Kenny Gallo | |
---|---|
Born | 1968 (age 55–56) |
Occupation(s) | Convicted gangster, author, blogger, FBI informant, director |
Spouse | Anne Kaneko (m. 2014) |
Website | http://www.betterlivedlives.com |
Kenny "Kenji" Gallo (born 1968[ citation needed ]) is a Japanese-Italian American [1] gangster-turned-informant, a former director and producer of adult films and an author.
A convicted narcotics dealer on the West Coast associated with the Los Angeles crime family and New York City's Colombo crime family, Gallo became an informant against such mafioso as alleged Colombo crime family heir apparent Theodore "Teddy" Persico Jr.[ citation needed ] His memoir Breakshot: A Life in the 21st Century American Mafia , co-authored with Matthew Randazzo V, was published in August 2009 by Phoenix Books, and the co-owner of the Breakshot Blog. [2]
Gallo was born of Japanese descent in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles and raised in a middle-class family in Orange County. His father was interned at Minidoka during World War II, and became a successful magazine publisher after the war. Despite being an intelligent student, Gallo had behavioral issues at school, and after his parents divorced, his stepfather had him sent to military school in Carlsbad at the age of 13. Gallo was bullied by older students at the military school, and he later wrote that the experience taught him "to enjoy hurting people" and that "man should use any means at his disposal without hesitation to obtain dominance over everyone he meets". Gallo's father later had him removed from the military academy and enrolled him at University High School in Irvine. [3] The actor Will Ferrell was among Gallo's classmates at University High. [4]
Following the death of convicted hitman Charles Harrelson, Gallo was interviewed and identified in the Sunday 2007 issue of The Sunday Times as a "convicted Mafia associate" and friend of Harrelson. [5]
An adult film and B-movie director and producer from the late 1980s to the early 2000s, he directed 29 adult films. [6] While a filmmaker, Gallo met and married adult entertainment star Tabitha Stevens; [7] their short-lived marriage included a Jerry Springer Show episode titled "I'm Married to a Porn Star!"[ citation needed ] They divorced in 1997.[ citation needed ]
Gallo also appears on the Discovery Channel show Flipped: A Mobster Tells All and Spike TV's Deadliest Warrior , where he served as an expert for the Medellin Cartel in "Somali Pirates vs. Medellin Cartel."[ citation needed ]
The Medellín Cartel was a powerful and highly organized Colombian drug cartel and terrorist organization originating in the city of Medellín, Colombia, that was founded and led by Pablo Escobar. It is often considered to be the first major "drug cartel" and was referred to as such due to the organization's upper echelons and overall power-structure being built on a partnership between multiple Colombian traffickers operating alongside Escobar. Other members included Jorge Luis Ochoa Vásquez, Fabio Ochoa Vásquez, Juan David Ochoa Vásquez, José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha, and Carlos Lehder. Escobar's main partner in the organization was his cousin Gustavo Gaviria, who handled much of the cartel's shipping arrangements and the more general and detailed logistical aspects of the cocaine trafficking routes and international smuggling networks, which were supplying at least 80% of the world's cocaine during its peak.
Joseph Anthony Colombo Sr. was the boss of the Colombo crime family, one of the Five Families of the American Mafia in New York City.
Carmine John Persico Jr., also known as "Junior", "The Snake" and "Immortal", was an American mobster and the longtime boss of the Colombo crime family in New York City from 1973 until his death in 2019. He had been serving 32 years in federal prison from 1987 until his death on March 7, 2019.
Leroy Nicholas Barnes was an American crime boss, active in New York City during the 1970s.
Salvatore Vincent "Bill" Bonanno was an American mobster who served as consigliere of the Bonanno crime family, and son of crime boss Joseph Bonanno. Later in life, he became a writer and produced films for television about his family.
The Colombo crime family is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and the youngest of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City within the criminal organization known as the American Mafia. It was during Lucky Luciano's organization of the American Mafia after the Castellammarese War, following the assassinations of "Joe the Boss" Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano, that the gang run by Joseph Profaci became recognized as the Profaci crime family.
Joseph Magliocco, also known as "Joe Malayak" and "Joe Evil Eye", was a Sicilian-born New York mobster and the boss of the Profaci crime family from 1962 to 1963. In 1963, Magliocco participated in an audacious attempt with Joseph Bonnano to kill other family bosses and take over the Mafia Commission. The attempt failed, and, while his life was spared, he was forced into retirement. Soon after, he died of a heart attack on December 28, 1963.
