Tommy "Karate" Pitera (8/30/25)

Thomas “Tommy Karate” Pitera (born December 2, 1954, in Brooklyn) is a notorious hitman and captain in the Bonanno crime family, infamously dubbed “Tommy Karate” due to his martial arts skills—specifically trained in Togakure-ryū ninjutsu through a two-year stint in Tokyo. Returning from Japan, he melded lethal combat techniques with a chilling aptitude for dismemberment, using methods like decapitating bodies and burying parts separately to evade detection. Though convicted for six murders, law enforcement suspects he may have been responsible for as many as 60 killings, earning a fearsome reputation throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Pitera’s criminal enterprise went beyond violence—he headed a substantial drug trafficking ring operating out of Brooklyn. In June 1992, he was convicted of multiple homicides and overseeing large-scale distribution of cocaine, heroin, and marijuana, and received a life sentence, which he’s serving at a high-security federal prison. His brutality was highlighted during trial by the prosecution as “heinous, cruel and depraved,” underscoring his reputation as one of the more psychopathic figures in Mafia history. to contact me: [email protected] source: The butcher (nypost.com)