Another botched mob hit was that of Wheeling, WV mob boss Paul "No Legs" Hankish, who controlled the rackets in Wheeling, WV for the LaRocca Crime Family in Pittsburgh. Paul Hankish had one of the largest illegal gambling operations in the country, operating in 8 states with its headquarters in Wheeling. He was closely associated with Demus Covello of the Gambino Crime Family as well as John LaRocca and Jo Jo Pecora of Pittsburgh. Paul was Lebanese, so he couldn't be made, otherwise, he would have been big time:

http://wideopenwheeling.weebly.com/the-paul-hankish-assasination-attempt.html

In early 1989, soon after his release from prison, Salemme attempted to gain control of the Patriarca family. Patriarca caporegime Joseph Russo opposed Salemme's move, fearing the loss of his lucrative rackets. In June 1989, Angelo "Sonny" Mercurio, a Russo loyalist, lured Salemme to a meeting outside a Saugus, Massachusetts IHOP. Gunmen then ambushed Salemme, wounding him in the chest and leg.By 1991 Salemme, with the support of Bulger and Flemmi, had become the defacto boss of the Patriarca family.

In 1951 Teddy Roe was attacked by Outfit hitmen Fat Leonard,Jimmy "New York" and Vincent Loli.In the battle,Roe returned with fire and managed to escape.One of the hitmen got his head blown off.I think it was Fat leonard.

In 1926, the North Side gang shot into Al Capone's entourage as he was eating lunch in the restaurant of the Hawthorne Hotel. A motorcade of ten vehicles, using Thompson Submachine guns and shotguns riddled the outside of the Hotel and the restaurant on the first floor of the building. Capone's bodyguard (Frankie Rio) threw him to the ground at the first sound of gunfire and laid on top of "The Big Fellow", as the headquarters was riddled with bullet holes. Several bystanders were hurt from flying glass and bullet shrapnel in the raid, including a young boy and his mother who would have lost her eyesight had not Capone paid for top-dollar medical care.

Bugs Moran was the primary target in the St Valentine's Day massacre. Capone's gunmen mistakenly thought Moran entered the garage and went ahead with the plot.

IHOP botched hit on Salemme.

In 1956 a bomb intended for Stefano Magaddino exploded at the house of his sister and brother-in-law at 1651 Whitney Ave., Niagra Falls,NY.The sister Arcangela Longo,was killed and her three young daughters injured in the blast.Also in 1958 another murder attempt was made on Maggadino when a grenade was thrown through a window into his kitchen,of his home at Dana Drive in Lewiston, NY, but failed to explode.

Surprised no one brought up Ken Eto. Asian gambling czar for the Outfit. Got arrested and they were scared he would flip so they sent Jasper Campise and John Gattuso to kill him. They'd packed their own bullets as a deterrent from getting pinched so when they shot him the bullets were basically duds and didn't penetrate his skull.

Campise's and Gattuso's bodies were later found in the trunk of a car for botching the hit, and probably because they'd been identified as the shooters to law enforcement by Eto.

Eto really did flip and sent a bunch of people away.

Botched for sure. And then killed the two guys who were suppose to kill Campise and Gattuso.

Was anyone ever charged in the Campise and Gattuso murders ? I know there were accusations in the Eto hit but I don't believe anyone was charged. What about the other two murders?

I don't think anyone was ever charged but Fosco has an article on what he says is the story behind it.

Johnny - I had actually read this earlier but forgotten the story. WOW !
Pretty far out ! No, real far out !

I guess I would suggest to Mr. Fosco something he says to his readers:" if you have knowledge of a crime call the police." I'm not for sure but it appears that all parties involved, with the exception of Mr. DiFronzo, are deceased.

It also appears that some of these statements could have legal implications. Of course Difronzo is not going to make any waves and I'm sure Mr. Fosco is very much aware of this.

He was mentioned,read the first post

Just read on another site that Larry Gallo, Crazy Joe's brother was lured someplace and they attempted to strangle him when a cop came in reminiscent of the Godfather.

Persico was strangling Gallo. They lured him to the bar and the Snake was strangling him but a cop came in.

In the first photo you can see the rope burn on Gallo's neck and in the second photo you see Gallo leaving the bar and a detective has the rope in his hand.

I'm not educated on this topic. How is packing your own bullet a deterrent from getting pinched? And how unusual is it for bullets to be duds?

Were the hitmen unskilled amateurs, or just unlucky?

