Think he was killed because of the amount of heat he generated over the McBratney murder. The bosses didn't like it.

Ralph Galione was killed for botching the kidnapping and bringing the heat on the rest of the team. McBratney was supposed to be tortured to death and reveal who was operating the kidnapping ring. The mob knew McBratney was involved due to his license plate number being taken down during the attempted kidnapping of Gambino member D'Amore. Carlo gave the contract to Big Paul, who passed it to Nino Gaggi, who picked the members to do the torturing possibly Roy Demeo was one of the guys to do it. Galione, Gotti, and Ruggerio knew what McBratney looked liked, and were picked to bring him in. Pretending to be cops was a good decoy and would give them time. Cops hassled gangsters all the time back then, and no one would have batted an eyelash since it would be normal. This is New York City we are talking about. They were walking him out, when a friend of McBratney from that bar intervened. Ralph did not play it cool and fired a couple shots in the ceiling, most of the people obeyed the mobsters but one person slipped out to call the real cops. They were struggling with McBratney and having a hard time of it, when Galione finally shot McBratney a few times.

It keeps being repeated that Ralph Galione was killed for drugs, which he was involved in and kicking up. It was the McBratney fiasco that sealed his fate. Ralph was not holding Gotti back, Gotti was already told when the books opened back up, he would he made. Galione was not made. Galione finally ended up in Fatico crew, but got his start in John Riccobono crew and knew Brooklyn and Staten Island really well. That is one of the reasons Galione was picked because he was familiar with Staten Island, so John and Angelo would not become lost.