Growing up, Tommy Pitera’s squeaky voice earned him the role of neighborhood punching bag. Sick of being kicked around, Pitera started learning martial arts. He became such an enthusiast that he moved to Japan to study with the masters, and when he returned to the States in 1975, people called him “Tommy Karate.” A lot of people also started dying, which lead to his second, more gruesome nickname.
Tommy Karate became a hitman for the Bonanno crime family, but he straddled the line between contract and serial killer. After he was arrested in 1990, witnesses claimed this martial arts mobster murdered at least sixty people. After bumping off a victim, Pitera brought out his special dismembering kit, a bag full of nasty tools such as a serrated hunting knife. He’d then lug the body into a bathtub where he’d sever the head and cut the stiff into pieces.
This made it easier to get rid of the victim and made it more difficult for authorities to identify the body. It also earned him his second nickname, “The Butcher.” But these killings weren’t “strictly business,” as Pitera kept trophies of his victims. He was basically Jeffrey Dahmer with a dash of Joe Pesci. By Nolan Moore