Attorney Benson Weintraub says Persico died on Thursday at the Duke University Medical Center. He had been serving what was effectively a life sentence at a federal prison in Butner, North Carolina.
Persico was convicted of racketeering and murder in a prosecution of mob bosses led by then-U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani.
Prosecutors said Persico took over the murderous New York-based crime organization in the early 1970s when it was at the height of its powers. He was sentenced to more than a century in prison during the 1986 'Commission Trial' targeting the heads of New York's mafia families.
Persico served as his own lawyer during the trial.
Persico was sentenced to 139 years in prison, though he was said to continue running the Colombo crime family from behind bars, according to the New York Daily News.