Joseph Gallo was born on April 7, 1929 in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, New York to a loan shark father, Umberto, and his wife, Mary. Joseph had one sister, Carmella, and two brothers: Lawrence and Albert. Joseph attended Brooklyn's Public School 179.
Rumor has it that after seeing Kiss of Death in 1947, Gallo began imitating and dressing like the film's main character Tommy Udo, portrayed by Richard Widmark. In 1950, Joey was convicted for burglary but was given a suspended sentence after being diagnosed with paranoid-schizophrenia. Seven years later, he allegedly murdered Albert Anastasia, head of "Murder Incorporated", which earned him (as well as Larry) a position in the Profaci crime family as a made man. Gallo and Jackie "Mad Dog" Nazarian allegedly shot Anastasia to death as he sat in a barber chair in Manhattan's Park Sheraton Hotel.
Not long after, the dissatisfied Gallo brothers and various fellow mobsters rebelled against the head of the family, Guiseppi "Joe" Profaci, and established a base of operations in a South Brooklyn warehouse. By this time, Larry had earned the nickname "the Boss" and Albert, the youngest Gallo sibling, was known as "Al the Blast". In 1961, the Gallos kidnapped Profaci's brother, brother-in-law and Profaci family underboss Joseph Colombo, demanding a greater share of the organization's proceeds in exchange for their release. On January 31, 1962, Larry and Al, along with fellow gang members John "Lupo" Commarato, Leonard "Lenny" Dello, Anthony "Tony Shots" Abbatemarco, Frank "Punchy" Illiano and Alphonso "Peanuts" Serantonio, rescued six children from their burning apartment on South Brooklyn's President street, which they controlled. Joe was incarcerated at upstate New York's Attica Correctional Facility at the time.
In 1960, Gallo married Jeffie Lee Boyd and in 1962, the couple welcomed a daughter, Joie. The pair divorced when Gallo was sentenced to five years in prison. However, upon his release, the two remarried. The couple divorced for the second and final time in 1971, after which Jeffie moved to California with Joie.
Larry Gallo died of cancer in 1968.
After serving eight years for an attempted extortion conviction for muscling the owner of a Brooklyn bar, Gallo was released from the Ossining State Correctional Facility on April 11, 1971. During Gallo's incarceration, Joseph Anthony Colombo took over the Profaci family following the death of the organization's namesake. While he renamed the gang after himself, Colombo nevertheless founded the Italian American Civil Rights League, an organization dedicated to eliminating the "myth" of Italian Americans, such as himself, as gangsters. Opposed to his high-profile, Gallo challenged Colombo for power shortly after his release, attempting to extort him for $100,000. In turn, Colombo placed a hit on Gallo. However, on June 28, Colombo was shot in front of a crowd of thousands, including NYC mayor John Lindsay, at an Italian American Civil Rights League event near Central Park. As Colombo was preparing to speak, an African American man, Jerome Johnson, opened fire on him. Johnson, in turn, was quickly shot to death. Though the incident, which left Colombo paralyzed, garnered an enormous amount of publicity, including a cover story in Time magazine, a clear motive for the shooting was never established. However, many believed that it was orchestrated by Gallo.
Later that year, a film adaptation of the book The Gang Who Couldn't Shoot Straight, loosely based on Gallo's crew and their exploits, was released. Though he reportedly resented the film's depiction of him, Gallo befriended the actor --Jerry Orbach -- who portrayed the character "Kid Sally", who was loosely based on Gallo. It wasn't long before Gallo and his new girlfriend, Sina Essary, began going on double dates with Orbach and his wife Marta. In fact, Gallo and Essary, a former nun from Ohio, were married in the Orbach's home in March of 1972. Popular 1970s comedian David Steinberg served as Gallo's best man.
Joe Gallo (left)
On April 6, 1972, Gallo, dressed in a pinstripe suit and a gray fedora, and friends, including his new wife Sina Essary Gallo, whom he'd married the previous month, and her 10-year-old daughter, Lisa (a Broadway star); his sister, Carmella Fiorello; Steinberg; the Orbachs; stand-up comic Don Rickles; childhood friend (the two met at P.S. 179) and bodyguard Peter "Pete the Greek" Diapoulas and his date, Edith Russo; and bodyguard Robert "Bobby Darrow" Bongiovi partied at Manhattan's Copacabana to celebrate Gallo's birthday until the legendary nightclub closed at approximately 4 a.m. Gallo's party --minus the Orbachs, Rickles, Steinberg and Bongiovi -- then headed to Umberto's Clam House in Gallo's black 1971 Cadillac for breakfast. At approximately 5:30 a.m. on April 7, 1972, Gallo was shot to death by a lone unknown assailant armed with a .38 caliber handgun during his birthday celebration at Umberto's, located at 129 Mulberry Street in Manhattan's Little Italy. Diapoulas sustained a gunshot to the left hip during an exchange with the triggerman, during which 20 shots were fired. The assailant, who, according to witnesses, entered the restaurant through a side door, was described as being middle-aged, having black hair and standing 5'8".
Gallo upended the table at which the group was seated, and after sustaining injuries, exited through the front door before collapsing, dead, on Hester Street. Because Umberto's was located one block from Police Headquarters, officers arrived quickly, alerted by the shooting, and both Gallo and Diapoulas were transported, via police car, to Beekman-Downtown Hospital for treatment. Gallo had been shot in the back, left elbow and left buttock and was pronounced dead at the hospital. Diapoulas, who was placed under police guard at the facility, refused to cooperate when questioned about the shooting. In fact, he even declined to reveal his name. Mrs. Fiorello, who was overcome with emotion, had to be sedated. Diapoulas was subsequently convicted for unlawful possession of an unloaded firearm and served a year in prison.
The Gallo-Colombo war intensified following Joe's death. At approximately 9:30 pm on August 11, 1972, a lone assailant armed with two long-barreled revolvers, gunned down four men dining in Manhattan's Neapolitan Noodle restaurant. Two of the men, Leon Schneider and Jack Forem, survived, while the other two, Sheldon Epstein and Max Tekelch, were killed. Forem sustained a bullet in the leg and Schneider was treated at New York Hospital for four gunshots. The triggerman, a Las Vegas hitman, had mistaken the four victims for Colombo soldiers and opened fire when they left the bar area of the restaurants with their dates. In the summer of 1974, four members of the Gallo crew were shot at a benefit held at a Brooklyn synagogue. One of the men, Steve Grillo, was killed.
In 1975, Diapoulas identified Gallo's killer as Carmine Di Blase, also known by the alias Sonny Pinto. Joseph Luparelli later admitted to being the getaway driver.
Joe Gallo
Umberto's Clam House
Albert Anastasia post-mortem
