Peter Chiodo

Peter "Fat Pete" Chiodo (1951–2016) was a capo in the Lucchese crime family who later became a government witness.

In 1987, Chiodo became a made man in the Lucchese family in a ceremony held in an apartment over a funeral home in Queens. In 1989, Chiodo became a capo in charge of funneling payoffs from Local 580 of the Ironworkers' Union to the Lucchese leadership.

In 1989, the Lucchese family began worrying about indictments from the Windows case. The Luccheses and three other New York families had participated in a window replacement scheme that stole millions of dollars from the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). Worried that construction union leader John Morrissey might testify in this case for the prosecution, family leaders ordered Chiodo to lure Morrissey to New Jersey, where he was murdered.

In 1991, Chiodo was charged with violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) in the Windows case. Faced with a solid government case, Chiodo decided to plea guilty in return for a lighter sentence. However, Chiodo's plea angered Lucchese official boss Vittorio "Vic" Amuso and official underboss Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso, both in hiding from the law. Convinced that Chiodo was going to betray them Amuso and Casso ordered Alphonse 'Little Al' D'Arco, the acting boss, to kill Chiodo. Gaspipe and Chiodo had been good friends for years.

On May 8, 1991 two shooters ambushed Chiodo at a gas station in Staten Island where he was working on a car. Chiodo received 12 bullet wounds in the arms, legs, and torso, but survived the attack. Doctors credited Chiodo's 500 pound (227 kg.) weight for saving his life; his massive girth prevented the bullets from penetrating a vital organ or artery. Following the unsuccessful assassination attempt, Lucchese mobsters delivered a blunt threat to Chiodo's lawyer that they would kill Chiodo's wife if he testified, a violation of a longstanding Mafia rule against harming women. While Chiodo had turned down several offers to flip, the threat against his wife was the last straw. He opted to break his blood oath and become a government witness, by his own account, to protect his family. The government quickly brought Chiodo's immediate family into the federal Witness Protection Program.

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