Joe Gallo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Crazy Joe Gallo | |
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| Born | April 7, 1929 Brooklyn, New York, USA |
| Died | April 7, 1972 Little Italy, Manhattan, New York, USA |
- For the Gambino crime family mobster, see Joseph N. Gallo.
"Crazy" Joey Gallo (April 7, 1929 – April 7, 1972) was a New York gangster who was a gunman and racketeer as a member of the Profaci crime family (later known as the Colombo crime family). He was also a friend of the late actor Jerry Orbach.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, to Neapolitan parents, Gallo earned his nickname in mafia circles because he was a ruthless killer who was a happy shooter and very unpredictable. The Gallo brothers did some work for Carlo Gambino (whose family would later bear his name), and are credited by most sources to be the assassins of Murder, Inc. leader and gangster Albert Anastasia in 1957. The Gallo crew also had a close relationship with one of Vito Genovese's most powerful capodecina's Anthony Strollo, until Genovese had him killed.
In the late 1940s and 1950s, he tried to overpower mafia boss Joseph Profaci to take control of the Profaci family. Gallo was helped in this war by his brothers Larry and Albert. Albert was himself nicknamed Kid Blast. Due to Profaci's unpopularity with his men (he was seen as somewhat stingy and required constant tribute), the Gallos and their chief ally, Carmine Persico, seemed poised to take control of the family.
Profaci was saved, however, when Gallo was arrested and convicted of extortion in 1961. Gallo would spend the next ten years in prison.
Upon his release in 1971, Gallo battled Profaci's successor Joe Colombo and the now renamed Colombo family. Gallo was one of the first mafiosi to predict a shift of power in the New York streets from the Italian mafia to black gangs, and he started becoming friends with members of the black gangs. Gallo was allied with Carlo Gambino against Colombo. Joe Colombo was shot in June 1971 by a black gunman named Jerome Johnson. Johnson, who was immediately shot dead by Colombo's bodyguards, was believed to be an associate of Gallo and therefore Gallo was widely suspected by both the police and other mobsters as being the one behind Colombo's shooting.
According to the standard account of his death, on April 7, 1972, Gallo was celebrating his 43rd birthday with his family at a restaurant, Umberto's Clam House at 129 Mulberry street in Little Italy, New York City, when three gunmen burst in and opened fire. Gallo ran away from the table, most likely in an effort to draw the gunfire away from his family. Gallo was hit five times and died after stumbling into the street while his killers sped away in a car. The gunmen were never identified or convicted.
A differing account of the hit was offered by hit-man and union activist Frank Sheeran in a series of confessions made before his death. Sheeran disputed there being three gunmen and claimed that he was the lone trigger-man in the hit.
[edit] In popular culture
- Gallo was immortalized in the song Joey by Bob Dylan and Jacques Levy on Dylan's 1976 album Desire.
- Gallo is also mentioned in the song Wouldn't Have You Any Other Way (NYC) by Elton John and Bernie Taupin on Elton's 2006 release The Captain & The Kid.
- Both the film and novel The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight are a roman à clef of the life of Joe Gallo whose fictional counterpart is played by Jerry Orbach in the film.
- In Godfather Part III, the character Joey Zasa (Joe Mantegna) is based in part on Joey Gallo.
[edit] References
- Brandt, Charles. I Heard You Paint Houses: Frank "the Irishman" Sheeran and the inside story of the Mafia, the Teamsters, and the last ride of Jimmy Hoffa. Steerforth Press, Hanover (NH, USA) 2004. (ISBN 1-58642-077-1)
