The Story of Mike Gallo:



Mike Gallo was an interesting man in the early days of Hawthorne. He was born in February 25, 1885 Fossano, Provincia di Cuneo, Piemonte, Italy  as Michelo Gallo.  In the old country his family grew grapes and made wine. Mike and his brother Giuseppe moved to the United States with the hopes of making it big. They both started in California They did whatever they could to get started. Mike worked as a bartender for a while. He was always looking for ways to make a quick dollar and he was a good salesman. He moved in with a lady and they set up a scam She would find a mark and would invite him back to her room and he would bust in and beat him up and take his money. It mostly would not get reported because they were often married and should not have been there in the first place. Then the two would split the money. This worked for a while, until they got caught. He went back to his brother Giuseppe and they decided not to grow or make wine but buy a second-hand truck and drove from winery to winery stocking up a supply of barrels , on which they stenciled Gallo in red . They rented an office in Oakland and hung a sign that said the Gallo Wine Company in 1906. Giuseppe and Mike married sisters, who were from a successful wine making family (The Bianco Family).  Giuseppe married Asunta (Susie) Mike married the other daughter, Cecelia . Giuseppe and his wife had two sons named Ernest and Julio. ( Yep, that Ernest and Julio) and ten years later had another son named Joseph. Mike and his wife Cecelia  had twin boys, Mario and Edward, however Edward died in childhood of pneumonia. Some time later they had a daughter named Gloria.  At that time Mike had a  Bunco scam going which involved as much as 40 people, he got caught and he gave evidence and  it exposed lots of people including a few police officers that were on the payroll. Mike did five years in prison for this adventure. He considered it just part of doing business. Mike became one of the biggest bootleggers of his time. This was during prohibition. He paid numerous fines and paid off people and a small amount of jail time after he was released from prison. Mike was a flashy, storytelling back slapper and was known as a fixer.  Even when he went to his birth place in Italy, he make a big show of it by bringing gifts and food to people.  During this time his wife divorced him. He married a second wife named Irene and moved to Reno Nevada. Not long after that he bought the Nevada Club in Hawthorne which is where Joes Tavern is today. Mike had many friends and enemies. There are several documents in the Mineral County Museum with Mike Gallo’s name on them. Mostly he owed a lot of people money. Later he bought the Mineral Bar which is approximately where the El Capitan is today. In 1942 the Mineral Bar burned to the ground and several other buildings around it. Mike got busy right away and built the Gallo’s Inn which is where the El Capitan is today and facing F Street. It was a success. He decided to expand and bought more of the lots around it and built a hotel. In 1942 Mike was found guilty of and fined for receiving stolen building materials from the military base and violating rationing orders when he reconstructed his restaurant. Meantime he and his wife divorced. Gallo had built a tunnel between the hotel and the bar, café. In that tunnel his son Mario was stabbed. However, Mario did survive. Later he sold the Gallo’s Inn to the Ram Corporation. He married again, a lady named Vivian  and they moved to Minnesota. They opened another restaurant there named Gallo’s Inn. His wife Vivian was 30 years younger than him. She left him for another man. She changed her mind and tried to come back, and, in a quarrel, he stabbed  his wife in the back and  again returning to prison. He was released later and moved near his son in Las Vegas and he died at the age of 91. He is buried in Bunker Memorial Gardens in Las Vegas. It has been said that he was very proud of his nephews, however they supposedly disowned him from the family, they were very protective of the family name.

References:

Harold Fuller Audio transcripts for the Radio Goldfield

Mineral County Independent News

 Book Gallo Be Thy Name; Jerome Tuccille

Book Blood and Wine: Ellen Hawkes