The Butcher - by Philip Carlo (Paperback)

About the Book

Written by the bestselling author of "The Ice Man, The Butcher" is a gripping and disturbing account of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's four-year hunt to bring down Tommy "Karate" Pitera, a drug-dealing, murderous killer in the Bonanno crime family.

Book Synopsis

The New York Times bestselling author of Gaspipe and The Ice Man, Phillip Carlo returns with a hair-raising portrait of arguably the most depraved psychopath in the history of the Mafia, mob enforcer Tommy "Karate" Pitera. The Butcher tells the riveting true story of a hit man who loved his work too much--a maniac believed responsible for more than sixty remarkably brutal murders--whom even organized crime's most cold-blooded assassins feared. Another riveting journey into the darkest corners of the underworld, Carlo's The Butcher is destined to be a true crime classic alongside Wiseguys by Nicholas Pileggi and Underboss by Peter Maas.

From the Back Cover

Tommy "Karate" Pitera was not likeother mafiosi. A capo in the notoriousBonanno family--a deadlymartial artist highly skilled with knives andother lethal weapons--Pitera murdered hisway to becoming one of the premier assassinsin the New York mafia during the 1980s.He didn't just whack people; he diabolicallymade them disappear forever. In hushedwhispers people spoke of Pitera's secret burialgrounds and the grotesque things he did tohis victim's bodies. If the Mafia had a JeffreyDahmer, it was surely Tommy Pitera.

Offering the first-ever look at the life andcrimes of Tommy Pitera, New York Timesbestselling author Philip Carlo exposes theman behind some of the most horrific murdersin Mafia history--and tells the story ofthe heroic investigator who brought himdown. Cloaked in the bloody history of LaCosa Nostra, The Butcher is Carlo's mostfrightening portrayal yet of the depraveddepths within a psychopath's mind.

Review Quotes

"Absorbing...detailed, Phil Carlo allows the killer's grotesque acts to be squarely view." - Los Angeles Times Book Review
"This powerful story is required reading for anyone with a yen for the Mafia, the criminal underworld and a law enforcement system struggling to keep up." - Publishers Weekly
"Carlo has given us an astonishing portrait of a killer not seen since In Cold Blood." - Denis Hamill, New York Daily News on The Night Stalker
"And if your Sopranos addiction shows no signs of abating, check out Philip Carlo's "Gaspipe: Confessions of a Mafia Boss", the tale of Anthony Casso, former Lucchese crime family boss, now serving 13 consecutive life sentences plus 455 years at a Colorado prison, who might be looking for some escapist reading of his own." - Los Angeles Times
"Phil Carlo paints a disturbing portrait of cold-blooded killer, Richard Ramirez. In the true crime tradition of In Cold Blood and The Executioner's Song, Carlo compellingly tells the ghastly story from numerous points of view, including those of Ramirez and two ingenious sheriff's detectives who finally cracked the case." - People