Thomas Pitera is a unique Mafioso, a man who rose to significant heights as a Bonanno family hitman. His most well-known murder was carried out for John "the Teflon Don" Gotti. The assassination of Willie Boy Johnson outside of his Brooklyn residence was carried out by Pitera and accomplices. Johnson, an ex-fighter, turned government informant around 1966. Pitera hoped to use the elimination of the former pugilist as a means of elevating his status in the Bonanno crime family. By 1990 Pitera and numerous cronies had been arrested for murder, trafficking narcotics and additional crimes.