![]() | Joseph "Mad Dog" Sullivan (March 31, 1939-June 9, 2017) was a Genovese crime family hitman. He started committing robberies at age 12. |
Sullivan carried out scores of murder contracts from the Five Families, and was eventually given three life sentences. After four years in Attica, Sullivan accomplished an impossible feat. He was able to escape from the notorious prison. He was captured a few weeks later in Greenwich Village, carrying a sawed-off shotgun.![]() |
![]() | The FBI beleives that Sullivan murdered 120 people for the Genovese crime family alone. Sullivan allegedly earned the nickname "Mad Dog" from fellow inmates at Attica. Winning parole in 1975, Sullivan began working for the Genovese crime family. He single-handedly executed 33 members of an Irish-American criminal organization headed by Mickey Spillane during the summer of 1976, which was half of Spillane's entire crew. Sullivan was one of the Genovese crime family's most vicious, lethal and efficient hitmen. The FBI considered him to be a sophisticated and professional assassin that never made mistakes, always got the job done, and always killed his target. | ![]() Michael J. Spillane was killed in Queens on May 13, 1977. |
![]() | One of Sullivan's high profile intended targets was Carmine "Cigar" Galante, head of the Bonnano crime family. For much of the summer of 1978, Sullivan tried to carry out the hit on Galante, but ultimately failed. Only the efforts of a team of hit men did what Sullivan couldn't—they shot Galante to death at a Brooklyn restaurant. | ![]() The killer died in prison in 2017 aged 78. |