Aladena James Fratianno, also known as "Jimmy the Weasel", was an Italian-born American mobster who was acting boss of the Los Angeles crime family. After his arrest in 1977, Fratianno became an informant and entered the Witness Protection Program in 1980. He admitted to having killed five people. Later in life, he became a writer.
Frank "Punchy" Illiano was a Brooklyn Captain with the Genovese crime family. During the 1960s and 1970s, he served as a top lieutenant to the Gallo brothers in their two wars with the Colombo crime family leadership.
Joseph Iannuzzi Jr.,, also known as "Joe Dogs", "Joe Diner" and "Joe Drywall", was a Gambino crime family associate and FBI informant whose cooperation influenced events surrounding the late 1985 assassination of Gambino family boss Paul Castellano and played an indirect, but valuable, role in the 1985 Mafia Commission Trial. Iannuzzi is the author of several books: The Mafia Cookbook, Cooking on the Lam, and his autobiography Joe Dogs: The Life and Crimes of a Mobster. Iannuzzi died September 20, 2015, in Kerrville, Texas, at the Veterans Administrations Medical Center.
Alden Joseph Brown, known professionally as Peter North, is a Canadian retired pornographic actor, director and producer. He has 2,155 credits as an actor and 77 as a director.
Matthew Randazzo V is an American true crime writer and historian originally from New Orleans, Louisiana, who currently lives on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington. Randazzo is of Sicilian-American, Isleño and Cajun descent. He is the author of Ring of Hell: The Story of Chris Benoit & The Fall of the Pro Wrestling Industry (2008), co-author with Kenny "Kenji" Gallo of the Phoenix Books release Breakshot: A Life in the 21st Century American Mafia (2009) and author with the gangster Frenchy Brouillette of Mr. New Orleans: The Life of a Big Easy Underworld Legend (2010), which claims to be the first book to break the code of secrecy in the New Orleans Mafia family. Breakshot was republished in 2010 by the Simon & Schuster imprint PocketBooks.
The Los Angeles crime family, also known as the Dragna crime family, the Southern California crime family or the L.A. Mafia, and dubbed "the Mickey Mouse Mafia" by former Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates, is an Italian-American Mafia crime family based in Los Angeles, California as part of the larger Italian-American Mafia. Since its inception in the early 20th century, the family has spread throughout Southern California. Like most Mafia families in the United States, the Los Angeles crime family gained wealth and power through bootlegging alcohol during the Prohibition era. The L.A. family reached its peak strength in the 1940s and early 1950s under Jack Dragna, although the family was never larger than the New York or Chicago families. The Los Angeles crime family itself has been on a gradual decline, with the Chicago Outfit representing them on The Commission since the death of boss Jack Dragna in 1956.
Michael Anthony Rizzitello, also known as "Mike Rizzi", was a Canadian-American mobster and high ranking member of the Los Angeles crime family. Rizzitello's criminal record stretched back to 1947. He was also featured in several biography novels by mobsters-turned-informants Jimmy Fratianno, Anthony Fiato, and Kenny Gallo (Breakshot).
A drug lord, drug baron, kingpin, or lord of drugs is a type of crime boss in charge of a drug trafficking network, organization, or enterprise.
Craig Anthony Fiato, also known as Anthony the Animal and Tony Rome, is an American mobster and hitman for the Los Angeles crime family who later became an undercover informant and government witness. In the words of retired FBI undercover agent Bob Hamer, "Anthony Fiato was a major player in that whole organized crime scene" in 1980s Los Angeles.
Carmen Joseph Milano was an American lawyer who eventually became a member of the American Mafia, serving as underboss of the Los Angeles crime family. The criminal organization he served was headed by his older brother Peter Milano. His nickname was "Flipper", after the TV dolphin.
Crazy Joe is a 1974 crime film directed by Carlo Lizzani and produced by Dino De Laurentiis. The Italian-American co-production is a fictionalized account of the murder of Joseph "Crazy Joe" Gallo, a mobster who was gunned down on April 7, 1972, at a restaurant in Little Italy. The screenplay by Lewis John Carlino is based on a series of articles by journalist Nicholas Gage. The film stars Peter Boyle in the title role, with Paula Prentiss, Fred Williamson, Rip Torn, Luther Adler, Henry Winkler and Eli Wallach.
Breakshot: A Life in the 21st Century American Mafia is an American memoir by Kenny "Kenji" Gallo, a former member of the Colombo Crime Family and The Milano Brothers who became an informant in the federal witness protection program. The book, which was titled after the undercover code name the FBI gave him, was released by Phoenix Books in August 2009, with co-writer Matthew Randazzo V.