Joe Gallo

Joseph Gallo (April 7, 1929 – April 7, 1972), also known as "Crazy Joe", was an American mobster and soldato (soldier) often characterized as a de facto caporegime (captain) in the Colombo crime family of New York City. Diagnosed with schizophrenia in his youth, Gallo became an enforcer in the Profaci crime family (forerunner to the Colombo family) and formed his own crew with his brothers, Larry and Albert. In 1957, Joe Profaci allegedly asked the Gallo crew to murder Albert Anastasia, the boss of what was to become the Gambino crime family; Anastasia was later murdered at a barbershop in Midtown Manhattan. In 1961, the Gallo brothers kidnapped four of Profaci's top men: underboss Joseph Magliocco, Frank Profaci (Joe Profaci's brother), captain Salvatore Musacchia and soldier John Scimone, demanding a more favorable financial scheme for the hostages' release. After a few weeks of negotiation, Profaci and his consigliere, Charles "the Sidge" LoCicero, made a deal with the Gallos and secured the peaceful release of the hostages. This incited the First Colombo War. In 1961, Gallo was sentenced to seven to fourteen years' imprisonment for conspiracy and extortion. During his incarceration, Magliocco took over the family in the wake of Profaci's death, leading to a murder attempt against Carmine Persico by the remaining Gallo brothers in 1963. Patriarca family boss Raymond L.S. Patriarca negotiated a peace agreement between the two factions, but Gallo later refused to abide by the agreement, citing his imprisonment. After Gallo's release from prison in 1971, a peace offering of $1,000 was made by boss Joseph Colombo, but Gallo demanded $100,000; Colombo refused. On June 28, 1971, at an Italian-American Civil Rights League rally in Columbus Circle, Colombo was shot three times by an African-American gunman, who was immediately killed by Colombo's bodyguards; Colombo survived the...