In all the years he was active, he was never known to have engaged, or have cared to engage, in any legitimate business! He was strictly a “hoodlums hoodlum” from the womb!
Joseph (Joe Beck) Di Palermo – aka “Joe Becky” and “Joe Palmer” – was born in 1907. He was born, raised, and operated all his life from his base in the “Little Italy” section of Manhattan at 246 Elizabeth Street.
He later moved to the “4th ward” to the “Monroe Houses” at 80 North Moore St., a mob stronghold.
Di Palermo was one of five brothers, all formally “inducted” into the Gagliano/Lucchese Family of LCN. Joe allegedly rose to “capo di decina” status by the late 1940s and headed the clan.
His brothers Joseph, Anthony, Steve, Peter, and Charles, (“The Beck Brothers”) operated within his crew.
FBI # 1519166, NYCPD # B-203135
“Joe Beck” Di Palermo is arguably one of the most significant members in the history of the Lucchese Family and considered the “dean” of dope dealers nationwide.
He was one of the most notorious heroin merchants for over 60 years, both in smuggling and wholesale, and even retail distribution of heroin.
Over the years, he also dealt in large quantities of cocaine, barbiturates, and any other drug he deemed worth his effort.
His activities included bootlegging, narcotics, counterfeiting, large-scale thefts, smuggling, extortion, strong-arming, murder…and any other racket available.
Di Palermo’s “yellow jacket” is 14 pages long, and started in 1925 for:
Side Note: Knowing Joe Beck as I do, he most certainly had arrests between the late 1960s through the 1985 period, but I could not pull them up. I’m almost positive he was arrested for drugs again in the late-1970s for a quaalude conspiracy with several other mafiosi. And, of course, again in 1986 with his brother Charlie.
In all the years he was active, he was never known to have engaged, or have cared to engage, in any legitimate business! He was strictly a “hoodlums hoodlum” from the womb!
Di Palermo’s longtime base of operations was a candy store and social club along Prince and Elizabeth Streets.
At 120-pounds and approximately 5-feet 5-inches tall and with a face and physique of a classic “nerd”, Di Palermo could easily have been mistaken for a “bookworm” or “drug store clerk”.
But his appearance belied his true nature… that of an extremely vicious, cunning, and voracious heroin merchant, contract killer, and dedicated mafioso of the first order!
He dressed as a top hoodlum, too, always completely color coordinated and jeweled up.
A common outfit might be an all “electric blue” suit, tie, blue fedora, and blue snakeskin shoes, with a diamond watch and ring with a huge “blue” sapphire stone….and driving a “blue” Cadillac!
Another day he would be dressed in all “canary yellow”, with matching a ring and stone….driving a “canary yellow” Caddy!
I kid you not!!! As a young boy, I had seen him myself numerous times in the neighborhood dressed this exact way with a young “chippy” on his arm, no less! LOL…Joe Beck was a character indeed!
His associates (he has known most of the important mafiosi across NYC and the nation) included his brothers (Tony, Petey, and Charlie) who were his partners, and:
Other associates included:
Di Palermo and his partner and buddy, Carmine Galante, were suspected in the contract killing of anti-fascist editor and writer Carlo Tresca in NYC in 1944.
It was a highly-publicized murder and hit the front pages of every newspaper across the world. Di Palermo was the suspected getaway driver while Lilo was the suspected actual shooter.
They were never prosecuted for this killing.
In 1958, Di Palermo, Genovese, Ormento, and many other top mob figures went on trial, were convicted and sentenced to lengthy prison terms for the “infamous” heroin trial of that era.
“Joe Beck” received 15 years, serving it in Atlanta Federal Penitentiary with Genovese, Valachi, and many others.
This was the precursor to Joe Valachi turning informant after he slugged an innocent inmate with a steel pipe, killing him, thinking it was Joe Di Palermo he was attacking.
Of course, this series of events was monumental in the history of the American organized crime underworld.
The “Honored Society” would never be the same!…. and would never fully recover to its “glory days” of the post-WWII era through the 1950s, arguably the greatest period of stability and financial strength ever enjoyed by Cosa Nostra in this country!
Joseph “Joe Beck” Di Palermo was, without a doubt, the most conscientious of drug kingpins ever to walk the streets of New York City.
He operated at the highest levels of the mob, both domestically and internationally, continuously for over six decades! …… only prison walls would occasionally interrupt his devilish heroin dealings!
Even at 85 years of age, he was still “at it”….. smuggling, mixing, diluting, packaging, and selling his “powdered death in a bag” through his many minions, to unfortunate souls all over this city and beyond!….. until his dying day!
“Joe Beck” died at the age of 85 in 1992.
New York’s “Little Italy” and the Lucchese Family will never be the same.
