Carmine the Snake

This true crime biography by a Mafia insider chronicles the hair-raising life of the notorious Colombo crime family boss.

In the golden age of organized crime, Carmine “The Snake” Persico was the King of the Streets. The defacto boss of the Colombo Mafia family since the 1970s, he oversaw major rackets and legendary gang wars. Suspected of committing scores of murders and ordering hundreds more, he was sentenced to 139 years in federal prison. Yet even behind bars he continued to exert power over a vast criminal empire with the help of his brother, Alphonse "Allie Boy" Persico.

In this blistering street-level account, “Mafia survivor” Frank Dimatteo teams up with veteran true-crime author Michael Benson to reveal the inside story of Carmine’s criminal career. Growing up on the mean streets of Brooklyn, Carmine got an early start as the leader of the fearsome Garfield Boys. He was recruited into the Profaci and Colombo crime families before his bloody betrayal of the Gallo brothers.

This volume captures all the drama of Carmine’s infamous exploits—including his role in the ambush-slaying of Albert Anastasia—and the many courtroom trials where witnesses against him came down with sudden cases of amnesia.