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Murder was his business.
So, like any good artisan, a coldblooded mob killer turned government witness was quick to correct a badgering defense attorney when he failed to mention a tool of the trade.
“How many people have you killed?” asked defense lawyer Sam Braverman yesterday in Brooklyn federal court — where his client, Dino “Little Dino” Saracino and alleged Colombo acting boss Thomas “Tommy Shots” Gioeli are on trial in six gangland murders, including the rubout of a cop.
“I’ve had involvement with eight — I personally killed three,” former capo Dino “Big Dino” Calabro — Little Dino’s cousin — replied evenly.
Calabro has said he and his cousin murdered NYPD Officer Ralph Dols on Gioeli’s orders in 1997.
Braverman later asked, “You used your hands, you used bats, you used guns, you used pipes . . . ?” — prompting Calabro, 45, to interject.
Braverman, Calabro indicated, was leaving out another weapon he had used — a piece of lead wrapped in leather.
“I bought it in a head shop,” he said of the bludgeoning tool.
“It’s what police carry,” Calabro said, as he fumbled and mumbled but couldn’t come up with the name of that weapon — blackjack or sap.
While Calabro couldn’t recall its name, he did readily remember using it to wallop someone over the head with it.
But all that’s in the past, Calabro assured Braverman.
“I committed horrible, heinous crimes,” the Sicilian-born killer testified. “I’m ashamed of them.”
Asked what motivated him to cooperate with the FBI, Calabro, who is hoping for leniency in his sentencing, said, “Who wouldn’t want to be home with their wife and children?”
“I’m working on changing my life, sir,” he added.
In addition to ratting out his own flesh-and-blood Saracino, Calabro’s testimony could doom Gioeli — his mob mentor, close friend and literally the “godfather” to two of Calabro’s sons.
Evidence of Calabro’s close, personal ties to Gioeli were entered into evidence yesterday — several photographs of the two men together, with children at Disney World, at a restaurant and in other social settings.
“These photographs were stolen by your wife, isn’t that right?” Gioeli’s lawyer, Adam Perlmutter, asked the turncoat.
Calabro — though he earlier freely admitted he was a murderer — muttered that his wife was not a crook.