Joseph Gallo (April 7, 1929 – April 7, 1972), also known as "Crazy Joe", was an Italian-American mobster and captain in the Colombo crime family of New York City.
Diagnosed with schizophrenia in his youth, Gallo became an enforcer in the Profaci crime family and formed his own crew with his brothers, Larry and Albert. In 1957, Joe Profaci allegedly asked the Gallo crew to murder Albert Anastasia, the boss of what was to become the Gambino crime family; Anastasia was later murdered at a barbershop in Midtown Manhattan. In 1961, the Gallo brothers kidnapped four of Profaci's top men: underboss Joseph Magliocco, Frank Profaci (Joe Profaci's brother), captain Salvatore Musacchia and soldier John Scimone, demanding a more favorable financial scheme for the hostages' release. After a few weeks of negotiation, Profaci and his consigliere, Charles "the Sidge" LoCicero, made a deal with the Gallos and secured the peaceful release of the hostages. This incited the First Colombo War.
In 1961, Gallo was sentenced to seven to fourteen years' imprisonment for conspiracy and extortion.