Joseph Luparelli

Joseph "Joe Pesh" Luparelli was a New York mobster and member of the Colombo crime family involved in the gangland [...] of renegade mobster "Crazy" Joe Gallo.

As chauffeur and bodyguard to Colombo councilor Joseph "Joe Yack" Yacovelli during the 1970s, Luparelli was ordered to [...] rival mobster Joe Gallo who had been moving in on the Colombo's South Brooklyn docks. During The Spring of 1971, Luparelli oversaw several failed attempts on Gallo's life. One such attempt was A Plan to kill Gallo as he arrived at the offices of The New York State Department Of Correctional Services to meet his parole officer. Gallo had been recently released from prison and was under court order to make these appointments. However, after Gallo missed two appointments, the [...] contract was cancelled.

However, by March 1972, Gallo's continued raids against the Colombo's criminal operations caused the family leadership to reinstate the [...] contract. On the night of March 18, Sonny Pinto, Philip "Fat Fungi" Gambino and brothers Cisco and Benny (soldiers under Colombo capo John "Sonny" Franzese), drove to Umberto's Clam House in the Little Italy section of Manhattan. Gallo was the restaurant dining with his wife Sina, his sister, and his bodyguard Peter "Pete the Greek" Diapoulas. While Luparelli and Gambino blocked traffic, Pinto, Cisco and Benny entered the restaurant. Pinto shot Gallo twice before Diapoulas could draw his gun. The three hitmen continued shooting Gallo as he staggered out of restaurant and collapsed on the sidewalk.

Although pleased with Luparelli for the Gallo hit, Yacovelli later put out a [...] contract on his former bodyguard. Turning himself in to authorities in Santa Ana, California, Luparelli agreed to enter the U.S. Department of Justice's Witness Protection Program.

Further reading

• Capeci, Jerry. The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Mafia. Indianapolis: Alpha Books, 2002. ISBN 0-02-864225-2
• United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Administrative Practice and Procedure. Witness Protection Program: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Administrative Practice and Procedure. 1978. 1
• United States. Congress. House. Select Committee on Assassinations. Investigation of The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy: hearings before the Select Committee on Assassinations. 1979. 2

References

• Raab, Selwyn. Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires. New York: St. Martin Press, 2005. ISBN 0-312-30094-8