Thomas "Karate" Pitera born December 2, 1954) is an American mobster in the Bonanno crime family. Pitera, a soldier and later on a captain of his own crew, was suspected by law enforcement of as many as 60 murders. Pitera was well known for his use of karate and other martial arts when fighting, a skill he had learned at a young age and which earned him nicknames like "Tommy Karate", and "The Karate Guy".
Thomas Pitera grew up in the Gravesend neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City, the son of Joseph "Joe" Pitera, an Italian-American from Campagna in Province of Salerno, and Catherine Bugowski, of German and Polish descent from Rhineland-Palatinate. His father was an independent concession stand wholesale candy salesman who sold Mary Jane, Pixy Stix, Ferrara Candy Company's Red Hots, lemon drops and Bazooka chewing gum.
Pitera attended the David A. Boody Junior High School at 228 Avenue S in Gravesend, where he left little impression with his teachers, daydreamed a lot and was bullied by his peers because of his high-pitched voice.Before he became interested in martial arts he wanted to become involved in professional baseball but was too ostracized by fellow students to join the varsity baseball team. He would later break into Boody and steal the school baseball team's equipment as an act of revenge and sold it to "fences" in the neighborhood. He was later arrested and charged for the burglary but he was convicted as a juvenile and his record was sealed. He attended a Dojo in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn and quickly rose to the top of his class. He had a daily regimen of working out, lifting weights, reading about Kyokushin fighting strategies and tactics and watching violent films, mostly kung fu films.
On June 25, 1992, Pitera was convicted of murdering six people and supervising a massive drug dealing operation in Brooklyn. However, Pitera was acquitted in the 1988 Willie Boy Johnson murder. During the deliberation on sentencing, the jury rejected the death penalty for Pitera. In October 1992, alluding to evidence that Pitera brutally killed his victims and dismembered their bodies, Judge Reena Raggi sentenced him to life in prison, saying, "Mr. Pitera, nobody deserves to die as these people died."
After the verdict was read, Pitera smiled and gave a thumbs up to reporters sitting in the Brooklyn courtroom; he had avoided the death penalty. However, Pitera was irritated that Gangi was petitioning Judge Raggi for a reduction of his 10-year prison sentence. As Pitera later remarked,
Gangi said he was sorry about killing five people and that he became an informer because he wanted to start a new life. He gets 10 years, a good deal, and he goes whimpering and weeping to the judge looking for a break. If you're really sorry for killing five people, you take your punishment like a man.
Later in 1992, Judge Raggi again refused a motion to reduce Gangi's sentence. On April 3, 2012, the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals denied Pitera's motion for DNA testing of the guns and other evidence in three of Pitera's murders. Pitera's inmate number is 29465-053.
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