July 7, 2025 • 10 mins
In this episode of Mobstercast Chronicles, we explore the life of Salvatore “Sally the Sheik” Mussachio—a charming, sharp-dressed mobster
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the deep Dive. Today, we're inviting you to
sort of peel back the layers on a notoriously shadowy world.
You know, we always hear about the big bosses, the
infamous names, but what about the other guys, the ones
whose lives you know, got tangled up in all the drama,
but maybe stayed out of the spotlight even though they
were pretty crucial.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
That's a great point. We definitely focus on the top dogs,
the names and the headlines, but underneath them, there are
so many figures who will played really vital roles. They
saw the same conflicts, face the same risks.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
And they give us a different angle, right, a way
to see how things really worked on.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
The ground, exactly, a unique lens.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
And today our deep dive is into one of those figures,
Salvator Musaccio, nickname Sally the Chic. Now that name, it
might not ring a bell immediately for everyone, probably not,
but our sources they show he was actually an early
and historically pretty significant member of the crime family that
eventually became known as the Colombo family.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yeah, historically significant is right, and our mission today is
really to unpack his role, which often gets overlooked during
honestly one of the most chaotic periods in American mafia history.
We're talking about the Profaci Gallo.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Conflict the early nineteen sixties, right, it.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Was basically a mob civil war. Yeah, and we want
to show you how Sally the Sheikh, even though he wasn't,
you know, front and center in the news, ended up
right in the middle of that storm.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Okay, So get ready we're talking a dramatic kidnapping, really
brutal power struggles, and how just one guy story can
open up this window into the fragile alliances and the
kind of complex codes that define the underworld back then.
It's quite a story, all right, let's dive in then,
Salvator Masaccio, Sally the Shekh. Who was this guy fundamentally
(01:47):
and why pick him out from you know, the crowd
of lesser known figures.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Well, Salvatory Musakio is important precisely because he wasn't a
top boss, but he was deeply involved in a really
critical time. Sources point to him being an early member,
maybe even foundational in some ways, of what we now
call the Colombo family.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
One of the five families in New York.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Exactly, and his importance it really comes from him being
directly caught up in these huge events that basically reshape
that whole organization.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Okay, So to really get Sally the chic, we need
to understand the family context first. It wasn't always the
Columbo family, was it. It had a different name, a
different boss.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
That's right. It started with Joseph Profacci. He founded the
family way back nineteen twenty eight, and under Profaci it
was well known for being very tightly controlled, very Sicilian
in its leadership and their business. The usual rackets, oh yeah,
deeply involved in the classics extortion, loan sharking, was big
(02:46):
labor racketeering too. That was really their bread and butter.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Okay, So Prafaci's in charge for decades, and usually when
you have someone ruling that long, especially if they're seen
as maybe greedy or playing favorites, that tends to stir
up trouble, doesn't it, Especially with the younger guys, the
ambitious ones like the Gallo brothers.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Absolutely, that's exactly what happened. By the late fifties early sixties,
the tension inside the Profacci family was I mean it
was boiling over. You had the Gallo brothers, Joe Gallo, Crazy.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Joe Simith misname right there, Oh yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
His brother's Larry Gallo, Albert kid Blast Gallo. They got
louder and louder. They started openly accusing Prafacci of you know,
keeping too much of the profits, treating his soldiers unfairly.
They basically saw him as this old world tyrant.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
And they didn't just grumble about it, did they They
took action. What was their move against Perfacci?
Speaker 2 (03:35):
They did something pretty unprecedented, really uh shocking for the time.
In nineteen sixty one, the Gallows decided they had to
force Profacci's hand, so they kidnapped several high ranking members
of his own family.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
We napped them.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Wow. Yeah. It was incredibly audacious, a direct challenge to
the boss's authority, basically screened, we're ready for a war
if we have to.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
And incredibly our sources confirm Salvatormysakio Sally the Sheik himself,
he was one of the guys they grabbed.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
He was he was one of the Profanci loyalists who
got snatched by the Gallow crew.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
So he was loyal to Prafacci. That put him right in.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
The crosshairs exactly his kidnapping is just this stark example
of the brutal tactics that were suddenly in play. He,
along with the mother's loyal to Prafacci, were held hostage.
