Joseph Sullivan (mobster)
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Joseph "Mad Dog" Sullivan (born c. 1940) was an Irish-American hitman who acted as a contract killer for the Mafia in New York City and was also rumored to be involved in the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa.
A native of Woodhaven, Queens, Sullivan was the first inmate to escape from Attica Correctional Facility in Upstate New York in April 1971 (he was recaptured several weeks later in New York City). When he was paroled in the mid-1970s, Sullivan was hired by Fat Tony Salerno of the Genovese crime family to assassinate Tom Devaney, Eddie "the Butcher" Cummiskey, and Tom "the Greek" Kapatos, three underlings of Mickey Spillane boss of the Hell's Kitchen Irish Mob in an effort by Salerno to take control of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, located in Hell's Kitchen. After the assassinations of his three top enforcers, Spillane all but disappeared from the neighborhood organized crime scene.
Sullivan was arrested in the early 1980s after a shootout with the FBI and New York State Police in Upstate New York.
[edit] References
- English, T.J. Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. ISBN 0-06-059002-5