Frank Arricale , best remembered for enlisting the assistance of the "Gallo Brothers " during the summer of 1966 to try to ease racial tensions in Brooklyn, died on August 26 at the age of 81. For those of you who don't know or don't remember ,Mr. Arricale was the Director of New York City's Youth Board ,who in 1966 when racial tensions flared reached out to ethnic leaders in an effort to avoid violence and rioting.
In an extremely controversial move, he reached out to Mafia leaders Albert and Larry Gallo. The "Gallo's" agreed to help. They "sent out a message" to white , mostly Italian-Americans to stay out of East New York and to cooperate with the police. This went a long way towards a full scale riot being avoided. The Gallo's were actually commended for their fine service to the City.
I think then Mayor, John V. Lindsay said it best; You can't always deal with people who are leaders in the Boy Scout movement. Sometimes you must call upon individuals with fairly rough backgrounds". "Fairly rough" being the key word there. The rest is history....
Oh, how times have changed! Can you imagine Mayor Bloomberg today texting a Mafia Capo for help?
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