Lion in the Basement Growing up in the Gallo Crime Family

by Frank DiMatteo

  Again we were sleeping at an apartment we had on the block. We had the whole building, there was broads going in and out, you couldn't tell if it was a whorehouse or we were hiding out. Most of the young guys slept there, me and Goombaiel stood together day and night. Coco, he was a good kid, would bring our clothes to the cleaners. Some mornings when we would wake up he would make breakfast for me, Steven G and Goombaiel. We never went hungry.

  I wasn't able to be with Emily much but all the guys in the neighborhood knew she was my girlfriend so I knew she would be ok. Except one day, Roy Roy's brother Jake was at the poolroom being an ass while Emily was there with some of the girlfriends. Jake got a little mouthy with her and she told him 'to go fuck himself,' so Jake got real nasty, then Emily told him she was going to tell Ricky. Jake came running on the block to tell Roy Roy. Roy told him to keep his mouth shut and go back and tell her he was sorry. First, Roy told him to get a shovel to dig a hole in the yard because he will be in it some day! Jake went back and told Emily that he didn't mean it, and it ended. We all stood friends for many years.

  One day Cosmo "the barber" came to the block to cut our hair. He was from the "Gamesmen" on Court Street. He would come once a week with a manicurist, a pretty girl that was going out with a local middle weight boxer named Mahufastafa, she was hot. That night Blast sent me and Goomba to "Queens Pizza" on Court Street to get ten pies for the boys. It was raining like a motherfucker. We were all dressed up, I had a pair of a alligator shoes on, with a custom silk shark skin suit. We were in Roy Roy's club, The rain was coming down so fucking hard you just didn't want to go out. We got called and had to go. So we got the money from Blast and jumped in my car and drove up Union Street to Smith Street. As we made the left on to Smith Street, Goomba saw a 'tail' so he kept an eye on them. We got to Warren Street and three detective cars, one coming head on at us, and two behind us, stopped us with guns drawn and screaming at us to put our hands on the wheel! we did.

  The Law came over to the car and pulled us out, we were standing in a monsoon. The detective asked us where we were going. We said to get pizza, they said "bullshit".

  We told them to call the pizzeria, they laughed and proceeded to take apart my whole fucking car piece by piece. They never said what they were looking for but we knew they were looking for guns. They were thinking we were on the way to give them to one of the crew members. After they didn't find anything they said to "put the shit back in the car and get back to the block". I looked at Goomba and said "what the fuck are we going to do now?" There were 100 pieces of the car in the street and sidewalk. We started to put the seats back in, then everything else. We were drenched, I was walking and my shoes were squeaking!

  We got the pies and went back to the block, when the guys saw us they started to laugh at us, we didn't think it was funny at all! We dropped the pies off and went across to the club where we bitched and moaned. Roy said 'Stop the shit, it's part of being here,' in between laughing at us. After we calmed down we had a few drinks, the rest of the night went good. A few broads showed up that night, thank God we had clothes to change into.

  Late 1973, a hit team was sent out to kill Johnny "Tarzan" Lusterino. Steven C and Tony B knew they had to hit him first because he was a stone killer, and they were afraid of him. They hit him fast, he was close to Joey but Joey was dead and Tarzan was back with the Colombos.

  Then on July 2nd 1974 a hit squad was sent to kill Sammy "The Syrian" and Chitoz, so Preston, Steven C and Ricky went to the social club. We hung out there before the war, it was on 39th Street and Fort Hamilton Parkway. As Sammy and Chitoz stepped out of the club, a couple of shots were fired hitting Sammy and Chitoz, but only wounding them. The guys sat there for hours waiting for them to come out, just as they were coming out, the traffic backed up, it just seemed like we had no luck.

  "Aug 4th 1974" I'll never forget that night for the rest of my life. I was hanging around, doing nothing as usual, having a few drinks with Goombaile when Roy Roy got a call that Steve Criillo just got killed. He was running a gambling night on Ocean Avenue and someone shot him with a high powered rifle and killed him. Man, I felt like someone ripped my heart out. I got scared, then so fucking mad, I could have ripped the heart out of the guy that did it, and ate it!