The Gallus's goal was pretty clear, use these guys as bargaining.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Chips, can negotiate better terms, a bigger piece of the pod.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Yeah, better treatment, maybe a redistribution of power of the
rackets they wanted Profacci to deal.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Okay, But knowing Prafacci's reputation, how did he respond? Did
he play ball? Did he try to negotiate for his guys?
Speaker 2 (04:41):
No way. He absolutely refused to give in, flat out refused.
And that refusal that was the critical moment. It's what
turned it from a tense standoff into a full blown
internal war.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
So the kidnapping didn't actually achieve the Gallows goal negotiation wise, not.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
In the way they hoped. Musakio. He was eventually released,
but the damage was done. Is abduction and Prafacci just
digging in his heels. It cemented the conflict. It became
open season within the family, a real turning point.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
So once that line was crossed, the violence must have
just exploded. Right. What did the aftermath look like? After
the kidnapping, oh, it was brutal.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
The profacci Gallo war kicked off, this really bloody chain
reaction where taliatory hits Ambush's betrayals. It just spiraled.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
And this wasn't just happening behind closed doors, was it.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Not at all? That's the key thing. This violence spilled
right out onto the streets of Brooklyn mostly. It got messy,
and of course that drew a ton of attention from
law enforcement, from the media. It really exposed the raw
nerves of the mafia in a way that hadn't happened
quite like that before.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
And Sally the Sheikh. While our sources say he wasn't
like a frontline enforcer out there doing the shootings, right,
not his role, his kidnappings still put him smack dab
in the center of this internal war. It really highlights
just how fragile does Alliance's word, doesn't it, and the
ruthlessness of the power struggles back then.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
It really does. And what's fascinating about Musakio is even
though he wasn't this known hitter, he wasn't just some
random foot soldier either. He apparently had connections oh like well,
he was reportedly related by marriage to other powerful figures,
including Joe Magleioko Maglioco.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
He took over after Profaci died, didn't he for a
short time.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
That's the one became boss right after Profaci. So these
kinds of connections, they probably gave Musaccio a certain amount
of influence, maybe some protection within the family, even while
he's caught up in this crazy conflict.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Interesting, and then there's that nickname, Sally the Sheikh. It
just makes you wonder, you know, does doesn't it our
sources kind of And maybe he was a bit flamboyant,
m or charismatic, even though he mostly seems to have
preferred staying in the background.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Yeah, the Sheikh suggests something right, a certain presence. Maybe
maybe he dressed well, maybe he just had a way
about him that stood out even among you know, a
bunch of tough characters, but.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Still kept a low profile.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Generally, seems like it, like a lot of mob guys
in that time, discretion was probably rule number one. Yeah,
but yeah, the nickname definitely hints at something more than
just your average loyal soldier.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
So after all this chaos, the Profacigala War dies down,
eventually the family rebrands under Joseph Colombo. What happens to
Sally the Sheik? He seems to just sort of fade
away pretty much.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Yeah, he doesn't rise up to the very top ranks,
you know, become a boss or underboss.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
And he didn't flip right, didn't become a government informant
like some others did.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Later on, no indication of that at all. He seems
to have just receded into the background, survived the war,
survived the transition, and just kept his head down.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Maybe so his story kind of ends quietly in a way, his.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Public story, perhaps his trajectory, though it serves as this
really potent reminder of that incredibly chaotic chapter, a chapter
that definitely shaped the future of the Columbo family. Even
if he himself didn't see that headlines, he lived through
it adapted.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Okay, so let's bring it back to our listener. Why
should someone like Salvatormokusakio matter to you today? He's not
a household name. We established that, So why did we
do this deep dive on him? What's the real takeaway?
