Peter LaTempa

Peter LaTempa (1904-January 15, 1945) was a New York mobster and associate of the Genovese crime family, who later agreed to become a government witness against Viro Genovese.

A local Brooklyn hoodlum, LaTempa was pressured to support the testimony of hitman Ernest "The Hawk" Rupolo in the government's case against Vito Genovese for the murder of the 1934 murder of gambler Ferdinand "The Shadow" Boccia. Shortly after Genovese's escape to Sicily, LaTempa would eventually agree to cooperate with authorities apparently beliving, like many in the underworld, of the federal government's inability to prosecute him.

With Genovese's recapture at the end of World War II, LaTempa immediatly went to the district attorney's Brooklyn office demanding to be put in protective custody following news of Genovese's arrival on January 8, 1945. Placed under protective custody at the Raymond Street jail, less then a week after Genovese's return, LaTempa was found dead in his cell after taking medication for his gallstones. A later autopsy revealed enogh poison was in his system "..to kill eight horses." LaTempa's murder, specifically how his medication had been tempered with, remained unsolved.

With LaTempa's sudden death, the federal prosecutors were forced to rely on Rupolo's testimony and the case easily fell though with Genovese aquitted of all charges.