Which from the list below do you think was the "Craziest" gangster in the history of The Mob?

Bugsy Siegal
Vinny " Mad Dog " Coll
John Dillenger
Al Capone
Joe Gallo
Sammy Gravano


Don Cardi

Me personally, I wouldnt consider John Dilllenger a gangster, but out of your list Id have to say Mad Dog or Crazy Joe.

DC, I'd have to say, "none of the above":

Bugsy Siegal--Got his "bug" rep as a kid. As an adult, mostly a (ruthless) businessman.
Vinny " Mad Dog " Coll--that name was given him by the newspapers after one of his attempted hits went bad and he killed a little kid with a stray shot. Otherwise, he was a fairly conventional thug-for-hire.
John Dillinger--your basic bank robber, made into a popular hero (ironically) by the FBI's efforts to aggrandize themselves. He was a font of sanity compared with his sometimes gangmate, Baby Face Nelson, who was a real nut-case.
Al Capone--his only real "craziness" was caused by his tertiary syphillis. Committed two murders as a teenager, one as an adult. That's all.
Joe Gallo--he created the "crazy" name for himself to make up for the fact that he was small of stature and needed a "rep" to enforce his will as a small time racketeer.
Sammy Gravano--definitely a methodical killer, but always in the cause of business or personal advancement, usually when someone told him to kill. Something like a Nazi war criminal: "I vas unnnly obeying orders."

IMO, the crazy Dons were Albert Anastasia and Carmine Galante. Anastasia committed more than 50 murders by his own hand. As Don, he ordered the murder of Brooklynite Arnold Schuster simply because he gave the cops a tip that led to the arrest of Willie (the Actor) Sutton, a bank robber and prison escapee who had no connection to the Mob. To me that's crazy. Galante was a stone killer and sadist who ran the Federal lockup in Lewisburg, PA, like Nero ran Rome, and whose cruelty was legendary.

Out of those that you mention above, I would have to say Anastasia then.

That's why you are the "MOB HISTORIAN" my friend, and I do mean that with the utmost respect!


Don Cardi

how about Jimmy the gent in real life they said he was real crazy at times.

Don Vinnie-Jimmy would seem gentle as a lamb comparred to some of these other guys like Anistasia or Genovese.

Damn, I can't remember his name but he was the brass in the Irish gang of the Westies. What's his name guys? He was nuckin' futs.

You're probably thinking of Jimmy Coonan, Mickey Featherstone and Richie Ryan, three definite nut-cases. But they did have enough sanity to run a successful cocaine racket, until they went away.

Featherstone! That's it! Thanks, man! Yeah that whole gang was not right. They couldn't sell coke cause they broke the 3rd rule of Scarface...You can't get high on your own supply. You don't wanna be in debt w/ the mob. That's the lime pit treatment.

Yes Turnbull, you are correct about Joe Gallo. I just finished reading "The Sixth Family" and even though he was called Crazy Joe, he really wasn't crazy at all. In fact he became a pretty educated person in jail, and after his release he surrounded himself with some very "high society" intellectuals. I think that he got the name Crazy because of the the big b**ls that he had.
So maybe my original question should have been "What mobster had the biggest B**LS?"

Don Cardi

Another thoughtful question, DC.
Probably there are many examples. One that stands out:
John Dillinger may not have been the brightest bank robber, but he might have had the biggest gonads (note non-gender-specific term ). Some of his gang were arrested and imprisoned, and he sprang them by smuggling guns into the state prison. Then he was arrested and held in the jail in Crown Point, IN. The jail was surrounded by state police and National Guard troops, with sandbags and machine guns. The local sheriff bragged that Dillinger would never escape. But Dillinger managed to carve a phony pistol out of wood, color it with black shoe polish, and then used it to get out of his cell, back down almost a dozen guards, get past the troopers and Guardsmen, and make his escape--in the sheriff's car! Later, he had himself photographed holding a Tommygun in one hand and the phony pistol (which was little more than a "barrel") in the other. That's ballsy, IMO.

Al Capone circa 1941.

what about Tommy de simone. he was pretty crazy

"Mad" Sam DiStefano - This guy was insane. He took pleasure in torturing his victims. That's where Tony "The Ant" Spilotro (Real life inspiration for Peschi's Character in "Casino") learned it.

I just watched Dillenger, last night had to watch it twice it was good. This guy was nuts, had class, humor, I enjoyed the movie. When he took Baby Face Nelson for a walk and beat the shit out of him . Outstanding

I want ya all to know I searched, Dillenger and this hare is what come up.

SC, ya gonna give me award or somethin, yea I know ya would like ta give me somethin

nicky scarfo, milwaukee phil alderisio, sam giancana, sam destefano, carmine sessa

Didnt sam distefano force his wife at gunpoint to suck some black guys dick to teach her a lesson?

Featherstone was batshit crazy back in the 70's. It was from a incident in Vietnam where they circumcised him. He used to kill people and then instead of jail they sent him to the nuthouse where he would get out fast and do the same thing again. its amazing he seems to be ok now in witness protection

yeah he was one sick guy, he forced some guys family to piss on him because he owed sam money ...humiliating

Destefano did indeed kidnap a black guy at random and force him and his wife (Sam's wife) to do it!!!!

Destefano also used to defend himself in court where he was known to talk through a bullhorn and come up with random statements such as "have you ever seen an elephant".
Destefano also as mentioned, tortured one of his own debt collecters who Sam believed was stealing from him by chaining him to a radiator for 3 days then forcing the mans family to urinate on him to cool him down!
There is also a story about Sam from way back in the 50's about him decorating his car with apples, oranges, lemons and grapes.
When cops pulled his fruity vehicle over they arrested him but found to their dismay that they couldnt actually find anything to charge him with!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Destefano was nuts............ and extremely dangerous!

nuts for sure...was he made into the outfit?

Vic Amuso, had a guy killed because he was into the gay sex in prison. He had another guy killed because he kept asking to meet him.

I read that sam was NOT made because he was very very insane, yeah I seen him in court shouting through a bullhorn "you dirty rat" lol - I especially like the story about his wife offering the agents coffee, and after several "accepted" beverages on different occasions they learned that sam was in the kitchen pissing in their coffee, just brilliant, Frank Calabrese Sr was pretty crazy - he killed a shit load of people while running a loan shark operation in Chinatown Chicago - and also complained because he was not asked to be part of the hit team that killed Tony and Michael Spilotro, but his brother Nick Calabrese was...He's in jail now and aint never getting out, I think he wants to kill his son's because one of them (Frank Jnr)ratted him out

Mickey Featherstone hands down> The State of NY will back it up too.

yeah his son and his brother both flipped on him. One of Nick Calabrese's FBI handlers said that if Frank Sr. wasn't such an asshole , the Family Secrets case probably would have never happened. If he treated his brother and son better they might not have flipped on him. After reading the Family Secrets book recently , Frank Sr. sounded like a real piece of shit

his son frank jnr got lured to a garage and was told to leave his car a block or 2 away and when he entered he said he seen "the thousand yard stare" and he knew then what was up, lucky he only got a gun in his mouth and told to behave himself...a lot of other guys got the rope, yeah I read he treated everyone in his crew including his brother and son/s like shit... "everyone was terrified that they would upset cheech(frank in Italian), you never knew what he would do" - he also told his crew to "do whatever you gotta do to collect a loan", but don't kill em - obviously

Anyone know why Frank jr. walks with a cane ?

Because his dog died.

i dont know if anyone else has been getting ur lil jokes lately but i think there pretty funny