Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
New York summer nineteen seventy one, a festive crowd has
rallied for the Italian American Civil Rights League in a
celebration of cultural identity, but in fact, the popular event
is a front for the American mafia.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
They did make a lot of money. It was said
that they made maybe a million two million dollars. It
was just a big scam.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
The league is in fact run by one of New
York's most dangerous and powerful mafia crime bosses, Joe Colombo.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Mister Columbo, are you a boss of the mafia? No,
I am not.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Is there a mafia, No, r is not.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Today Joe Colombo's on his way to address a League rally.
It may all be a sham, but he is worshiped
by many in the Italian American community.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Colombo shows up, surrounded with bodyguards and a mess of
war comes out of the audience, great cheer, sort of
conquering hero had showed up.
Speaker 5 (01:14):
You know, he's waving, waving, waving.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
At the same time, twenty four year old Jerome Johnson
threads his way towards him.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Jerome Johnson was wearing a press card and had a camera,
and he mows it up to Joe Colombo.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Johnson is no journalist. He pulls out a handgun and
a point blank opens fire.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
He shot Joe Colombo in her head. I they get
him three times in the head.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Detective Mike Sheenan is caught in the mayhem.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
I see Colombo go down, I see a bunch of
guys run to them.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
But in the ensuing chaos and mayhem, Colombo's bodyguard guns
down Johnson. The mafia don is rushed to the hospital,
where he slips into a coma from which he will
never emerge. The police immediately get to work trying to
(02:24):
figure out who would be foolish enough to assassinate Colombo.
Speaker 5 (02:28):
The scare was a dope.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
How the hell are you going to shoot Joe Colombo
and then get out of that crowd.
Speaker 5 (02:34):
It's going to be killed instantaneously.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Jerome Johnson had been set up, and whoever sent him
to kill Colombo was stepping over a line. Only in
extremely rare circumstances could a top mob boss be targeted
from within the mafia. It had been a cornerstone of
mafia law since nineteen thirty one. The rule was the
(03:01):
only thing that stood between good business and anarchy. But
someone wasn't playing by the rules.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
The biggest violation you could commit in the mafia was
trying to kill a boss without the authorization of the Commission.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Whoever was behind the assassination of Colombo hadn't sought a
permission of the New York family heads known as the Commission.
The authority of the mafia is under attack, and suddenly
everyone wants to know who ordered the hit. It seems
(03:42):
likely the work of a lone wolf, and only one
man fits the bill.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
The obvious choice was joe Gallo. Gallo had said many times, Columbu,
he's dead.
Speaker 5 (03:55):
I'm going to kill him. He's a dead man.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Crazy. Joey was a ghost from Colombo's past, a man
at war with Colombo's crime family until he was sent
down by the justice system. Driven to ruin by the
same mafia don who once raised him up from the streets,
Gallo has had eight long years to plot his revenge
(04:19):
on the family that betrayed him.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
When Joey got out of jail, he was playing by
new rules, his own rules. He made him up, and
he would kill anybody who stood in his way.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Joey Gallow's history with the mob goes back some twenty
years to Red Hook, Brooklyn, where he worked for the
Prefacchi family, a rising power in the mafia.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
He was killing people at a young age, and there
was kind of a fear that.
Speaker 5 (04:53):
Spread from that. He was actually diagnosed to be schizophrenic
when he was just teenager and then growing up, his
whole persona match that.
Speaker 6 (05:07):
Crazy.
Speaker 5 (05:07):
Joey Gallo wasn't called crazy for nothing.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
An obsessive fan of the movies, Gallo finds the perfect
role model for his violent alter ego on the silver screen.
Speaker 6 (05:26):
He looked just like the psychotic killer Tommy Yudo from
this nineteen forty seven film noir, Kiss of Death. He
wore Tommy Yuda's exact outfit, blackjacket, black shirt, white tie.
He even had that kooky, unnerving wren and odd bursts.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Of laughter, and Joey Gallows act quickly draws the attention
of the boss of Brooklyn's leading mafia family, Joe Prefacci.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
A family had always been in Brooklyn. They were big
on gambling, they were big on lunch sharking. They were
big on controlling the waterfront, where a lot of crimes
were committed.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Joe Prafacci sees the potential in Gallow and believes he
has the perfect stage for Joey's rage fueled act the
Brooklyn business District.
Speaker 6 (06:24):
Joey Gallop filled a very specific role for the mob,
which was qes extremely effective at extortion.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
He was a strong arm guy. That's what he did.
If somebody didn't pay him, then he would kill him.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Joey's crazy new character is a hit Under joe Prafacci's patronage,
Joey Gallow graduates from bit part player to supporting role
as enforcer for the Profacci family. But Joey wants more.
He wants top billing. But the Profacies the only mob
(07:00):
in Brooklyn. Gallo knows the only way up is within
the organization. As a made man.
Speaker 6 (07:10):
Being made in the mafia was just something that was
supposed to be done if you were a young star hudler.
I mean, that's your dream.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
But to get made, Joey will have to pass a
lethal audition.
Speaker 6 (07:23):
In the mafia, the traditional way to get made is
called making your bones, and which of course is doing
a hit on somebody.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
But Prafacci doesn't ask Joey Gallows to hit just anyone.
In October nineteen fifty seven, joe Prafacci orders Joey Gallo
to kill the notorious Albert Anastasia arrival, mafia crime boss
and feared executioner known as the Butcher of Brooklyn.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
Albert Autastasia was one of the most ruthless bastards on
the face of the earth.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
But in the movie Joey's mind, Anastasia is the monster
gallow was born to slay. The stakes couldn't be higher.
If Gallo succeeds the promotion he craves seems certain failure
means death, but psychopathic Joey knows no fear. October twenty fifth,
(08:27):
nineteen fifty seven, ten fifteen am. Anastasia is so confident
no one would dare to attack him that he relaxes
at the barbers alone. Gallo makes his move the mob
(09:02):
as a new executioner.
Speaker 6 (09:06):
The word gets around that these Gallo brothers are the
guys who pull off the head on Anastasia. It gives
a major cred in the underworld.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Gallo has killed for the Profacie boss and now he's
a paid up member of the Profacci family. It's a
mobster dream come true. Joey Gallo and his brothers moved
to new headquarters in Brooklyn, and with joe Prafaci's blessing,
start expanding their criminal operations. America's fifties youth culture is exploding.
(09:49):
Joey Gallo is there to milk it.
Speaker 6 (09:52):
The Gallows were known as the Jukebox Kings. They ran
the jukebox extortion racket. There's a lot of horrors being
plunked in in your jukeboxes.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Joey is also pushing soda fountains, pinball machines, and running nightclubs.
Despite it seeming like a small time operation, Gallow's success
begins attracting unwanted attention in the form of the US
government and its Chief Council, Robert Kennedy. In nineteen fifty eight,
(10:31):
Joey Gallo and his brothers are summoned to testify before
a Senate committee on organized crime. But it's Gallo the
movie star that turns up.
Speaker 6 (10:44):
When Joey Gallow is called before Robert Kennedy's McClellan committee,
he shows up in his black coat and he's wearing sunglasses.