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Well? I think it's because his story gives us this
critical window, you know, a look inside the mafia that
goes beyond just the big bosses and the famous hitmen
we always see in.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Movies, right, It shows the perspective of the guys caught
in the middle.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Exactly, the rank and file members, the soldiers, the guys
who were caught in the crossfire these huge power struggles.
Muzacio's kidnapping, it wasn't just some personal drama for him.
It was actually a major catalyst, a.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Catalyst for one of the biggest internal mob wars ever.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Precisely, it showed how, in this world supposedly built on loyalty,
even being loyal could make you a target. Any perceived weakness,
any leverage point, could be exploited ruthlessly.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
And the fact that he survived at all, came out
of that kidnapping, lived through the war. That tells us
something too, doesn't it about the the complex rules, the
codes that govern that world.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Absolutely, it wasn't always just about wiping out your enemies.
Sometimes it was about sending messages about leverage, about these
intricate power plays. There was almost this strange, dark pragmatism
to it. Sometimes.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Yeah, it definitely challenges the simple good guy bad guy
narratives we sometimes get.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
It really does. His story highlights all the nuances, yeah,
the nuances of survival, of influence within this system that
was built on both these really rigid codes and incredibly
volatile betrayals.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
You really get a sense of the pressure these guys.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Were under immense pressure and the kind of choices they
were constantly making just to navigate a world where you know,
a handshake could mean everything one day and absolutely nothing
the next.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
So Salvatory Sally the Sheik. Musakio maybe not a household name,
but undeniably tangled up in some of the biggest moments
in organized crime history, from his early days under Perfacci
to being kidnapped right at the heart of the Gallo rebellion.
His story really is a fascinating chapter, and that whole
American mafia.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Sock, it really is. And you know, when we look
back at history, we tend to focus on the leaders,
the big narratives, but maybe think about how often history
is really shaped not just by those guys at the
very taut but by these key moments, these pivotal experiences
that happen to people operating more in the shadows, like Musakio.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
That's a great point. What other hidden figures are out there?
Whose stories could unlock bigger historical pictures exactly.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
It's just a powerful reminder I think that even the
figures who seem lesser known, they often played absolutely crucial
roles in shaping the legacies we remember today. Their stories
matter
Welcome to the deep Dive. Today, we're inviting you to
sort of peel back the layers on a notoriously shadowy world.
You know, we always hear about the big bosses, the
infamous names, but what about the other guys, the ones
whose lives you know, got tangled up in all the drama,
but maybe stayed out of the spotlight even though they
were pretty crucial.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
That's a great point. We definitely focus on the top dogs,
the names and the headlines, but underneath them, there are
so many figures who will played really vital roles. They
saw the same conflicts, face the same risks.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
And they give us a different angle, right, a way
to see how things really worked on.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
The ground, exactly, a unique lens.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
And today our deep dive is into one of those figures,
Salvator Musaccio, nickname Sally the Chic. Now that name, it
might not ring a bell immediately for everyone, probably not,
but our sources they show he was actually an early
and historically pretty significant member of the crime family that
eventually became known as the Colombo family.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yeah, historically significant is right, and our mission today is
really to unpack his role, which often gets overlooked during
honestly one of the most chaotic periods in American mafia history.
We're talking about the Profaci Gallo.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Conflict the early nineteen sixties, right, it.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Was basically a mob civil war. Yeah, and we want
to show you how Sally the Sheikh, even though he wasn't,
you know, front and center in the news, ended up
right in the middle of that storm.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Okay, So get ready we're talking a dramatic kidnapping, really
brutal power struggles, and how just one guy story can
open up this window into the fragile alliances and the
kind of complex codes that define the underworld back then.
