Zaccaro has been a licensed real estate broker since 1951 and a member of the Real Estate Board of New York since 1955. He started working as a salesman for his father, Phillip J. Zaccaro, who had established P. Zaccaro Co., Inc. in 1917. As an agent for the City of New York, the firm managed properties which were condemned by the City, upon which Stuyvesant Town, Peter Cooper Village, and Knickerbocker Village were built in the 1930s and 1940s. In the late-1970s, Zaccaro was appointed a member of the New York CityHousing Council. By 1984, Zaccaro's company owned or managed over 20 residential and commercial properties in Manhattan. According to a New York Times article, Zaccaro's buildings had accumulated over 100 mostly minor code violations, but some serious, with tenants complaining of poor conditions in some of the apartments. Shortly after Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale selected Ferraro as his vice presidential running mate in the 1984 U.S. presidential election, Zaccaro became the center of controversy due to the couple's finances and his refusal to release his separately-filed tax returns. Ultimately they were submitted, but the matter diminished Ferraro's rising stardom and removed the momentum the Mondale–Ferraro ticket gained following the pick. Mondale and Ferraro lost the general election in a landslide to incumbent President Ronald Reagan, although political observers generally agree that no combination of Democrats could have won the election that year. In January 1985, Zaccaro pleaded guilty to fraudulently obtaining bank financing in a real estate transaction and was fined $1,000 and was sentenced to 150 hours of community service. Zaccaro stated afterward, "My lawyers have advised me that since my client and I withdrew the loan application, since no one but I was injured, and since I received no benefit, they felt that they could successfully defend this case" but he said he entered the plea to spare his family more publicity and to "conclude the matter and try to return to private life." In October 1986, he was indicted on unrelated felony charges regarding an alleged 1981 bribery of Queens Borough PresidentDonald Manes concerning a cable television contract. A full year later, he was acquitted of all charges at trial. Zaccaro's business associations have also created controversy, and they and the couple's finances again became a damaging issue during Ferraro's 1992 Senate Democratic primary campaign. Zaccaro was not an issue in her 1998 Senate Democratic primary campaign, which she also lost. P. Zaccaro Co., Inc. continues as a third-generation, privately held real estate investment, development, and management firm that specializes in Manhattan. As principal for over 50 years, Zaccaro has been involved in every aspect of the real estate industry as a manager, broker, developer, or principal. Some of his past clients are the Emigrant Savings Bank, Bowery Savings Bank, and New York University. Zaccaro now works with his son, John Jr., a licensed attorney and real estate broker. The firm's deals have sometimes been valued into the tens of millions of dollars and involved other New York real estate luminaries such as Jared Kushner. Zaccaro has been appointed as a trustee in bankruptcy by the courts of New York, Queens, and Kings Counties. Zaccaro has also served as a trustee at various independent schools in the city, including Saint David's School and Convent of the Sacred Heart. He is currently a member of the board of directors of his co-op where he resides.
Personal life
Zaccaro and Ferraro met in 1954, when she was a sophomore at Marymount Manhattan College. They became engaged in August 1959, and married on July 16, 1960. They had three children, Donna, John Jr., and Laura.