He looks like this freak nineteen forties movie villain, charismatic
wild man.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
From the start, it's quite obvious Joey is not going
to koutau to authority, not even the US governments.
Speaker 6 (11:12):
You see this larger than life movie gangster is going
face to face against Robert Kennedy in this nationally televised
street fight.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
I respectfully declined to answer because I honestly believed my
answer might tend to Criminavy. Throughout the televised hearings, Joey
acts out the gangster role he has invented for himself.
Speaker 6 (11:35):
He's defiantly telling the senators completing the fifth over and
over and over. It's like this sort of act of
disrespect against the system.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Despite Kennedy's best efforts, there is no concrete evidence to
incriminate Joe Gallo, and America's public Enemy number one is
free to walk.
Speaker 6 (12:00):
Oh he definitely got under Robert Kennedy's skin. I mean,
Kennedy said this was the toughest hood I ever had
to face.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Crazy Joe is now feeling invincible.
Speaker 6 (12:11):
After his performance in front of the McClellan committee. Joey
Gallo comes out literally a mob star.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
Gallow's reputation now has gone nationwide. You could walk in
any barm and have people will be like, oh, that's
the guy I was on television.
Speaker 5 (12:28):
He is now a celebrity gangster, not just Joey Gallop
from Red Hook.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
To the public at large, he may seem like a
big fish, but within the family he's still small fry.
Speaker 6 (12:45):
It seems that joe Gallow has it made. He's successful,
he's last sheet. But the one thing that Joey Gallow
doesn't have is power.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Behind the facade, Gallo knows he's still just a hired hand.
Speaker 6 (13:02):
He's having to kick back the majority of his earnings
to old Man Prafacci, and despite all the trappings, he's
still sort of running the jukebox bracket, this nickel and
dime extortion thing, and.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
That's just where old Man Prefacci wants Gallo to stay.
The mob had no room for flashy, tough guys like
Joey Gallo.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
Joe Prafacci looked at Joey Galloo and his brother's like clowns, puppets,
so to speak. They'll do whatever I want to do,
and I'll promise them to morn, but I'll give him shit.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Despite the act, Gallo isn't stupid. He knows he's being sidelined,
that he isn't part of Prefacci's plans.
Speaker 6 (13:47):
For Joey Gallo was a real front that old man Prafacci,
who never invited him to the compound for Sunday spaghetti.
We're good enough to take someone out for the old man,
we're not good enough to sit at his table.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
It's a dangerous situation. An unstable mind like Gallows can
easily be tipped over the edge.
Speaker 6 (14:05):
He's looking at his mafia don He's saying, you know,
we're doing all these things for him, what's he doing
for us?
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Joey gallow knows what a gangster screen hero would do.
Speaker 6 (14:18):
Let's get some shotguns and do what we need to
get done. It's this movie idea of what a gangster is.
It's one crazy guy against the system. He's gonna go
and take what he wants.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
You gotta remember he's a psychopath, and it developed in
his head that he could take this guy out and
take all of this entire family.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Joe Perfaci is about to learn that when you sit
on a psycho killer like crazy Joe, you're sitting on
a time bomb.
Speaker 6 (14:53):
Joey Gallows really, in many ways sort of the classic
idea of a juvenile delinquent from the nineteen fifties, that
almost Marlon Brando esque idea of rebellion. Why do I
have to live by these old world baroque ordainments by
old Man Prafacci.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Joe Prafacci senses danger and his first instinct is to
keep Gallo on side.
Speaker 6 (15:16):
The Profacis did see some use in the Gallo brothers.
They made them mafia money, so all right, well, we
can tar in his centric as long as he makes
us money.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
In an attempt to keep Gallo under control, Profacci offers
him an extraordinary assignment to kill one of his own,
Frankie Shots, a captain in the Prefacci family in charge
of the Numbers rackets.
Speaker 6 (15:41):
The Numbers Boss. Frankie Shots was holding out against old
Man Prafacci. He wasn't giving Joe Perfacci his money, and
so Perfaci's like, well, we're gonna have to get Frankie
Shots whack.
Speaker 4 (15:55):
The promise was you take him out and you guys
take over his operation, which was a big chunk of
Profaci's crime world.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Joey and his brothers take Profacie at his word. It's
the kind of hit that would grace any Hollywood gangster film.
Speaker 4 (16:16):
To them, it's a bit of honor. They wasted no time.
They went out there and they riddled the sky with bullets.
He had like ten to fifteen bullets in face.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
The Gallows are ecstatic. Frankie Shott's empire is worth a
cool two and a half million.
Speaker 5 (16:44):
They were thrilled. Now they thought this was it.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
But this time there is a twist in the plot.
Prafacie changes the deal. He hands over the lucrative share
of shots racket to his brother in law.
Speaker 5 (17:01):
Per Facci, basically betrayed, and when.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Word gets around, Joey Gallo is pushed over the edge.
Speaker 5 (17:12):
The gangsters were like, hey, you've got duped. Eh, you're
a moron. You went and killed a guy and you
got shipped for it. That's the way it is.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
Welcome to the Profaci's world. And Gallup went bersark, I
mean berserk.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
This isn't how the movie is supposed to go. So
Joey rewrites a new ending and it's not good news
for Profacci.
Speaker 6 (17:38):
For Joey Gallo. What's the quickest way to success in
the mafia. No, I'm not going to spend all my
life being a coggondish system. I'm gonna do it my
own way, even if it means tearing down the entire machine.
We've got to start a revolution.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Here March nineteen sixty. If there's going to be a revolution,
it's going to be done.
Speaker 6 (17:59):
The Galloway, Joey Gallow's idea was, let's kill him all.
Let's like, take the old man, We'll kidnap him or
kidnap his underlings, and we'll just yeah, let's kill him.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
In the history of the American Mafia, there has never
been a plot like it. No one takes down a
boss without permission of the ruling body. But then Joey
Gallo is a rebel.
Speaker 6 (18:23):
This doesn't exactly conform with the rules of a coup
in the mafia, and there are actually sort of were
you know, traditions of how you're gonna do it. If
you're gonna make a coup, you're gonna have to get
permission of the Mafia Commission.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
The Commission had been set up by Lucky Luciano to
stop violence erupting within the mob. For thirty years, its
authority has been unquestioned. Now Joey Gallo wants a revolution.
Speaker 6 (18:54):
Joey's version is, screw the Commission, Let's do you know
we're gonna do it our own way.
Speaker 5 (18:58):
Why do we need their approval?
Speaker 6 (19:00):
You know we're doing a coup.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
When Gallo takes care of Profacci, he's going to demand
to be the headline act.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
Gallows master plan was to whack Profaci and then just
step into his shoes.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
February nineteen sixty one, Joey Gallow's audacious coup springs into
action across Manhattan. Twenty of his henchmen target the Profacci
high command.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
He pulled it almost like a command o raid. In
one afternoon, they grabbed five close aids, including the top.
Ay to the voice of the family, this was unheard of.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
It is a stunning gambit, and the Gallow assault takes
the Profacies off.
Speaker 6 (19:55):
God, you have a couple of crazy, young Gallo brothers
trying to kidnap the don. This is unheard of in
the mafia. I mean, what an act of disrespect, especially
if you're the guys in the bottom of the totem pole.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
The cream of the Profecie high command is held at
gunpoint in a Manhattan hotel room. It looks like a
stunning coup, but for one thing, the top dog is
still at large.