  You see, I got very close with Stevie and his wife Joann. He was with my dad a lot, we would go to dinner together at 'The La Maganetta', a place in New York. Then on the block we would sit and talk about things that had noting to do with the mob. I would talk about Emily and he would talk about his wife Joann, and his young son Stevie, man he really loved them. What a waste of a life. I don't have the words to fully describe my feelings about this. It was getting pretty bad out in the street after Steven Cirillo got killed.

  I had to get out of the neighborhood. I had the convertible and the bad guys knew it was mine, so I needed to get another car. I called my 'Goomba' Louie and asked to switch cars, he said 'OK', I told him to meet me at Bay Parkway, Korvette's parking lot. A few hours later I left to meet him there. As I got there, it was dark and I saw his car, all dark and no one in it. So I waited awhile, I was tired of waiting, so I took my pistol out and went over to the car. I looked in and saw Louie and his girl Jo on the floor, hiding. They saw me and started screaming! They scared the shit out of me, then we laughed so hard we were crying! Louie then gave me the car and some cash and I went on my way. Later Louie told me he drove all the way home with his head out the window, so the bad guys would see it wasn't me and not shoot him! The next night, Louie and his girlfriend Jo were driving on Court Street and stopped for a light on the corner of Degraw Street three detective cars surrounded them, with guns drawn. Louie and Jo shit themselves. The detectives asked where me or my father was. Louie said, they didn't know, they asked why he was driving my car, he said, his was in the shop. They asked what shop?, Louie said he didn't know, that I brought it there. So if Frankie brought it there, where is he? you have his car. He said I was home, the last time he spoke to me. They said he was a bad liar, and to' tell Ricky there was a hit on him and to come in to the precinct'. Meanwhile Emily and I were at the "Playboy Club" in New Jersey.

  A week later I got back to the block. I was just staying at the club, not going any where. Then three weeks later on September 2nd, 1974, I was standing on the corner of President and Columbia, Street it was a clear night. I was talking to Louie "The Syrian" when Louis sent me back to the club to ask Roy Roy to get his glasses.

  As I turned to walk away, I hear a shot, then seen Louie hit the floor. I hit the floor, then I saw the blood coming from Louie's head and he was not moving. Talk about being scared, I didn't have time to. So I got up and ran like a fucking deer into the club! The guys took right off into the street to see what happened. By the time the guys got back to the club I didn't have to say anything to them. They just asked if I was OK, I said yes and drank a bottle of scotch, and said 'fuck this'.

  I sat all night with bandages on my elbows and said "that was close and what the fuck is going on here? are we just going to sit here and get picked off one by one?" Roy Roy told me to 'fucking calm down, everything is under control'. I think he drank more then me, he had that dead look in his eyes. The cops came to question me, I said what happened. One dick asked me, "what did you see? I said my body hitting the fucking floor!" That was the end of that, so we all locked down for a while. Then we were told that there was going to be a sit-down.

  I have no idea what the fuck they were having a sit down about because on September 11, 1974, I was talking with Punchy on the corner of President and Columbia Streets and as God is my witness, they shot Punchy as we were getting a hotdog. If he didn't bend over to say something to Tony B he would have been shot in the head. I was about 20 feet away I said 'fuck', before hitting the floor. I just ran into the club, with all the commotion going on they forgot about me. After all the law and media left, I was just sitting there. It was a mad house. It was something out of a movie. Just then, my mother called and said "Is eve
rything OK, I said, why mom?" she had a funny feeling that I was in trouble. I said 'no', but Punchy just got shot and she hung up, talk about mothers' intuition.

  Roy Roy sent me to the hospital to watch Punchy while he was there. They said if I went it wont look like he had a bodyguard. So they sent me with a pistol. I hid it under one of the seats in the room. One night the Law heard something was going down and were going in and out the room, and looking out the window. They said someone came to the hospital to kill Punchy. I just sat there saying "what the fuck is going on", they made me leave. I left the pistol there I came back the next day and snuck it out.

  About a month later Louie "The Syrian" was out of the hospital then Punchy a few months later was out.

