When researching organized crime murders, sometimes there are clues that tip us off to what may have really happened. We recently discussed the Wild Bunch, a crew of Chicago Outfit hitmen in the 1970s, and that touched back to an earlier series on Wild Bunch member and notorious killer Harry “The Hook” Aleman. Letās look at one murder attributed to him.
Nick āKeggieā Galanos was a bookmaker who was shot nine times in the head in his basement on August 30, 1975 with a .45 caliber pistol. Outfit bosses likely ordered this hit because Galanos was taking bets in Forest Park, where the bosses livedāthat was a big no-no. The Chicago Crime Commission puts this killing to Harry Aleman, but thereās a good chance he had helpā¦
In 1975, there were really only two .45s on the market, the M1911 holding of 7+1 rounds, or the M1917 revolver, holding six rounds. Both were concealable, easily available, and fairly cheap, because of surplus from WW2. Lots of crimes throughout the 50s-70s committed with .45. After the 80s, there were 9mm.
Galanos was shot nine times in his basement, and the two .45s only hold eight and six rounds each, so thereās a good chance there was more than one gunā¦unless the shooter emptied the pistol into Galanosā head, reloaded, then shot some more into his body on the ground. The killer could have used a MAC-10, they were available, but the problem is, they fire 1090 rounds per minute and are hard to controlā¦there would be bullets everywhere.
So it probably wasnāt a MAC-10 sub-machine gun, and the killer probably didnāt take time to reload a random number of bullets just to keep shooting into a dead body. We know the Wild Bunch worked in twos or threes, so if we know all of that, itās a good guess that if Harry killed Nick Galanos, he didnāt do it alone.
The mob has had a lot of practice keeping things hidden. Even when guys testify, they canāt always be trusted to tell the whole truth. We should try to use all of the details we can. This is just a theory though, perhaps Gangland Wiretappers have others?
This article was written by our new blogger Chicago based writer and Outfit researcher Camillus Robinson.
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It was probably Butchy, but I wouldn’t rule out a mac 10 as we know the wild bunch has used them in the past one such being the Dobber hit when they teamed up with the 26th St. crew otherwise known as the china town crew.