@edgarblythe,
Love that one by the "jester, edgar. Sent me researching again.
Crazy Joe Gallo’s last moments in Little Italy
By wildnewyork
Joseph Gallo, nicknamed “crazy” by fellow mobsters, was a Red Hook"born gangster specializing in typical 1950s and 1960s mafia activities such as extortion and racketeering.
He was also flamboyant, charming, and well-read, and in the early 1970s he became kind of a celebrity, hanging out with writers, actors, and other New York scenesters.
But he made a fatal mistake on the night of his 43rd birthday, on April 7, 1972. After visiting the Copacabana nightclub, he stopped into Umberto’s Clam House on Mulberry Street in Little Italy. It was around 5 a.m. Supposedly a rival mobster saw him enter Umberto’s; within minutes, gunmen entered the restaurant and start firing.
Gallo was hit five times, staggered out to the street, and died. He’s buried in Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery.
Today is Harry Houdini's birthday. I have been doing research on him as well.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8284142145609530264#
Some facts about the man.
# Houdini debunked spiritualists. In the early 1900s, many people were caught up in spiritualism as a way of contacting deceased relatives. People who were grieving would often pay enormous sums of money in order to contact the dead. Houdini recognized the spiritualist mediums for what they really were ... charlatans preying upon the delicate emotions of the recently bereaved. Because he was familiar with sleight of hand and other ways of manipulating audiences into believing the impossible, he was able to expose their tricks, which he often did.
# Houdini did not die due to a failed Chinese Water Tank trick. It is a common misconception that Houdini died either in the famed Chinese Water Tank trick, or immediately after being rescued from the device. This is a myth based in part by a popular 1953 Hollywood semi-biographical movie starring actor Tony Curtis. In reality, Houdini was nowhere near a stage when he died; he died at a Detroit, Michigan hospital, one week after his last performance.