  I think the sit down was a little too late. My Uncle Joe Schapani, a Genovese Capo mediated a truce between the Gallo's and the Colombos. As talks were going on about how the Genovese would dismantle the Gallo family, the crew would go over to the Genovese family. First Blast had to list all his guys in the crew, of course me and Goombaile had to be listed. Blast, Punchy and Ricky were going to be put up to "be made", so everything was back to normal. I was working at Astro and hanging in the neighborhood with my girlfriend, Louie "The Syrian" was back on the block, but was never the same, Punchy was back but he wasn't the same either.

  Ricky was doing a small bit in jail for a gun charge. He was on his way to Long Island to kill "Mooney" when he was pulled over by the Law. He was in a rented car, why he got stopped we don't know, maybe the law was watching Mooney. When Ricky got out of jail Emily and me got engaged we had an engagement party at the "Victorian house". It was April, 1975. The place was owned by a friend named Victor Palermo, a one armed half a wiseguy. We had 200 guests. A couple of days before the party my father had to go on the lam. Towards the end of the night dad walked in with Jimmy Roselli. Jimmy took a few photos, some small talk and left, so did Ricky. You never know whats going to happen minute to minute.

  He just did a score with Paddy "Mac" Macchiarole, it was a truck heist. So that's why he went on the lam. It was a load of furs from Kennedy airport. When they saw the Law was following them, they dumped the truck and took off. The Law took the truck to the impound then started to put a case together against Patty "Mac". My father, one night walked into the police in-pound with a key he had from the truck, he then drove it out the front gate, he sold the load! The Law had to throw the case out against Patty, "no evidence!"

  Emily And Me At Douglass Street Block Party I was just told I had to go back to President Street

  Emily and Me at the Playboy Club in New Jersey

  Louie, Josephine, Me, Em, Joe, Patty, Marty, Emily's sixteenth birthday party.

  Louie the Hot Dog man was on the corner of President Street when Louie and Punchy got shot

  Steven and Joann Cirillo

  Gallo Reprisal Held Motive in Shooting

  Reprisal against a breakaway movement within the Gallo underworld "family" was the motice behind the shooting Monday of two reputed hoodlums on a Brooklyn sidewalk knowledgeable law enforcement authorities believe. The sources said yesterday that the gunfire that had wounded Gennaro Basciano and Samuel Zahralban as they stood on the sidewalk outside the Henryville Social Club in the Borough Park section was an effort to assert the leadership of Albert Gallo, who has led the small family since his brother Joseph, was shot to death in 1972.

  Efforts by the authorities to find those who carried the shooting continued yesterday. According to the authorities Mr. Basciano and Mr. Zahralban had joined a dissident group headed by John Cutrone. Bolt are reputed to have been among the toughest members of the Gallo organization, and it was said that in underworld conflicts it is the practice to try to attack the toughest first.

  The shooting Monday were said to be unrelated to the slaying last month of Thomas Barbusca and John Coiro, two soldiers in the Mafia family of Joseph A. Colombo Sr. Law enforcement sources said that those slaying had been carried out because the two men had tried to act independently and were punished after they had offended others by their actions.

  Alliance Held Near

  Although the sources pointed out that Monday's shooting involved conflict among Gallo gang members, they also indicated that the breakaway movement led by Mr. Cutrone might be the prelude to an alliance by him with the Colombo organization.

  Mr. Cutrone, it was said was allied with the Colombo family during a period when Joseph Gallo was in jail. But after Josph reassumed leadership of his organization following his release from prison, Mr. Cutrone returned to the Gallo organization.

  His decision to break away from the present leadership of Albert Gallo was seen as a serious loss for Albert, who it was said, has failed to provide members of his organization with the money and leadership that had been hoped for.

  Law enforcement sources believe that one of the first actions by Mr. Cutrone after deciding to breakaway from the Gallo organization was to arrange a peace of sorts with whom the Gallos have long been engaged in conflict.

  The Gallos are believed to have been responsible for the severe wounding of Joseph Colombo Sr, at a rally at Columbus Circle in June, 1971, and the Colombo organization is believed to have Killed Joseph Gallo in reprisal the following April in Umberto's Clam House in the Little Italy section of Manhattan.

