April 2 (UPI) — New York mob hitman Dominic Taddeo, who killed three men and attempted to kill two other people, has escaped federal custody with less than a year of his sentence left after decades in prison.
Taddeo, 64, escaped on Monday from a halfway house overseen by the Bureau of Prisons in Florida, the Federal Bureau of Prisons records show.
The convicted mob hitman, who pleaded guilty to racketeering crimes in 1992, including three homicides in the 1980s on behalf of the mafia in Rochester, N.Y., including Nicholas Mastrodonato, Gerald Pelusio and Dino Tortatice, was slated to be released in February.
Taddeo had been transferred in mid-February from a medium-security correctional facility in Sumterville, Fla., about 50 miles northwest of downtown Orlando, to the halfway house to help him prepare for his release next year.
On Monday, after an approved medical appointment, he did not return, records show.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Taddeo had asked for a compassionate release, citing health issues, such as hypertension, but a judge refused.
“Taddeo’s prior convictions are for crimes including assault, conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and, most notably, Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) conspiracy arising from his employment and association with Rochester’s La Cosa Nostra organized crime family,” U.S. District Judge Frank Geraci Jr. wrote in the denial of his compassionate release, obtained by the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle.
“The RICO charges involve the murder of three individuals, attempted murder of two more individuals, and conspiracy to murder a fifth person.”
Taddeo was facing federal weapons charges when he previously evaded authorities for two years after he was released on $25,000 bail in 1987.
He had some disciplinary issues in his early years in prison, including “setting a fire,” conducting a “gambling pool,” and “possessing intoxicants,” but since the late 1990s he had a clean record except for a 2010 citation for “possessing an unauthorized item.”
