From an online review:
Excellent, first-rate biography of the mobster whom the press called "Crazy Joe" Gallo (no one else did, at least not to his face), who led a bloody insurrection against Mafia family boss Joseph Profaci in the early Sixties, spent more than eight years in various New York State prisons for extortion, and then revolted against Profaci's successor, Joseph Colombo, upon his release in 1971. This is more than a simple recital of a gangster's exploits, although it does cover Gallo's criminal history in sufficient detail. It is an engrossing, in-depth examination of the complexities of the subject's character and how he was perceived by those in his orbit. Augmented by interviews with Gallo's two wives, both his biological daughter and stepdaughter, various non-criminal friends and acquaintances, and Gallo himself, the real Crazy Joe emerges as an intelligent, curious individual whose interest in philosophy and the arts contrasted sharply with the gangster persona which made him such a highly feared individual in the local hoodlum community. By no means does the author attempt to make excuses for Gallo's violent ways, but it becomes clear in these pages that there was more to the man than the the newspaper headlines which sensationalized his bloodletting.
From an online review:
Excellent, first-rate biography of the mobster whom the press called "Crazy Joe" Gallo (no one else did, at least not to his face), who led a bloody insurrection against Mafia family boss Joseph Profaci in the early Sixties, spent more than eight years in various New York State prisons for extortion, and then revolted against Profaci's successor, Joseph Colombo, upon his release in 1971. This is more than a simple recital of a gangster's exploits, although it does cover Gallo's criminal history in sufficient detail. It is an engrossing, in-depth examination of the complexities of the subject's character and how he was perceived by those in his orbit. Augmented by interviews with Gallo's two wives, both his biological daughter and stepdaughter, various non-criminal friends and acquaintances, and Gallo himself, the real Crazy Joe emerges as an intelligent, curious individual whose interest in philosophy and the arts contrasted sharply with the gangster persona which made him such a highly feared individual in the local hoodlum community. By no means does the author attempt to make excuses for Gallo's violent ways, but it becomes clear in these pages that there was more to the man than the the newspaper headlines which sensationalized his bloodletting.
