Philip Carlo (April 18, 1949 – November 8, 2010) was an American journalist and best selling biographer of

Thomas Pitera Thomas Pitera (; born December 2, 1954) is an American mobster in the Bonanno crime family. Pitera, a Soldato, soldier and later on a Caporegime, captain of his own crew, was suspected by law enforcement of as many as 60 murders. Pitera was well k ...

Richard Kuklinski Richard Leonard Kuklinski (; April 11, 1935 – March 5, 2006), also known as The Iceman, was an American criminal and convicted murderer. Kuklinski was engaged in criminal activities for most of his adult life; he ran a burglary ring and dist ...

Anthony Casso Anthony Salvatore Casso (May 21, 1942 – December 15, 2020), nicknamed "Gaspipe", was an American mobster and underboss of the Lucchese crime family. During his career in organized crime, Casso was regarded as a "homicidal maniac" in the Italia ...

, and

Richard Ramirez Ricardo "Richard" Leyva Muñoz Ramirez (; February 29, 1960 – June 7, 2013), dubbed the Night Stalker, the Valley Intruder (as his attacks were first clustered in the San Gabriel Valley), and the Walk-in Killer was an American serial kill ...

. Carlo had

amyotrophic lateral sclerosis Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most comm ...

(ALS), commonly known as "Lou Gehrig's Disease". He was diagnosed in 2005 and reliant on a wheelchair with respirator, but retained his ability to speak and continued to write until his death. He died of the disease on November 8, 2010, at age 61.

Early life

Philip Carlo was born in

Bensonhurst Bensonhurst is a residential neighborhood in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bordered on the northwest by 14th Avenue, on the northeast by 60th Street, on the southeast by Avenue P and 22nd ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. From an early age, he was involved in gang activity. Raised on the streets of Brooklyn, New York. In 1964 when Carlo was 15 years old, he witnessed a close friend shot to death in broad daylight by

hit men Contract killing is a form of murder or assassination in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or persons. It involves an illegal agreement which includes some form of payment, monetary or otherwise. Either party may be ...

from the

Colombo crime family The Colombo crime family (, ) is an Italian American Mafia crime family and is the youngest of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City within the criminal organization known as the American Mafia. It was du ...

. Moving toward induction into an organized crime mob family, Carlo found himself in trouble with the law. At the age of 17, he was involved in a gang fight and shot in the forehead by a .22 caliber gun.

Career

Carlo's passion for books ultimately steered him from the criminal path. The works of

John Steinbeck John Ernst Steinbeck Jr. (; February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American writer and the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature winner "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social ...

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fic ...

, and

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

, among others, helped Carlo out of Brooklyn. At 19, he moved to Manhattan and secured a job as a real estate agent on the

Upper West Side, Manhattan The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...

. Although successful, Carlo walked away from the business after nine years with the goal of ultimately becoming a professional writer. Despite his illness, in early November 2009, Carlo was able to appear on Shovio's Talk Back TV, to take questions about his research. Carlo's first book was about a killer in a hospital ward. He got the idea while hospitalized at Bellevue and a woman was murdered there. The book received 125 rejection letters and was never published. His second book was about an American child kidnapped and forced into the sex trade. He got the idea while visiting Amsterdam. Carlo was shocked to see children performing sex shows in shop windows. Dutton published it as ''Stolen Flower'' in 1986.

Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...

optioned the book for

Robert De Niro Robert Anthony De Niro Jr. ( , ; born August 17, 1943) is an American actor. Known for his collaborations with Martin Scorsese, he is considered to be one of the best actors of his generation. De Niro is the recipient of various accolades ...

. His last three books were written with the help of Kelsey Osgood, a

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

graduate from Brooklyn, who took notes for him due to his ALS. His last book, ''The Killer Within: In the Company of Monsters'' (which deals with his battle against ALS), was released posthumously in January 2011.

Personal life

Philip Carlo married Laura Garofalo in December 2009. The two met in August 2006 after Carlo mentioned that one of his childhood friends, Manny Garofalo, had a brother, Eddie, who had been killed on orders of the Gambino underboss

Salvatore Gravano Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano (born March 12, 1945) is an American former mobster who became underboss of the Gambino crime family. Gravano played a major role in prosecuting John Gotti, the crime family's boss, by agreeing to testify as a g ...

, known as Sammy the Bull. Carlo and Manny reunited, along with Manny's niece, Eddie's daughter, Laura Garofalo.

Works

Non-fiction *''The Night Stalker: The Life and Crimes of Richard Ramirez (The True Story of America's Most Feared Serial Killer)'', Kensington (1996) *''The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer'', St. Martin's Press (2006) *''Gaspipe: Confessions of a Mafia Boss'', William Morrow Press (2008) *''The Butcher: Anatomy of a Mafia Psychopath'', William Morrow Press (2009) *''The Killer Within: In the Company of Monsters'', Overlook Press (2011) Novels *''Stolen Flower.'' (1988) *''Predators and Prayers.'' (2005) *''Smiling Wolf.'' (2006)

References

External links

Book Review of The Ice Man at Letters On PagesShovio.com
Philip Carlo interview on Talk Back TV
Sphinx Radio Philip Carlo Tribute ShowPhilip Carlo interview about The Ice Man (Failure magazine)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carlo, Phillip 2010 deaths 1949 births Writers from Brooklyn Burials at Green-Wood Cemetery American non-fiction crime writers American writers of Italian descent Non-fiction writers about organized crime in the United States Neurological disease deaths in New York (state) Deaths from motor neuron disease People from Bensonhurst, Brooklyn