They'd packed their own bullets as a deterrent from getting pinched so when they shot him the bullets were basically duds and didn't penetrate his skull.
I'm not educated on this topic. How is packing your own bullet a deterrent from getting pinched? And how unusual is it for bullets to be duds?
Were the hitmen unskilled amateurs, or just unlucky?
A lower load of powder in a round will produce less sound when fired, kinda like a jerry-rigged silencer. The bullets won't technically be "duds" (duds don't fire at all), but are fired at a lower velocity than a load with more powder. Mafia hitmen tend to favor .22s, which is a small and light bullet that needs a high velocity to penetrate anything. So if you take too much powder out of the load it will essentially an over-sized bb gun.
That's how Frank Cullotta fucked up that hit with the guy he had to chase around the house shooting him several times before he put up the gun right up to him, none of the other bullets penetrated the skin.