Speaker 6 (20:37):
They kidnapped the Don's tight inner circle, but they missed
the one guy that they need, which is the Don.
If you go for the King, you gotta kill him.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Acting on a tip off, Joe Prefacci has skipped down
too late. The head of the family had learned just
how dangerous mad Joey Gallo can be.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
Perfaci took off down to Florida. I'm out of here.
He knew he was a psychopathic killer.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
With Profacie safe. The tables are turned and the gallows
are in the corner. The question is what can they
do about it. Practical and cool headed Joey's elder brother
Larry suggests approaching the Commission to broke her a deal.
Speaker 6 (21:26):
Larry Gallo is, let's wait. The Commission's gonna tell us
what to do. We're gonna resolve this without violence.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Joey Gallo doesn't do deals for him. It's death or glory.
Speaker 6 (21:41):
Joey's the exact opposite. He's like, let's show him that
we mean business. Kill one of the hostages and dump
him on the old man's doorstep.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Larry Gallo lays it out for his mad brother. Kill
a Prefacci and the Boss will come back. At them
with an army of two hundred soldiers. Joe's plan is
in ruins. In the end, Joey's big brother pulls rag
and takes control. The only solution that doesn't end in
(22:15):
a blood bath is to negotiate, and the Commission agrees.
Speaker 6 (22:21):
The Commission's idea of how to settled this coup is
no violence. Let's not create more attention to the mafia
because it's bad for business. We don't want a lot
of Feds on us because of a bunch of crazy
Galer brothers.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
The Commission orders Joe Prafacci to brok her a truce
and the Gallows to release their hostages. Joey the revolutionary,
an all or nothing idealist, is being forced to play
by the rules.
Speaker 6 (22:58):
The coup was an utter disaster. Not only did not
kill the Dawn, they followed the Commission's rules. For Joey,
the idea of a revolution is let's go to the
streets and let's do it our own way.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Any normal mobster would lie low, but Joey Gallo is
no normal mobster. His next move is unique in the
history of the mafia. Gallow tunes in and drops out.
He heads to Greenwich, Village the hotbed of the anti
(23:32):
establishment counterculture scene of the early nineteen sixties.
Speaker 6 (23:36):
Joey really took liking to Greenwich Village. It was a
center where those in their twenties were rebelling against capitalism.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Joey embraces every aspect of the beatnik crowd. The revolutionary hothead,
swaps the gun for the.
Speaker 6 (23:55):
Bomb, smoke and reefers. He's chewing hash like chewing tobacco. Joey,
in his own way, is going through the classic beatnik
mind expansion.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Yellow folds for a woman Jeffy Lee, who for a
time softens his gangster alter ego.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
Joey was really living in a black and white world
at the time, and here's your young, wild, free Jeffy.
Speaker 5 (24:27):
She opened up his world to a whole rainbow of colors.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
And just like before, Joey embraces his new role and
pushes it to the limit.
Speaker 5 (24:40):
There's jazz, there's tons of sex, and a lot of wheat.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
But if Joey is trying to escape his demons, the
mafia have no intention of letting him. Joe Prafacci may
have agreed a truce in public, but he wants revenge
for fractures at that guy's dead.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
For Fatue was from the old school that you never
took on the boss, you had total obedience. And the
idea that Gallo was started rebellion against him meant one thing.
He was out to kill Gallop.
Speaker 5 (25:19):
For Fracture, said that guy's dead, and he goes.
Speaker 4 (25:22):
I got to eliminate the threat before they come to me,
and then the war began.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
May nineteen sixty one, A grim message signals that the
blood bath has begun. The first victim gallow hitman Joey Jelly.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
A package was dropped in front of the restaurant and
in size was of dead fish and the clothes of
Joey's best hit man.
Speaker 6 (26:00):
It's a Sicilian message. Inside the close of Joe Jelly
is a dead fish. Hence Joe Jelly sweeps with the fishes.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
Next on Joe Prafacci's hit list is Joey's elder brother Larry,
lured to a meeting in a secluded bar. Larry is
unaware he may be enjoying his last drink.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
He was sitting at the bar and all of a sudden,
two guys come behind him and put her up around
his tack and start to.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Strangle Luckily for Larry Gallo, a local cop pops in
for happy hour.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
A sageant walk in the front door and they see
him and they flee.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Larry gallow survives, but the message hits home loud and clear.
Joey Gallo is next on joe Prafacci's death list. It's
time to reprise his old role. The hipster is put
on hold and Crazy Joey the psycho killer is back.
Speaker 6 (27:10):
For Joey, it's like, all right, well, they mess with
my brother, It's time to go to war. Let's do
it my way now, like, let's take it to the system.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
Hell bent on an all out war, Joey turns his
HQ into a fortress. The profacies aren't going to hit
them again so easily.
Speaker 4 (27:30):
We're called going for the mattresses, and this became their
fort They put bob wire up on a roof.
Speaker 5 (27:38):
They got chicken.
Speaker 4 (27:39):
Wire and put it on all the windows so that
a hand grenade or a bomb could not be tossed through.
This wasn't all out war.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
This is the role. Joey craves. Outgunned and outnumbered. It's
crazy Joe against the establishment, and it'll end in a
brutal blood bar.
Speaker 6 (28:01):
He's the che guavar of mobdom. He's ready to go
full on against the Prafazzi family, and he thinks he's
gonna win.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Red Hook, Brooklyn, November eighth, nineteen sixty one, to Verdi's
rousing arias Crazy, Joey Gallo prepares to go to war
with one of New York's most powerful mafia families. But
to the rest of the gang, Joey's mission is suicidal.
Speaker 6 (28:38):
The Gallows are basically sitting ducks here on the Red
Hook waterfront. It's a ragtag gang against literally a mafia family.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Someone in the Gallow gang gets cold feet and tips
off the police to the impending war. It's a betrayal
that will save their lives. Like the cavalry coming over
the hills, the Brooklyn Police launch a twenty four to
seven surveillance operation.
Speaker 6 (29:11):
The NYPD set up a several block radius of protection
around the Gallow headquarters to try and stop any profacis
from coming in and causing this blood bath.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
For now, Joey and his brothers may be safe, but
they are prisoners in their own HQ. Winter draws in
and unable to run their criminal activities. The swaggering Gallows
are broke and living in squalor.
Speaker 6 (29:42):
The situation where the Gallay's got very bleak knage shots
off their power. Half of the gang leaves. I mean,
these guys are just barely hanging.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
On, desperate for cash. Joey decides to exhort payments from
a local bar owner, Teddy Moss.
Speaker 4 (30:03):
He didn't realize so Teddy Moss wasn't an easy kind
of guy to go along with.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Okay, by now, Joey's stock is so low that even
a local bar owner brushes him off.
Speaker 5 (30:17):
He thought Teddy Moss would fold like a chip suit.
No way.
Speaker 4 (30:21):
Teddy Moss was like, you're not taking a piece of
my business. I worked my ass for this business.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Teddy Moss goes straight to the cops. It's just a break.
They've been looking for.
