On this day in 1999 Wild Bill Cutolo, an underboss in the Colombo Crime Family was killed in the basement of a house, on orders from Alphonse Persico (the son of Carmine) who was acting boss of the Colombo’s at the time.

Cutolo was a strong Orena loyalist in the 1991 – 1993 Colombo War, and after the War ended in a Persico win, Cutola was demoted in the family to a solider. By the late 90’s Carmine Persico promoted Cutolo to underboss under his son Alphonse as a peace gesture. In the same year Alphonse was sentenced to prison himself, so with both the Persico’s behind bars they worried that Cutolo would try and make a bid to takeover the family unit.

To avoid the takeover Alphonse setup a meeting which would end with the disappearance of Wild Bill. It was only 9 years later that his body was unearthed, when the police found a man wearing Italian loafers wrapped in a blue tarp that was missing a finger.

The body was of 49 year old William Cutolo Sr.

On this day in 1999, William "Wild Bill" Cutolo, one of the most formidable figures in the Colombo Crime Family, vanished without a trace. He was 49 years old. Cutolo had earned his fearsome nickname through a reputation for violence and an iron grip over his Brooklyn crew, and his disappearance on 26th May marked one of the most significant internal killings within the Five Families during the latter years of the twentieth century.

Cutolo had risen to prominence as a passionate loyalist of acting boss Victor Orena during the brutal Colombo War of 1991 to 1993, a bloody internal conflict that tore the family apart and left bodies scattered across the streets of New York. The war pitted Orena's faction against the imprisoned Carmine Persico's loyalists, and when the dust eventually settled in favour of the Persico camp, Cutolo paid a steep price. Despite his considerable power and influence, he was demoted to the rank of soldier — a humiliating fall from grace for a man of his stature.

In an apparent gesture of reconciliation, Carmine Persico — one of the most cunning bosses in the history of the Five Families — later elevated Cutolo to underboss, placing him beneath his son Alphonse "Allie Boy" Persico, who was serving as acting boss. It was a calculated move, but the peace it represented was entirely superficial. When Alphonse himself was handed a prison sentence that same year, both Persicos grew deeply uneasy. With their grip on the family weakened from behind bars, the spectre of Wild Bill seizing control of the Colombo organisation became an increasingly alarming prospect.

Alphonse orchestrated a solution with ruthless efficiency. Cutolo was lured to a meeting, and in the basement of a house he was murdered, his body carefully concealed to buy time and sow uncertainty. The plan worked. For nine years, Wild Bill's fate remained a mystery, his disappearance leaving a void that was never properly explained. It was not until 2008 that investigators unearthed his remains — a man wrapped in a blue tarpaulin, wearing Italian loafers, with a finger missing, buried and forgotten.

The killing of William Cutolo stands as a stark reminder of the treacherous nature of loyalty within organised crime, where alliances shift as quickly as fortunes. His story remains a defining chapter in the long and turbulent history of the Colombo Crime Family.