Joey was an undersized and scrawny man and he realized early on that he needed an edge, so he quickly developed a ferocious disposition and became a fearsome street fighter. His blue eyes and fair hair earned him the nickname "Joe the Blond," but behind his back people called him "Crazy Joe," a label that was both accurate and official. Arrested for burglary in 1950 when he was just 21, his attitude in court was so bizarre that he was sent to Kings County Hospital for psychiatric examination. After a lengthy check up, the psychiatrists who examined him came to a formal conclusion: " Joseph Gallo is presently insane."
Shortly after their successful hit on Anastasia, both Larry and Joey were given their badges and made into the Profaci family.
Early in 1960 as a result of an internal struggle, over 100 men, almost half of the family, defected and formed a new gang headed by Carmine Persico and Larry Gallo. Things came to a head early in 1961 when Gallo gunmen kidnapped four of Profaci�s closest advisers and held them for ransom. After protracted negotiations, the men were released, and eventually Profaci coaxed back most of the defectors. The brothers fumed and waited for the right moment, and then on a hot day in August 1961, the war began.
Joseph "Joe Jelly" Giorelli, one of the backup shooters in the Anastasia hit, went out on a fishing trip in Sheepshead Bay with four friends and never came back. He was the first casualty. Two days later on August 20, Larry Gallo was attacked and almost murdered in a bar on Utica Avenue, Brooklyn. Only the timely arrival of two cops who were checking out an open door saved him from certain death. Over the next two years as the war raged, at least 12 mobsters were killed and scores wounded. Among the dead was a close confederate of Larry Gallo, Ali Hassan Waffa, better known as Ali Baba, and the only known Egyptian casualty of any gang war, anywhere. There is no doubt there would have been many more casualties had not Joey Gallo been removed from the battlefield. Arrested and convicted of extortion, he went off to prison and would not reappear for almost ten years.
On June 6, 1962, Joseph Profaci died in the South Side Hospital, Long Island, of cancer. Laid to rest in St. John�s Cemetery, Queens, his coffin rests in a white granite, domed mausoleum, behind two huge brass doors, depicting Jesus on the cross, attended by two angels. It has been estimated that during his reign his earnings from his illegal activities were as high as $200 million. He left no will and no estate. His holdings had been parcelled out and simply vanished. On his death, his brother-in-law Giuseppe Magliocco assumed control of the family.
Always known as an indecisive leader, Magliocco neverthless carried the right credentials. His sister was married to Profaci and he had stood by as right hand man for thirty years. He was known as a man who would get things done. He would, however, become victim to a cunning plot contrived by another family head who was renowned for his deceit, cunning and double dealing. Joseph Bonanno.
Bonanno is still alive to day at the age of 95, the last survivor of those tumultuous times. In 1962, at the age of 57, he was at the peak of his career. A close friend and ally of Profaci, Bonanno saw an opportunity to dominate the mob and become the most powerful crime boss in the country. His scheme revolved around the demise and exit of three powerful opponents. Carlo Gambino and Thomas Lucchese of New York and his cousin Stefano Magaddino of Buffalo. He wanted Magliocco and his family's support to help carry out the assassinations and, in due course, Magliocco brought in one of his younger more aggressive capo�s to organize the hits. His name was Joseph Colombo.
Although Colombo, an ex-longshoreman was eminently qualified for this triple-header of a hit, and although Magliocco considered him to be one of his most capable captains, there was one thing he didn�t know about Joe. Before he joined the Profaci family, he had worked for the Pride Meat Co., a company controlled by Paul Gambino, brother of Carlo. Gambino had taken a fatherly interest in the young Colombo, and it was ultimately through his auspices that Colombo found a place in the Profaci family. Although Joe had served Profaci well, he owed no loyalty to Magliocco or Bonanno. When the plan was unveiled to him, Joe went straight to Carlo Gambino and spilt the beans. Gambino immediately called a meeting of the Commission, the ruling body of the mob, which at that time consisted of himself, Vito Genovese (in prison on drug charges), Tommy Lucchese, Joe Bonanno, Sam Giancana of Chicago, Stefano Magaddino of Buffalo, Angelo Bruno of Philadelphia, John Scalish of Cleveland, Joe Zerilli of Detroit and Raymonde Patriarca of New England.
The Commission ordered Bonanno and Magliocco to appear for a hearing. Joe Bonanno went into hiding and Magliocco showed up, confessed to his sins, accepted a fine of $50,000 and retired from mob life. Several months later on Dec 28, 1963, he died on his Long Island estate, apparently of a heart attack.
Carlo Gambino, now the most powerful boss of any crime family, put pressure on the Commission to approve his nomination of Joe Colombo to head the Profaci family. It was unanimously approved and, at the age of 40, Joseph Colombo was top dog, the youngest mob boss appointed in America. He would also be one of the youngest mob boss to die on the job.