I have read that Carmine Galante had the mental age of a young teenager and/or a low IQ.
Yet he also spoke several languages fluently, regularly travelled to and from America at a time when most gangsters probably couldn't find America on a map, ran the French Connection, came up with the "black man test" to test the potency of heroin, had all the other families coveting his money making enterprise and had an assortment of various criminals, gangsters and prison guards wrapped around his finger in prison.
Anyone else find that information slightly contradictory?
The man pretty much single-handedly got thousands of New Yorkers hooked on heroin and despite spending an inordinate amount of time in prison, made an insane amount of money.
How could he have the mental age of a child or a low IQ? He was clearly a criminal mastermind.
....and he would have made Carlo shit in Times Square. Galante spent the majority of his adult life in prison. That beady eyed Gambino wouldn't have lasted a day in prison.
Thank you for this, Moe, its EXTREMELY contradictory-- Galante was obviously no idiot; that whole myth comes from a psychological exam in New York state prison when he was teens, early 20s, I belive. (We can go back to the FBI file and check.)
Also, while we obviously don't know everything, Galante was involved in all sorts of non-narcotic things in Brooklyn too: clothing factory, real estate...
Sure he had some "character flaws" and got greedy-- as if that's surprising in his line of work-- but anyone who underestimates what he accomplished is foolish.
That he maybe / probably got away with the Carlo Tresca hit is only tip of iceberg.