It's quite a story, all right, let's dive in then,
Salvator Masaccio, Sally the Shekh. Who was this guy fundamentally
(01:47):
and why pick him out from you know, the crowd
of lesser known figures.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Well, Salvatory Musakio is important precisely because he wasn't a
top boss, but he was deeply involved in a really
critical time. Sources point to him being an early member,
maybe even foundational in some ways, of what we now
call the Colombo family.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
One of the five families in New York.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Exactly, and his importance it really comes from him being
directly caught up in these huge events that basically reshape
that whole organization.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Okay, So to really get Sally the chic, we need
to understand the family context first. It wasn't always the
Columbo family, was it. It had a different name, a
different boss.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
That's right. It started with Joseph Profacci. He founded the
family way back nineteen twenty eight, and under Profaci it
was well known for being very tightly controlled, very Sicilian
in its leadership and their business. The usual rackets, oh yeah,
deeply involved in the classics extortion, loan sharking, was big
(02:46):
labor racketeering too. That was really their bread and butter.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Okay, So Prafaci's in charge for decades, and usually when
you have someone ruling that long, especially if they're seen
as maybe greedy or playing favorites, that tends to stir
up trouble, doesn't it, Especially with the younger guys, the
ambitious ones like the Gallo brothers.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Absolutely, that's exactly what happened. By the late fifties early sixties,
the tension inside the Profacci family was I mean it
was boiling over. You had the Gallo brothers, Joe Gallo, Crazy.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Joe Simith misname right there, Oh yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
His brother's Larry Gallo, Albert kid Blast Gallo. They got
louder and louder. They started openly accusing Prafacci of you know,
keeping too much of the profits, treating his soldiers unfairly.
They basically saw him as this old world tyrant.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
And they didn't just grumble about it, did they They
took action. What was their move against Perfacci?
Speaker 2 (03:35):
They did something pretty unprecedented, really uh shocking for the time.
In nineteen sixty one, the Gallows decided they had to
force Profacci's hand, so they kidnapped several high ranking members
of his own family.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
We napped them.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Wow. Yeah. It was incredibly audacious, a direct challenge to
the boss's authority, basically screened, we're ready for a war
if we have to.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
And incredibly our sources confirm Salvatormysakio Sally the Sheik himself,
he was one of the guys they grabbed.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
He was he was one of the Profanci loyalists who
got snatched by the Gallow crew.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
So he was loyal to Prafacci. That put him right in.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
The crosshairs exactly his kidnapping is just this stark example
of the brutal tactics that were suddenly in play. He,
along with the mother's loyal to Prafacci, were held hostage.
The Gallus's goal was pretty clear, use these guys as bargaining.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Chips, can negotiate better terms, a bigger piece of the pod.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Yeah, better treatment, maybe a redistribution of power of the
rackets they wanted Profacci to deal.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Okay, But knowing Prafacci's reputation, how did he respond? Did
he play ball? Did he try to negotiate for his guys?
Speaker 2 (04:41):
No way. He absolutely refused to give in, flat out refused.
And that refusal that was the critical moment. It's what
turned it from a tense standoff into a full blown
internal war.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
So the kidnapping didn't actually achieve the Gallows goal negotiation wise, not.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
In the way they hoped. Musakio. He was eventually released,
but the damage was done. Is abduction and Prafacci just
digging in his heels. It cemented the conflict. It became
open season within the family, a real turning point.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
So once that line was crossed, the violence must have
just exploded. Right. What did the aftermath look like? After
the kidnapping, oh, it was brutal.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
The profacci Gallo war kicked off, this really bloody chain
reaction where taliatory hits Ambush's betrayals. It just spiraled.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
And this wasn't just happening behind closed doors, was it.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Not at all? That's the key thing. This violence spilled
right out onto the streets of Brooklyn mostly. It got messy,
and of course that drew a ton of attention from
law enforcement, from the media. It really exposed the raw
nerves of the mafia in a way that hadn't happened
quite like that before.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
And Sally the Sheikh. While our sources say he wasn't
like a frontline enforcer out there doing the shootings, right,
not his role, his kidnappings still put him smack dab
in the center of this internal war. It really highlights
just how fragile does Alliance's word, doesn't it, and the
ruthlessness of the power struggles back then.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
It really does. And what's fascinating about Musakio is even
though he wasn't this known hitter, he wasn't just some
random foot soldier either. He apparently had connections oh like well,
