You’ve heard of Joey Gallo. But you probably haven’t heard of Hassan “Ali Baba” Waffa — the Egyptian cook turned mob confidant who ran with Crazy Joe during one of the most volatile eras in Mafia history.
April 1972. One week after Joey Gallo was gunned down at Umberto’s Clam House. The words came from Victor Riesel — the hard-hitting columnist who lost his sight after a mob-ordered acid attack in the ’50s.
“There is the fact that ‘Crazy’ Joey, 42-year-old leader of the dissidents in the so-called Joe Colombo family, was a man ahead of his time. First, though, you may think that all godfathers are Sicilian. Well, Joey Gallo, who left this world with a lethal case of lead bullet poisoning early Friday, April 7, had an Arab counsellor. Who else had an Arab as a godfather? Who else tried to integrate the Mafia? Who else was the symbol of young Turks anywhere in the Mafia? Who else, by sheer existence, threatened the security of the polished Dons because the younger men weren’t getting enough ‘bread’? Who else, though dead, symbolizes the wave of the future in every big Mafia-laden city?”
That Arab counselor? Wasn’t a myth. His name was Ali Hassan Waffa — but everyone called him Ali Baba. And this is his story.
