|New York|  Thomas Gioeli Birth: 1952 Death: / Thomas "Tommy Shots" Gioeli was the acting boss of the Colombo Crime Family from 2004 until his arrest in 2008. He is currently awaiting trial for racketeering and murder. Colombo war 1991 - 1993 During the early 1980's he was arrested for the first time and was jailed for robbery. During this period Gioeli was known as a "Stand-up-guy" and was later made in the Colombo family. Gioeli went to work for Vic Orena, who was a caporegime at the time for the Colombo Family during the 1980's. When Orena became the Acting Boss for Carmine Persico, who was jailed in 1986, he tried to exclude Persico out of the family with help from newly Gambino boss John Gotti. This led to a war in 1991, which caused nearly a dozen lifes. Orena also survived a couple of murder attempts during that period by Persico hitsquads. When Gioeli recognized Persico's power, he switched sides from Orena to Persico, to avoid being killed. On March 27, 1992, Gioeli and other Persico loyalists were ambushed and were suddenly popped into a high-speed car chase. Gioeli was shot multiple times but survived, this is were he earned his nickname 'Tommy Shots'. This also earned Gioeli respect on the streets. During that same year Orena was arrested and jailed, amongst other Orena loyalists. Only one stronghold of the Orena faction remained, but he was murdered in 1993. Promotion and arrest During the late 1990's Tommy Shots was promoted to capo by Alphonse Persico and John DeRoss. After the arrest of then acting Boss Joel Cacace in 2004, he found himself promoted again as acting boss of the family. On June 4, 2008, Gioeli however was arrested at his home in Long Island. During the bust another 8 Colombo members, amongst them underboss John Franzese, were also arrested. Gioeli was charged with robbery, murder and extortion. While in prison Gioeli's health started to get worse. Although being a diabetic Gioeli did not stop his bad habbit of fast food and on February 10, 2010, he suffered a minor stroke. The prison where he is detained in addition recieved allegations that they did not give proper food for diabetics and did not fill in his perscriptions properly. A day before his stroke his request for bail had been denialed by the judge, but the prison officials did grant him the use of a glucometer for further threatment of his disease. .:Back to American Mafia:.

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