"Crazy" Joe Gallo: Mafia Hitman

Joseph Gallo, not a famous name, not even a boss in mafia's history, but he was an important mafia enforcer from the Profaci crime family, based in New York. Like most crazy mafioso, he killed when he wanted rather when he needed or was ordered, and was thought to be a hitman doing contract killings on the orders of boss Joe Profaci. Ironically, his nickname "Crazy" had nothing to do with his murderous reputation. Many gangsters labelled him for his habit of reciting lines of dialogue from gangster movies and impersonating fictitious mob characters. Although never convicted of the crime from authorities it was a well known rumor that he was the killer of the famous mob boss Albert Anastasia.

Gallo was not happy with the leadership of the Profaci family, current ran by Boss Joseph Profaci so he tried to take over. The attempt was unsuccessful and many  members of Gallo's gang, friends and relatives were systematically wiped out by Profaci’s soldiers. To further weekend Gallo's chances of moving up in the mafia ladder, in 1961 he was convicted of extortion and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. While in prison he continued his murderous ways by politely inviting prisoners into his cell and then giving them food laced with strychnine. Many inmates became extremely ill though none died. Far from being rehabilitated he was paroled after serving 8 years of his sentence.

After his release, Gallo became determined to kick Joe Colombo off is thrown as boss of the Colombo crime family. In 1971 an African-American gangster shot Colombo three times in the head on Gallo’s orders, Colombo would survive for seven more years but would never gain consciousness. However, Gallo would soon get his own violent death from the mafia for precautions against him for murdering with no OK from anyone . In 1972, when he was eating at a seafood restaurant with his family and bodyguard, a lone gunman burst through the rear entrance and shot Gallo five times in the chest. He staggered into the street and collapsed dead. The responsible party for the slaying was Carlo Gimbino for killing his friend Joe Colombo, but this has never been proving because there was speculation that Gimbino himself had a hand in the killing of Colombo.