Joe “Mad Dog” Sullivan

Joe “Mad Dog” Sullivan was a Mafia contract hitman and the only known person to escape from Maxi Sullivan was caught carrying a sawed-off shotgun at the time.

Joe “Mad Dog” Sullivan was a Mafia Contract Hitman and the only known person to escape from Maximum-Security Prison in Attica, New York, NY. After four years in Attica, Sullivan accomplished a seemingly impossible feat. He was able to escape from the prison, which was thought to be escape-proof. On April 7, 1971, Sullivan made his way outside the prison walls and got a ride to the local bus statio

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Joe Sullivan story

Joe “Mad Dog” Sullivan was a legend in New York crime circles, the last of a dying breed, an old school, professional hitman for the Mob and the only known person to escape from Attica, a maximum-security prison in New York.

After four years in Attica, Sullivan accomplished a seemingly impossible feat. He was able to escape from the prison, which was thought to be escape-proof. On April 7, 1971, Sullivan made his way outside the prison walls and got a ride to the local bus station from someone waiting in the Attica parking lot.

He was captured a few weeks later while walking down a street in New York City's Greenwich Village neighborhood. Sullivan was caught carrying a sawed-off shotgun at the time.

A few years after his return to prison, Sullivan had help forming his next escape plan. Former U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark worked as his lawyer and aided him in winning parole in December 1975.

Release from prison did not mean Sullivan returned to society a reformed man. Working for the Genovese crime family as a ruthless and efficient hitman, he single-handedly executed 33 members of an Irish-American criminal organization headed by Mickey Spillane on behalf of the Genovese crime family during the summer of 1976, which was almost half of Mickey Spillane's entire criminal organization.

Sullivan murdered 33 members of Mickey Spillane's criminal organization on the orders from Genovese crime family boss Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno. During this time, Sullivan was one of the Genovese crime family's most lethal and efficient hitmen. The FBI considered Sullivan to be an efficient, sophisticated and professional assassin that never made mistakes, always got done the job, and always killed his target no matter who they were.

Former NYPD Detective Joseph Coffey once said of Sullivan:

"Joseph Sullivan was a homicidal maniac, he was a ruthless killer, and every time the Genovese crime family ordered him to kill someone, Sullivan always killed whoever he was ordered to kill, he never made any mistakes at all, he always killed his target, he always got the job done efficiently and successfully, and Sullivan always killed with efficiency. Sullivan was an expert at being a hitman, he was as efficient, vicious and brutal as they come, he was an ultra professional, sophisticated and efficient executioner for the Italian-American Mafia, and he was very good an expert with all guns, he was an expert sharpshooter in the United States Army, which made him even more sophisticated and efficient with weapons, and his military experience made him an even more lethal and efficient hitman. When Sullivan was ordered by the Genovese crime family to kill somebody, he often killed people with knives, icepicks, Italian stiletto switchblades, machine guns, high-powered sniper rifles, shotguns, u*i submachine guns, Mac-10 submachine guns, hand grenades, nail bombs, C-4 plastic explosives, and hand guns. Sullivan was as good at being a mafia hitman as any mafia hitman in history. Sullivan is one of the most vicious, efficient and dangerous hitmen in history."

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New York, NY

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