Lion in the Basement Growing up in the Gallo Crime Family

by Frank DiMatteo

  Johnny runs the pizza place now and is trying to keep it the same place that it was when we were kids but like always, its a battle. The pizza is still good if you want the old fashion way or the new way, you can sit with Johnny and have a drink and reminisce about the neighborhood. You can find me there once a week talking to John or complaining.

  Helens restaurant, Gloria's restaurant, Angleos restaurant Queens restaurant, all on Court Street within six blocks of each other. They just gave you good homemade Italian food cooked by the owners, until they couldn't cook no more. I watched them get old and go. We Also had bars like "Butch's Inn", on Court Street and Third Place. I saved Roy Roys life there. The bar is gone for years but if the walls could talk I wouldn't be here writing! "The Step Inn", on Court Street and Carroll Street, a bar there for sixty years. My mother worked there in the sixty's for a while I hung out there when Ju-Ju brought it, it was a wild ride, every brood and wise guy hung out there. I sat there with Lauren Bacall and Punchy many a nights, but its gone now. "The Court Terrace", at Court and Atlantic it was run by the Gallo family.

  I was put there in 1970s to help out, got my first score from there, again if the walls could talk, I wouldn't be with my wife any longer! "El Bolarios", a Spanish bar on Court Street, got my first pinch there. I know it had a pool table because I hit the owner in the head with a pool stick, its gone too. "Guzzies Bar & Grill", at Smith Street, and Union street which is now "Red Roses". I'm not going to say anything about the place because my father said "if you have nothing nice to say don't say nothing", but when it was still "Guzzies Bar" in the 70s I hung out with Roy Roy and did a lot of drinking there, that was before drinking and driving was bad. Another place, if it had ears were fucked. "Marietta Mens Wear", on Court and Carroll Streets open since the forties, ran by Matty and Joe. Matty just passed away and I just went to say goodby to him, a great man. When you walked into the place you said hello to them by their first names, and they knew yours.

  I get my "Ginny T's" there even now.

  We had "Pops Poolroom" on Court Street, one of the oldest pool-rooms around. It was on the second floor and when there was a fight, it was a bitch to get out. It had a few old pool tables, and it was an old dinghy place when I got there. All the good players from the neighborhood shot there. A friend took home a table that Al Capone shot on when it closed. "Ju-Ju's Pool Room" on Court Street and Butler, Ju took it over from Patty. Every guy from the north of Union Street came to shoot there. There was some great players, a longshoremen named Willie "PEP" who once shot with Minnesota "Fats", Pep was there every day showing us how to shoot and taking our money. We spent many nights there drinking, we had the run of place. We stood there for many years even after Ju-Ju sold it to Sally Balsamo whom is gone now.

  "Ebel's Ice Cream Parlor", and "Mr and Mrs Bauer's Ice Cream Parlor", are just old school places that opened before the turn of the century and lasted for seventy-five years, til everybody got to cool to go there any more. "The Rex/ Cobble Hill Theater" on Court and Butler streets opened up in the 1920s. I use to go there and pay fifty cent to get in, get two movies, a cartoon and a bike race. If your ticket had the winning number you'd get free popcorn. Ju-Ju had the place for a short time and on weekends he had "doo wop" groups there. We saw every one you can think of at the shows. It's still open and going strong for a movie house.

  On Columbia street, the Red Hook side was a little more run down and it was old-school. We had the "House of Calzone" at the time, they had the only deep fried Calzone that we knew of in Brooklyn. It makes a big difference in taste, it's still there today and we are still going for them. Even though the new workers are real assholes, but now I have my children going. "Ferdinandos Focacceria", if you like panelle, tripe, or vastedda, it's the place to go. It has been there since 1904, all the hoods from Brooklyn once stopped by for a meal, we'd try to get there once a month. Now we have the fifth Generation of us going there plus they even have Manhattan special soda on tap.

  "Latticini Barese Salumeria", as soon as you walked in the door you could smell the aroma of the salami or the supperade hanging from the ceiling.

  "Defontes Sandwich Shop", opened in Red Hook in 1922 a small and beat up place but if you want food that is home made, the fried shrimp in red sauce, the roast beef sandwich with homemade gravy has been the same for ninety years. It is still open and we are still eating there.

  "Anthony's Bar", on Van Brunt Street was there from the forty's, when you were old enough to drink, that was the place to go. It was run by the local wiseguys, a couple of blocks from the projects but you could go there three or four o'clock in the morning and not be worried about any trouble.

  "Cafieros Restaurant", on President street between Columbia street and Hicks it was an old school restaurant with tin ceilings and walls, tile floor, wicker chairs, wood tables with plain table cloths with a small menu of homemade Italian food that was like your mother made. If you were Italian there was also a small back room so the boys could hold meetings. It was a hood haven old man Cafiero got old, closed the place and that was the last of the old school restaurants.

