The Mob Hit That Shocked Little Italy: Crazy Joe’s Last Meal

New York City, Little Italy, April the 7th, 1972. 4:00 a.m. Joey Gallo sits at a corner table inside Umberto’s Clam House, 129 Mulberry Street. With him, his wife Sina, her daughter Lisa, his sister Carmela, her date Alfie the Bull, and his bodyguard Pete the Greek Diapoulas. The restaurant is nearly empty.

Two waiters work the floor. The owner, Matty Ianniello, is not present. Gallo orders a scungilli and shrimp. He drinks wine. The table sits near the rear, close to the kitchen door. No one watches the front entrance. Outside, a 1971 Cadillac pulls up on Mulberry Street. Four men inside. No one exits immediately.

Gallo is celebrating. Earlier that night, he attended dinner at the Copacabana nightclub with comedian Jerry Orbach and actor and comedian David Steinberg. Sina wore a white dress. Gallo wore a blue suit. They left the Copa around 3:30 a.m. Gallo wanted clams. He has been out of prison for 17 months.

He served 9 years at Attica and Auburn for extortion. While inside, he read Sartre, Camus, and Kafka. He painted. He befriended African-American inmates. When he walked out in March 1971, he returned to President Street in Brooklyn, where his crew operated from a social club. But, the Brooklyn waterfront had changed. Joseph Colombo Sr.

controlled the rackets Gallo once touched. Colombo ran the Colombo crime family. Gallo had worked under Joseph Profaci before prison. Profaci died in 1962. Colombo took over. Gallo believed he was owed territory. Colombo disagreed. On June 28th, 1971, Joseph Colombo was shot three times at an Italian-American Civil Rights League rally in Columbus Circle.

The shooter, Jerome Johnson, was a black man. Colombo’s bodyguards killed Johnson on the spot. Colombo survived, but remained in a vegetative state. He would die 7 years later without regaining consciousness. Police suspected Gallo ordered the hit. No charges were filed. No evidence surfaced.

But, the Colombo family believed it. Carlo Gambino, head of the Gambino crime family, believed it. Gambino had ties to the Colombos. He did not approve of Gallo’s actions. By summer 1971, Gallo knew he was a target. He stayed mobile. He avoided routines. He hired bodyguards. He kept a low profile in Brooklyn, but he did not leave New York.

On the evening of April 6th, 1972, Gallo turned 43. He spent the night celebrating. He moved between Manhattan locations. He drank. He laughed. He acted like a man who believed he was untouchable. At 4:00 a.m. inside Umberto’s, Gallo finishes his meal. The restaurant is dim. The jukebox plays.

Carmela and Alfie sit to his left. Sina and Lisa sit to his right. Pete the Greek stands near the table, watching the room. The front door opens. A man walks in. He wears a light-colored jacket. He does not speak to the waiters. He does not look at the menu. He walks directly toward Gallo’s table. A second man enters behind him. Then a third.

All three move quickly. None of them sit. Pete the Greek sees them first. He reaches for his gun. The first man pulls a .38 revolver and fires. The shot hits Gallo in the back. Gallo stands, knocking over his chair. He staggers toward the kitchen door. The second man fires.

Another shot hits Gallo in the buttocks. He pushes through the kitchen door, bleeding. Sina screams. Carmela dives under the table. Lisa freezes. Pete the Greek fires back. His shot hits the first gunman in the hip. The gunman stumbles, but does not fall. He fires again, missing. The third man pulls a second revolver and shoots toward Pete.

The bullet strikes the wall. Gallo collapses inside the kitchen. Blood pools beneath him. The waiters run toward the back exit. The gunmen do not follow Gallo into the kitchen. They turn and run out the front door. Sina rushes to the kitchen. She kneels beside Gallo. He is conscious, but cannot speak. His breathing is shallow.

Blood soaks through his shirt. Alfie the Bull runs outside. The Cadillac is gone. Mulberry Street is empty, except for two men walking north, away from the restaurant. Alfie does not follow them. Inside, Pete the Greek calls the police. The call is logged at 4:07 a.m. Patrolman Michael Hoban and his partner respond.

They arrive at 4:10 a.m. Hoban enters the restaurant. He sees overturned chairs, broken glass, blood on the floor near the kitchen. Sina is still in the kitchen holding Gallo. Hoban checks Gallo’s pulse. It is weak. Hoban radios for an ambulance. The ambulance arrives at 4:14 a.m. Paramedics load Gallo onto a stretcher.

Sina climbs into the ambulance with him. The ambulance drives to Beekman Downtown Hospital, six blocks away. Gallo is unconscious when they arrive. Doctors take him into surgery. He has three gunshot wounds. One in the back, one in the buttock, one in the elbow. The back wound severed an artery. At 4:28 a.m.

, Joey Gallo is pronounced dead. Police seal Umberto’s Clam House. Detectives from the Fifth Precinct arrive. They photograph the scene. They collect shell casings. They interview witnesses. Sina Gallo tells detectives she did not see the shooters’ faces. Carmela says the same. Lisa is too shaken to speak. Pete the Greek describes three men, all white, all in their 30s.