Speaker 5 (30:35):
The cops and the DA.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
They know who he was, and there was the perfect
opportunity to get this guy off the street.
Speaker 5 (30:43):
That's what they did.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
December nineteen sixty one, Gallo is convicted of conspiracy and extortion.
This time the system wins and hits the rebel with
a severe punishment.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
The evidence was allverwhelmed. He gets sentenced to seventh or
fourteen years in prison.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
With crazy Joey Gallow locked up, order is restored to
the mafia underworld for now.
Speaker 6 (31:15):
They jail Joey right in the midst of this Gallovaci wark,
so the Gallows effectively lose their Chegovara.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Joey Gallo does his best to acclimatize to life behind bars.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
While in prison, Joey Gallo begins a second phase of life.
He suddenly discovers books.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
The once violent and impulsive Gallow cools his heels behind bars,
reading books and painting. Order outside the world is changing,
and any problems the hothead may have had disappear. His
(32:01):
arch enemy Joe Prefacci dies, and the new dawn of
the Profacci family is hard boiled Brooklyn mobster Joe Colombo.
Colombo has no interest in avenging old wrongs. He's too
busy running his criminal empire and forging links with the
local Italian community. March nineteen seventy one and Gallow is released.
(32:27):
Apparently reformed, He makes straight for his old beatnik family,
where he finds himself a bit of a celebrity.
Speaker 6 (32:35):
When Joey comes out of prison, he strangely finds himself
in the midst of this fashionable New York literadi circuit.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
To America's counterculture heavyweights like Bob Dylan and Arthur Miller.
Crazy Joey's revolutionary gangster mystique is too cool to resist.
Speaker 6 (32:54):
They see a romantic outsider figure. He's on the outside
of whatever side there were is this countercultural you know,
anti hero going against the system.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
With his new counterculture buddies. Joey Gallow looks set for
a glamorous new chapter. When Joe Colombo hears that Joey
Gallow is coming to see him, alarm bells go off.
He's right to worry. Beneath the flower power hipster burns
(33:31):
an irrepressible desire for revenge. Joey can't resist reprising his
old role.
Speaker 5 (33:38):
One last time. Joey Gallow is not a normal human being.
Speaker 4 (33:44):
He's not somebody who goes to prison and comes out rehabilitated.
Now what did he spend d eight years in jail
doing plotting and every single day he spent behind bars
filled with more and more rage.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
Joey Gallo wasn't just painting in the slammer. He had
a maverick ruse to remain one step ahead of his enemy.
Speaker 6 (34:16):
In prison, Joey Gallo had a vision of combining forces
with the African American gangsters of.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
Harlem, fraternizing with black inmates. Joey worked to swell the
Gallow gang membership and once again defied convention.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
Joey Gallow's recruitment of black inmates that he met in
prison was certainly un orthodox. The mafia always used Jews
Shipman Irishipman, but there was no real association with black
mobsters or any way of affiliating with them. So it
was a very smart move by Joey.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
Joey waste snow time in letting Colombo know that Joey
Gallo isn't going to go away.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
And he goes and he meets. He's a sit down
with Joe Colombo. He said, all these years I've did
in a can your guys owe me some respect?
Speaker 5 (35:13):
You owe me some money.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
Joe immediately demands one hundred thousand dollars gift because he
had never agreed to the truce and he wants a
bigger cut of the Colombo family activities.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
Colombo is well aware of Gallow's reputation. It's a critical
moment for the boss. He knows how dangerous Gallow can be,
but he's got a reputation to keep. Colombo makes a big.
Speaker 4 (35:40):
Call, Colombo and yeah, I'll tell you what. Here's a grant.
He throws a thousand on the table. He says, here,
you know what you do. Don't have yourself a great
welcome home dinner.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
Joe Colombo wanted no part of Joey Gallo. He knew
he was wild and crazy and now he was a
potential nemesis, and he wasn't going to play ball with
Joey Gallup.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
It's a big mistake.
Speaker 6 (36:12):
Joey Gallup basically throws it back in his face and
he's like, yeah, you think this this gang wars over.
You know, it's just started.
Speaker 4 (36:20):
The rage inside Gallow is building and building and building.
He basically an ounces Colombo's dead.
Speaker 5 (36:28):
He's a dead man.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
The Gallow prefatcy war was back on.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
He thought he would be the next boss of the
Colombo family and would be known as a Joey Gallo family.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
With a new war threatening to her upt Colombo knows
he has to move fast.
Speaker 6 (36:51):
The reaction by the family against Joey Gallo for putting
a hit out on Joe Colombo is death. They put
an open contract done Joey Gallo.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
If Joey's going down, he's going to make sure he
takes Columbo with him, and his new prison contacts will
ensure that no one sees it coming. Gallo knows no
one will be expecting an assassin from Harlem, so he
hires an unknown two bit drug addict. Crazy Joey Gallo,
(37:40):
the Maverick mobster, has broken the rules and finally taken
down a leading mafia don, and he must know the
transgression cannot go unpunished.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
You don't take out a boss like that. It is
reckless and are going to be repercussions.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
Those men instantly renew the open contract on Joey's life.
Speaker 2 (38:05):
I knew that they were going to go after Joey then,
and informants came back all over the place. It's an
open contract out on Joey. That means anybody could hit
him anytime.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
But Crazy Joey isn't afraid of anyone. He's emboldened by
what he thinks is a victory over the Profacci family.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
He was just reckless. You just lived for today. You
didn't care about tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
Open contract or not Joey knows that in the movies,
the hero always wins in the end.
Speaker 4 (38:38):
This guy was a psychopath killer. His ego was unbelievable.
He was invincible. He's gonna live forever. I'm joe Gallop.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
April sixth, nineteen seventy two, Little Lily. Joey is celebrating
his forty third birthday with his entourage.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
They're sitting in the back and having a nice dinner
of a player to Trump and all that stuff, and
everything's fine. They runned another down. It's probably five o'clock
in the morning by now.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
Without warning, four gunmen burst in and begin shooting. The
Executioner's bullet. Pierce is Joey's carotid artery. Detective Mike Sheenan
(39:47):
was one of the first cops on the scene.
Speaker 5 (39:51):
I looked down and I said, you know what that is.
That's Joey Gallop, Joey Gallop. That's crazy Joeoey Gallop. And
he was gone.
Speaker 1 (40:07):
It's a fitting climax for a man who modeled himself
on a Hollywood noir gangster. Joey Gallows simply had to
go down in a hail of bullets.
Speaker 6 (40:19):
Joey Gallows really living out his ultimate movie fantasy by
getting gunned down in spectacular fashion in front of Embaro's
clamhouse in Little Italy.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
Embraced by a New York fashionable elite. As a counterculture
anti hero, Joey Gallow's funeral is attended by hundreds of mourners.
Speaker 3 (40:41):
It's an example of the naivety of a lot of people,
including Bob Dylan, who writes a song about him. Joey
was sophisticated enough that he acted like he was really innocent,
and that he was a victim of society, not somebody
who victimized society.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
Behind the romanticized image, it a different man, capable of
ruthless brutality and cold blooded murder, who started one of
the bloodiest wars in the history of the mafia and
rocked the mob to its core.
