopath." The author, Philip Carlo, is billed to be "one of the foremost chroniclers of the New York Mafia and the criminal mind" and a "New York Times bestselling author." But this book does not live up to either of those claims.

I enjoy reading books about crime. It is interesting to read about people who don't seem to have a conscience or follow the same set of life's rules that the rest of us have and try to understand how and why they act that way. Most of these books give a good perspective of how someone went bad.

But Carlo does very little, if anything, to shed light on Tommy Pitera, a capo in the Bonanno crime family who was convicted of several murders and gruesome mutilation of his victims. The subject of the story is interesting enough, but Carlo seems to have done little homework to explain how or why Pitera became such a vicious killer. Young Tommy Pitera enjoys karate as a boy. He wins an opportunity to study it further in Japan. He returns home and gets hooked up with bad guys. Suddenly, he has a reputation as a feared killer. How does all this happen? Why does all this happen? Carlo explains none of it. Interestingly, Carlo has more insight into the detectives chasing Pitera than he does his criminal subject.

There are a few photos included in the book. But these photos seem to be very disconnected from the events portrayed in the book, and many of them refer to people who are given only passing mention in the book. Historical and biographical books are more interesting when they contain photos, but the ones in this book add very little interest.

The writing style of this book seems very much unlike that of a New York Times bestselling author. It reads more like a dime store novel. There is very little style in the writing, and Carlo does little to flesh out the main character.

Overall, this was an okay read. This is not a book to really sink your teeth into. It is more a book that one might read when you have time to kill (no pun intended).