Whenever the mob rub out at Umberto's Clam house in 1972 comes up I always think of the memory I can't get rid that I remember reading in the NYT that Jerry Orbach, the actor, was with the Gallo birthday party in the wee hours of the morning, sipping cokes and probably waiting for the sun to rise.
Jerry was a Broadway actor, and later the star of 'Law and Order.' Back in the '70s he played a part in the 1971 movie 'The Gang that Couldn't Shoot Straight,' A not-so-good movie version of Jimmy Breslin's book of the same title about the Brooklyn mob in South Brooklyn, complete with the lion that Joey Gallo kept in the cellar, as well as Kid Sally (Jerry Orbach), the sometimes clumsy arsonist.
It was a comic sendup of the mob as a coterie of outsized personalities (it always is) and some of the rather outrageous things they get away with. The book was a best seller, and I still have my hardcover copy.
Orbach became friends with Joey and even had him staying over his apartment at the time of the shooting. It wouldn't be so far fetched to expect that Jerry would be part of the Gallo birthday party that left the Copa and went down to Mulberry Street.
So, when the first editions came out reporting on the shooting I distinctly remember reading that Orbach was there. I tried to confirm my memory by looking through microfilm, but the name Jerry Orbach wasn't there. Had I conflated the relationship with presence? Did the name get air brushed by an editor in response to an actor's agent to wipe the slate?
All of this is nearly half a century ago. Jerry Orbach is dead, and there was nothing in his obituary to confirm what I've always felt I read.
The rub out at Umberto's is part of New York mob-war lore. The '70s saw a lot of hits. The Gallo and Profaci factions were always whacking each other. The movie 'The Irishman' depicts a scene where the Joe Pesci character, Russell Bufalino, orders a hit on Crazy Joey Gallo, who is briefly bopping around at a birthday party for Frank Sheeran, the Irishman..
It is ridiculous to imagine that a Pennsylvania gangster could get a hit approved on a made man from Brooklyn. Joey was deprived of a long life because he orchestrated the shooting of Joseph Columbo in Columbus Circle on Columbus Day, a day that Columbo was seizing as Italian Solidarity Day. The Columbus Circle shooting is depicted in 'The Irishman' but not in the context of Italian Solidarity.
Columbo was very outspoken out Italian solidarity. He even managed to convince all the pizza parlors to close on that day. Imagine, not being able to buy a slice in New York City! That's as bad as looking for a #10 envelope on Yom Kippur. (Before Staples)
Mobsters hate other mobsters attracting attention to themselves. It was not well received by the commission. Thus the hit on Joseph Columbo, and the retaliatory hit hit on Crazy Joe.
Joseph Columbo didn't die until years later after being in a coma from his head wounds. The shooter was immediately killed on the spot by someone who was never apprehended. The shooter was someone Joey recruited from his stay at Sing Sing.
So, who's the new witness? I wrote a blog posting on September 8, 2013 about Umberto's and Jerry Orbach. In was kicked off by reading a column in the NYT by Michael Wilson, the crime reporter, about how even after 40 years the site of the shooting is still part of tours for those interested in locales of mob hits.
The Umberto's story was again in the a story by Mr. Wilson when he did a who's who in the movie 'The Irishman,' a thumb sketch primer of sorts of the leading characters. It's already been acknowledged that 'The Irishman' despite depicting true events and actual characters, does stray from what is truly known, and adds what is claimed to be known.
And the witness? There is the ability in my blog postings to leave comments. I get very few. I get few hits on my postingd in general. The average would be in the low double digits. After a posting I always check on the traffic of the most recent postings. I do not look back years.
But the software tracks these comments, and when I noticed a comment on a recent post, I dove into it. Even blog posting attract spam, and occasionally attract someone who is promoting movies. I delete those comments. But why was there a December 17, 2019 comment on a September 8, 2013 posting?
Someone was attracted to the posting by a link somewhere and anonymously left the following:
"My memory as a then pa for a local news station says orbach was at umvertos [sic]."
We really do live on a Möbius strip.
http://www.onofframp.blogspot.com
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