  The Gallo- Colombo war was a continuation of hostilities that began more than a decade ago, when the Gallo headed a group of ambitious young "soldiers" in the family headed successively by the late Joseph Profaci, then the late Joseph Magliocco and finally by Colombo Sr. At the present time, the organization is said to be headed by Thomas Di bello.

  Mr. Cutrone, it was said, reached an understanding with the Colombo family that he would pursue his own interestsnad not be a party to the Gallo family's continuing hostility. It was believed Mr. Cutrone was too wily to have presented himself as a target to seekers of vengesnce for his presumed disloyalty to the Gallo organization.

  Mr. Zahralban 44 years old, of 140 Court Street, Brooklyn, and Mr. Basciano 43 of 210 President Street, were seen as the next most logical targets. Neither was seriously wounded.

  NEW YORK TIMES JULY 3RD 1974

  Gallo Aide Slain Synagogue Dice Table

  by PETER KIHSS

  A Brooklyn synagogue fundraising Las Vagas Nite program ended in violence early yesterday when a reputed associate of the so-called Joey Gallo group in organized crime was Killed by a shot in the head apparently fired from outside the building.

  The victim Steve Cirillo, 31 years old of 270 Degraw Street, Brooklyn, was believed to have been a player or spectator at gaming tables with his Wife, Jo Ann. His death may have been another to stem from a struggle for control within the Gallo group of about 50 member. Since July 1 there has been one other murder and three men have been wounded.

  Police records indicated that Mr. Cirillo had been arrested seven times since November, 1966, when a charge of possessing a pistol led to a misdemeanor conviction in October, 1970, he was reported to have been accused with another man in beating another person to death on a Street, but a charge of homicide was dismissed.

  The police received estimates that 40 to 75 persons may have been in the basement of the congregation B'nai Israel of Sheepshead Bay, 3007 Ocean Avenue at 2:10 AM.

  The Mens Club of the Orthodox Jewish synagogue had started Saturday and Sunday night gambling programs cards, roulette, dice two months ago in hope of raising money for a new building.

  A sound like a firecracker startled the players. Then a woman ran into the Street, crying and screaming that her husband had been shot. Before policemen summoned by a call to the 911 emergency number arrived, the basement had emptied, with tables and cards Strewn about. Mrs Cirillo, 29 said she had been at a table away from her husband and had not witnessed the shooting.

  Policemen of the Avenue U precint and detectives of the 10th Homicde Zone, commanded by Lieut. Bennie R. Pulice, found a rifle and a handgun in the synagogue's playground inside a foliage covered cyclone
fence near a children's swimming pool.

  Investigators suggested that the Killer had fired either through a fence link or from inside the grounds, shooting through an open basement window at Mr. Cirillo, who was standing near a door under bright lights.

  The automobiles were towed away by the police yesterday morning from the Jim Dente's Service Station across the street at 3010 Ocean Avenue, where they were blocking each other.

  Mr. Dente said he closed his station nights at 7 o'clock and gambling customers frequently filled it with their parked cars there after. A 1:30 A. M. yesterday for the third time in two months an oil truck was unable to deliver his 3,000 gallon order, he said.

  Despite anti-gambling laws, Las Vegas Nites have become a fund- raising technique for a number of Brooklyn and Queens synagogues, Churches and other organizations in the last several years.

  Earlier this year, professional gamblers were reported trying to enter the field and offering fees to sponsors, but an official of the B'nai Israel temple insisted yerserday that his group ran its program alone.

  Law enforcement officials believe the Gallo group once a faction in the organized crime family headed by Joseph A. Colombo Sr.. has been warring within itself over the leadership of Albert Gallo, successor to his brother, Joey, with a breakaway group led by John Cutrone.

  THE NEW YORK TIMES AUGUST 5, 1974

  GALLO GANG MEMBER IS SHOT IN BROOKLYN

  Louis Hubela, a 38 year old Brooklyn man identified bt the police as a member of the Gallo gang, was shot and critically wounded by an unidentified assailand last night as he stood on a street corner not far from the Gallo's headquarters in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn.