Joe Valachi wurde am 22 September 1904 in New York City, New York, USA geboren. Er war mit Mildred Reina verheiratet. Er starb am 3 April 1971 in La Tuna Federal Correctional Institution, Anthony, New Mexico, USA.
Accepted a plea bargain, which was life imprisonment instead of the death penalty for murdering an inmate he thought had been sent to kill him. As a condition of this deal, he was to testify to the Senate subcommittee regarding organized crime in America and in Italy.
[Upon learning that the man he had beaten to death in prison had not
been sent to murder him, as he had originally thought] You can
imagine my embarrassment when I learned that I had killed the wrong
man.