New York summer nineteen seventy one, a festive crowd has
rallied for the Italian American Civil Rights League in a
celebration of cultural identity, but in fact, the popular event
is a front for the American mafia.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
They did make a lot of money. It was said
that they made maybe a million two million dollars. It
was just a big scam.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
The league is in fact run by one of New
York's most dangerous and powerful mafia crime bosses, Joe Colombo.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Mister Columbo, are you a boss of the mafia? No,
I am not.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Is there a mafia, No, r is not.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Today Joe Colombo's on his way to address a League rally.
It may all be a sham, but he is worshiped
by many in the Italian American community.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Colombo shows up, surrounded with bodyguards and a mess of
war comes out of the audience, great cheer, sort of
conquering hero had showed up.
Speaker 5 (01:14):
You know, he's waving, waving, waving.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
At the same time, twenty four year old Jerome Johnson
threads his way towards him.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Jerome Johnson was wearing a press card and had a camera,
and he mows it up to Joe Colombo.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Johnson is no journalist. He pulls out a handgun and
a point blank opens fire.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
He shot Joe Colombo in her head. I they get
him three times in the head.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Detective Mike Sheenan is caught in the mayhem.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
I see Colombo go down, I see a bunch of
guys run to them.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
But in the ensuing chaos and mayhem, Colombo's bodyguard guns
down Johnson. The mafia don is rushed to the hospital,
where he slips into a coma from which he will
never emerge. The police immediately get to work trying to
(02:24):
figure out who would be foolish enough to assassinate Colombo.
Speaker 5 (02:28):
The scare was a dope.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
How the hell are you going to shoot Joe Colombo
and then get out of that crowd.
Speaker 5 (02:34):
It's going to be killed instantaneously.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Jerome Johnson had been set up, and whoever sent him
to kill Colombo was stepping over a line. Only in
extremely rare circumstances could a top mob boss be targeted
from within the mafia. It had been a cornerstone of
mafia law since nineteen thirty one. The rule was the
(03:01):
only thing that stood between good business and anarchy. But
someone wasn't playing by the rules.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
The biggest violation you could commit in the mafia was
trying to kill a boss without the authorization of the Commission.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Whoever was behind the assassination of Colombo hadn't sought a
permission of the New York family heads known as the Commission.
The authority of the mafia is under attack, and suddenly
everyone wants to know who ordered the hit. It seems
(03:42):
likely the work of a lone wolf, and only one
man fits the bill.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
The obvious choice was joe Gallo. Gallo had said many times, Columbu,
he's dead.
Speaker 5 (03:55):
I'm going to kill him. He's a dead man.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Crazy. Joey was a ghost from Colombo's past, a man
at war with Colombo's crime family until he was sent
down by the justice system. Driven to ruin by the
same mafia don who once raised him up from the streets,
Gallo has had eight long years to plot his revenge
(04:19):
on the family that betrayed him.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
When Joey got out of jail, he was playing by
new rules, his own rules. He made him up, and
he would kill anybody who stood in his way.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Joey Gallow's history with the mob goes back some twenty
years to Red Hook, Brooklyn, where he worked for the
Prefacchi family, a rising power in the mafia.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
He was killing people at a young age, and there
was kind of a fear that.
Speaker 5 (04:53):
Spread from that. He was actually diagnosed to be schizophrenic
when he was just teenager and then growing up, his
whole persona match that.
Speaker 6 (05:07):
Crazy.
Speaker 5 (05:07):
Joey Gallo wasn't called crazy for nothing.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
An obsessive fan of the movies, Gallo finds the perfect
role model for his violent alter ego on the silver screen.
Speaker 6 (05:26):
He looked just like the psychotic killer Tommy Yudo from
this nineteen forty seven film noir, Kiss of Death. He
wore Tommy Yuda's exact outfit, blackjacket, black shirt, white tie.
He even had that kooky, unnerving wren and odd bursts.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Of laughter, and Joey Gallows act quickly draws the attention
of the boss of Brooklyn's leading mafia family, Joe Prefacci.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
A family had always been in Brooklyn. They were big
on gambling, they were big on lunch sharking. They were
big on controlling the waterfront, where a lot of crimes
were committed.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Joe Prafacci sees the potential in Gallow and believes he
has the perfect stage for Joey's rage fueled act the
Brooklyn business District.
Speaker 6 (06:24):
Joey Gallop filled a very specific role for the mob,
which was qes extremely effective at extortion.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
He was a strong arm guy. That's what he did.
If somebody didn't pay him, then he would kill him.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Joey's crazy new character is a hit Under joe Prafacci's patronage,
Joey Gallow graduates from bit part player to supporting role
as enforcer for the Profacci family. But Joey wants more.
He wants top billing. But the Profacies the only mob
(07:00):
in Brooklyn. Gallo knows the only way up is within
the organization. As a made man.
Speaker 6 (07:10):
Being made in the mafia was just something that was
supposed to be done if you were a young star hudler.
I mean, that's your dream.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
But to get made, Joey will have to pass a
lethal audition.
Speaker 6 (07:23):
In the mafia, the traditional way to get made is
called making your bones, and which of course is doing
a hit on somebody.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
But Prafacci doesn't ask Joey Gallows to hit just anyone.
In October nineteen fifty seven, joe Prafacci orders Joey Gallo
to kill the notorious Albert Anastasia arrival, mafia crime boss
and feared executioner known as the Butcher of Brooklyn.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
Albert Autastasia was one of the most ruthless bastards on
the face of the earth.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
But in the movie Joey's mind, Anastasia is the monster
gallow was born to slay. The stakes couldn't be higher.
If Gallo succeeds the promotion he craves seems certain failure
means death, but psychopathic Joey knows no fear. October twenty fifth,
(08:27):
nineteen fifty seven, ten fifteen am. Anastasia is so confident
no one would dare to attack him that he relaxes
at the barbers alone. Gallo makes his move the mob
(09:02):
as a new executioner.
Speaker 6 (09:06):
The word gets around that these Gallo brothers are the
guys who pull off the head on Anastasia. It gives
a major cred in the underworld.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Gallo has killed for the Profacie boss and now he's
a paid up member of the Profacci family. It's a
mobster dream come true. Joey Gallo and his brothers moved
to new headquarters in Brooklyn, and with joe Prafaci's blessing,
start expanding their criminal operations. America's fifties youth culture is exploding.
(09:49):
Joey Gallo is there to milk it.
Speaker 6 (09:52):
The Gallows were known as the Jukebox Kings. They ran
the jukebox extortion racket. There's a lot of horrors being
plunked in in your jukeboxes.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Joey is also pushing soda fountains, pinball machines, and running nightclubs.
Despite it seeming like a small time operation, Gallow's success
begins attracting unwanted attention in the form of the US
government and its Chief Council, Robert Kennedy. In nineteen fifty eight,
(10:31):
Joey Gallo and his brothers are summoned to testify before
a Senate committee on organized crime. But it's Gallo the
movie star that turns up.
Speaker 6 (10:44):
When Joey Gallow is called before Robert Kennedy's McClellan committee,
he shows up in his black coat and he's wearing sunglasses.
