Was crazy Joe (Joseph Gallo) of Sicilian descent?

I heard he was Neapolitan but some say he was of mixed Neapolitan and Sicilian heritage. What do you think?

I hadnt heard it at all until the last year or so, I might have even picked it up stalking around here before I signed up but I saw somewhere that he was part Irish. no clue how true it is

I think Gallo is sicilian,like Galeltti.Not really sure

There is no way he was part Irish being that back in those days you definitely had to be 100% Italian. Plus I was friends with a guy that knew Joe's cousin Dan Gallo (not a mobster). Dan told us Joe's parents were fully Italian and their parents were from the old country. You are thinking of Henry Hill. I think Gallo is a Sicilian name. Joe used to visit L.A. in the early 60's and recruited some guys in LA. In the 1950's Joe lived in San Jose for about a year and was close to Joe Cerrito. They used to go out to eat a lot.

From a strictly historical point of view, Gallo seems to have originated in the north, in the Tuscan region, with its roots in Florence.

Interesting stuff: http://www.houseofnames.com/gallo-family-crest

I didnt think there was any truth to it but thought id ask anyway

Thanks PB for the info, very interesting find.

On Joey's grandfather's draft card it says that he came from "Portenzo," which might be Potenza. On a family tree it says the grandfather came from Ischia, Campania, Italy. Ischia is an island off Naples.

Probably Potenza. Those Irish clerks at Ellis Island couldn't even spell when they were sober .

I hear ya Sal, I've heard things about Charlie Porter who was the Underboss of the Pittsburgh Mob, some say he was fully Italian and some say he's half. Hard to believe what info is real and what's not. What I meant by "their parents" is Joe had bro's too.

Gallo's are heavy in Sicily. More particular are the Bruno-Gallo's (double barrel surname), prominent in Realmonte, Agrigento, Sicily.

Calabria, too. Mostly around Reggio, but I've also seen them in Cosenza. There are also a lot of properties and businesses around the Port of Reggio with the name Gallo. I think it's one of those Italian names that carried throughout the entire country.

I also remember reading an article awhile back about the most common Italian names in America. Russo and Gallo were right near the top.

You're right PB (5x turn around). Gallo is like Smith.

I thought it was illiteracy that led to stuff like that? All the Italians and Irish and Eastern Europeans couldn't spell their own names let alone where they came from!

I knew you'd take the bait. I swear on my kids I was hoping that you would.

Italian stereotypes are propagated all day long on this website, and no one seems to care. But the moment an Irish stereotype comes up, or God forbid the IRA (who probably killed more people than the American and Italian Mafias combined), your radar went up faster than a boner on a teenage boy at co-ed summer camp.

I like you, Moe. But do you see what I did there?

That's not far from the truth. Not to mention, many immigrants only spoke their regional dialect, leaving the clerks no choice but to sound it out phonetically.

Ain't no shame in being schooled by PB. Everybody has at one point or other.

Absolutely. One of the most realistic scenes in the Godfather films is when the clerk can't pronounce the word Andolini and changes Vito's name to Corleone.

Is it me (it probably is) or are there loads of made guys over the years who had Italian surnames but e.g. either their father's mother or their mother had non-Italian surnames.

I think that's pretty unfair on guys who have as much, or more, Italian blood but just happen to have a non-Italian surname.

Maybe I'm wrong on this but I definitely recall seeing a few maiden names for made guys that weren't Italian yet you barely see the Italian-Americans with non-Italian surnames get made, and when they do, i.e. Veasey (Sicilian mother), there is uproar all because of his surname.

Fair point. More than a few guys with questionable bloodlines have slipped through the cracks over the years because they had the right last name.

A great site for investigating Italian surnames is http://italia.indettaglio.it/eng/cognomi/cognomi.html

I edited my previous remark where I listed all the towns in Campania, Calabria, and Siciliy with Gallo's. To make a long story short, the name is incredibly common in all three provinces, plus it does occur in Potenza (Basilicata) with a fairly high incidence of 98 people

That info was from his World War II draft registration card, not immigration records. He may have filled out his draft card himself.

I'm not sure on those, but most to all of the WWI draft cards were filled out by the person registering unless they couldn't read or write. Not sure if WWII did the same or not.

If this is true, it's not even hard to believe. How many times in their lives had they ever written their town name? They pronounce it Portenzo, so that's how they spell it. You'd think anyone from their own hometown could spell it, but you'd be wrong. They really were that uneducated and ignorant. Even today I've seen some of the older ones that only made it thru 5th grade, make kindergarten mistakes with their own names and towns.

I had a friend called Richard in school. He left me an invitation to his birthday party on my desk during lunch. He signed his name Richrad.

Since I do a lot of family research I am constantly correcting the Ellis Island spellings on my relatives names. I could probably geta job there. The census records are no better. They recorded a relative of mine's first name as O' Niel instead of Aniello give me a break like he had Irish or Scottish blood in him Took me weeks to find him when they released the 1940 Census records.

Yes I want to choke the census takers. I've seen some where one of my Grandfather's named Harry showed up as Henry in one census and it took me years to find Harry's death certificate to prove he belonged in that family and was actually the "Henry" in the only census I could find. Nerve racking.

I hear ya! I was thinking how HARD could it be to write down names with the correct spelling so I decided to put my money where my mouth is; I offered to transcribe docs as a volunteer for this website. Since I can read and write in English, Spanish, and Italian I volunteered to put the list of info provided into the websites database. I would always get a 99-100% accuracy score.

Those family crests are fake.

When they give out a crest, they do it for a single person, and not an entire family or the descendants of that person.