Customer Reviews

The Butcher: Anatomy of a Mafia Psychopath

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

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.

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.

"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).

spell binding tale of a psychopath. to think this guy really existed and conducted these horrific acts of violence in my own backyard is really scarry. ( i grew up the exact area of brooklyn described in the book, where one survived by simply minding your business.) 'The butcher' was like reading about the sopranos for real. An interesting insight to the psyche of the underworld mentality, code of conduct and cultural background. A non-stop read.

Tommy "Karate" Pitera is a pond-scum-level Mafia goon who relished killing people and killed so many of them that he had his own private burial ground for them in the depths of a bird sanctuary on Staten Island. His nickname, one in a long tradition of colorful mobster nicknames, came from his studies of martial arts during 2 years in Japan. In THE BUTCHER: ANATOMY OF A MAFIA PSYCHOPATH, Philip Carlo tells the story of Tommy's rise through the sociopathic ranks of the Bonanno crime family and his subsequent take-down by a dedicated DEA agent.

This would be a good story, but for the writer's attempts at a hard-boiled style of writing. Not only does the writing not come off well, but it proves so distracting that it renders the book painful to read. Good writing does not call attention to itself, and this writing practically swaggers on the page, decked out in a trench coat and fedora.

I have read several of Carlo's other works including "The Ice Man" as well as "Gaspipe". While the subject of this book Tommy "Karate" Pitera is just as interesting as either of his previous mafia killers, this book suffers from zero input from the subject of the book. The other books were more riveting because much of the information was culled from interviews the author had done with the killers. Pietra however has never turned states evidence and has never spoken of his crimes to anyone. The information about him is from his former friends and police evidence. It is still an interesting story, it is just not Carlo's best work.

Not the best i've ever read but not disappointing. This book tells the story of Tommy Pitera, a Capo in the Bonnano crime family. Tells about the drugs, murder, martial arts history, criminal career, his whole story almost, though Phillip Carlo could have given more information into the why's and how's of the mafia psychopath in this book.

It's a decent read if you're interested in the Mafia or just as a true crime book- Though I preferred "The Ice Man" book over this. Maybe this Tommy character didn't interest me as much, but other than that decent book. If you're interested in the Mafia I'd recommend it. 3-4 stars.

I was a New York City cop for 20 years. When I pick up a true crime book, I'm always interested in details, facts, and the criminal's thought process behind each crime, in this case most notably murder and drug dealing. Mr Carlo takes the reader first through the mean streets of Brooklyn and then allows us, rather comples us to look into the mind of one of the men who roamed those streets (Tommy Karate Patera) initially trying to make a name for himself in the mob by killing and moving dope, and then eventually killing for his own need and thust for blood.

Philip Carlo hit the nail on the head, and the ball out of the park when he wrote this mesmerizing tale of murder, violence, and back door mob dealings. The Butcher is a great story told in a tough, gritty, descripive fashion. Not over the top, at least not over the top for anyone who enjoys reading about true crime, and real people. After reading this book, I am now officially a Philip Carlo fan and already ordered several other books authored by him.
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Certainly not the best true-crime book I've ever read, nor the worst. I find it somewhat odd that in all my years of studying crime and criminals I cannot recall having ever heard or read of Tommy Pitera, the title character in "The Butcher." According to author Philip Carlo, however, Pitera was a living legend in the New York City underworld during the Eighties who subsequently became the object of a major DEA investigation because of his deep involvement in the illegal smuggling and distribution of drugs. It is claimed that Pitera, in addition to having been the actual shooter in the celebrated execution of Gotti turncoat "Willie Boy" Johnson, was responsible for scores of vicious murders throughout the New York area during his reign. Official government records and trial transcripts substantiate some of these allegations, and surveillance photos of Pitera in the company of such major Mafia figures as Eddie Lino and Anthony Spero lend some credence to his standing in the local gangland community. After having finished this book, though, my gut impression of Pitera is that he was, at best, a mid-level Bonanno associate who headed a polyglot crew of dysfunctional, drugged-out losers. But I could be wrong.

I'll keep my review short and sweet - if you are interested in organized crime and enjoy content that you would see in the show "The Sopranos", AND you enjoy learning some history, this book is for you. The true stories that are encompassed in this book paint a fascinating and disturbing look at organized crime, and the real life characters that make up the criminal element. Highly enoyable and recommended!