He says he shot one of them. Police find blood on the sidewalk outside. They follow the trail 20 ft north. It stops. No one is arrested that night. By 6:00 a.m., detectives identify tire marks on Mulberry Street matching a Cadillac. The car is found abandoned in Brooklyn at 8:15 a.m., parked on President Street, two blocks from Gallo’s social club.

The interior is wiped clean. No fingerprints. No weapons. A small blood stain on the rear seat. Detective Joseph Coffee leads the investigation. He works out of the Organized Crime Homicide Task Force. Coffee knows Gallo’s history. He knows the Colombo connection. He knows Carlo Gambino’s role in the family structure.

Coffee interviews witnesses from Mulberry Street. A deli owner across from Umberto’s says he saw four men exit a Cadillac around 4:00 a.m. He did not see them enter the restaurant. He heard gunshots. He locked his door. A resident in an apartment above Umberto’s tells police she heard four or five shots, then shouting, then tires screeching.

She did not look out the window. Coffee requests medical records from hospitals in Brooklyn and Manhattan. He is looking for a man treated for a gunshot wound to the hip. No matches are found. By April 8th, newspapers report Gallo’s death. The New York Times runs the story on page one. The headline: Joey Gallo is shot to death in Little Italy.

The article notes Gallo’s criminal record, his suspected involvement in the Colombo shooting, his time in prison, his recent public appearances with actors and writers. The Daily News uses a larger headline: Crazy Joe slain in mob hit. The article includes a photograph of Umberto’s Clam House, the front door marked with police tape.

Gallo’s funeral is held on April 10th at Guido’s Funeral Home in Brooklyn. Over 1,000 people attend. Most are family and neighborhood residents. Some are reporters. A few are actors and writers Gallo befriended during his brief time in Manhattan’s cultural circles. Jerry Orbach attends.

He does not speak to the press. Actor Ben Gazzara attends. Writer Marta Orbach attends with her husband, Jerry. No known mobsters are seen entering or leaving the funeral home, though detectives photograph every attendee. Carlo Gambino does not attend. Joseph Colombo is still in a coma. No member of the Colombo family sends flowers.

Coffee’s investigation focuses on the Colombo family. He interviews informants. One informant tells him the hit was ordered by Carmine Jr. Persico, a Colombo capo. Persico is in prison at the time, serving a sentence for hijacking. The informant says Persico sent word to his crew on the outside. Another informant names Joseph Joe Yac Yacovelli as the acting boss of the Colombo family.

Yacovelli took control after Colombo was shot. He operates out of Brooklyn. The informant says Yacovelli approved the hit. Coffee brings in suspects. He questions four men with ties to the Colombo family. All four deny involvement. None have alibis. None have gunshot wounds. Coffee holds them for 48 hours, then releases them. No charges are filed.

On April the 12th, an anonymous tip reaches the NYPD. The caller says the shooters were Carmine DiBiase, Philip Gambino, and two others whose names the caller does not know. Carmine DiBiase is a Colombo soldier known as Sonny Pinto. Philip Gambino has no direct relation to Carlo Gambino. He is a low-level associate.

Coffee runs both names. DiBiase has a record, assault, extortion, weapons possession. Gambino has two prior arrests, both for gambling. Neither man can be located. By April 15th, the investigation stalls. No physical evidence ties anyone to the shooting. No witnesses change their statements. Pete the Greek is brought in again.

He reviews mugshots. He does not identify anyone. On April 20th, Carmine DiBiase’s name appears again, this time in a report from an FBI informant. The informant says DiBiase bragged about the Gallo hit at a social club in Bensonhurst. The informant says DiBiase claimed he shot Gallo in the back.

He said it was payback for Colombo. FBI agents pass the report to NYPD. Coffee issues a warrant for DiBiase’s arrest. DiBiase is not found. He disappears from Brooklyn. His family says they do not know where he is. On May 3rd, 1972, police arrest a man in Queens for an unrelated robbery. During questioning, he tells detectives he knows who killed Joey Gallo.

He says he was at a bar in Brooklyn the night after the shooting. He overheard two men talking. They mentioned Umberto’s. They mentioned Mulberry Street. They laughed. The man gives descriptions. Detectives show him mugshots. He identifies Carmine DiBiase and a second man, later named as Joseph Luparelli. Luparelli is a Colombo associate.

He has a criminal record, bookmaking, loan-sharking. Coffee locates Luparelli’s last known address in Brooklyn. Luparelli is gone. His landlord says he moved out in mid-April. He left no forwarding address. On May 10th, Joseph Luparelli walks into an FBI field office in Van Nuys, California.