I don't know the specific answers, but most mob hitmen are just schlubs with guns, not "skilled hitmen" etc. A few exceptions do come to mind: Nick Calabrese seemed to have a fair amount of technical acumen (building bombs, remote detonators etc.), and people like Harry Aleman and Jack McGurn seemed to have killed so many people that I'm sure they picked up a few tricks of the trade along the way.

I don't believe the powder itself was traceable, but was necessitated by the overall process of making one's own bullets, which are traceable.

Mobsters are known to feel resentment towards cops. I wonder what Larry Gallo felt after the cop walked in and saved his life?

Thanks, Johnny.

A question for Giancarlo and others familiar with the Gallo strangling...

What happened after the cops entered the bar? How did the events compare with the depiction in GFII?

I believe Persico and the others with him took off after the cop came in. But i think the cop might of recognized Persico because he was indicted for the attempted murder of Gallo. Charges were later dropped after Gallo refused to testify.

I was just reading up on the attempt to murder Larry Gallo and in one book it says Jimmy Clemenza was the actual guy strangling Gallo.

http://books.google.com/books?id=RiDwMljUJcoC&pg=PA88&lpg=PA88

Is that correct? I always thought it was Persico.

I know John Scimone and Persico were charged with the attempted murder of Gallo. And i believe Salvatore "Sally D" D'Ambrosio was also there.

From a Oct 6, 1961 NY Times article on the case.

Very Nice find Giancarlo. Great Photos too!

A lower load of powder in a round will produce less sound when fired, kinda like a jerry-rigged silencer. The bullets won't technically be "duds" (duds don't fire at all), but are fired at a lower velocity than a load with more powder. Mafia hitmen tend to favor .22s, which is a small and light bullet that needs a high velocity to penetrate anything. So if you take too much powder out of the load it will essentially an over-sized bb gun.

That's how Frank Cullotta fucked up that hit with the guy he had to chase around the house shooting him several times before he put up the gun right up to him, none of the other bullets penetrated the skin.

In September 1931 Mad Dog Coll was hired by Salvatore Maranzano.Maranzano suspected Lucky Luciano of wanting to kill him and seize power for himself.Coll agreed to murder Luciano for a $25,000 payment in advance and a $25,000 payment on completion of the job. On September 10, 1931, Maranzano invited Luciano to visit his office. The plan was that Coll would turn up and kill Luciano. However, Luciano had received a tip-off about this plan,so he instead sent over a squad of his own hitmen who stabbed and shot Maranzano to death. According to the 1963 testimony of government witness Joseph Valachi, Coll arrived at the office to kill Luciano, only to meet Luciano's hitmen fleeing the scene. After learning from them that Maranzano was dead, Coll immediately left the building, $25,000 richer.


In 1926 the gang war between Al Capone and the north side gang then headed by Hymie Weiss there was a murder attempt on Weiss in broad daylight in the Loop.The retaliation for that failed attempt was probably the most spectacular failed attack on Al Capone of the whole era.

Also mobster Adolfo Bruno was involved in a murder attempt on Joseph Maruca,a 47 year old bookmaker in 1981.Maruca was shot five times and lived.On trial Bruno was acquitted of attempted murder.

he failed strangling of Larry Gallo taken from the 1973 Italian film Crazy Joe, which I'm putting subtitles in English, sorry for the not so excellent quality of the film, but I traversed it from an old 1990 Vhs.

You can watch the movie Crazy Joe (in english) for free on Crackle. Video quality is excellent.

http://www.crackle.com/c/crazy-joe

I'm not sure if you have to be in the usa to watch it.

There's a documentary on youtube on Eto...just place his name in search and it will pop up.

It's in English and subtitled in japanese....I give it an average rating but it's a decent story on not only one of the only japanese OC associates in LCN history, but he's the only asian I know of in the Chicago Outfit's history.

The Eto hit has to be one of the top blundering fuck-up in the history of mob-sanctioned murders. They shot him in the head 3 times and he walked away from it!!

Giancarlo,when open the link I see

Sorry, we couldn’t find that page.

You may have misspelled the address or the content
you’re looking for may no longer be available.

can you find my themovie in english, in another sites?

Thanks for this one Eddie

Furio it still works for me, i'm watching it right now. It must be because your not in the USA. Try using a proxy server based in the USA and then see if you can access the movie.

http://www.crackle.com/c/crazy-joe

Crackle is the only site i've seen the 1974 movie "Crazy Joe" on for free. If i see it on another site i'll let you know.

Here's a screenshot of the movie playing in the small player mode on the Crackle site at the url i posted. Full screen video quality is excellent.

http://i43.tinypic.com/2vwegc2.jpg

Correction; James hydell tried to kill gas pipe. Frankie hydell was Jimmys younger brother