  "Franks Clothing Store" on Union Street, a family run place. Every longshoreman and their families went there to get whatever they needed, from pants, underwear, T's and socks for cheap. My grandmother send me there when I was just old enough to walk to get something. I do remember before my grandmother died we went to get her a new pair of pantaloons because she wanted it from there, and at the time, she was ninety-two years young. The clothing store closed like most places now like, "The Happy Hour" and the "Luna Theaters", on Columbia Street. The Luna opened doing vaudeville shows from The 20s. "Happy Hour" closed in 1970, their back yard was next to Roy Roy's club so we use to go in at night and take whatever looked good. We took about 100 movies posters. We threw them out, then later found out they were worth a ton of money, who the fuck knew.

  We had a wiseguy on every corner and in every store. The Gallo brothers, old man Profaci's crew, the Gambino guys had a club. Fuck, they all had clubs. If they weren't a family member, you knew someone who was a family member. Everyone had an uncle or a cousin or a father that was a wise guy. If not, they knew you as a kid from the block and if you did something wrong they would kick you in the ass: forget it if you cursed in front of a woman, a kick in the ass. If you didn't help someone with groceries, a kick in the ass. If you took a penny piece of gum, a kick in the ass. I know once a week I got kicked in the ass and if we went home and told our parents they would kick us in the ass again! Those were the days.

  It was a clean, well kept neighborhood with tree lined blocks. Every block you went down you knew someone and their parents, who were speaking broken Italian. We were out from the morning to late at night playing "Buck Buck how many horns are up" freeze tag, hit the stick, stoop ball, box ball, ring- o -leaveo, skullzy. We were trading baseball cards or flipping them. If you had a bike the cards went in your spokes to make noise. We made scooters out of milk crates and roller skates. We wore Keds and PF Flyers and dungarees with Ginny T's.

  Someone was always looking out for you. When your mom or grandma came out the window and called you, you would hear them two blocks away. If not, someone would tell you "Frankie boy" they're calling you. When you were sent for ice cream, for a dollar, you got a big container that looked like the containers you get from the chinks.

  We didn't hear about getting kidnapped or molested or getting sick. I don't think anybody wanted to mess with us, blink me the fuck back now! By the time you were old enough to hit the street everyone knew you, all the wiseguys, all the families on the blocks, every bartender knew you. And you knew all the broads, the good ones and the bad. Even though it was a small neighborhood, alot of people came from the outside, so you met new people all of the time. So many people heard about the neighborhood from people that left and spoke well of it, so even though we stood as locals we met different characters.

  A lot of girls came to the bars because there were wiseguys there. Som
e guys came to fuck with us, it was all a learning experience for the big show. More infamous hoodlums came from Red Hook /South Brooklyn than any where else in the country. As for me, it helped that I was Ricky's son.

  Court Pastry Shop, traditional Neapolitan and Sicilian cookies. The Zerilli family started the business in 1948 and the sons are still there we had our first cannoli here

  Farrell's Bar drinking a 32-ounce beer in a Styrofoam cup. In the 1970's it was a $1 now $6 opened since 1933

  The D'Amico family has been roasting beans and greeting customers at their Court street store since 1948

  Esposito pork store on Court street, Originally opened 1922 on Union street, the sons still run the place and they have the best sausage in Brooklyn

  Sal's Pizza on Court street and Degraw, my home away from home

  Me sttting outside Mastalone the old Angelo's restaurant

  Caputo's bake shop opened since 1923

  Cammereri's brothers barkery opened 1921

  Marietta's mens wear on Court street opened since 1940

  Sam's Restaurant on Court street before the new moron took over

  Guzzies Bar and Grill opened 1940 now the Red Rose restaurant

  Union Street Market, family owned and still looks the same. Opened since 1945

  Blast would hold meetings at Queens Pizza and Resturant at 104 Court street. Me or Goomba Anthony would take him there, sit and enjoy the food and wine

  Cafiero restaurant 97 President street between Hicks & Columbia streets

  Inside Cafiero's resturant a Classic

  Ferdinandos Focacceria 151 Union street opened 1904 Al Capone Albert Anastasia Joey Gallo Frankie Yale loved to eat the panelle special and the vastedda there

  Columbia Street and President Street all the bookmakers and loansharks used to meet under the clock on Fridays to get paid from the loneshoremen and locals

  Latticini Pork store on Union street opened 1925

  Punchies old restaurant on Columbia street

  Roy Roy use to send us once a week to Defontes in Red Hook for fresh mozzarella, opened since 1922

  We had our own feast on Columbia street

  CHAPTER 2

  The Gallo Brothers

  The three Gallo brothers were born within almost four years of one another, a span that fittingly overlapped a violent, bloody power struggle then blazing throughout New York City's underworld. As "two Old World" mob titans, Joe "The Boss" Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano clashed for supremacy, it was a mob war, not unlike the two battles the brothers later waged for similar reasons.

