Has anyone on here ever seen the movie about Crazy Joe Gallo with Peter Boyle? I believe that it was either titled "Joey," or "Crazy Joe." Can anyone help me out here?

Don Cardi

Crazy Joe: A Review (1974)
Another GODFATHER-inspired film featuring violence and the berserk ambitions of one of Brooklyn's toughest hoodlums, Joey Gallo, a Sartre-reading thug who confused class with brass. Boyle and his brother Torn pull off a routine caper, and Boyle is sent to Attica. Here he forms alliances with NYC black gangs, which he trades on to buck the Manhattan Mafia when he is released. At first Adler, the shifty Mafia don, tells Boyle "Take all you can hold," believing the young Turk doesn't have enough "soldiers" to launch a full-scale war. When he realizes that Boyle has ranks of black criminals behind him, Adler panics and orders Boyle killed. Just as he is about to take control of the Mafia organization, Boyle is gunned down in a restaurant (exactly like Umberto's Clam House in Little Italy, where the real Crazy Joe was shot to death in 1972). Boyle gives a fascinating performance, but the excessive violence is jarring, disturbing even for adults. (This is not one for the children.) Torn renders a solid performance as Boyle's brother who commits suicide when he realizes that the two are pawns in a bloody crusade to dominate a system that will eventually gobble them up. To avoid problems with the Gallo family, Boyle is never referred to by his last name--it is suggested, however, when the camera lingers on a case of Gallo Wine in a scene showing a liquor-store robbery. The story is based on a poor profile by Gage, which offers little or no background information on Gallo other than to stereotype him as a trigger-happy lout with intellectual pretensions. A minor but persistent distraction is the ill-fitting rug adorning Boyle's famous bald pate. Tonti's camera is swift and sharp, but the story lags in spots while, to compensate for the absence of plot, Boyle's bursts of anger explode--as when Boyle, being hailed as a hero by street children, buys them gum from a machine that moments later he smashes to pieces because the sweetshop owner refuses to pay weekly extortion money.

Sound Familiar? Maybe the Rosatto Brothers?
Recruiting, blacks, hispanics, etc.!

Actually, Crazy Joe's brother Larry had stomach cancer, and I believe that is why he killed himself. When Crazy Joe was killed in Umbertos Clam House, he was celebrating with his family. This hit was done right in front of his wife and daughter! At that time this was considered an "Infamia" ie a disgrace. A member was NEVER to be killed if he was with his immedeate family. When this hit took place, it actually sent shock waves through the underworld.

Don Cardi

Crazy Joe Gallo was part of the Columbo family and it was rumored that the guy who shot Joe Columbo was done at the behest of Crazy Joe, because it was a Black assailant who shot him.

He definitely was tight with the Black prisoners while in prison and there was little doubt he would employ Blacks if he ran his own family. He was very feared (respected) by all families.

Jerome Johnson was black, and he paralyzed Joseph Colombo mentally and physically until his death in 1978. Although many suspected Gambino because he had been somewhat angry at him for his publicity stunts (if he wanted to represent Italians and protect them from slandering, why the hell was he a mob boss he screwed them out of money? He should have gone legitimate, it's just a sign of his idiocy and arrogance). Yet, it was obviously not Gambino because he did not hire any other races but Italians (as did Bonnano boss, Carmine Galante - he called his Sicilian killers "zips", and his own would eventually turn on him). Joey Gallo was the main suspect from then on.