The father of “Crazy” Joe Gallo was in the kitchen putting the finishing touches on a fine Italian dinner. The places were set in the dining room. His sons — all in good cheer — came in the door. The father embraced Joey, congratulating him on a job well done. The young men sat down to eat. While the father was opening a bottle of wine, the phone rang. The father answered, only saying “Hello.” Less than a minute later, he put the phone down and walked over to Joe. The father began to slap Joe across the face, yelling out insults. Joey Gallo shot the wrong man.
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Second Thief, Best Thief – An Old Jersey City Saying
The Jersey City Waterfront once was covered with warehouses and piers. Adjacent to these were miles of railroad yards dotted with innumerable sheds and small buildings for use as storage and as workshops for mechanics, machinists, and welders.
During the depression, children from impoverished families would climb onto the roofs of the outlying structures, both to hide and to gain a view of the surrounding area. From up there, they'd watch for workers stealing from the docks, the trains, or the warehouses. The initial crooks would sneak off into the weeds to hide the swag with the idea of retrieving it at the end of the shift. Seeing opportunity made available, the kids would wait a bit for the situation to cool. Then, they'd climb down, grab the goods, and make a getaway through the vacant lots.
Practitioners coined the saying "second thief, best thief" to describe this method of survival.
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Anthony, I just wanted to share with you that I was born in Jersey city in 1945 at the Margret Hague hospital as well. My mom was an OBGYN nurse who worked at the Margaret Hague and the Medical center. I have been working on both sides of my Family Tree and have been using Ancestry.com for about 12 years. My grandfather, John McLaughlin, worked for the Jersey city water department as a truck driver. After Frank Hague’s election, John became Frank Hague’s chauffeur. In the years that he drove the mayor around my grandfather overheard many things that the mayor did not want to get out to the public. My father, Mike McLaughlin, was the middle son of ten children. Several of my uncles ended up in jail and the way my grandfather got them off was to ask the mayor to get them out of jail. John was also a Ward Healer for mayor Hague and ran a speakeasy in JC. His brother in law, Michael (Mickey) Russell, was a fairly famous bantamweight boxer in JC and almost take the title from Jonny Buff. After injuries forced him to retire at 33 he worked with my grandfather at his speakeasy as a bouncer. Mickey went out to the alley with two men who were acting up and one of them had a gun and killed my great uncle. I found the newspaper article about the murder. I lived on Corbin Avenue between Sip and Pavonia in a redbrick walkup.I went to PS 23 school until we moved out of JC. My dad worked on the Erie RR and one of the stops was Port Jervis NY. That is where my parents decided to move to in 1955 when I was ten years old. I would really enjoy hearing from you and maybe we could swap some JC stories from the 50’s.
Patrick McLaughlin
143 Commonwealth avenue
Middletown, NY 10940