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Mob hitman Dominic Taddeo has been on the run before and he was exceptionally good at staying hidden then.

"He was in the windfor a long time," said retired FBI agent William Dillon, who was involved in a two-year-hunt for Taddeo in the late 1980s. "He was incredibly adept at staying very, very under the radar."

And now, only a year from a scheduled release from prison for racketeering crimes that included three homicides, Taddeo has disappeared again. On Monday, he escaped from a halfway house program overseen by the Bureau of Prisons in Florida.

On the run: Notorious Rochester mob hitman Dominic Taddeo escapes federal custody

He had been transferred there for programs to help him prepare for his scheduled 2023 re-entry into society.

"He could be hard to find," Dillon said.

Officials with the Bureau of Prisons said Friday that Taddeo, 64, was recently moved to the re-entry facility. Records show that Taddeo was scheduled for a medical appointment on Monday, March 28, and did not return.

Taddeo "was placed on escape status" on Monday, according to the Bureau of Prisons.

An official at the Orlando re-entry program declined to comment Friday, saying, "We can't say anything about that case."

The Bureau of Prisons alerted the U.S. Marshals Service to Taddeo's escape, and Marshals on Friday were searching for Taddeo in Florida while also keeping an eye on a possible Rochester return.

Taddeo in 1987 was on $25,000 bail, facing federal weapons charges, when he disappeared the first time. He was not found for two more years.

Taddeo became the focus of a national manhunt, and moved to different locations across the country, assuming two dozen aliaseswhile avoiding police. Law enforcement eventually learned of a payphone in Rochester at which Taddeo called local individuals, and police placed a tap on the phone as they surveilled people taking calls there.

Eventually, Taddeo made a call at which he arranged a meeting in Cleveland, Ohio. He was arrested there.

"Small, balding, and looking hardly like the mob hitman who investigators say gunned down three underground figures, Dominic Taddeo returned to federal court in shackles yesterday, two years after he skipped bail," the Democrat and Chronicle wrote in 1989 of Taddeo's return to court.

Taddeoshed 75 pounds and grew a beard during his two years on the run, the Democrat and Chronicle reported.

According to law enforcement and organized crime figures interviewed in the past by the Democrat and Chronicle, Taddeo had no allies in local mob battles. Instead, he was simply a mercenary for hire.

Bulgy and bespectacled, Taddeo was not a Hollywood version of a contract killer.

"You would never in a million years think this guy could be lethal," said a local man who was with Taddeo for an hour at the federal court house during Taddeo's court appearances. "It's like you're talking to Bugsy Siegel but he looks like a nebbish.

"I'm dumbfounded that the (expletive) continues to confound the jailers."

The Democrat and Chronicle was able to confirm that the individual, who asked not to be named, did meet with Taddeo. But, like some others contacted by the Democrat and Chronicle Friday, there was a hesitancy to discuss Taddeo openlynow that Taddeo has escaped.

In fact, two years ago, an organized crime figure from out of the area reached out to the Democrat and Chronicle about Taddeo's imprisonment. There were rumors they were wrong that Taddeo was then free and the former mobster was concerned that Taddeo might come gunning for him.

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As a hit man, Taddeo had a mixed record. He twice attempted to kill mob captain Thomas Marotta, but failed both times. One of his victims wasGerald Pelusio, but in that case Taddeo fatally shot the wrong family member.

His other two victims wereNicholas Mastrodonato and Dino Tortatice.

Rochester mob consigliereRene Piccarreto hired Taddeo for the assassinations at a time when local organized crime figures were largely fighting amongthemselves for power. Taddeo was largely unknown, andPiccarreto was successful at keeping the identity secret for years.

"Even as the shootings were going on, people still wondered (who the killer was)," said retired FBI agent Dillon. "We weren't able to develop anybody for the longest period of time."

In 1992 Taddeo pleaded guilty to racketeering crimes, including the homicides. He was scheduled to be released in February 2023.

In 2020, Taddeo made an appeal for compassionate release, saying he suffered from health conditions that could be a "death sentence" because of the coronavirus. He said he suffered from hypertension, partial blindness, obesity, and anemia. A judge denied his bid for release.

Prison records show that Taddeo had numerous disciplinary issues his early years in prison, including "setting a fire" and conducting a "gambling pool" and "possessing intoxicants."

But, since the late-1990s, his record appears exemplary except for a 2010 citation for "possessing an unauthorized item."

Bureau of Prisons records from 2020 recommended that Taddeo be part of a year-long re-entry preparation program. If released in 2023, he told prison officials, he planned to live with his mother in Daytona Beach and get a job.

Among the re-entry program plans were to offer "life lessons" about returning to society.

Taddeo entered the year-long program on Feb. 22.

Contact Gary Craig at gcraig@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at gcraig1.

Excerpt from:
'He could be hard to find': Escaped mob hitman Dominic Taddeo has been on the run before - Democrat & Chronicle