“The Snake” is still slithering.
As this exclusive photo shows, reputed Colombo boss Carmine “The Snake” Persico, 73, may seem right at home at a federal prison in North Carolina, relaxing on a courtyard bench while watching a game of bocce – but he’s still very much in control of his New York crime family, warned one inmate who’s been on the inside with the aging Mafioso.
“Don’t let the looks fool you,” said the recently released inmate, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
“He’s still calling the shots.”
Persico is serving a sentence of 139 years stemming from two racketeering convictions in the mid-1980s. He was moved to the Butner Federal Correction Complex, a medical and medium-security lockup, a little over a year ago for unspecified health reasons.
The Snake seems to enjoy being in the fenced-in, 1-acre courtyard, which also houses a pool table, weights and a basketball court, spending much of his time on the bocce court or playing cards with other imprisoned gangsters and mob wannabes, the former inmate said.
Persico’s lawyer, Linda Sheffield, would only say her client’s illness is “nothing terminal or life-threatening.”
“I don’t know what he does in there,” Sheffield said. “I think he’s just doing his time like any other inmate.”
The former Butner inmate said Persico would often boast about the glory days of the Mafia and regale people with tales of the glitzy life he used to lead, stories that ran the gamut from nights at the Copacabana to a sexy tryst with movie star Goldie Hawn years before she became a household name.
“When she was first starting out, he took her out,” the former inmate told The Post of Persico’s purported encounter in the late 1960s, before Hawn started her rise to fame on the TV show “Laugh In.”
A spokesman for Hawn didn’t respond to repeated requests for comment.
But that lifestyle is all in the past for Persico, who won’t get his first chance to be sprung from prison until March 2050 – when he’ll be 117 years old.
Persico now lives in the Georgia Tech unit of the prison – all the units at Butner are named after colleges that play in the Atlantic Coast Conference – and is “a big pinochle player,” said the inmate, who noted that Persico appears to be fairly lonely despite there being a few “made” Mafia members also at the prison, such as reputed Gambino soldier Joey Testa.
Still, the inmate said, Persico occasionally gets a taste of the old life.
Cronies always ask him, “Can I do anything for you?” and can always score extra grub from the kitchen for him, the ex-con said.
And Persico’s mind is still sharp as a tack, especially his business acumen, the inmate said.
He recounted a lesson the mobster once gave about a hypothetical carpet-cleaning company and how he would not only control that company but would also have under his power the people who sold the carpet and the people who came and ripped it up before bringing it to the cleaners.
“If you want to do something, you do it all,” he said Persico told him, explaining how all those combined businesses could garner over $1 million a year, a stronghold that he said could go on for 20 or 30 years.
Persico is also keeping his ear to the ground about news of his son, Alphonse “Allie Boy” Persico, the family’s acting boss whose racketeering and murder trial gets under way in Brooklyn federal court today.
“He’s concerned for his son,” the former prisoner said.
The younger Persico, 52, and acting underboss John “Jackie” DeRoss are accused of whacking capo William “Wild Bill” Cutolo in May 1999. Cutolo’s was the last body to fall during the civil war between rival factions of the Colombo family.
The Brooklyn U.S. Attorney’s Office said the pair had Cutolo murdered to prevent him from taking control of the family as Alphonse was about to go to prison on another weapons charge. Alphonse is currently serving a 13-year stint on a previous racketeering conviction.
Alphonse Persico and DeRoss face life in prison if convicted of the Cutolo murder, an attempted hit on family soldier Joseph Campanella in 2001 and charges that they tried to intimidate Cutolo’s family to keep them from blaming them for the rubout.
For that trial, prosecutors are expected to put a slew of mob turncoats on the stand, including Campanella and former John “Junior” Gotti confidant Michael “Mikey Scars” DiLeonardo.
The elder Persico, who famously yet unsuccessfully defended himself in the epic 1986 case that brought charges against all the bosses of the city’s five Mafia families, has expressed concern that his son will also spend the rest of his days behind bars.
“This is the end for him,” the ex-inmate said of The Snake.
“Then at the end, he has to see his son go through the same thing he did.”
Sarita Kedia, who represents “Allie Boy” Persico, said she fully expects her client to beat the rap.
“We are confident that the government will not be able to prove any of the charges and that Mr. Persico will be acquitted,” she said.