Joe Gallo and his older brother Larry, were both soldiers in the Colombo Family. There are some indications that Larry however, was given a capo spot by Joe Colombo as part of a peace treaty between the warring factions in the Profaci/Gallo war. Larry died in 1968.
I've told this story before, but it's kind of fun for me, so here's another shot at it (
) :
My father was in the jukebox business in Brooklyn. When I was a young kid I'd go to work with him occasionally. My "job" was to separate the coins (nickels, dimes, quarters) from the jukeboxes and pinball machines.
It was the summer of 1961, I was ten years old and following the big story of that summer.... the home run chase of Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle against Babe Ruth's record. It was some time in July and the two M&M boys had about 35 homers each and my dad took me to work with him. It was early afternoon and the bar wasn't open yet which meant I could sit at the bar, have a Coke and pretend I was drinking whiskey while watching the Yankee game on tv. One of them hit a homerun (I honestly don't remember which one, though) and I started cheering. The bartender/owner who had been setting up to open, laughed and we talked "baseball" for a few minutes.
A few weeks passed and my dad showed me the newspaper with the front page picture of Larry Gallo with a big mark around his neck. He then told me about the attempted strangling and how it was the same place that we had been in a few weeks earlier (the Sahara Lounge).
(This was the basis for the attempted killing of Frank Pentangeli in "Godfather Part II").
Turnbull remembers the front page photo of Larry Gallo after the strangulation. I wish I had saved that paper.
