Who Put The Hit On Joe Colombo?

On June 29, 1971, Joseph Columbo, the boss of the Columbo Cosa Nostra Family, made his way to the platform to deliver his speech at the Italian-American Civil Rights League Rally in Columbus Circle. About three feet away was a black man holding a camera. Just as Colombo began to read his speech the black man threw down the camera, took out a pistol and shot Columbo three times in the back of the head and neck. The black man was apprehended immediately but while the police wrestled him on the floor, a man emerged from the crowd and shot the black man dead. This man managed to escape through the crowd. The black man was identified as Jerome Johnson.

Was it on the orders of Crazy Joe Gallo? Orders from Carlo Gambino? Did Gambino give the go ahead to Joe Gallo? Or Did Gambino..or someone else for that matter...hire a black man to shoot Columbo to make it look as though Crazy Joe was behind the hit?

Your thoughts?

i believe it was a commison ruling that was brought up and ordered by gambino, given to gallo then farmed out to jerome johnson. i just wonder how they talked to johnson into doing this...he had to have known he was gonna die.

Oldman Gambino was pissed that Colombo was drawing unnecessasary attention to LCN with his involvment in the Italian-American civil rights movement.
Gambino would be my pick

In my opinion I don't think that it was ever presented to the commission. But regardless if it was or wasn't, you believe that Don Carlo was indeed behind the hit and that he gave the contract to Crazy Joe to carry out. Ok.




Ok. I tend to lean towards what you've said above.... and if that was the case then my question now becomes; Did Don Carlo PUT Crazy Joe up to it? Or did Don Carlo have it set up to make it look like Crazy Joe was behind it by using a black man?

Mafia Dynasty says that the only white mobsters Johnson knew were the Gambinos. If anyone has an NYT archives subscription, there's also an article in the Joe Colombo references discussing this.

(p.s. if anyone's reading this props to Rogermx. He's cleaned up a lot of Wiki's mafia articles, including Colombo)

Haven't yet read it myself, but here's an interesting article:

http://www.americanmafia.com/Feature_Articles_477.html

So from what you've posted I assume that you believe that Don Carlo set up the hit through his own people, using a black man to make it look like Crazy Joe was involved.

Interesting! This article throws another spin on the Colombo hit which involves the FBI!

I remember Turnbull stating that the New York police could have been behind the hit. I'm sure he can redirect us to that particular post, which was quite interesting.

Very interesting post.
We can basically only speculate who was behind the Colombo downfall. It is frustrating that no one has managed to even come close to an explanation. (Don´t get me wrong. I mean the investigators back then...)
The strange thing is that neither one of the many informants the FBI, for example, had disposal of had something valuable to offer.
Sure, there has been talk of Gambino and the Gallos and there has been talk of conspiracies that points to the U.S. government. And as usual, when a case of this kind can not be resolved, somebody always mentions the "lonly madman" as the only perpetrator. But that´s to take the easy way out, isn´t it?
In my opinion, Carmine Persico had most to gain from a Colombo rubb out. Although he was imprisoned when it happened, he may have had a hand in it all. Of course, the ultimate was to get people to believe it was the Gallos. In this way, I think, Persico managed to kill two birds with one stone.
Also keep in mind that Colombo had betrayed his boss Magliocco by revealing his plans regarding the executions of Gambino and Lucchese before the Commission. When Colombo was appointed boss many high-ranking members, who previously had positions of power within the family and had been very close to both Magliocco and Profaci (some were relatives of them), were demoted to the rank of soldiers. In their world, and in their mindset, being demoted from a top guy to bottom of a barrel is devastating powerwise.
What if the murder attempt on Colombo was a revenge for his betrayal and a result of his restructure back in 1963/1964?

I'm not sure myself - I haven't read anything disputing that Gallo threatened to start another gang war. Maybe it was like Tony Bananas and Angelo Bruno, kinda like you were saying, and Gallo thought he would have the Commission's backing.

Off the top of my head, I think that it was Joey Cantelupo who stated that after the shooting of Colombo, Gambino was very worried about a 1.ooo.ooo,oo dollar loan that Colombo had borrowed in order to invest into a loansharking operation would not be paid back.
This doesn´t sound like Gambino wanted Colombo dead.

While I believe that Joey Gallo was involved, I feel that Gambino was the main factor in this and the two of them had some type of agreement. I'm pretty sure that all the bosses wanted Colombo gone by that point and approved it, but keep in mind the other families had relatively weak bosses at the time. Genovese boss Tommy Eboli would be taken out the same year as Gallo, Tony Ducks was just getting out of the can and solidifying control of his family, and the Bonannos had been in shambles since Joe Bonanno was forced into retirement. Long story short, Carlo WAS the commission so he pretty much did whatever he wanted.

