Crazy Joe Gallo was not a typical mob guy.
Criminals in general, and Cosa Nostra organized crime members in particular, are a clannish breed. They do not normally socialize outside of their crime circles, as they have serious trust issues.
But not Crazy Joe Gallo. He publicly hobnobbed with counterculture musicians, poets and artists in Greenwich Village during the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. The 5’ 6’ tall Gallo reportedly wrote poetry, painted and read existential philosophy. He yearned to be a poet – albeit one that shakes down local businesses.
Along with his older brother Larry and younger brother Albert, known as “Kid Twist,” Joe Gallo ran a particularly vicious crew of Brooklyn extortionists and murderers who were connected to the Profaci crime family.
Life published photos of the Gallo crew; a collection of oddball criminals called Peanuts, Pete the Greek, Tarzan, Louie Cadillac, Mondo the Midget, Vinnie the Sicilian, Roy Roy, the Worm, Big Lollypop, Little Lollypop and Ali Baba, the Egyptian knife thrower. Jimmy Breslin’s satirical novel, The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight, brilliantly captured the colorful and violent gang.
Now we also have Tom Folsom’s nonfiction book on Joe Gallo, The Mad Ones: Crazy Joe Gallo and the Revolution at the Edge of the Underworld (Weinstein Books).
Larry was the brains of the Gallos, Folsom informs us, but Crazy Joe was the character. The Gallo brothers were reputedly the hit men who killed mob boss Albert “the Mad Hatter”Anastasia in 1957 as he sat in a barber chair in Manhattan. They also killed “Frankie Shots” Abbatemarco, a major mob bookmaker in 1959.
The brothers believed themselves to be under-rewarded so they took on the boss, Joe Profaci. Newspaper and magazine reporters wrote numerous pieces about the Gallo- Profaci mob war.
In 1961 Gallo went to prison for threatening a store owner within earshot of New York City detectives. Profaci died and Joe Colombo took over the crime organization. He settled the beef with the Gallos by promoting Larry.
When Joe Gallo came out of prison in 1969, he resumed his fight for leadership of the organization, only this time with Joe Colombo.
Breslin’s The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight came out in 1969 and the film, staring Jerry Orbach as a character based on Gallo, came out in 1971. Gallo disliked the book and film as he believed it made him out to be a clownish hoodlum.
Gallo invited actor Orbach to dinner. They became friends and the Orbachs’ introduced Gallo to their successful entertainer friends. They embraced Gallo as their celebrity chic gangster. Gallo’s enormous ego was stroked by the entertainers.
Colombo was gunned down in 1971 at an Italian-American rally, reputedly on orders from Gallo. Gallo in turn was murdered on April 7, 1972. He was shot by gunmen as he celebrated his 43rd birthday at Umberto’s Clam House on Mulberry’s Street in Manhattan.
Gallo’s shooting death made for a good newspaper story then and it makes for a dramatic end to Folsom’s book today.
Paul Davis also writes an espionage blog for GreatHistory.com. His web site can be viewed here. He can be reached at pauldavisoncrime@aol.com
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