Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Join the 2% of readers!SUPPORT OUR WORK!
Fast Forward

‘Son of Sal’ Gets 75 Years for Killing Brooklyn Jewish Shopkeepers

A New York clothing salesman known as the “Son of Sal” serial killer was sentenced on Friday for the 2012 shooting deaths of three shopkeepers in Brooklyn, prosecutors said.

Salvatore Perrone, 67, of Staten Island, was sentenced by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Alan Marrus to the maximum of 75 years to life in prison for the killings of Mohamed Gebeli, 65, Isaac Kadare, 59, and Rahmatollah Vahidipour, 78.

All three were shot in separate incidents near closing time between July and November 2012.

“It’s hard to think of anyone who deserves to spend the rest of his life in prison more than this cold-blooded and unrepentant serial killer,” said Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson.

Perrone, who had maintained he was framed by a business associate, was convicted on three counts of second-degree murder on Feb. 10 after a jury trial.

He was arrested the month of the final shooting, when a witness matched his likeness to a security camera image publicly circulated by police. Police said his fingerprints and DNA were recovered from the murder weapon, a .22-caliber rifle.

Described as an eccentric with a combative personality, Perrone was dubbed “Son of Sal” by neighbors, presumably after serial killer David Berkowitz, who went by “Son of Sam” and was convicted of murdering six people in the 1970s.

Are you one of our 2%?

Did you know that only 2% of Forward readers donate to support our nonprofit newsroom? That 2% make it possible for millions to read the Forward without a paywall or subscription — removing any barriers to the full and fair Jewish story.

But while the Forward is free to read, it isn’t free to produce. Big stories — like deep dives into the antisemitism data, political scoops or reporting trips to college campuses  —  take months of research and fact-checking. All while we keep you informed of what you need to know each day.

Don’t just read the Forward — invest in it. Support our work today!

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Forward Publisher & CEO

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:

  • Credit the Forward
  • Retain our pixel
  • Preserve our canonical link in Google search
  • Add a noindex tag in Google search

See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.