he was reportedly related by marriage to other powerful figures,
including Joe Magleioko Maglioco.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
He took over after Profaci died, didn't he for a
short time.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
That's the one became boss right after Profaci. So these
kinds of connections, they probably gave Musaccio a certain amount
of influence, maybe some protection within the family, even while
he's caught up in this crazy conflict.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Interesting, and then there's that nickname, Sally the Sheikh. It
just makes you wonder, you know, does doesn't it our
sources kind of And maybe he was a bit flamboyant,
m or charismatic, even though he mostly seems to have
preferred staying in the background.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Yeah, the Sheikh suggests something right, a certain presence. Maybe
maybe he dressed well, maybe he just had a way
about him that stood out even among you know, a
bunch of tough characters, but.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Still kept a low profile.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Generally, seems like it, like a lot of mob guys
in that time, discretion was probably rule number one. Yeah,
but yeah, the nickname definitely hints at something more than
just your average loyal soldier.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
So after all this chaos, the Profacigala War dies down,
eventually the family rebrands under Joseph Colombo. What happens to
Sally the Sheik? He seems to just sort of fade
away pretty much.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Yeah, he doesn't rise up to the very top ranks,
you know, become a boss or underboss.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
And he didn't flip right, didn't become a government informant
like some others did.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Later on, no indication of that at all. He seems
to have just receded into the background, survived the war,
survived the transition, and just kept his head down.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Maybe so his story kind of ends quietly in a way, his.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Public story, perhaps his trajectory, though it serves as this
really potent reminder of that incredibly chaotic chapter, a chapter
that definitely shaped the future of the Columbo family. Even
if he himself didn't see that headlines, he lived through
it adapted.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Okay, so let's bring it back to our listener. Why
should someone like Salvatormokusakio matter to you today? He's not
a household name. We established that, So why did we
do this deep dive on him? What's the real takeaway?
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Well? I think it's because his story gives us this
critical window, you know, a look inside the mafia that
goes beyond just the big bosses and the famous hitmen
we always see in.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Movies, right, It shows the perspective of the guys caught
in the middle.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Exactly, the rank and file members, the soldiers, the guys
who were caught in the crossfire these huge power struggles.
Muzacio's kidnapping, it wasn't just some personal drama for him.
It was actually a major catalyst, a.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Catalyst for one of the biggest internal mob wars ever.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Precisely, it showed how, in this world supposedly built on loyalty,
even being loyal could make you a target. Any perceived weakness,
any leverage point, could be exploited ruthlessly.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
And the fact that he survived at all, came out
of that kidnapping, lived through the war. That tells us
something too, doesn't it about the the complex rules, the
codes that govern that world.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Absolutely, it wasn't always just about wiping out your enemies.
Sometimes it was about sending messages about leverage, about these
intricate power plays. There was almost this strange, dark pragmatism
to it. Sometimes.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Yeah, it definitely challenges the simple good guy bad guy
narratives we sometimes get.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
It really does. His story highlights all the nuances, yeah,
the nuances of survival, of influence within this system that
was built on both these really rigid codes and incredibly
volatile betrayals.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
You really get a sense of the pressure these guys.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Were under immense pressure and the kind of choices they
were constantly making just to navigate a world where you know,
a handshake could mean everything one day and absolutely nothing
the next.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
So Salvatory Sally the Sheik. Musakio maybe not a household name,
but undeniably tangled up in some of the biggest moments
in organized crime history, from his early days under Perfacci
to being kidnapped right at the heart of the Gallo rebellion.
His story really is a fascinating chapter, and that whole
American mafia.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Sock, it really is. And you know, when we look
back at history, we tend to focus on the leaders,
the big narratives, but maybe think about how often history
is really shaped not just by those guys at the
very taut but by these key moments, these pivotal experiences
that happen to people operating more in the shadows, like Musakio.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
That's a great point. What other hidden figures are out there?
Whose stories could unlock bigger historical pictures exactly.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
It's just a powerful reminder I think that even the
figures who seem lesser known, they often played absolutely crucial
roles in shaping the legacies we remember today. Their stories
matter
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