He looks like this freak nineteen forties movie villain, charismatic
wild man.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
From the start, it's quite obvious Joey is not going
to koutau to authority, not even the US governments.
Speaker 6 (11:12):
You see this larger than life movie gangster is going
face to face against Robert Kennedy in this nationally televised
street fight.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
I respectfully declined to answer because I honestly believed my
answer might tend to Criminavy. Throughout the televised hearings, Joey
acts out the gangster role he has invented for himself.
Speaker 6 (11:35):
He's defiantly telling the senators completing the fifth over and
over and over. It's like this sort of act of
disrespect against the system.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Despite Kennedy's best efforts, there is no concrete evidence to
incriminate Joe Gallo, and America's public Enemy number one is
free to walk.
Speaker 6 (12:00):
Oh he definitely got under Robert Kennedy's skin. I mean,
Kennedy said this was the toughest hood I ever had
to face.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Crazy Joe is now feeling invincible.
Speaker 6 (12:11):
After his performance in front of the McClellan committee. Joey
Gallo comes out literally a mob star.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
Gallow's reputation now has gone nationwide. You could walk in
any barm and have people will be like, oh, that's
the guy I was on television.
Speaker 5 (12:28):
He is now a celebrity gangster, not just Joey Gallop
from Red Hook.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
To the public at large, he may seem like a
big fish, but within the family he's still small fry.
Speaker 6 (12:45):
It seems that joe Gallow has it made. He's successful,
he's last sheet. But the one thing that Joey Gallow
doesn't have is power.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Behind the facade, Gallo knows he's still just a hired hand.
Speaker 6 (13:02):
He's having to kick back the majority of his earnings
to old Man Prafacci, and despite all the trappings, he's
still sort of running the jukebox bracket, this nickel and
dime extortion thing, and.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
That's just where old Man Prefacci wants Gallo to stay.
The mob had no room for flashy, tough guys like
Joey Gallo.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
Joe Prafacci looked at Joey Galloo and his brother's like clowns, puppets,
so to speak. They'll do whatever I want to do,
and I'll promise them to morn, but I'll give him shit.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Despite the act, Gallo isn't stupid. He knows he's being sidelined,
that he isn't part of Prefacci's plans.
Speaker 6 (13:47):
For Joey Gallo was a real front that old man Prafacci,
who never invited him to the compound for Sunday spaghetti.
We're good enough to take someone out for the old man,
we're not good enough to sit at his table.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
It's a dangerous situation. An unstable mind like Gallows can
easily be tipped over the edge.
Speaker 6 (14:05):
He's looking at his mafia don He's saying, you know,
we're doing all these things for him, what's he doing
for us?
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Joey gallow knows what a gangster screen hero would do.
Speaker 6 (14:18):
Let's get some shotguns and do what we need to
get done. It's this movie idea of what a gangster is.
It's one crazy guy against the system. He's gonna go
and take what he wants.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
You gotta remember he's a psychopath, and it developed in
his head that he could take this guy out and
take all of this entire family.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Joe Perfaci is about to learn that when you sit
on a psycho killer like crazy Joe, you're sitting on
a time bomb.
Speaker 6 (14:53):
Joey Gallows really, in many ways sort of the classic
idea of a juvenile delinquent from the nineteen fifties, that
almost Marlon Brando esque idea of rebellion. Why do I
have to live by these old world baroque ordainments by
old Man Prafacci.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Joe Prafacci senses danger and his first instinct is to
keep Gallo on side.
Speaker 6 (15:16):
The Profacis did see some use in the Gallo brothers.
They made them mafia money, so all right, well, we
can tar in his centric as long as he makes
us money.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
In an attempt to keep Gallo under control, Profacci offers
him an extraordinary assignment to kill one of his own,
Frankie Shots, a captain in the Prefacci family in charge
of the Numbers rackets.
Speaker 6 (15:41):
The Numbers Boss. Frankie Shots was holding out against old
Man Prafacci. He wasn't giving Joe Perfacci his money, and
so Perfaci's like, well, we're gonna have to get Frankie
Shots whack.
Speaker 4 (15:55):
The promise was you take him out and you guys
take over his operation, which was a big chunk of
Profaci's crime world.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Joey and his brothers take Profacie at his word. It's
the kind of hit that would grace any Hollywood gangster film.
Speaker 4 (16:16):
To them, it's a bit of honor. They wasted no time.
They went out there and they riddled the sky with bullets.
He had like ten to fifteen bullets in face.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
The Gallows are ecstatic. Frankie Shott's empire is worth a
cool two and a half million.
Speaker 5 (16:44):
They were thrilled. Now they thought this was it.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
But this time there is a twist in the plot.
Prafacie changes the deal. He hands over the lucrative share
of shots racket to his brother in law.
Speaker 5 (17:01):
Per Facci, basically betrayed, and when.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Word gets around, Joey Gallo is pushed over the edge.
Speaker 5 (17:12):
The gangsters were like, hey, you've got duped. Eh, you're
a moron. You went and killed a guy and you
got shipped for it. That's the way it is.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
Welcome to the Profaci's world. And Gallup went bersark, I
mean berserk.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
This isn't how the movie is supposed to go. So
Joey rewrites a new ending and it's not good news
for Profacci.
Speaker 6 (17:38):
For Joey Gallo. What's the quickest way to success in
the mafia. No, I'm not going to spend all my
life being a coggondish system. I'm gonna do it my
own way, even if it means tearing down the entire machine.
We've got to start a revolution.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Here March nineteen sixty. If there's going to be a revolution,
it's going to be done.
Speaker 6 (17:59):
The Galloway, Joey Gallow's idea was, let's kill him all.
Let's like, take the old man, We'll kidnap him or
kidnap his underlings, and we'll just yeah, let's kill him.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
In the history of the American Mafia, there has never
been a plot like it. No one takes down a
boss without permission of the ruling body. But then Joey
Gallo is a rebel.
Speaker 6 (18:23):
This doesn't exactly conform with the rules of a coup
in the mafia, and there are actually sort of were
you know, traditions of how you're gonna do it. If
you're gonna make a coup, you're gonna have to get
permission of the Mafia Commission.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
The Commission had been set up by Lucky Luciano to
stop violence erupting within the mob. For thirty years, its
authority has been unquestioned. Now Joey Gallo wants a revolution.
Speaker 6 (18:54):
Joey's version is, screw the Commission, Let's do you know
we're gonna do it our own way.
Speaker 5 (18:58):
Why do we need their approval?
Speaker 6 (19:00):
You know we're doing a coup.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
When Gallo takes care of Profacci, he's going to demand
to be the headline act.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
Gallows master plan was to whack Profaci and then just
step into his shoes.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
February nineteen sixty one, Joey Gallow's audacious coup springs into
action across Manhattan. Twenty of his henchmen target the Profacci
high command.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
He pulled it almost like a command o raid. In
one afternoon, they grabbed five close aids, including the top.
Ay to the voice of the family, this was unheard of.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
It is a stunning gambit, and the Gallow assault takes
the Profacies off.
Speaker 6 (19:55):
God, you have a couple of crazy, young Gallo brothers
trying to kidnap the don. This is unheard of in
the mafia. I mean, what an act of disrespect, especially
if you're the guys in the bottom of the totem pole.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
The cream of the Profecie high command is held at
gunpoint in a Manhattan hotel room. It looks like a
stunning coup, but for one thing, the top dog is
still at large.