He tells agents he was the lookout at the Gallo hit. He says he drove the Cadillac. He says he wants protection. FBI agents question him for 6 hours. Luparelli provides names, Carmine DiBiase, Philip Gambino, John Mooney Cutrone. He says Cutrone was the third shooter. He says they were sent by Joseph Yacovelli. He says Yacovelli feared Gallo would retaliate for Colombo’s shooting and wanted him dead.

Luparelli describes the night in detail. He says the crew met at a social club in Brooklyn at midnight on April 6th. They drove to Manhattan in two cars. They parked on Hester Street and waited. Around 3:30 a.m., they saw Gallo leave the Copacabana. They followed his car to Little Italy.

Luparelli says they waited outside Umberto’s until Gallo was seated. Then DiBiase, Gambino, and Cutrone walked in. Luparelli stayed in the Cadillac. He heard gunshots. The three men ran out. DiBiase was bleeding. They got in the car. Luparelli drove them back to Brooklyn. Luparelli says DiBiase was treated by a mob doctor in Bensonhurst.

No hospital records exist. FBI agents place Luparelli in protective custody. They contact NYPD. Coffee flies to California to interview Luparelli directly. On May 12th, Luparelli repeats his story. Coffee records the statement. He asks why Luparelli turned himself in. Luparelli says he feared the Colombo family would kill him to eliminate witnesses.

Coffee returns to New York. He issues warrants for DiBiase, Gambino, and Cutrone. None of the men are located. On June 2nd, 1972, Philip Gambino is found dead in Brooklyn. His body is discovered in an alley off Flatbush Avenue. He has been shot twice in the head. No witnesses, no arrests.

Detectives believe Gambino was killed to prevent him from talking. Joseph Yacovelli is questioned. He denies any knowledge of Gambino’s death. He denies ordering the Gallo hit. He provides an alibi for the night of April 7th. His alibi cannot be confirmed. Carmine DiBiase remains missing. John Cutrone remains missing.

Coffee places both men on the NYPD’s most wanted list. FBI adds them to federal warrants for unlawful flight. Joseph Luparelli stays in protective custody in California. He testifies before a grand jury in Brooklyn on July 18th, 1972. The grand jury indicts Carmine DiBiase, John Cutrone, and Joseph Yacovelli for the murder of Joey Gallo.

Philip Gambino is listed as deceased. Yacovelli is arrested on July 20th at his home in Brooklyn. He posts bail the same day. His trial is scheduled for October. DiBiase and Cutrone are not found. In September 1972, John Cutrone is arrested in Connecticut. He is pulled over for a traffic violation.

A background check reveals the outstanding warrant. Connecticut State Police hold him. NYPD detectives transport him to Brooklyn. Cutrone is arraigned on September 15th. He pleads not guilty. His attorney argues there is no physical evidence linking him to the scene. Cutrone posts bail. His trial is scheduled to coincide with Yacovelli’s.

On October 3rd, prosecutors drop charges against Joseph Yacovelli. They cite insufficient evidence. Luparelli’s testimony alone is not enough. No physical evidence ties Yacovelli to the scene. No other witnesses corroborate Luparelli’s account. Yacovelli walks free. On October 10th, charges against John Cutrone are dropped for the same reason.

Prosecutors tell Coffee they cannot proceed without physical evidence or additional witnesses. Cutrone is released. Carmine DiBiase remains a fugitive. In 1973, he is arrested in California on an unrelated charge. He is extradited to New York. He is charged with Joey Gallo’s murder. DiBiase’s trial begins in April 1973. Joseph Luparelli testifies.

He repeats his account of the night of April 7th, 1972. He identifies DiBiase as the shooter who fired the first shot. Pete the Greek testifies. He says he saw three men enter the restaurant. He says he shot one of them. He identifies DiBiase from a lineup. He says DiBiase was the man he shot. Defense attorneys attack Luparelli’s credibility.

They point out he was granted immunity in exchange for his testimony. They argue he is lying to save himself. They present no alibi for DiBiase. On May 2nd, 1973, the jury deliberates for 4 hours. They return a verdict of not guilty. DiBiase is acquitted. He walks out of the courtroom.

No one is ever convicted of Joey Gallo’s murder. In 1975, Joseph Luparelli is released from protective custody. He moves to California. He lives under an assumed name. He works construction jobs. He does not return to New York. In 1976, Carmine DiBiase is arrested again, this time for bank robbery. He is convicted and sentenced to 15 years.

He serves his sentence in federal prison. He is released in 1988. He dies in 1989 of natural causes. Joseph Yacovelli dies in 1991. He is never charged with another crime after the Gallo case. John Cutrone dies in 2005. He lives in Brooklyn until his death. He is never charged in connection with any mob-related activity after 1972.

Umberto’s Clam House remains open at 129 Mulberry Street until 2018. The restaurant becomes a tourist attraction. The table where Gallo sat is marked with a plaque. Visitors take photographs. In 2018, the restaurant closes permanently. The building is sold. The interior is renovated.

In police records, Joey Gallo’s murder is listed as unsolved. The case file remains open. No new evidence has surfaced.