Carmine Persico was born on 8 August 1933 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was married to Joyce Smoldone. He died on 7 March 2019 in Durham, North Carolina, USA.
His father was a "soldier" in the Vito Genovese Mafia family. His son, Alphonse Persico, was the liaison through which he maintained control of the Joseph Colombo Mafia family after his imprisonment until Alphonse's arrests in 2004 and 2006.