Joseph Gallo - Mafia Hit ?

ajellydonut · Mar 21, 2015

Newspaper reports, 4/7/71, say that Joseph " Crazy Joe" Gallo was shot and killed by a .32 and .38 revolver. Anyone have knowledge of what make and model handgun?

DWalt · Mar 21, 2015

Gallo was killed in a restaurant in 1972, but there was an earlier assassination attempt which he survived.

"On April 7, 1972, at 4:30 a.m., Gallo and his family entered Umberto's Clam House in Little Italy, Manhattan, to celebrate his 43rd birthday. The mood was light and joyous as they sat down for a hearty meal. Little did Gallo know it was to be his last supper. Gunmen entered the restaurant guns blazing and left him no other chance but to lure the assassins and their bullets away from his beloved family. Mortally wounded Crazy Joe stumbled out onto the street where he collapsed. At least two gunmen burst in through the rear entrance (other accounts claim there was only one gunman) and opened fire with .32 and .38 caliber revolvers. Gallo was hit five times while running away, leaving his family at table."

I don't think the hitman/men were ever identified and if not, it's likely the guns were not recovered.

ajellydonut · Mar 21, 2015

Wouldn't the bullets in the body tell them something, since they knew they were .32 and .38?

jtcarm · Mar 21, 2015

ajellydonut said:
Wouldn't the bullets in the body tell them something, since they knew they were .32 and .38?

Yep. For the most part, 5-groove RH twist rifling = S&W.

schgsd · Mar 21, 2015

Birthday dinner at 4:30 am?

DWalt · Mar 21, 2015

I've asked several times about the type of revolver used by Harry K. Thaw to kill Stanford White at Madison Square Garden in the famous 1906 "Red Velvet Swing" girl (Evelyn Nesbit) case. I read through about everything I could find (a lot), and I found only one newspaper account which identified it as a "Colt .22," nothing more. So newspaper accounts generally ignore the finer points of firearm identification.

murphydog · Mar 21, 2015

If you could access the NYPD records (forensics, autopsy reports) the fine details might be documented there. Short of that, not possible...and I doubt the assailants are Forum members or talking of their exploits

.

ajellydonut · Mar 21, 2015

I've tried the NYPD on other like issues and they want to charge a "GREAT" deal Have gotten info from the FBI, which is free, but takes a long time... guess it's an extra work-load issue for them, which I understand.

Watchdog · Mar 21, 2015

ajellydonut said:
Wouldn't the bullets in the body tell them something, since they knew they were .32 and .38?

Probably so...but that's going on the assumption that the police really cared who shot him and what weapons they used.

Frankie Sheeran claimed to have killed Gallo, but other people were also implicated. No proof was ever found, and no one was ever charged in the murder, even though it was generally acknowledged that the Colombo family sanctioned the murder.

Watchdog · Mar 21, 2015

murphydog said:
...I doubt the assailants are Forum members or talking of their exploits .

Hold on a second...what about that guy who posts here under the name of...ah-h-h, never mind.

rock doc · Mar 21, 2015

ajellydonut said:
Newspaper reports, 4/7/71, say that Joseph " Crazy Joe" Gallo was shot and killed by a .32 and .38 revolver. Anyone have knowledge of what make and model handgun?

Can't help you. The only Gallo I'm familiar with are Ernest and Julio.

Dennis The B · Mar 21, 2015

schgsd said:
Birthday dinner at 4:30 am?

Joe Gallo, his wife and kids, had been celebrating his birthday since the previous evening. They were driving through Little Italy, and happened across Umberto's Clam House just as Umberto's was closing. Joe decided then, and there, that he wanted clams with Umberto's scungilli sauce. Umberto's staff had already cleaned up the place, and the Gallo party wasn't exactly welcomed with open arms.

There were two guys across the street who saw the Gallo party, and they called somebody in the Columbo family. The Columbo's sent a couple of button men to take out Joe Gallo. They entered Umberto's and started shooting, and Gallo went out the door to get the hit men away from his family.

Gallo had a contract out on him because it was widely known that Gallo had hired the hit man who shot Columbo at the Italian-American Day celebration. Gallo had also dishonored Columbo by having a black man do the hit, and had acted against the orders of the heads of the Five Families.

Normally, Gallo wouldn't have been hit in front of his family, but Joey had already dishonored the Mafia.

