Tag: hitman

Joseph Gallo – Hitman and Enforcer of Profaci Mafia Family

It was on 7th April 1929, in Brooklyn’s Red Hook Section, New York that Joseph Gallo was born. He was popularly known among the Mafia members as ‘Crazy Joe’. He was Umberto Gallo, the Prohibition bootlegger’s son and had two brothers Albert and Larry. Every brother had become involved with organized crime.

His life as a Mafia

Gallo by 1949 got the nickname of ‘Joe the Blond’ since he had blond hair on his chest, which he displayed with pride. He was arrested in 1950 and sent to Hospital Center of Kings County and was diagnosed schizophrenia. He was working with Profaci Mafia family’s boss Joe Profaci as hitman and enforcer.

Being the Profaci family’s associate, he was placed in charge of numerous high stake extortion rackets, card games, number games, etc. He proved to be a smart business, and owned numerous sweat shops and nightclubs at Manhattan, thereby increasing his wealth.

He was asked by Joe Profaci in 1957 to murder Albert Anastasia, the modern Gambino mafia family boss, but as Anastasia was popular among the mafia family, he could not be killed easily. However, on 25th October 1957, Anastasia was killed at the barber’s shop and who is behind the murder is still a question, as no solid evidence had surfaced and fingers being pointed at different families.

Tough circumstances

Gallo wanted to take over the leadership in early 1960’s and devised a plan for kidnapping the leadership of Joe Profaci. To seek revenge, Profaci in May 1961 had combined with Carmine Perisco for eliminating the crew of Gallo and his top enforcer Joe Kelly was killed. The next to be on the hit list was Larry Gallo on August 1961. This attached had initiated a war between Perisco and Profaci team, while the Gallo crew had retreated to some safe house located on President’s Street.

The year proved to be a tough one for Gallo’s crew, who had to stay holed within their apartment. It is this time that Gallo had resorted to money extortion from the nearby establishments, but got arrested and convicted on 21sts December 1961, being sentenced to 7 to 14 years.

He got released in 1971 after 10 years of serving, after being found that he had saved a guard during a riot, when the latter was attacked by few inmates. Moreover, he enjoyed a clean history during the serving time, helping his release. Although he tried to get back to his old ways, on 7th April 197, he got killed.