A doddering oldfella with a list of health complaints as long as the history of the Mafia itself caught a break from a judge at sentencing yesterday, but still doesn’t expect to survive his prison stay.
Ciro Perrone, 87, was given five years in prison for racketeering and loan sharking.
He also has to forfeit $150,000 and pay a $12,500 fine.
Manhattan federal Judge Robert Patterson sympathetically lopped off 19 months from the minimum, but refused to grant a request for house arrest.
The judge and the judged found common ground in the tragic illness that affects their wives.
“I’m not too young either. I have a wife with Alzheimer’s, so I know what you go through,” Patterson said. But he added, “This is the type of crime that eats away at the good things that go on in the world.”
Defense attorney Joseph Mure argued that any prison term would be a death sentence for the reputed Genovese capo, who has been behind bars since his conviction eight months ago and came into court in a wheelchair.
The lawyer said the frail-looking gangster is so sick with the flu that he hasn’t eaten in 11 days.
He then detailed a host of other conditions, starting with a short and deformed leg from a childhood injury.
The list went on to include a heart condition, dizzy spells, bedsores, and a urinary problem that keeps him up at night, severe arthritis and frequent falls.
He is also afraid to walk or shower and picks up any illness that goes around the prison.
When he does move around, “he walks around wearing three blankets. He has a chill inside his bones he cannot get rid of,” said Mure.
Asked if he wanted to address the judge, Perrone grumbled, “I don’t want to say anything. I have nothing to say.”
Perrone was convicted of running a violent Genovese crew and operating a lucrative gambling and loan-sharking business.
Prosecutors claim Perrone terrorized victims into paying him, making threats and sending out underlings armed with baseball bats.
He wielded his power from his Ozone Park, Queens, social club, a butcher’s shop and Don Peppe’s restaurant.
Assistant US Attorney Elie Honig scoffed at Perrone’s tales of woe, calling several of the defense lawyer’s arguments “bogus.”
“The notion that Mr. Perrone is some sort of noble human being, civic-minded, is just delusional,” Honig told the judge.
Calling Perrone “vicious,” Honig noted that he was once caught on a tape regaling a group of wiseguys over dinner with a story about a “wild” murder that he’d been involved in.
“There’s no trace of shame,” Honig said of Perrone’s voice on the tape. “He’s bragging. It’s a great story. Everyone’s laughing and he’s loving it.”