We listened to Dylan's "Joey" on Lisa Finnie's "Dylan Hours" on KCSN.Org (Sundays, 9-11 ). In the credits, she noted that the backstory had Bob meeting Jerry Orbach, who had been a friend/or knew Joey.
Jerry is also an old favourite - playing gritty NY cop on the early versions of Law & Order, and justly famous for his great non-pc one-liner zingers.
A little research on googly leaves me unsure as yet what the true sequence of meetings and knowings was. Most reports agree that the Joey of real life was a real baddie, not the stuff of the romantic Dylan song. Some suggest he (Bob) was delving into "Mafia Chic".
Links so far: