NEW YORK — They appeared in the courtroom barely 30 feet apart, the notorious past and noxious present of the Bonanno crime family.
At the defense table sat a stand-up guy: Anthony Spero, reputed Bonanno consigliere, placidly sucking a fruit-flavored Life Saver. His face betrayed no emotion during his racketeering trial last March. Spero, 72, wore a dark, conservative suit and tie.
During a lifetime in the Mafia, Spero kept his mouth shut, even while serving a two-year extortion rap. He remained a figure of mob respect, a man who had dined with the late boss Carmine Galante and attended the wedding of John Gotti's daughter.
On the witness stand sat a self-professed "rat": Joseph Calco, a Bonanno hanger-on. Calco, 33, ran with street thugs like "Eddie the Crackhead." He picked up tips on mob life from television and magazines.
Facing a life sentence for murder, arson and drug trafficking, he turned federal informant.
Growing up in Brooklyn, Calco had revered Anthony Spero; his best friend was Spero's godson. And now Calco's testimony, in this antiseptic courtroom, could jail Spero for life.
After the Brasco fiasco of the early 1980s, the Bonannos had tried to avoid both headlines and prosecutors.
But boss Philip "Rusty" Rastelli and his underboss were convicted of racketeering in 1986, and 18 Bonanno-linked Mafiosi were jailed a year later for running the "Pizza Connection"--an international heroin ring that moved its product through pizzerias.
The family was increasingly in the shaky hands of made men like Tommy Pitera.
Short and steely eyed, with a once-broken nose and slicked-back hair, Pitera personified the new-breed Bonannos.
If Joe Bonanno was considered a man of honor among the mob, Pitera was undeniably a man of horrors. His home library included "The Hitman's Handbook" and "Kill or Be Killed."
"Tommy Karate" practiced what he read. He was charged in 1992 with nine murders, and blamed for two dozen more. He was the poster boy for the new Bonannos: drug dealer, psychotic killer, obvious law enforcement target.
Typical Thugs Meet Typical End
Pitera's bunch was a typical '80s Bonanno crew. His 30-man gang butchered drug dealers, then stole and sold their heroin, cocaine and marijuana. The dismembered victims were buried in a Staten Island bird sanctuary.
His demise was typical too. In 1992, helped by the testimony of a dozen mob turncoats, Pitera was jailed for life.