It was Don Carlo and Jr. Persico. And they made it look like Crazy Joey Gallo was behind it (in order to set him up for later). Crazy Joey made a lot of connections with black thugs and gangsters while he was in the can, and everyone knew that. So Gambino and Persico used Jerome Johnson for the hit and got Colombo's bodyguard in on it to whack Johnson as soon as it was done.

I think Crazy Joey was trying to get out of the life by this point.

And as far as Gambino saying that Colombo owed $1 million, maybe he did, but the Gambinos had all kinds of money loaned out. He probably gave that reason as a ruse. IMO.

DC, do you know if a direct connection has ever been made between Johnson and Gallo? Like had he been locked down when Joey was?

Also, was anyone ever pinpointed as Johnson's actual executioner? Has he ever even been positively identified for that matter?

Common guys,i cant understand why yall have to fall down in such a deep conversations and conspirasy theories?!?Just look at the hit!Who did the hit?!A black guy right?So yall wanna say that Persico or Gambino had the contact with the black population?!The story is obvious,Gambino or Persico(wich i dont belive it was him),they had a problem with Joe Colombo wich we all know what it was...so Gambino used Gallo for the hit and yall know Joey Gallo's history in prison right?!So after that Persico saw his chance to whack Gallo and take the top position.....and thats that!!!.....no wait maybe the Illuminati did it?!?!?

I didn't know that Crazy Joe was trying to get out of the life. Is that true?

well he was hangin around with a lot of poets, artists or musicians...so he had a few ideas

He was not trying to get out of the life actually he was trying to become the top guy in the family that is all he ever wanted from the days of Profaci to the days of Colombo.

Shortly after Joey Gallo got killed,Bob Dylan wrote a song for him...sorry i cant find the original

Joooey! Joooey!

I love this song! Kinda hard to figure out the lyrics in this youtube version, but when reading them, one can see that they are strictly about Joey and his brothers:

Born in Red Hook Brooklyn in the year of who knows when
Opened up his eyes to the tune of an accordion
Always on the outside whatever side there was
When they asked him why it had to be that way "Well" he answered "just because".

Larry was the oldest Joey was next to last
They called Joe "Crazy" the baby they called "Kid Blast"
Some say they lived off gambling and running numbers too
It always seemed they got caught between the mob and the men in blue.

Joey, Joey
King of the streets child of clay
Joey, Joey
What made them want to come and blow you away.

There was talk they killed their rivals but the truth was far from that
No one ever knew for sure where they were really at
When they tried to strangle Larry, Joey almost hit the roof
He went out that night to seek revenge thinking he was bulletproof.

The war broke out at the break of dawn it emptied out the streets
Joey and his brothers suffered terrible defeats
Till they ventured out behind the lines and took five prisoners
They stashed them away in a basement called them amateurs.

Joey, Joey
King of the streets child of clay
Joey, Joey
What made them want to come and blow you away.

He did ten years in Attica, reading Nietzche and Wilhelm Reich
They threw him in the hole one time for trying to stop a strike
His closest friends were black men 'cause they seemed to understand
What it's like to be in society with a shackle on your hand.

When they let him out in '71 he'd lost a little weight
But he dressed like Jimmy Cagney and I swear he did look great
He tried to find the way back into the life he left behind
To the boss he said, "I've returned and now I want what's mine".

Joey, Joey
King of the streets child of clay
Joey, Joey
What made them want to come and blow you away.

/// The original song, I think is 10 minutes long. A masterpiece!

Yeah the youtube version is not clear,thanx for the lyrics.I remember my borther havin this song on a tape,dunno if there was any copy on a vinyl or somethin

I always thought it was gambino but if persico was in jail it would have been easy to reach out to a black inmate.he had a high profile so if he promised money or whatever y not believe him

Gallo was recruiting Afro-Americans in his ranks and made drug deals with ppl from Harlem

it was never really made clear what relationship gallo had with black gangsters after he was released. One informant did state that colombos house was being staked out by some black guys in a car and that colombo believed it was gallo trying to intimidate him. i think that gallo was the more likely culprit behind his killing, whether he got permission or not from gambino i dont know. The black guy they used was apparantly a hardcore criminal himself that would do things for a price.

Another theory ive seen a few times was that johnson may have been avenging the deaths of his friend and the guys girlfriend when they were killed by some colombo guys at a party where they were working as waiters. It would explain why he would take such a huge risk of getting caught or killed.

