1965 NYPD mugshot of Colombo Captain Theodore 'Teddy' Persico, younger brother of longtime Family Boss Carmine 'Junior' Persico, following his arrest for operating a policy business in Brooklyn.
By the mid-to-late 1960s Teddy was an active associate with the Family's South Brooklyn crew.
He also served as Vice President of a carpet installation company in Oceanside, Long Island.
In September 1973 an FBI source listed Teddy and three others as the 'strength, the shooters behind the leading figures' in the Colombo Family.
Another source described him as handling numbers for his incarcerated brother and also as a 'bandit' who was 'dealing in cocaine and other things'.
He's absent from available files beginning in April 1976 until December 1985, when FBI CI and Colombo Soldier Gregory Scarpa identified him as a made member.
The following year Scarpa reported that Teddy was responsible for bringing messages from his imprisoned brother Carmine, who took over the Family in 1980.
His son Theodore Jr. was inducted in January 1987.
Around early May 1988 Teddy Sr. replaced Vic Orena as Captain following the latter's appointment to Acting Boss.
As Captain he continued his role as messenger for his brother.
By May 1991 members of the Persico crew included Vincent Cascio, Ralph Lombardo, Theodore Persico Jr. and John 'Johnny Green' Scimone.
Teddy was among his brother's key supporters when war broke out later that year between Orena and Persico loyalists.
Convicted for his part in the hostilities, he was released from Federal prison in 2013 and died in early 2017.
