Joseph Luparelli
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Joseph "Joe Pesh" Luparelli was a New York mob associate with the Colombo crime family who was involved in the gangland murder of renegade mobster "Crazy" Joe Gallo.
A resident of Bath Beach, Brooklyn, Luparelli was a low-ranking mob associate who ran menial errands and served as chauffeur and bodyguard to Colombo consigliere Joseph "Joe Yack" Yacovelli. In early 1971, Yacovelli ordered Luparelli to murder Colombo capo Joe Gallo. Considered a renegade, Gallo had been in conflict with the family leadership for several years. Luparelli took the assignment hoping that success would earn him membership in the family. That spring, Luparelli oversaw several failed attempts on Gallo's life. One such attempt was a plan to kill Gallo as he arrived at the offices of the New York State Department of Correctional Services to meet his parole officer. However, after Gallo missed two parole appointments, the family reconsidered and cancelled the murder contract.
In June 1972, Colombo boss Joseph Colombo was critically wounded by an African-American gunman at an Italian-American Defamation League rally in Staten Island, New York. Suspicion immediately fell on Gallo, due to his previous conflicts with Colombo and the connections Gallo forged in prison with African-American underworld figures. By March 1972, Gallo's continued raids against the Colombo's criminal operations convinced the family leadership to reinstate the murder contract.
On the night of March 18, Luparelli discovered that Gallo was celebrating his birthday with family at Umberto's Clam House in the Little Italy section of Manhattan. Luparelli quickly found Colombo mobsters Sonny Pinto, Philip "Fat Fungi" Gambino and two other soldiers in a nearby Chinese restuarant and they all headed to Umberto's to get Gallo. Once at the restaurant, Luparelli and Gambino blocked traffic while Pinto and the two soldiers entered the frong door. Pinto shot Gallo twice before his bodyguard could draw his gun. The three hitmen continued shooting Gallo as he staggered out of restaurant and collapsed on the sidewalk.
After the shooting, Luparelli and the Colombo mobsters went to stay in a safe house in Nyack, New York. In the ensuing five days, Luparelli became increasingly paranoid and decided that the Colombo family was going to murder him. Fleeing the house, Luparelli flew to Southern California to hide out with relatives. After several more days in hiding, Luparelli turned himself in to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). After being returned to New York, Luparelli agreed to testify against the Colombo family. Luparelli implicated Yacovelli and others in the Gallo slaying. However, his accusations were not strong enough to support any charges.
Luparelli soon entered the U.S. Department of Justice's Witness Protection Program and was not heard of again.
[edit] Further reading
- Capeci, Jerry. The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Mafia. Indianapolis: Alpha Books, 2002. ISBN 0-02-864225-2
- United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Administrative Practice and Procedure. Witness Protection Program: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Administrative Practice and Procedure. 1978. [1]
- United States. Congress. House. Select Committee on Assassinations. Investigation of the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy: hearings before the Select Committee on Assassinations. 1979. [2]
[edit] References
- Raab, Selwyn. Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires. New York: St. Martin Press, 2005. ISBN 0-312-30094-8