Theres some info that Johnson and Gallo knew each other from prison days,same with Nicky Barnes.So maybe Johnson was loyal to Gallo or he was crazy...as the infamous boss Marcello used to say "You only need a "nut" to do the job"...and theres a lot of "nuts" in the underworld

Yes. That theory has started to grow on me too. I don´t remember ever reading Johnson having any connection to the Gallo gang, but he was once employed by a sleasebag who ran stripclubs for a Gambino associate, if I´m not mistaken. This seems to be the closest Johnson ever came to a mobster. I don´t think I´ve ever read he was in prison with Gallo, at least it doesn´t ring a bell with me.
But he was close to the black couple who worked at a party (mentioned above by Scorsese), held by a guy named Russo, in NJ or Staten Island, I believe. This Russo was a Colomboo associate and became furious when he saw the black waiter dancing with a white woman at the party. A fight broke out and Russo killed the the black couple.

I have been trying to find the article describing the events, but can´t remember where I last read it. If Johnson shot Colombo as a revenge killing, then the Colombo hit was not Mafia related at all which could explain why no informant knew anything about it or no researcher or police investigation has come up with any substantial leads or any shred of evidence in this case. They all seems to have been looking the wrong way.

it does sound pretty plausible but why would he think to go straight after colombo why not russo.

Heres some stuff from the fbi files.
On June 29 – the day after the Colombo shooting – Scarpa told G-men the following:

Informant continued that he has learned that JOHNSON was "a would be Black wise guy" and hung out in Greenwich Village. Informant said JOHNSON never had the reputation of being a militant or a "kook" and that JOHNSON had often visited social clubs and after hours joints in Brooklyn, NY. Informant said he heard that JOHNSON once befriended never forgets this and was the type of person who if approached correctly would "do anything" for a price.

Just weeks before Colombo was gunned down the mob boss told Scarpa that his home had been cased by an apparent crew of black gangsters, and on June 10 Scarpa recounted that conversation to the FBI:

On 6/10/71, informant advised that he had recently met with Joe Colombo at which time COLOMBO confided that during the previous week he had been told that a car containing a number of Negro individuals was observed circling his block many times in the early AM hours. COLOMBO stated it is well known that GALLO had become friendly with Negro hoodlums while incarcerated and also believes it is possible that GALLO has enlisted their aid at the present time. COLOMBO concluded however that it is his personal feeling at present that GALLO is merely trying to "intimidate and shake me up" by having such an obvious play utilized. COLOMBO stated he is continuing to press for massive turnout on 6/28/71.

Carlo Gambino was not alone in his growing frustration with Joe Colombo's personal battle against the FBI. Indeed, Colombo's own associates were distancing themselves from the mob boss according to Scarpa. For example, on 6/15/71, Scarpa recounted for the FBI a conversation he had with pornographer Nicholas Bianco who was severing his ties with Colombo to ally with the Patriarcas:

On 6/15/71, informant advised that on the previous day he had had a long conversation with NICHOLAS BIANCO at which time BIANCO expressed great disgust with COLOMBO who BIANCO characterized as "crazy." BIANCO made clear to informant that he intended to "pull away" from COLOMBO and in this regard had purchased a home in Providence and will make a gradual "withdrawal." Informant said BIANCO stated that "we are all going to be arrested, it is inevitable, there is no way out," obviously referring to the fact that COLOMBO was "putting heat" on everyone who is close to him.

Colombo had told Gambino that the Civil Rights League rally would be his "swan song" according to Scarpa but little did Colombo know at the time how prophetic his words would become. The day after the Colombo hit Scarpa told the FBI:

Informant continued that approximately thirty minutes prior to the time COLOMBO was shot he had a discussion with him during which time COLOMBO advised that although GAMBINO was not furnishing him any support for this rally that he had assured GAMBINO that this would be his "swan song" and that in the future he would take a back seat to all the IACRL activities devoting himself to humanitarian causes such as boys camps, hospitals and the like and would refrain from fighting the FBI. COLOMBO stated that they should therefore not be too disappointed if the rally was not a huge success that they had hoped for.

I'm convinced it was all a Gambino ploy to rid himself of Colombo and, eventually Gallo, further solidifying is power. I don't think that Gallo would have done this with Gambino, after Carlo kind of screwed him when they went after Profaci a decade earlier.

Russo was indicted twice, but acquitted both times. Maybe his acquittals spurred Johnson to believe that Russo´s boss, Colombo, had "fixed" the case, behind the scene, using Colombo Family´s influence within the judicial system. Perhaps this was part of the motive behind the shooting?

Note that Scarpa doesn´t explain the shooting, but only gives some background to what he thinks can be the reason for it. A car with black gangsters circulating the Colombo home, doesn´t mean the blacks were sent by Gallo. If Johnson was part of some kind of a Black Panther movement and if the Colombo shooting was part of some kind of (what they considered) a racial war, the blacks in the car may possibly have been Johnson´s friends.

The Colombo/Gallo tension was there. But somehow I have a gut feeling that the Gallos were not behind the Colombo shooting. According to Cantalupo, Joey Gallo renounced any responsibility in the shooting. Considering his boldness and his fondness for bragging, his renouncement doesn´t sound very "Joey Galloish".

