The Mad Ones: Crazy Joe Gallo and the Revolution at the Edge of the Underworld

by Tom Folsom

Book Overview

A powerful collision of true crime and pop culture, "The Mad Ones" captures the revolutionary spirit of the 1960s and brings to life Mafioso Joey Gallo, one of the most vibrant antiheroes in American history.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1602860815
• ISBN13: 9781602860810
• Release Date: May 2009
• Publisher: Weinstein Books
• Length: 244 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Mad About the Mad Ones

Tom Folsom's writing captures in riveting detail the madcap story of Crazy Joe and the Gallo brothers amid organized crime families and the sixties counterculture. Absorbing prose: tight, atmospheric, hard boiled, Stylish.

ELLROY MEETS KEROUAC MEETS GARIBALDI

The Mad Ones is an incendiary tale and Folsom has a jazzy, cinematic style of writing. Think James Ellroy by way of Jack Kerouac. Folsom layers episode upon episode, and from this emerges the man (Crazy Joe) and his times (the Sixties). It's not your typical mob book or biography, and this makes it a far more rewarding and atmospheric reading experience. The Gallo boys--Joey, Kid Blast, and Larry--inspired everyone from Bob Dylan to Mario Puzo to Jimmy Breslin. Their charismatic leader, Joey, was a stylish young upstart whose mob revolution was inspired by the counterculture revolution happening simultaneously. Joey would conduct his "business" out in Red Hook and Bensonhurst, then go be-bopping with the Beats and other wrestless spirits in Greenwich Village. And if you're a Mafia enthusiast, here you'll discover where phrases like "sleeps with the fishes" and "go to the mattresses" come from--the misfit Gallo gang. It's often very funny too.

RICK GOLDSTEIN SAYS: "CRAZY JOE... LARRY... KID BLAST... THE GALLO BROTHERS... NOT YOUR NORMAL MAFI

If you're a Mafia enthusiast you won't want to miss the chance to add this "unique" Mafia tale to your library. The Gallo's were a small mob that didn't play by the big guys rules. The major "Don's" always called on the Gallo's when a dirty job needed to be done... but they never shared the wealth accordingly... and they were never invited to the private parties at the lavish mansions... a fact that lingered eternally like boiling bile in "Crazy Joe's" gut. I have read many books on the Mafia and the Gallo's were a name I always heard about... but never in such crystal detail. The Gallows were a relatively small "family" with about twenty-five soldiers... and yet they openly battled families such as the Colombo and Profaci's. Crazy Joe even kidnapped members of these families and held them hostage. During these brutal and deadly gang wars the Gallo's would hit the "mattresses" and hole up at their headquarters at 51 President Street in Brooklyn. Guns of all types and sizes... along with grenades... and chicken wire placed inside the windows to keep apposing grenades from entering the fortress... would be part of sieges that lasted months and years. The police would parole the streets trying to defuse this war zone. Crazy Joe was convicted on extortion charges when he was heard threatening an individual with the sale of stolen liquor. When the victim said he had to think it over Crazy Joe said: "THAT IF YOU NEED SOME TIME TO THINK IT OVER, THEY'LL PUT YOU IN THE HOSPITAL FOR FOUR OR FIVE MONTHS, AND THAT'LL GIVE YOU SOME TIME." While Crazy Joe was in prison he did the unthinkable... he ingratiated some black inmates which led to him being threatened by the KKK in prison. Set up by racist prison guards to be killed by the Klansman... Joe bit the Klansman's ear off. While in prison Joe read every book imaginable regarding psychology... metaphysics... philosophy... and more. Upon release he hung with a different crowd... from Dylan to actors to beatniks. Acquaintances' would later say: "HE LOOKED LIKE A GANGSTER, TALKED LIKE A POET." Also deliciously detailed is the Gallo's legendary confrontation with Bobby Kennedy before the Senate Select Committee. No matter what question Kennedy asked Crazy Joe or brother Larry they would say: "I RESPECTFULLY DECLINE TO ANSWER BECAUSE I HONESTLY BELIEVE MY ANSWER MIGHT TEND TO INCRIMINATE ME." The Senate committee was so mad they even asked... "DO YOU HAVE A WIFE?" "I RESPECTFULLY DECLINE TO.... ARE YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER LIVING?... I RESPECTFULLY... ARE YOU AN AMERICAN CITIZEN?''' I RESPECTFULLY DECLINE..." Later on Crazy Joe went into Bobby's office... "AND KNELT DOWN TO FEEL THE RUG. NICE CARPET YA GOT HERE, KID. BE GOOD FOR A CRAP GAME." "The files connected him with the murder of a Brooklyn tavern owner and unwanted competitor in the jukebox racket, shot so many times in the face they couldn't identify him except from dental records. Bobby asked about the victim." JOEY GIGGLED." One of the mo

A CLASSIC TALE FROM THE MEAN STREETS ABOUT A HERO OF THE COUNTERCULTURE

The title comes from the Jack Kerouac quote: "The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn." And that's exactly how Joey Gallo lived his life. The Mad Ones is the story of Joey and his brothers--Larry and Albert "Kid Blast" Gallo--a family of young gangsters whose revolution against New York City's Cosa Nostra in the 1960s was fueled by Joey Gallo's immersion into the hip Greenwich Village Beat scene. Bob Dylan (who wrote "Joey" about him), Bobby Kennedy, Pete Hamill, Gay Talese, Jimmy Breslin, Mario Puzo, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Orbach--an incredible roster of people spun through Joey Gallo's life before he was gunned down in Little Italy in '72. Gay Talese points out that "He almost became one of the beautiful people." The Mad Ones delves into territory unexpected in a "mob book." Much of the story deals with Joey's having explored the artistic and cultural worlds of the turbulent sixties. Sure, it's a lot like "Goodfellas" and "Mean Streets," but in spirit it also shares a lot with Godard's French classic "Band of Outsiders," and the Gallo boys more closley resemble Depression-era gangsters like Pretty Boy Floyd and John Dillinger than they do Don Corleone. The Mad Ones also captures a grittier era of New York City (specifically downtown and in Brooklyn) that is long, long gone. Terrific story all around.