The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight

According to one popular notion, the Mafia gang war in New York City is a quick, convenient and highly effective method of crime control. Mobsters slaying mobsters, the theory holds, makes for fewer mobsters. Even if that cynical hypothesis were morally acceptable, it would break down, because the gunplay between New York's embattled clans, which has claimed 23 known victims in the past 14 months, is being carried on by some singularly inept, trigger-happy hoods.

Three weeks ago, for example, a muscleman named Carlo Lombardi strolled into the Raveniti Social Club, a mob hangout in Little Italy. Lombardi, who harbored a grudge against the powerful Gambino family, spied some members of the clan and immediately began blazing away with his automatic pistol. All six shots missed their mark, and Lombardi quickly fled into the night. Unruffled, the Gambinos dispatched two gunmen to track down Lombardi and then resumed their discussion of the fate of the Manfredi cousins, Phillip J. ("Little Phil") and Phillip D. ("Big Phil"), judged guilty of double-crossing a Gambino capo. The two Phils, big and little, were executed in The Bronx later that night.

Outside New York, meanwhile, the Gambino gunmen cornered Lombardi and his girl friend in a motel room, forced the couple into their car and then drove them to a secluded roadside. After killing Lombardi, the gunmen were about to finish off the girl friend when they were interrupted by the chattering of a squirrel. Mistaking the animal for a human witness, the hit men loosed a fusillade into the bushes and fled. The squirrel died, but the girl friend, shot once in the neck, survived and gave police a detailed description of the assailants. If nothing else, as the joke went, the gunmen could be arrested for shooting a squirrel out of season.

The caper proved a prelude to another, even grimmer case of mistaken identity that provoked considerable public outrage.

No gang war is really a private affair --any killing, even of criminals by criminals, is an affront to the community --but most people do not become indignant until innocent bystanders are involved. The latest incident occurred in the Neopolitan Noodle, a restaurant on Manhattan's Upper East Side that is frequented by members of the Colombo gang. The Gallo clan, bent on revenging the assassination of Crazy Joey Gallo (TIME, April 17), began staking out the restaurant in hope of catching the Colombos off guard. One night recently, a Gallo spy spotted four Colombo men gathered at the bar and quickly left to flash word to the Gallo camp in Brooklyn. In the interim the Colombos moved to a rear table and were replaced at the bar by four wholesale kosher-meat dealers out for a night on the town. A half-hour later, a Gallo trigger man known as "The Syrian" donned a shoulderlength black wig, entered the restaurant, ordered a Scotch and water, and began sizing up what he took to be his victims.

The Syrian was chosen for the job because he was unknown to the Colombos. Trouble was, he did not know the Colombos either. When the four men began to leave the bar, The Syrian pulled out two .38-cal. revolvers and began firing. After killing two of the men and wounding the others, The Syrian pocketed his revolvers and walked out of the restaurant.

The reaction was immediate and apoplectic. Police Commissioner Patrick Murphy called the murders a "terrible, frightening crime." Mayor John Lindsay vowed that "the Mob must be stopped and the gangsters run out of town."

As usual, such belated, pious protestations commanded the headlines but did not faze the Mafia; they have heard it all before and have still gone on with business as usual. A more serious threat was District Attorney Frank Hogan's revelation that he would subpoena as many as 600 Mafiosi before a grand jury.

The most potentially punishing blow was a plan to publicly name the businesses acting as fronts for gangland interests as a way of discouraging patronage and slashing their earnings.

The American Civil Liberties Union immediately registered its quite justified objection to such damning disclosures without trial. Meantime, the Mob's high commission met in emergency session, condemned the Gallo faction for killing so sloppily, and as a penalty ordered the Gallo band to be broken up among the other New York Mafia families. The Gallos, now led by Joey's kid brother Al, arrogantly refused and promised that their gang war would go on.

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