Metro

Door-to-door salesman admits to gunning down three Brooklyn businessmen: sources

IN CUSTODY: Salvatore Perrone (above left) is led from the 67th Precinct station house last night after he allegedly admitted killing three Brooklyn shopkeepers, including Rahmatollah Vahidipour, whose family mourned him last Friday (above right). (
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A creepy door-to-door salesman from Staten Island admitted yesterday to gunning down three Brooklyn businessmen during a terrifying serial-killing spree, law-enforcement sources said.

Cash-strapped clothing peddler Salvatore Perrone, 63, was charged with three counts of murder for the July-to-November rampage after ballistics tests matched his illegal .22-caliber rifle to the murder weapon, authorities said.

Perrone spent approximately 24 hours being questioned — and cracked only when he thought he was confessing to a federal agent, a law- enforcement source said.

“He says he worked for the FBI and CIA. He was leery talking to the NYPD,” the source said. “He wouldn’t talk to anyone but the CIA or FBI.” So cops played along.

“They brought in someone claiming to be a CIA agent,” the source said, which is when Perrone spilled his guts about the crimes. “The guy is crazy.”

Cops believe that Perrone — initially referred to as “John Doe Duffel Bag” after he was caught on tape carrying the bag near last Friday’s murder scene — knew all of the victims, sources said.

“He’s lucky that the cops got to him before I did,” Moe Gebeli, 33, the son of Perrone’s first alleged victim, Mohamed Gebeli, told The Post. “If I got my hands on him before they did, there would be four dead bodies, not three.”

“We are very happy he was arrested,” said the daughter of second victim Isaac Kadare. “It’s a relief.”

Cops said they believe Perrone would have struck again.

“By arresting him, we have saved lives,” said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. “We know that he went to other locations and asked questions that indicated . . . that he very well planned to come back.”

One of those locations was a clothing store on Flatbush Avenue, which he cased before the third murder, going twice before getting scared off by some customers, cops said.

Perrone was picked up in Bay Ridge Tuesday — just three blocks from the scene of the first murder — after a pharmacy employee told cops that he recognized “Doe Duffel Bag” as a regular customer who would often come in at night, law- enforcement sources said.

Two detectives approached him, according to witnesses.

“He was in here no more than a minute,” said an employee of Farmacon Pharmacy on Fifth Avenue. “They must have been following him.”

Perrone allegedly told cops the murder weapon was at his girlfriend’s house in Midwood. Police found the .22-caliber Ruger rifle with a sawed-off stock in a bag, said the sources, adding that his fingerprints were found on the weapon.

And cops recovered a 12-inch kitchen knife with dried blood on it and two Buck folding knives, each with seven-inch blades, Kelly said.

Perrone was also hit with three weapons-possession counts.

Perrone was led from the 67th Precinct station house in East Flatbush last night. He was dressed in black, stared ahead blankly and didn’t say a word as he was walked past a throng of reporters and photographers.

He was held without bail at his arraignment early today in Brooklyn Criminal Court. He spent more than two hours meeting his lawyer before the proceeding.

A-law enforcement source said he was “yammering on and on” about his birthday today.

He earlier told interrogators that the murders of three Middle Eastern shop owners was “a plan to promote world peace,” the Staten Island Advance reported.

Perrone, who is 64 today, will die in prison if convicted, said Ken Taub, chief of the Brooklyn DA’s Homicide Bureau.

The spree started on July 6 when Perrone allegedly gunned down Bay Ridge store owner Gebeli, 65, who was closing his clothing establishment for the day.

Perrone supplied clothes to Gebeli’s store for more than 15 years, said the victim’s son, who has since taken over the store.

“My big question is, why did he do it?” asked Moe Gebeli. “I want to know.I need some answers.”

Then on Aug. 2, Perrone allegedly shot and stabbed Bensonhurst businessman Isaac Kadare, 59, who was closing his 99-cent store on 86th Street for the day.

The death toll hit three last Friday when the bullet-riddled body of Iranian clothing-store owner Rahmatollah Vahidipour, 78, was found in the back of his business, partially covered by clothes.

The first two killings were linked in August through ballistics tests.

Perrone’s neighbors in Staten Island’s Sunnyside neighborhood said the alleged killer split from his wife about 10 years ago and sleeps in the basement of his creepy “Addams Family”-like house.

“He literally sneaks in to go to sleep,” said Marian Kvocak, who lives across the street. “He looks around and walks around his property before he goes into his house.”

Julia Marra, 21, as a child to play with Perrone’s daughter.

“He used to sing opera late at night on summer nights,” Marra said. “I remember him yelling Italian in the middle of the street, smoking a cigar and drinking wine with a beret.”

“He wasn’t any good,” said another neighbor, who gave his name only as Ron.

The owner of the 13th Avenue Home Center hardware store in Borough Park said Perrone bounced a $40 check at his shop earlier this year.

“I am very grateful that he didn’t try to hurt anyone here,” said the owner, who would identify himself only as Morty. “But I don’t believe he came into this establishment looking for trouble.”

Additional reporting by Dana Sauchelli, Georgett Roberts, C.J. Sullivan, Kirstan Conley and Josh Saul