Carmelo (Carlo) Profeta was always the mysterious member of the Murder Machine, the prolific crew of mob killers that dismembered its victims, packaged the body parts in plastic bags and cardboard boxes, and disposed of them in a garbage dump. 

Two decades later, after serving eight years for loansharking, joining Local 6a of the Laborers Union, and becoming a “made man” in the Luchese family, Profeta has been hit with extortion charges that, like him, are shrouded in mystery. 

A handyman/truck driver with a rap sheet that began in 1960, Profeta graduated to chauffeur for Roy DeMeo – the Fagin-like leader of young murderous wannabes like Joseph Testa and Anthony Senter – when his regular driver and sidekick Freddy DiNome went to prison in 1981.

Two years later, after DeMeo (left) disappeared but before his body was found, Profeta told an old DeMeo friend that “Roy was gone for good” and that he and Testa had “taken over his business,” words that got him charged with murder after DeMeo was found shot to death and under a chandelier in the trunk of his late model Caddy.

But the feds had no evidence of his involvement in DeMeo’s killing – years later

they say he probably had no role in it – and while Testa (left) and Senter (right) were found guilty of nine and eight slayings respectively during a monstrous 17-month long racketeering and murder trial and sentenced to life, Profeta was found guilty only of loansharking, and given 12 years.

Profeta, 60, has never been charged with any of the many killings the crew committed from mid-1975 through January 1983 – police and FBI estimates start at 75 and end at 200 – but DiNome, who cooperated, told the feds that Profeta “got his feet wet …. in a number of homicides,” according to court records.  

Earlier this month, Profeta was charged in a bare bones extortion indictment with conspiring to shake down the owner of an unnamed successful business for undisclosed amounts of money with threats of violence from early this year until Sept. 5.

At his arraignment, after which Profeta was released on bail, the mystery continued. Assistant U.S. attorney Eric Bruce said the feds had not used any wiretaps or bugs to make their case, but would prove it through witnesses and telephone records.

During a lengthy pre-trial status conference complicated by the segregated confinement of reputed Gambino boss Peter Gotti, ten defendants and their lawyers retired for a sitdown in the jury room to decide when they would prefer to go to trial. 

Their options – December, preferred by Gotti, or April, desired by the feds – were proposed by Brooklyn Federal Judge Frederic Block, who said the early date might be appropriate because the Bureau of Prisons had put Gotti in “the hole” while it looked into allegations of a Gotti plot to kill the prison warden where John Gotti died.

When they finally emerged, Gotti’s lawyer Gerald Shargel reported they were deadlocked 5-5, with Gotti, brother Richard V., (right) nephew Richard G. (below) and soldiers Primo Cassarino and Jerome Brancato choosing December.

“This is conclusive proof that Peter Gotti isn’t a boss,” said Shargel, who lost that argument in July when Block ruled Gotti was the Gambino boss and detained him to await trial on waterfront racketeering charges.

“This proves Gotti is the boss” was the quick retort by prosecutor Andrew Genser. “This split is by design, and Peter Gotti is responsible for it.”

After much back and forth, the session ended with Block reserving his decision until the Second Circuit Court of Appeals decides whether to reverse his ruling that orders prison authorities to return Gotti to general population.

Shargel and prosecutors Genser, Katya Jestin and Rick Whelan will find themselves in the unusual position next week of arguing to uphold one Block ruling while arguing to reverse the other.

The prosecutors want the Appeals panel to uphold Block’s order to detain Gotti but reverse his ruling to return him to general population. Shargel wants them to reverse Block’s detention ruling, but if he loses that, will argue that the Judge was right to oust Gotti from segregated confinement.

"See, that's it," the driver was heard to say, before throwing the car into gear and peeling off down Second Ave.

Mob Star: The Story of John Gotti

Hot off the presses! It's here, the book it took yours truly and Gene Mustain 17 years to do! Although we didn't know it at the time, we began working on Mob Star: The Story of John Gotti in 1985, when we began covering the Gotti story as news reporters.

The first edition came out in 1988, and we finished this new edition three days before Gotti died in June. Alpha Books has distributed it to the nation's bookstores.

With a 40,000-word update, the new edition contains the entire Gotti saga – from his treacherous rise to his defiant downfall and right on up to his time in prison and his death from throat cancer.

The 378 page, full-size book uses eight additional chapters, a prologue and an epilogue to complete the story we began telling (better than any other reporters, we might add!) when we covered the Gotti-orchestrated, midtown Manhattan assassination of former Gambino boss Paul Castellano.

For the last and best words on Gotti, this is the book to have. It is specially priced at Amazon.com at $11.87, more than five bucks off the suggested retail price.

Not Really For Idiots

Whether you're a Gang Land regular or an occasional visitor, you'll enjoy  "The Complete Idiot's Guide to The Mafia," a book I wrote for Alpha Books that was published in December. It's filled with real stuff about real wiseguys and insight about the ways that mobsters make their money. It's 343 pages of true stories of life and death, honor and betrayal. Get it at your local book store, or at Gang Land's favorite, Amazon.com, where the powers that be have knocked the price down to $13.27, so low I am concerned that the Godfather of online booksellers has forgotten about my end.