There was a very fine book written by the retired Chief of Detectives of New York, Albert Seedman. He was in charge of detectives that day, and covered the hit. The book, "Chief", is still available. Chief Seedman was a very colorful cop, who really brought a lot of panache to the job.

schgsd · Mar 21, 2015

Dennis The B said:
Joe Gallo, his wife and kids, had been celebrating his birthday since the previous evening. They were driving through Little Italy, and happened across Umberto's Clam House just as Umberto's was closing. Joe decided then, and there, that he wanted clams with Umberto's scungilli sauce. Umberto's staff had already cleaned up the place, and the Gallo party wasn't exactly welcomed with open arms.

There were two guys across the street who saw the Gallo party, and they called somebody in the Columbo family. The Columbo's sent a couple of button men to take out Joe Gallo. They entered Umberto's and started shooting, and Gallo went out the door to get the hit men away from his family.

Gallo had a contract out on him because it was widely known that Gallo had hired the hit man who shot Columbo at the Italian-American Day celebration. Gallo had also dishonored Columbo by having a black man do the hit, and had acted against the orders of the heads of the Five Families.

Normally, Gallo wouldn't have been hit in front of his family, but Joey had already dishonored the Mafia.

There was a very fine book written by the retired Chief of Detectives of New York, Albert Seedman. He was in charge of detectives that day, and covered the hit. The book, "Chief", is still available. Chief Seedman was a very colorful cop, who really brought a lot of panache to the job.

Well I bet Crazy Joe won't deny that birthday was a real blast, but I bet he wishes now he passed on the clams.

rwsmith · Mar 21, 2015

Especially....

DWalt said:
I've asked several times about the type of revolver used by Harry K. Thaw to kill Stanford White at Madison Square Garden in the famous 1906 "Red Velvet Swing" girl (Evelyn Nesbit) case. I read through about everything I could find (a lot), and I found only one newspaper account which identified it as a "Colt .22," nothing more. So newspaper accounts generally ignore the finer points of firearm identification.

Especially in those days. And matching a bullet to the gun only helps when you have the murder weapon to fire test shots to compare to the slug removed from the victim.

S&WIowegan · Mar 21, 2015

I was living in NYC-Manhattan when this hit occurred. Gallo had only recently gotten out of prison and was a wild man who refused to obey the top bosses. He must have known they were gonna get him. He had several brothers who were gangsters too. This happened in the early 70s when there weren't lots of TV shows which had all the magic forensics. In any event, the cops probably cared less what guns were used. They knew they wouldn't get the shooters.

There were two other famous hits while I lived in NYC. Tony Galante got a ton of lead at a restaurant in Brooklyn and Big Paulie ????? outside Sparks steak house with the streets full of commuters on the way home.

The NY Daily News and the NY Post were big on showing the gore.

ImprovedModel56Fan · Mar 21, 2015

DWalt said:
I've asked several times about the type of revolver used by Harry K. Thaw to kill Stanford White at Madison Square Garden in the famous 1906 "Red Velvet Swing" girl (Evelyn Nesbit) case. I read through about everything I could find (a lot), and I found only one newspaper account which identified it as a "Colt .22," nothing more. So newspaper accounts generally ignore the finer points of firearm identification.

I'm surprised that they didn't report that it was an AK47.

ajellydonut · Mar 21, 2015

S&WIowegan said:
I was living in NYC-Manhattan when this hit occurred. Gallo had only recently gotten out of prison and was a wild man who refused to obey the top bosses. He must have known they were gonna get him. He had several brothers who were gangsters too. This happened in the early 70s when there weren't lots of TV shows which had all the magic forensics. In any event, the cops probably cared less what guns were used. They knew they wouldn't get the shooters.

There were two other famous hits while I lived in NYC. Tony Galante got a ton of lead at a restaurant in Brooklyn and Big Paulie ????? outside Sparks steak house with the streets full of commuters on the way home.

The NY Daily News and the NY Post were big on showing the gore.

"Big Paulie" was Paul Castellano

ditrina · Mar 21, 2015

I don't understand

everybody is worried about the caliber..

( From out of the back of the closet)

Don't anyone care about the Commemorative "TEE SHIRT"

S&WIowegan · Mar 22, 2015

ditrina said:
I don't understand everybody is worried about the caliber..

( From out of the back of the closet)

Don't anyone care about the Commemorative "TEE SHIRT"

We should start calling you "Sally" out of respect!

Joseph Gallo - Mafia Hit ?

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