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Click here to listen to today’s podcast “Inside the Violent World of Joey Gallo.”

In this replay, as a tribute to Camillius “Cam” Robinson, Retired Kansas City Police Intelligence Unit detective Gary Jenkins, and co-host Cam dive deep into the wild life and violent death of one of the Mafia’s most unpredictable figures—Crazy Joey Gallo.

From Brooklyn’s Red Hook streets to the bloody wars of the Colombo crime family, Joey Gallo built a reputation as a fearless outlaw who challenged Mafia bosses, embraced celebrity culture, and became a folk hero to outsiders and artists alike. Gary and Cam explore Gallo’s transformation from street gangster to media sensation, his fascination with philosophy and existentialism, and his notorious appearances before the McClellan Committee wearing dark sunglasses and mocking authority.

The episode examines the Gallo crew’s role in the assassination of Mafia boss Albert Anastasia inside the Park Sheraton barber shop, including insider accounts from Pete “The Greek” Diapoulas and theories involving Carmine Persico and the Patriarca family. Gary and Cam break down how the Gallos evolved into a rogue faction willing to kidnap capos, challenge Joe Profaci, and wage war against the Colombo family itself.

The conversation also explores Joey Gallo’s prison years, his relationship with Harlem heroin kingpin Nicky Barnes, and the intellectual awakening that shaped his later persona. The hosts discuss Gallo’s ties to New York celebrities, including Jerry Orbach, Pete Falk, Ben Gazzara, and Neil Simon, along with the cultural impact that inspired Bob Dylan’s famous song “Joey.”

Gary and Cam revisit the unsolved shooting of Joe Colombo at the Italian-American Civil Rights League rally and examine competing theories involving Jerome Johnson, the Gambino family, and the Gallos themselves. They also unpack the dramatic final hours of Joey Gallo’s life at Umberto’s Clam House in Little Italy, where Colombo gunmen allegedly tracked him down during his birthday celebration and opened fire in one of the Mafia’s most legendary assassinations.

Using firsthand accounts, old newspaper reports, and mob insider testimony, this episode paints a vivid portrait of Joey Gallo’s rise, wars, betrayals, and enduring legend in organized crime history.

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. But let’s start out talking a little bit about Joey Gallo. Crazy Joey. Joey the blonde. He had blonde chest hair. Yeah.

[2:59] That’s uh that’s rare among us uh italian i don’t fall into that category i can tell you he must have been a northern must have some northern italian somebody from up there around florence or something or right.

[3:16] But you know he was a unique guy uh he was truly in in the mob world he was unique he He was crazy, and I believe later on he was diagnosed. I had some probably prison psychologist being mentally ill, whatever that was exactly. Do you remember what that was? Schizoid tendencies or something. You see that a lot. You see that a lot with the mob guys, though, so it’s hard to know if that was a real diagnosis or another I’m putting on. You see, I can name four or five guys who, when they were in prison. And, you know, I guess they’re all sociopaths, but you see a lot of them when they’re trying to get out of the service or trying not to go to the military. And they flunked the test with flying colors. And I’m sure most of them earned it. But it does seem to be a preponderance of guys who don’t do well on those psychiatric exams. But I think Joey earned his the natural way. Yeah. Of course, he was a young mobster. Came out of Red Hook. but a little later in his life where he got so famous and so well-known, before we go back into his early life, his last stint in the penitentiary, he had some kind of awakening, I would say.

[4:35] He had a pretty good bit to do. He did about 10 years in prison, and in 10 years, you can either go down the pits or you can improve yourself. I know a lot of guys I’ve known and a lot of people out here, former mobsters that I talked to today, have done that and they’ve tried to improve themselves and lead a different life. Now, he didn’t ever want to lead a different life other than the mobster’s life. But when he was a penitentiary, my research led me to believe that he read and read and read a lot. He even learned the Evelyn Wood speed reading technique, which a lot of you younger guys won’t know that. It was a famous speed reading technique. I don’t remember exactly how it worked, but, uh, you know, and, and we came out, he, he picked up on popular culture when he came out.

[5:31] And during the sixties and seventies, when everybody else was even in with the young guys started growing long hair and beards, he, he would, uh, he would say something and get rid of that shit. Don’t look like a hippie. Well, they almost killed one guy. Probably they did kill him. And some of the things they were saying was they didn’t trust anymore. Now that he became a fucking hippie. So, but he, when he came out, he got on the popular culture. He was dressing the part of a New York hipster in the 1950s and 60s. He was a classic movie gangster. He’d have like a dark shirt and a white tie and a pinstripe suit. And, you know, when he went before that infamous scene when he got called before the McClellan, he said, oh, this would be a good carpet to shoot dice on. He remarks in this book that they wanted a gangster, so he was going to give them a gangster. I mean, that entire thing was an act. I mean, he knew the gangster that people wanted. And in different crowds, he could mold himself to whatever the crowds wanted.

[6:35] He knew how to read a room. yeah it was and that’s the one where he wore the sunglasses inside right right that was that was like a bombshell among the conservative law enforcement people today where he didn’t have the respect for that uh commission to even take his senate sunglasses off so he was he was something else he and he got to know uh because of this he’s in new york he’s in manhattan he gets to know sophisticated New Yorkers. And, and I just heard a saying from somebody, uh, I told this guy, uh, guy, uh, Springfield, Massachusetts mobster named Chickie kitchen.

[7:13] Chickatelli, who is, he’s connected with John Gotti Jr. Right now there, there’s something coming up in the media that he’s a part of and Gotti Jr. Is going to do, I don’t know what, but, but he made a statement. He said, everybody wants the bandit to get away. And I remember smoking the bandit. We all pulled for the bandit to get away and and and he said that about mob guys and and the popularity of mob guys today and he said everybody likes the bandit to get away and i said man i’m going to use that he said well it’s not really mine he said i got it from gotty jr so i don’t know but but we all like the bandit to get away and and so that that’s what happened with joey gallo everybody likes the bandit to get away they don’t want to be the bandit and and they don’t want to have too much attention paid to him by the bandit but they want him to get away and and he got to know people like ben gazar and peter faulk uh in new york who were kind of a you know kind of a rounder kind of guys if i remember right and uh the playwright neil simon and and people like that he’s a modern reference you’ve got jerry orback who was on law and order for so long who played the uh the detective on law and order that was a jerry mara orback yeah yeah matter of fact he was in the restaurant or Bach and his wife were in the restaurant.

[8:28] Just when he got killed or did they see him oh they saw him at the copacab...