Joseph Galizia

Joseph "Joe Glitz" Galizia (July 24, 1941–1998) was a New York mobster who became a high ranking soldier in the Genovese crime family and ran a large gasoline bootlegging operation.

Becoming a family member

In the mid-1970s, Galizia became a "made man" in the Genovese family by killing Genovese mobster Carlo "Collie" DiPietro. DiPietro had been a partner of Galizia and future Gambino boss John Gotti in a Queens flea market. During this time, Galizia earned a reputation as a huge money maker by moving the family into the extremely lucrative "Gasoline Bootlegging" rackets. While never attaining a position within the administration, Galizia became a very influential and wealthy mafioso who occasionally answered directly to Vincent Gigante and his uppermost family members, often going over his captain's head. Galizia maintained interests in several Queens and Long Island produce companies as well.

Galizia and his brother Larry ran construction schemes, loansharking, and extortion rackets in Queens, Brooklyn Manhattan and Long Island. In the early 1980s, Larry went to federal prison for supervising a credit card fraud scheme . The Galizias also engaged in criminal activities with Genovese gangsters Rosario Gangi, Alphonse "Allie Shades" Malangone, and Rudolph "Rudy Cueball" Izzi.

Gasoline bootlegging partnership with the Russians

The gasoline bootlegging rackets were originally developed by Russian mobsters; however, the Russians needed the approval of the New York Mafia Five Families to continue their business. The mobsters set up shell companies that distributed gasoline at a price which they fraudulently represented as including federal, state and local excise taxes. Naturally, the mobsters weren't paying those taxes. When the gasoline buyers realized that no taxes had been paid and the government went after the distributors, the shell companies would be out of business and the profits gone to organized crime. Another major figure in the gasoline racket was Colombo crime family capo Michael Franzese, a friend of Galizia. Galizia's operation was run by Russian mob boss Marat Balagula and his associates Igor Roizman, Igor Porotsky, and Sheldon Levine.

Federal indictments

In 1986, Galizia, Franzese, and their Russian partners were charged with evading over $5 million in taxes in just a few months. All the defendants were eventually convicted or plead guilty and went to federal prison. In 1989, while in prison, Galizia was suspected by federal investigators for being involved in ordering the murder of Michael Markowitz, a Russian gangster who flipped. Markowitz was shot to death in Brooklyn by Joseph Reisch. Galizia would be indicted again on similar charges in 1991.

An investigation by the New York State Governor's office reported that the New York Five Families bootlegging scheme avoided taxes on one out of every ten gallons of gasoline brought into the metropolitan area. The report stated that gasoline bootlegging had become the mob's most profitable scheme.

LCN group running the gasoline rackets

In being one the Genovese family's first point-man in the gasoline bootlegging racket, Galizia was involved in setting up a council of mobsters that decided which wiseguys and which families had the rights to which companies and profits. Other wiseguys involved in the operation were Genovese soldier Daniel "Danny" Pagano (based in the Bronx and East Harlem), Gambino captain Anthony "Fat Tony" Morelli (based in Staten Island), Gambino soldier Genaro "Jimmy Sweats" Dellamonica (Morelli Staten Island crew), Lucchese family underboss Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso (who testified before Congress about the Mob's involvement with the Russians), Colombo capo Victor Orena, Jr. (son of the family's former acting boss), Colombo soldiers Frank "Frankie the Bug" Sciortino and Joseph Audino (both Orena crew members)

Family ties

Galizia was the brother of Genovese soldier Lawrence "Larry Glitz" Galizia. Galizia's son Lawrence Galizia is a Genovese soldier who was arrested in 2001 on federal loan sharking charges.

Former Gambino underboss Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano testified that at Galizia's son's wedding in the early-1990s, a sitdown was held between Gambino boss John Gotti and Patriarca crime family captain Junior Russo to avoid a shooting war with the family's new boss, Raymond Patriarca, Jr..

Further reading

• Friedman, Robert I., Red Mafiya: How the Russian Mob Has Invaded America (2000).
• Gallagher, Mike, "Gas Tax Scam Plea", Newsday, January 7, 1992.
• Taylor, Letta, "5 Charged in Tax Scam", Newsday, January 31, 1991.