Speaker 6 (20:37):
They kidnapped the Don's tight inner circle, but they missed
the one guy that they need, which is the Don.
If you go for the King, you gotta kill him.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Acting on a tip off, Joe Prefacci has skipped down
too late. The head of the family had learned just
how dangerous mad Joey Gallo can be.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
Perfaci took off down to Florida. I'm out of here.
He knew he was a psychopathic killer.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
With Profacie safe. The tables are turned and the gallows
are in the corner. The question is what can they
do about it. Practical and cool headed Joey's elder brother
Larry suggests approaching the Commission to broke her a deal.
Speaker 6 (21:26):
Larry Gallo is, let's wait. The Commission's gonna tell us
what to do. We're gonna resolve this without violence.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Joey Gallo doesn't do deals for him. It's death or glory.
Speaker 6 (21:41):
Joey's the exact opposite. He's like, let's show him that
we mean business. Kill one of the hostages and dump
him on the old man's doorstep.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Larry Gallo lays it out for his mad brother. Kill
a Prefacci and the Boss will come back. At them
with an army of two hundred soldiers. Joe's plan is
in ruins. In the end, Joey's big brother pulls rag
and takes control. The only solution that doesn't end in
(22:15):
a blood bath is to negotiate, and the Commission agrees.
Speaker 6 (22:21):
The Commission's idea of how to settled this coup is
no violence. Let's not create more attention to the mafia
because it's bad for business. We don't want a lot
of Feds on us because of a bunch of crazy
Galer brothers.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
The Commission orders Joe Prafacci to brok her a truce
and the Gallows to release their hostages. Joey the revolutionary,
an all or nothing idealist, is being forced to play
by the rules.
Speaker 6 (22:58):
The coup was an utter disaster. Not only did not
kill the Dawn, they followed the Commission's rules. For Joey,
the idea of a revolution is let's go to the
streets and let's do it our own way.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Any normal mobster would lie low, but Joey Gallo is
no normal mobster. His next move is unique in the
history of the mafia. Gallow tunes in and drops out.
He heads to Greenwich, Village the hotbed of the anti
(23:32):
establishment counterculture scene of the early nineteen sixties.
Speaker 6 (23:36):
Joey really took liking to Greenwich Village. It was a
center where those in their twenties were rebelling against capitalism.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Joey embraces every aspect of the beatnik crowd. The revolutionary hothead,
swaps the gun for the.
Speaker 6 (23:55):
Bomb, smoke and reefers. He's chewing hash like chewing tobacco. Joey,
in his own way, is going through the classic beatnik
mind expansion.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Yellow folds for a woman Jeffy Lee, who for a
time softens his gangster alter ego.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
Joey was really living in a black and white world
at the time, and here's your young, wild, free Jeffy.
Speaker 5 (24:27):
She opened up his world to a whole rainbow of colors.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
And just like before, Joey embraces his new role and
pushes it to the limit.
Speaker 5 (24:40):
There's jazz, there's tons of sex, and a lot of wheat.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
But if Joey is trying to escape his demons, the
mafia have no intention of letting him. Joe Prafacci may
have agreed a truce in public, but he wants revenge
for fractures at that guy's dead.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
For Fatue was from the old school that you never
took on the boss, you had total obedience. And the
idea that Gallo was started rebellion against him meant one thing.
He was out to kill Gallop.
Speaker 5 (25:19):
For Fracture, said that guy's dead, and he goes.
Speaker 4 (25:22):
I got to eliminate the threat before they come to me,
and then the war began.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
May nineteen sixty one, A grim message signals that the
blood bath has begun. The first victim gallow hitman Joey Jelly.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
A package was dropped in front of the restaurant and
in size was of dead fish and the clothes of
Joey's best hit man.
Speaker 6 (26:00):
It's a Sicilian message. Inside the close of Joe Jelly
is a dead fish. Hence Joe Jelly sweeps with the fishes.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
Next on Joe Prafacci's hit list is Joey's elder brother Larry,
lured to a meeting in a secluded bar. Larry is
unaware he may be enjoying his last drink.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
He was sitting at the bar and all of a sudden,
two guys come behind him and put her up around
his tack and start to.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Strangle Luckily for Larry Gallo, a local cop pops in
for happy hour.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
A sageant walk in the front door and they see
him and they flee.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Larry gallow survives, but the message hits home loud and clear.
Joey Gallo is next on joe Prafacci's death list. It's
time to reprise his old role. The hipster is put
on hold and Crazy Joey the psycho killer is back.
Speaker 6 (27:10):
For Joey, it's like, all right, well, they mess with
my brother, It's time to go to war. Let's do
it my way now, like, let's take it to the system.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
Hell bent on an all out war, Joey turns his
HQ into a fortress. The profacies aren't going to hit
them again so easily.
Speaker 4 (27:30):
We're called going for the mattresses, and this became their
fort They put bob wire up on a roof.
Speaker 5 (27:38):
They got chicken.
Speaker 4 (27:39):
Wire and put it on all the windows so that
a hand grenade or a bomb could not be tossed through.
This wasn't all out war.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
This is the role. Joey craves. Outgunned and outnumbered. It's
crazy Joe against the establishment, and it'll end in a
brutal blood bar.
Speaker 6 (28:01):
He's the che guavar of mobdom. He's ready to go
full on against the Prafazzi family, and he thinks he's
gonna win.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Red Hook, Brooklyn, November eighth, nineteen sixty one, to Verdi's
rousing arias Crazy, Joey Gallo prepares to go to war
with one of New York's most powerful mafia families. But
to the rest of the gang, Joey's mission is suicidal.
Speaker 6 (28:38):
The Gallows are basically sitting ducks here on the Red
Hook waterfront. It's a ragtag gang against literally a mafia family.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Someone in the Gallow gang gets cold feet and tips
off the police to the impending war. It's a betrayal
that will save their lives. Like the cavalry coming over
the hills, the Brooklyn Police launch a twenty four to
seven surveillance operation.
Speaker 6 (29:11):
The NYPD set up a several block radius of protection
around the Gallow headquarters to try and stop any profacis
from coming in and causing this blood bath.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
For now, Joey and his brothers may be safe, but
they are prisoners in their own HQ. Winter draws in
and unable to run their criminal activities. The swaggering Gallows
are broke and living in squalor.
Speaker 6 (29:42):
The situation where the Gallay's got very bleak knage shots
off their power. Half of the gang leaves. I mean,
these guys are just barely hanging.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
On, desperate for cash. Joey decides to exhort payments from
a local bar owner, Teddy Moss.
Speaker 4 (30:03):
He didn't realize so Teddy Moss wasn't an easy kind
of guy to go along with.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Okay, by now, Joey's stock is so low that even
a local bar owner brushes him off.
Speaker 5 (30:17):
He thought Teddy Moss would fold like a chip suit.
No way.
Speaker 4 (30:21):
Teddy Moss was like, you're not taking a piece of
my business. I worked my ass for this business.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Teddy Moss goes straight to the cops. It's just a break.
They've been looking for.
