"Deep Throat" Mob Hit Tied to Recent Events

Peraino Sr. survived the hit, but was paralyzed.
Since it's a holiday, I thought I'd trot out an older post, which I revised and edited slightly. Something to tide you over. Wishing everyone a great rest of the weekend....

An episode of the now-cancelled television series"Nothing Personal," titled Money Shot highlighted a notorious hit related to the classic porn film Deep Throat.

The Colombo crime family was behind what was supposed to be a double murder that went sideways one night in Brooklyn in the early 1980s. Nothing Personal used a Colombo turncoat to tell the story and didn't mention a key member of the hit team:  Thomas "Tommy Shots" Gioeli.

Former Colombo hit man Salvatore "Big Sal" Miciotta was a jailhouse snitch who got 10 years shaved off his sentence for helping put away for life Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso. Nothing Personal left that part of the story out too.

Colombo shooters lured a father and son into a trap to kill them. Their crime was skimming from the proceeds generated by Deep Throat for New York's smallest, youngest and most violent crime family.



The porno film, one of the most successful of all time, had been bankrolled by the Colombos, who were not pleased when they learned that family soldier Joseph Peraino, Jr., and his father, Joseph, Sr., had stole from them.

Accidentally marked for death that night was a former nun who lived in the Gravesend, Brooklyn house used to lure the Perainos. The large front porch offered a means to trap the two men when Colombo shooters opened fire.

The woman was doing laundry in her and her husband's home when a pellet from a shotgun blast tore into her head, killing her. The couple had moved into the house only about 10 days prior to the shooting.

None of the shooters knows with certainty who killed the innocent bystander, but it has been bothering Gioeli ever since, to the extent that he implicated himself in the shooting by bemoaning his soul's fate, telling his confederates that he was going to hell.

Miciotta said he'd been ordered to hit the Perainos, who for years had been stealing from the Colombo administration's share of the growing piles of cash accumulating thanks to Deep Throat.



"Big Sal, in fact, had told lies while on the witness stand,
and the feds would never be able to use him again.
He was worth nothing to them."


The story of Gioeli's involvement, primarily based on his confession to an informant, has been widely published, including by the U.K.'s Mail Online.

Miciotta, when he originally told to law enforcement the story of the hit, which took place in early 1982, he named the shooters, but  Tommy Shots's name was not on the list. Why the omission?

A law enforcement source told us that Sal is known for selectively telling the truth -- and is unable to ever testify again, his reputation has been permanently impugned by his lying on the witness stand.

In Gioeli's case, Tommy's own confession to another informant sunk he. He expressed his fear for his own soul due to the former nun's death.

Miciotta -- who before switching sides, also took out Larry "Champagne" Corrozza, highlighted on an episode in the first season of this show -- had lied on the witness stand when the Feds put some Colombos on trial for crimes related to the family's war.

Tommy Shots was "definitely" at the house when the Peraino's were shotgunned, the source said, adding that even Joe Waverly Cacace was likely to have been onsite as well.

Both men rose high in the Colombo hierarchy, reaching the acting boss position. Cacace, a legitimate tough guy with the wounds and reputation to back it up, was even a potential candidate for the death penalty, which was taken off the table in Tommy Shots's case, a racketeering trial including a handful of murders and other things.

Gioeli beat the top-line murder charges in his case but was still slimmed on other charges. He is incarcerated at Butner Low FCI in North Carolina. His projected release date is September 9, 2024. 
Joel "Joe Waverly" Cacace is imprisoned on murder and racketeering charges and his release date is slated for September 1, 2020.
But that is now; this was then:

Selecting the Hit's Location
In January of 1982, Miciotta claimed, once given his fatal assignment, he searched for a house with a big front porch that was enclosed, which would serve as a death trap for the thieving father and son.

The Perainos arrived at the scene believing they were attending another of the countless meetings they regularly had with the Colombo bosses. They had no clue that the administration was setting them up to be killed.

Miciotta selected the house simply because of the porch. The plan called for the use of shotgun. Such heavy artillery was deemed necessary because both father and son were enormously overweight. The son was called "The Whale," the father "The Fat Guy."

The Perainos, this family strain at least, had been bottom feeders all their street lives, and were trying to eke a living from pushing porno, which Miciotta said was such a low-down business that the "Mafia I joined never would have been involved in it."  The Perainos filled their coffers and passed up a piece from their production and distribution of cheapo adult films, called "loops," which prior to home video, played in seedy dimly lit theaters, such as those once located on New York's Time's Square.

Deep Throat practically fell onto their prodigious laps thanks to a creative hairdresser who had written the comedic porno script. The director also found the perfect actress, Linda Lovelace.

He filmed the entire thing in a week by himself, with financing, about $20 large, coming from the Perainos, who decided to finance the film after Lovelace gave the two piggies a demo of her sexual skill set. The hairdresser/filmmaker survived -- but got only about $22 grand for his efforts, which he humbly accepted, thankful to be left alive, according to his son. But his film, despite his ridiculous payout, earned anywhere from tens to hundred of millions of dollars for the Perainos, who paid their crime family as well.

Only they didn't pay enough and it ended up costing lives. Not the right ones, though.


Murder Via Shotgun
Colombo family soldier Joseph Peraino, Jr., and his father Joseph, Sr., made off with most of the profits, because Joe Sr.'s brother departed the U.S. for Italy just as "Deep Throat" was evolving into the mega hit it's known as today.

Feds claim that on Jan. 4, 1982, Big Sal and alleged Colombo family soldier Joseph Carna, also known as "Junior Lollipops," and Gioeli, according to the Feds, opened up with shotguns on the Perainos. The accidentally shotgunned social worker and former nun was named Veronica Zuraw, 53 when she died, court papers say. According to The Wiseguy and the Nun in The Village Voice, Zuraw was shot in the head while putting away laundry.

Joseph Peraino, Jr., was found dead outside the Lake Street home. Jr's father, however, survived but was paralyzed. This was actually his second survival -- he also lived through a previous attempt on his life.

Feds were given details of the case by former mobster-turned informant Miciotta, who was one of the shooters.

Federal prosecutors claim alleged Mafia boss  Gioeli had told a government informant that he feared he was "going to hell" because of the former nun's death, as was widely reported.

Sal was kicked out of the witness protection program in 1995. He encountered Phil Colletti in prison. He confided to Sal his plans to state plain untruths on the stand. William Corolleo, a former Bonanno loanshark, also made the mistake of confiding in Sal, admitting to the ex-mobster that the feds didn't know about his bookmaking business.

Sal's masterpiece was served to him on a silver platter by "Gaspipe" Casso, was was serving time with Sal. The former Luchese underboss told Miciotta that he and a few other inmates were using an employee of the housing unit where they all lived to supply them with premium contraband, including narcotics, cigars and cellular phones. Upon hearing this, the fed's dropped Casso, too, leaving him to rot for life.

Big Sal managed to win his way back into the good graces of the fed's with his jailhouse snitching. In the end, the ex-mobster got nine years whacked off his sentence, and he was able to begin his new life in 1999.

The hit to Big Sal's credibility is something the producers of Nothing Personal should have revealed  to the show's viewers.



RELATED POSTS


Cosa Nostra News: Could Be Lights Out For Joe Waverly

Cosa Nostra News: Alleged Mob Boss Gioeli's Voice

Cosa Nostra News: Two (More) Colombos on Trial for Cop Kill