• The DEA has given Carlo full access to Hunt’s files on the investigation of Pitera, opening up the archives to a treasure trove of surveillance photos and documents from the case.

• While Tommy “Karate” Pitiera might not be as well known as some of the killers Carlo has written about, the author maintains that he is the most horrific and terrifying character that he has ever documented. In The Butcher, Carlo delves into the pathology of this brutal killer, writing in the charismatic and accessible style that has become the author’s trademark.

Tommy “Karate” Pitera was not like other Mafiosi. Pitera was a made man, a capo, in the notorious Bonanno crime family. Remorseless and deadly, he killed as if he had a God-given right, while dealing high grade Sicilian heroin and South American cocaine. Skilled with a knife and dressed entirely in black, Pitera was one of the premier assassins in New York City during the 1980s. While there were numerous men within the netherworld of the New York Mafia who killed people, most if not all looked away when they saw Pitera coming. Word on the street was that Pitera didn’t just whack people; he made them disappear forever using diabolical and secret burial grounds. If the Mafia had a Jeffrey Dahmer, it was surely Tommy Pitera of Gravesend, Brooklyn.

Like other men in his family, Jamie Hunt had a gift for bringing down bad guys, and in his time at the Drug Enforcement Administration, he’d arrested his share of criminals. But nothing could have prepared him for what he encountered when he and his team began investigating Tommy Pitera. What started as a routine investigation into a cocaine and heroin ring in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn grew exponentially, as Hunt uncovered the layers of death that surrounded Pitera. Through carefully placed wire taps in cars and homes, dangerous stakeouts, and fearful informants, Hunt managed to turn Pitera’s few confidants against him but not before Hunt estimated that Pitera killed as many as sixty people.

Offering the first ever look at the life and crimes of Tommy “Karate” Pitera, New York Times bestselling author Philip Carlo exposes the man behind some of the most horrific murders in the Mafia’s history and the heroic investigator who brought him down. Getting inside the mind of both killer and detective, Carlo masterfully details the delicate and deadly game of cat and mouse that eventually resulted in the capture of a Mafia killer unlike any other. A dual tale of murder, drugs, money, and ultimately justice, The Butcher gives us Carlo’s most frightening, comprehensive portrayal yet of the depraved depths of a psychopath’s mind.