Salvatore (Sonny) Pepitone was a Colombo Family hood, involved in various rackets, including bookmaking, extortion, and prostitution. Salvatore (Sonny) Pepitone was born in Brooklyn on January 1, 1924, to parents Matthew (Matteo) and Frances (nee Jackson) Pepitone. He had a brother named William and a sister named Angela. As an adult, Sonny resided for many years at 7309 12th Avenue. He also owned a summer home at 73 Bayard Street in Lake Grove, Long Island. Salvatore Pepitone He also served in the Army Air Forces as a heavy bomber in WWII. In 1944, he was captured by the Germans and held as a POW after his plane was shot down. He was liberated in 1945 after the end of the War and later received a Prisoner of War medal. In 1949, when he was 25 years old, he married Melissa Armstrong, and together they had a daughter. However, several years later, in 1955, the couple divorced. In 1971, when he was 47 years old, he remarried a woman named Barbara Ruth Rommer. They had a son together. Switching Sides Originally a Profaci Family associate who could have been a formally inducted “soldier” (no positive info on him,) Pepitone had switched allegiance to the Gallo gang during the first gang war in 1960 for control of the Brooklyn rackets. He became a key member of the Gallo gang. His close associates included the Gallo brothers, Vincent (Chico) Regina, Anthony (Fat Tony) Regina, Frank (Punchy) Illiano, Salvatore (Sally Boy) Mangiamelli, John (Mooney) Cutrone, and Anthony (Abby Shots) Abbatemarco, among others in both factions of the Family. Pepitone was active in bookmaking, policy, strong-arm, extortion, hijacking, prostitution, and shylocking. He was suspected of having a hidden interest in a Suffolk County bar, several Brooklyn bars, and a trucking company. An informant identified him as an importer of prostitutes for the Gallos. His police record includes eight arrests for bookmaking, grand larceny, forgery, receiving stolen goods, extortion, vagrancy (twice,) and disorderly conduct. He was convicted of bookmaking but never jailed. During the Gallo-Profaci war, Pepitone was shot at several times, once in Queens while he was driving on the Belt Parkway. and another on a Brooklyn street. It is thought that he may have switched sides several times during the war. Sonny and Lila Luftschein After the attempted strangling of Larry Gallo at the Sahara Lounge on Utica Ave., Sonny’s girlfriend, Lila Luftschein, was put under 24-hour police guard. It was suspected that she knew who the assailants were who shot Patrolman Melvin Blei. Blei had thwarted the murder attempt. In 1965, Pepitone was one of three hoods arrested in Nassau by DA William Cahn as part of a mob “debt collection ring.” The men were nabbed after threatening and extorting several small business owners who owed money from various debts. The modus operandi was a simple, “Pay up or get your head busted open!” Also in 1965, he was in a Brooklyn bar when FBI agents grabbed Robert Haas and Seymour Waldman for handling and selling $49,000 of stolen securities. Sonny was thought to be behind the scheme but was not arrested (although present) for lack of evidence. Pepitone was repeatedly questioned during the gang war for several gangland killings, both by the Brooklyn DA and the Nassau and Suffolk County authorities. He also figured into the mob killing of Louis (Cadillac Louie) Mariani on Rt.347 in Port Jefferson, Long Island. A young Salvatore (Sonny) Pepitone With the passing of the gang war and the killing of (Crazy Joe) Gallo, Pepitone seems to have kept a low profile in later years, avoiding any additional arrests or public exposure. Salvatore (Sonny) Pepitone passed away on June 25, 1997. He was 73. Until next time..."The Other Guy"
