Peter Chiodo


Peter "Fat Pete" Chiodo (1951–2016) was a capo in the Lucchese crime family who later became a government witness.

Background

FBI surveillance photograph of Chiodo, Lastorino and Baratta

In 1987, Chiodo became a made man in the Lucchese family in a ceremony held in an apartment over a funeral home in Queens. In 1989, Chiodo became a capo in charge of funneling payoffs from Local 580 of the Ironworkers' Union to the Lucchese leadership.[1] He was known as "Fat Pete" because of his enormous girth–400 lb (180 kg) to 500 lb (230 kg), depending on the source.[1][2]

Windows case

In 1989, the Lucchese family began worrying about indictments from the Windows case. The Luccheses and three other New York families had participated in a window replacement scheme that stole millions of dollars from the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). Worried that construction union leader John Morrissey might testify in this case for the prosecution, family leaders ordered Chiodo to lure Morrissey to New Jersey, where he was murdered.[3]

In 1991, Chiodo was charged with violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) in the Windows case. Chiodo realized that the government's case was so solid that he would likely die in prison if convicted. He decided to plead guilty in return for a lighter sentence. However, Chiodo didn't ask Lucchese official boss Vittorio "Vic" Amuso and official underboss Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso for permission to take a plea. Amuso and Casso were both in hiding due to the Windows case. Suspecting Chiodo was about to turn informer, Amuso and Casso ordered him killed. Casso gave the contract to acting boss Alphonse 'Little Al' D'Arco. The order shocked D'Arco, who knew that Chiodo had been a close confidant of Casso for years.

Assassination attempt

On May 8, 1991 two shooters ambushed Chiodo at a gas station in Staten Island where he was working on a car. Chiodo received 12 bullet wounds in the arms, legs, and torso, but survived the attack.[1][4] Doctors credited Chiodo's massive girth for saving his life; none of the slugs penetrated a vital organ or artery.[2] However, he suffered several abdominal wounds and a disabled right arm.[5] Chiodo had anticipated that he was in Amuso and Casso's bad books; he knew that Amuso and Casso had a habit of "marking guys rats and killing them." Just before the hit, he told D'Arco that he'd gotten word that "you and I are going to be killed and hurt."[6]

Following the unsuccessful assassination attempt, Lucchese mobsters delivered a blunt threat to Chiodo's lawyer that they would kill Chiodo's wife if he testified, a violation of a longstanding Mafia rule against harming women. While Chiodo had turned down several offers to flip, the threat against his wife was the last straw. He opted to break his blood oath and become a government witness, by his own account, to protect his family.[7] The government quickly brought Chiodo's immediate family into the federal Witness Protection Program.

With the failure of his gunmen to murder Chiodo, D'Arco soon became afraid of the wrath of his bosses. After a 1991 meeting during which he feared being murdered, D'Arco went into hiding and soon became a government witness himself.[2]

Government witness

In September 1991, using a wheelchair due to his wounds, Chiodo testified in the Windows trial. Chiodo stated that he had undergone a "transformation" from a violent criminal to a man with a conscience. When asked what prompted this transformation, Chiodo replied "I was shot 12 times."[7]

Chiodo's remaining family in Brooklyn soon suffered retaliation from the Luccheses. On March 10, 1992, Lucchese associate Michael Spinelli shot Patricia Capozallo, Chiodo's sister, while she was driving in Bensonhurst. Capozallo suffered wounds to the arm, back and neck but survived.[8][9] On February 2, 1993, the body of Frank Signorino, Chiodo's uncle, was found in the trunk of a car in East New York. The body displayed several gunshot wounds to the head.[10]

Chiodo provided valuable evidence that helped convict both Amuso and Casso as well as many other gangsters. While testifying in different cities, the government had to fly Chiodo in a special plane due to his morbid obesity.[11] In July 1997, Chido testified against Genovese crime family boss Vincent Gigante in another Windows-related racketeering trial.[12]

On September 11, 2007, Chiodo was sentenced to 17 years in prison on racketeering charges. However, due to his testimony, Chiodo was to serve no time in prison and was placed in the Witness Protection Program, where he died in January 2016, aged 65.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Lubasch, Arnold H. (September 12, 1991). "Mafia Captain is Prosecution Witness". New York Times. Retrieved 14 November 2011.
  2. 1 2 3 "People Do Whatever They Feel Like" New York Magazine Jan 9, 1995 page 26
  3. ↑ "A Lawyer for Gigante Lambastes a Witness" New York Times July 2, 1997
  4. ↑ "Window Case Figure Shot and Wounded by Pair of Gunmen" New York Times May 9, 1991
  5. ↑ Raab, p. 497.
  6. ↑ Raab, p. 499.
  7. 1 2 "Witness in Bid Rigging Case Tells of Mob Threat to his Wife's Life" New York Times September 17, 1991
  8. ↑ "HIT TARGET RECALLS HOW SHE DUCKED RUBOUT ATTEMPT" New York Daily News November 4, 1998
  9. ↑ "MOBSTER TRIAL OPENS WITH TOILET TALK" New York Daily News November 3, 1998
  10. ↑ "Uncle of Mafia Informant is Found Slain in Brooklyn" New York Times February 3, 1993
  11. ↑ "Peter (Big Pete) Chiodo sentenced 17 years after arrest" New York Daily News September 11, 2007
  12. ↑ "JURY GETS CHIN CASE, EYES SCAM" New York Daily News July 24, 1997

Sources

  • Raab, Selwyn. Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires. New York: St. Martin Press, 2005. ISBN 0-312-30094-8

External links

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