Anthony and his brother Joseph are the sons of Prohibition era Mafia boss Giuseppe Piraino. The Peraino brothers' father was a member of the Sicilian Mafia and immigrated to the United States from Sicily around 1911 after escaping from the Palermo prison where he had been sentenced to 25 years. Joe Piraino settled in New York around 1911, but it is unknown if he was already married upon his arrival. What is known is that Anthony was born approximately 4 years after his father's arrival from Sicily, and that his father immediately joined his fellow Sicilian countrymen in New York's Italian underworld and started to climb the ranks of the New York Mafia. By 1930, Piraino had become the boss of the Bay Ridge, Brooklyn area rackets, taking over bootlegging, gambling and extortion activities on