Carmine John "Junior" Persico, Jr. (8 August 1933 – 7 March 2019) was boss of the Colombo crime family from 1973, succeeding Vincenzeo Aloi.
Biography[]
Carmine "The Snake" Persico was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1933, and he dropped out of high school at the age of sixteen, becoming the leader of the Garfield Boys street gang. During the 1950s, he was recruited into the Colombo crime family, and he participated in the 1957 murder of Albert Anastasia, shooting him in a barber shop. Persico would befriend Joe Gallo and side with him during his rebellion against Joe Profaci during the 1960s; in 1961, Profaci bribed Persico to betray the Gallo brothers. He became a capo after the war's end in 1963, and he was imprisoned for hijacking from 1971 to 1979. He became boss while in prison in 1973; he would spend all but four years of his reign in prison, overseeing several gang wars, major rackets, and murders. In 1991, Victor Orena rebelled against Persico's faction of the family, and Orena's 1992 arrest ended the war. Eager to retain control of the family, Carmine designated his son Alphonse "Little Allie Boy" Persico acting boss from 1996 to 2019 though from 1999, when Allie Boy was incarcerated, such influential captains as Joel "Joe Waverly" Cacace and Tommy "Shots" Gioeli were at one time or other designated as family "street boss." Persico remained boss even as he was imprisoned in Butner, North Carolina. After confessions obtained by FBI Special Agent Scott Curtis related to Little Allie Boy ordering the murder of his Orena-faction underboss William "Wild Bill" Cutolo ultimately put Allie Boy behind bars for life in 2009, Persico-family influence was somewhat dilute overall as some major decisions were delayed, members having difficulty getting messages to and from the jails when they could. Carmine died in 2019 at the age of 85.