Speaker 5 (30:35):
The cops and the DA.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
They know who he was, and there was the perfect
opportunity to get this guy off the street.
Speaker 5 (30:43):
That's what they did.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
December nineteen sixty one, Gallo is convicted of conspiracy and extortion.
This time the system wins and hits the rebel with
a severe punishment.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
The evidence was allverwhelmed. He gets sentenced to seventh or
fourteen years in prison.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
With crazy Joey Gallow locked up, order is restored to
the mafia underworld for now.
Speaker 6 (31:15):
They jail Joey right in the midst of this Gallovaci wark,
so the Gallows effectively lose their Chegovara.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Joey Gallo does his best to acclimatize to life behind bars.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
While in prison, Joey Gallo begins a second phase of life.
He suddenly discovers books.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
The once violent and impulsive Gallow cools his heels behind bars,
reading books and painting. Order outside the world is changing,
and any problems the hothead may have had disappear. His
(32:01):
arch enemy Joe Prefacci dies, and the new dawn of
the Profacci family is hard boiled Brooklyn mobster Joe Colombo.
Colombo has no interest in avenging old wrongs. He's too
busy running his criminal empire and forging links with the
local Italian community. March nineteen seventy one and Gallow is released.
(32:27):
Apparently reformed, He makes straight for his old beatnik family,
where he finds himself a bit of a celebrity.
Speaker 6 (32:35):
When Joey comes out of prison, he strangely finds himself
in the midst of this fashionable New York literadi circuit.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
To America's counterculture heavyweights like Bob Dylan and Arthur Miller.
Crazy Joey's revolutionary gangster mystique is too cool to resist.
Speaker 6 (32:54):
They see a romantic outsider figure. He's on the outside
of whatever side there were is this countercultural you know,
anti hero going against the system.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
With his new counterculture buddies. Joey Gallow looks set for
a glamorous new chapter. When Joe Colombo hears that Joey
Gallow is coming to see him, alarm bells go off.
He's right to worry. Beneath the flower power hipster burns
(33:31):
an irrepressible desire for revenge. Joey can't resist reprising his
old role.
Speaker 5 (33:38):
One last time. Joey Gallow is not a normal human being.
Speaker 4 (33:44):
He's not somebody who goes to prison and comes out rehabilitated.
Now what did he spend d eight years in jail
doing plotting and every single day he spent behind bars
filled with more and more rage.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
Joey Gallo wasn't just painting in the slammer. He had
a maverick ruse to remain one step ahead of his enemy.
Speaker 6 (34:16):
In prison, Joey Gallo had a vision of combining forces
with the African American gangsters of.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
Harlem, fraternizing with black inmates. Joey worked to swell the
Gallow gang membership and once again defied convention.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
Joey Gallow's recruitment of black inmates that he met in
prison was certainly un orthodox. The mafia always used Jews
Shipman Irishipman, but there was no real association with black
mobsters or any way of affiliating with them. So it
was a very smart move by Joey.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
Joey waste snow time in letting Colombo know that Joey
Gallo isn't going to go away.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
And he goes and he meets. He's a sit down
with Joe Colombo. He said, all these years I've did
in a can your guys owe me some respect?
Speaker 5 (35:13):
You owe me some money.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
Joe immediately demands one hundred thousand dollars gift because he
had never agreed to the truce and he wants a
bigger cut of the Colombo family activities.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
Colombo is well aware of Gallow's reputation. It's a critical
moment for the boss. He knows how dangerous Gallow can be,
but he's got a reputation to keep. Colombo makes a big.
Speaker 4 (35:40):
Call, Colombo and yeah, I'll tell you what. Here's a grant.
He throws a thousand on the table. He says, here,
you know what you do. Don't have yourself a great
welcome home dinner.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
Joe Colombo wanted no part of Joey Gallo. He knew
he was wild and crazy and now he was a
potential nemesis, and he wasn't going to play ball with
Joey Gallup.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
It's a big mistake.
Speaker 6 (36:12):
Joey Gallup basically throws it back in his face and
he's like, yeah, you think this this gang wars over.
You know, it's just started.
Speaker 4 (36:20):
The rage inside Gallow is building and building and building.
He basically an ounces Colombo's dead.
Speaker 5 (36:28):
He's a dead man.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
The Gallow prefatcy war was back on.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
He thought he would be the next boss of the
Colombo family and would be known as a Joey Gallo family.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
With a new war threatening to her upt Colombo knows
he has to move fast.
Speaker 6 (36:51):
The reaction by the family against Joey Gallo for putting
a hit out on Joe Colombo is death. They put
an open contract done Joey Gallo.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
If Joey's going down, he's going to make sure he
takes Columbo with him, and his new prison contacts will
ensure that no one sees it coming. Gallo knows no
one will be expecting an assassin from Harlem, so he
hires an unknown two bit drug addict. Crazy Joey Gallo,
(37:40):
the Maverick mobster, has broken the rules and finally taken
down a leading mafia don, and he must know the
transgression cannot go unpunished.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
You don't take out a boss like that. It is
reckless and are going to be repercussions.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
Those men instantly renew the open contract on Joey's life.
Speaker 2 (38:05):
I knew that they were going to go after Joey then,
and informants came back all over the place. It's an
open contract out on Joey. That means anybody could hit
him anytime.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
But Crazy Joey isn't afraid of anyone. He's emboldened by
what he thinks is a victory over the Profacci family.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
He was just reckless. You just lived for today. You
didn't care about tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
Open contract or not Joey knows that in the movies,
the hero always wins in the end.
Speaker 4 (38:38):
This guy was a psychopath killer. His ego was unbelievable.
He was invincible. He's gonna live forever. I'm joe Gallop.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
April sixth, nineteen seventy two, Little Lily. Joey is celebrating
his forty third birthday with his entourage.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
They're sitting in the back and having a nice dinner
of a player to Trump and all that stuff, and
everything's fine. They runned another down. It's probably five o'clock
in the morning by now.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
Without warning, four gunmen burst in and begin shooting. The
Executioner's bullet. Pierce is Joey's carotid artery. Detective Mike Sheenan
(39:47):
was one of the first cops on the scene.
Speaker 5 (39:51):
I looked down and I said, you know what that is.
That's Joey Gallop, Joey Gallop. That's crazy Joeoey Gallop. And
he was gone.
Speaker 1 (40:07):
It's a fitting climax for a man who modeled himself
on a Hollywood noir gangster. Joey Gallows simply had to
go down in a hail of bullets.
Speaker 6 (40:19):
Joey Gallows really living out his ultimate movie fantasy by
getting gunned down in spectacular fashion in front of Embaro's
clamhouse in Little Italy.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
Embraced by a New York fashionable elite. As a counterculture
anti hero, Joey Gallow's funeral is attended by hundreds of mourners.
Speaker 3 (40:41):
It's an example of the naivety of a lot of people,
including Bob Dylan, who writes a song about him. Joey
was sophisticated enough that he acted like he was really innocent,
and that he was a victim of society, not somebody
who victimized society.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
Behind the romanticized image, it a different man, capable of
ruthless brutality and cold blooded murder, who started one of
the bloodiest wars in the history of the mafia and
rocked the mob to its core.
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