  Larry Gallo, the firstborn, entered this world on November 23, 1927, followed by Joey on April 7, 1929. Albert was born on June 6, 1930, a little less than a year before Masseria lost the mob war and breathed his last on the floor of a Coney Island restaurant while Charle "Lucky" Luciano, was in the bathroom taking a piss. How I know this is because my Uncle Joe Schapini was a driver for Lucky and told me so.

  The Gallos grew up on the mean streets of Red Hook, Brooklyn, back when the borough was practically an all Italian neighborhood run by the Mafia, especially the lucrative Red Hook water front.

  Joey Gallo was small in height and size, but he had balls of steel. Blond haired and blue eyed, despite his ethnic roots, Joey was fascinated by gangsters on the big screen at the time, especially by actors like Richard Widmark who famously portrayed the vile Tommy Udo in the 1947 film "Kiss of Death." Joey really related to Udo, an evil killer who famously laughed like a hyena. Joey even started doing Udo impersonations, contorting his face into Udo's trademark snarl. Joey also had a love for jazz music just like Udo in the film.

  Joey even dressed like Udo, wearing black suits with black shirts and white ties for a while. Many of us found the whole thing to be kind of weird, but after being with Joey for a while you got to know, it's just Joey.

  Joey left for prison when I was only 7 years old, he left an impression on me. He had a smile you don't forget, and his eyes gleamed when he looked at you. He was gentle but firm and he pinched my cheek so fucking hard it still hurts today. I didn't see him again till I was sixteen and when he saw me he said "Hey your Ricky's kid", I said "Yes Joey". It was ten years since the last time I saw him and he didn't forget me.

  Joey was once arrested, or what Ricky refer to as getting "pinched", at the age of twenty-one, he was so arrogant at his hearing, no doubt acting like how he thought his screen idol would act, that the judge ordered he be taken to Kings County Hospital for observation. The doctors checked him out and in the end labeled him as suffering from schizophrenia. That didn't stop him from outsmarting all the doctors and waltzing right out of the hospital as soon as he was able. Still, we didn't need any doctor to tell us Joey was crazy, something all of us knew from the first day that we started hanging out in the streets with him.

  Joey would go after guys double his size. If he couldn't work them over with his fists, he'd beat them with a bat. Joey being a small guy sometimes he took physical size out of the picture by pulling a gun.

  Joey ran the streets of Red Hook with a small crew and was feared by everyone.

  Older brother Larry was also a tough guy, but small in size. He had a lot of heart as well as a bad temper but unlike Joey, who'd get in anyone's face, Larry could control his volatility. He was charismatic too, that strange characteristic of leadership that some guys naturally have. Larry was a tough guy who could be rational, which made guys eager to seek out his advice. Of all three brothers, Larry was the boss, not Joey. Larry had a brain for concocting ways to earn money on the street and he also knew the politics of the street, that the best way to get in with the old-school bosses was to show them you were a good, smart earner. He chose using his brain over his fists.

  Joey with his violent temper was always the muscle, the guided torpedo that was let loose to break someone's legs when they needed breaking.

  So, By the 1950s, Larry had earned his way into the mob. With Joey by his side, his trusted enforcer who'd take a bullet for him, he had all the tools he needed to be the boss of a family himself. And if he hadn't died of cancer in 1968, he probably would have gone on to run the Profaci crime family, which Joe Colombo renamed after himself when Magliocco died, the other bosses on the "Commission" decided to make Colombo boss, they didn't like how Profaci passed the torch to his brother in-law Joseph Magliocco, or maybe there would be six families in New York instead of five, we'll never know, but it is interesting to think about.

  Albert, the youngest, shared the same physical traits of all the brothers he was diminutive but held his own among tough guys. Albert was a good looking guy and also had smarts like Larry. Still, he shared the famous Gallo mean streak which always lurked in the background ready to flare up. Albert always had his brothers looking out for him; he started to depend on them, which didn't help him in the long run. " Kid Blast", as Albert became known, should have been a professor because he didn't have the tools to follow his brothers into the life. He had leaned on the Gallo name too much and he never won the respect or the love of his crew.

  Umberto, who we called Papa, was the father of the Gallo brothers. He arrived in the United States in 1920 from Torre Del Greco in Naples, Italy. He embarked on a lucrative career in bootlegging once he settled down in his new country. Like most hoodlums of the time who capitalized on "Prohibition", he salted away a fortune from the illegal market for booze, which he used to finance a major loan-sharking operation.

  The Gallo brother's mother, Mary, was the clan's backbone. She kept all of the Gallo men in line, which is saying a lot, considering the family.

  Papa and Mary Gallo opened a diner called "Jackie's Charcolette", which was located on Church and McDonald Avenues, in Brooklyn. All three of the brothers and sisters worked there and the brothers held court there "had meetings". On days when the place was really bustling with hungry patrons, Blast and his sisters were the first to help their parents out in the kitchen, mainly by cooking.