Joseph Campisi

Joseph Campisi, also known as "Egyptian Joe", was an American restaurateur who ran The Egyptian Lounge. Campisi was the head of the Dallas mafia from the 1970s until his death in 1990.

Biography Campisi was born on 11 October 1918 in Dallas, Texas. He accompanied him when he travelled to New York to attend the Apalachin meeting in 1957. After Civello's successor Joe Ianni died in 1973, Campisi succeeded him as head of the mafia in Dallas. Campisi and his brother Sam were associated with Carlos Marcello and made trips to New Orleans where they would socialize with members of the Marcello crime family, including Marcello's brothers. Through Campisi, Vincent LoScalzo attempted to strengthen ties between the Trafficante crime family and Marcello.

Campisi became acquainted with R. D. Matthews after he and his brother purchased The Idle Bar where Matthews worked. In subsequent years he would accompany Campisi on his trips to Las Vegas. Other friends included Benny Binion and Henry Wade, the District Attorney of Dallas for 30 years.

He inherited The Egyptian Lounge when his father Carlo died. as was Jack Ruby, the killer of Lee Harvey Oswald. Ruby was a friend of Campisi's and Campisi was likewise a visitor to Ruby's strip club. Ruby dined at Campisi's restaurant the night before Kennedy was assassinated and Campisi was later Ruby's first visitor in jail. However he did provide a deposition to the House Select Committee on Assassinations on 29 May 1978.

Campisi married Edith and they had four children. He died at his restaurant on 12 January 1990 from a heart attack, aged 71. Descendants of Joseph Campisi have built The Egyptian Lounge into a pizzeria chain, called Campisi's Restaurant.