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

Tom Folsom (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 5, 2009

A POWERFUL COLLISION OF TRUE CRIME AND POP CULTURE, THE MAD ONES CAPTURES THE REVOLUTIONARY SPIRIT OF THE SIXTIES AND BRINGS TO LIFE ONE OF THE MOST VIBRANT ANTIHEROES IN AMERICAN HISTORY.

The Mad Ones chronicles the rise and fall of the Gallo brothers, a trio of reckless young gangsters whose revolution against New York City's Mafia was inspired by Crazy Joe Gallo's forays into Greenwich Village counterculture.

Crazy Joe, Kid Blast, and Larry Gallo are steeped in legend, from Bob Dylan's eleven-minute ballad "Joey" to fictionalizations central to The Godfather trilogy and Jimmy Breslin's The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight. Called the toughest gang in the city by the NYPD, the Gallos hailed from the rough Red Hook neighborhood on the Brooklyn waterfront. As low-level Mafiosi, they were expected to serve their Don quietly, but the brothers stood apart from typical gangsters with their hip style, fierce ambition, and Crazy Joe's manic idealism.

Joey aspired to be more than a common hood and immersed himself among the Beatniks and bohemians of the Village. Yearning to live the life of an artist, Joey wrote poetry, painted, and got his kicks devouring existential philosophy. Celebrated as the "king of the streets" by Dylan, Joey was embraced by the city's leading cultural figures as an antihero straight out of Camus.

Here, for the first time, is the complete story of the Gallos' war against the powerful Cosa Nostra, an epic crime saga that culminates in Crazy Joe's murder on the streets of Little Italy, where he was gunned down mid-bite into a forkful of spaghetti in 1972. The Mad Ones is a wildly satisfying entertainment and a significant work of cultural history.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Mobsters are infinitely entertaining, but in TV producer Folsom's (co-author, Mr. Untouchable) chronicle of the infamous Gallo brothers who ruled Red Hook, Brooklyn in the 1950s and 60s, there's not only gang war, mayhem and murder, but the media sensation that was leader Crazy Joe Gallo. Immortalized in Jimmy Breslin's The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight, the Gallo brothers really did keep a lion in the basement to encourage payments, and broke with the rules of the Mafia by including outsiders like Mondo the Dwarf and an Egyptian nicknamed Ali Baba. In crisp prose that can veer into the tabloid, Folsom expertly captures the color of Crazy Joey and his times. Joey, who did time in psych wards and prisons (he read up to eight books a day in Attica), mugged for the cameras while being questioned by Attorney General Robert Kennedy at the McClellan Hearings in 1959, appeared on the cover of Life magazine, held court at Elaine's with Ben Gazarra and Bruce Jay Friedman and became best friends with actor Jerry Orbach. At the time he was gunned down (at Umberto's Clam House in Little Italy) at 43 years old, Joey had a book deal from Viking: "There's something suicidal about publishers," he said later, "paying a lot of greens for the big nothing."
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From Booklist

Bob Dylan immortalized Joey Gallo in a lengthy ballad romanticizing him and his cohort, and breathless contemporary tabloids enthusiastically agreed. Not exactly out to counter Gallo’s lovable thug persona, Folsom chronicles Gallo in highly readable, almost lyrical fashion. Joey frequented cultural hot spots like the Village, rubbing elbows with boulevardiers, pop stars, and poets. He wrote poetry and sought the media limelight with unheard-of fervor for a working mobster. That didn’t sit well with other gangsters in general and senior members of the Profaci (later Colombo) Mob family in particular. His self-promotion worked, however, and his icon status was assured when, like Dutch Schultz before him, he was gunned down in mid-bite at his favorite restaurant. During his raucous career, he warred with godfather Joseph Profaci and may have had a hand in the assassination of Profaci’s successor, Joe Colombo. More celebration than condemnation, Folsom’s invigorating read recalls an odd chapter in American Mob history, but then the late 1960s–early 1970s constitute an odd chapter in American social history generally. A fitting tribute. --Mike Tribby

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Weinstein Books (May 5, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1602860815
• ISBN-13: 978-1602860810
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #625,482 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

TOM FOLSOM is a writer, director, and producer of television documentaries for A&E and Showtime, and the co-author of Mr. Untouchable: The Rise, Fall and Resurrection of Heroin's Teflon Don, written with its subject, drug kingpin Nicky Barnes. He lives in New York City.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The Joey I knew, September 22, 2009

By 

Stephen F. Whitmore "Mindnite Oil" (Cape Cod) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Mad Ones: Crazy Joe Gallo and the Revolution at the Edge of the Underworld (Hardcover)

Growing up in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn at the same time as Crazy Joey - as we then knew him, I had a passing familiarity with Joey and his 'family'. He was a cheap violent punk, always trying to impress people with his 'badness'. He was perceived as a low life wannabe, neither smart enough nor connected enough to be a real player. The author accurately relays the time lines of Joey's life and the names of the people around him at the time but he falls far short of telling us what made Joey tick, what drove him. The book is a chronology but not a biography. Even then, the chronology bounces back and forth in time with no clear pattern and without a linking of events to Joey's personality. It's a broad brush overview with no subtleties or flavor.

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Great subject, interesting man, horrible writer, July 16, 2009

By 

Jack Healy - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Mad Ones: Crazy Joe Gallo and the Revolution at the Edge of the Underworld (Hardcover)

...don't waste your money on this one. I was sucked in by Tom Folsom's appearance on Jon Stewart and then a few "helpful" reviews that droned on about what a great story the Gallo brothers were. ...and that's true... However, Tom Folsom completely blows the telling of this story with cryptic sentences, erratic scene changes, minimal research and just plain blathering nonsense. I had to put the book down, turn on my laptop, and write this review - something I've never done with any other book.

This book isn't just a waste of money, but a waste of time. Thankfully there are many other books that focus on this milieu and era. But unfortunately one of the great stories during this time was completely botched.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing-so much potential, August 27, 2009

By 

Nevada Smith (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mad Ones: Crazy Joe Gallo and the Revolution at the Edge of the Underworld (Hardcover)

I've heard Folson talk about this book on at least 3 different occasions and it sounded incredible. But it's kind of like when they show you the great trailers of a bad movie. There was so much potential. Great characters: Joe himself, his intersection with the 60's Greenwich Village scene is just touched on. That's a book in itself. Why not spend some time on Dylan's 11 minute song on Gallo? Joey's time in jail was grazed upon. The whole Columbo rallies and murder were major news in NYC and it was just passed by. At the end the Umberto's climax was handled as an afterthought. I grew up in that area, hung out across the street from Umberto's and believe me it was a big thing for a long time. I guess I came away from this book not really knowing anybody in the book, not finding what they did real interesting and very very disappointed. I feel bad because I loved hearing the author describe it and I know writing a book is hard. I am taking the author's recommendation to read Chief by Albert Seedman and just the introduction is better already than the Mad Ones. Sorry Tom.