If Colombo had assured Gambino that this would be his "swan song" and that in the future he would take a back seat to all the IACRL activities, I wonder why Carlo Gambino would have had any motives of killing him? The damage of exposing the Mafia was already done.

The damage of the Mafia was done when Valachi opened his big mouth.

Appalachin sucked also.

Yes, you are right.

I mean scarpa even said that he wasn't a kook or militant and if he was we probably would have heard about it by now any sort of black panther connection would have been major news at that time, but even the league felt that wasnt the case.It seems more like he was some freelance independent criminal and hustler, colombo seems like a bit of a random target for revenge in that situation. What was russos status within the family? Was he killed?

I totally agree. I don't think (and didn't think before) that Gambino or Persico had direct contact with blacks, or the shooters. But it wasn't all left to chance at all. Gambino, in tandem with The Snake, pulled all the strings on this one, getting rid of Colombo and Gallo. Both of them would continue bringing more heat on Cosa Nostra as long as they were still around.

What makes you so sure it was Carlo and Carmne?

Russo wasn´t made, but close to the Persicos. He may have had some family ties to the Brooklyn Russos, but I´m not sure.
If memory serves me, Russo died a natural death some years after the Colombo shooting.

CARLO GAMBINO.

It's a real good possibility Gambino had him shot but i'm not so sure that was Gambino's style to use a black guy as the shooter. Gambino could of set Colombo up many different ways where he could of been killed without doing it in public like that with all the press. Gambino was pissed with him though and arranged for a low turnout that day at Colombo's rally.

If i was betting on it i'd say Gallo had one of his black buddies from prison find this guy for the shooting and either lucked out that one of Colombo's guys killed him or arranged for him to be shot. My gut feeling is Gallo was the guy behind the shooting. But i have no real evidence so i'm just really guessing.

In 1974 didn't Gambino order the Colombo's to kill one of their own, Carmine "Mimi" Scialo? Supposedly for insulting Gambino in public? A few weeks after he insulted Carlo they found Mimi encased in cement. I'm pretty sure the Colombo's did the job but it was on Carlo's order. Could be the Gambino's did it themselves but i read somewhere he had the Colombo's do it. Anyone know anymore on that?

Carlo Gambino and Tommy Lucchese made Joe Colombo the boss of the family. He alerted them to Joe Bonnano and Joe Malyak's takeover plot. This was his reward . They held tremendous sway over Joe Colombo. When Joe Colombo went on the Dick Cavett Show, it was curtains for his ass. Mob boss on national tv? What did he expect. Supposedly, Gambino told him to give the Ital. Civil Rights president job over to someone else. He was drawing too much attention to himself, and by association, to Carlo and Three Fingers Brown. Pop! Next boss please.

Yep. Joey Cantalupo tells this story in Crime, Inc. episode - All In The Family.

Thanks, i'll have to check that out on YouTube. Jerry Capeci did a pretty decent piece on Cantalupo for New York Magazine back in 1980. Not a bad read, check it out if you've never read it. It starts on page 32 in the magazine.

http://books.google.com/books?id=t-UCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA32

Thanks dude! Now I have something to do until I leave work! Awesome!

Yeah he could have used an italian guy mixed in with the crowd. And why use a black guy that had any sort of connection even a tenuous one to his family, when he could have hired some black panther or even a black liberation army member who at that point were killing scores of cops and white people across the country. This would have taken the heat off the mob all together. the whole thing just seemed too risky, i mean think about it, this guy went and shot another man in front of a large crowd with police and armed security around in broad daylight.

In the hood there was always talk that this was a Gallo joint. I remember dudes going around claiming some connect with Joey. We thought it was a cool thing when Joey 'came out'. But most of was bs, everybody wants to be a gangster. These guys didn't know any more than I did.

Cantalupo says this in his book also. But there may be other reasons as well Mimi Scialo was wacked. According to Greg Scarpa, Alphonse Persico, the Family consigliere at the time, informed him of the fact that Scialo had recruited some young turks who secretly did dirty work for Scialo. Scialo refused to reveal the identities of these guys which infuriated Persico. He suspected that Scialo was planning to take over the Family.

Later, the FBI was informed that Scialo was hit because he had become a liability to the Family, when the bosses found out that Scialo was undergoing psychiatric treatment. In addition, Scialo had also shot a made member during a sitdown when Scialo´s murder of a Colombo associate, named Miguel Cosmos, was being discussed.

Who would have the most to gain by Colombo going? Carmine Persico by far, mind you he was not on the street but had a very strong crew. Michael Franzese believed that Carmine Persico played a role in his father's(Sonny Franzese)bank robbing conviction. With Franzese gone who else would stand in the way of Persico grabbing the top spot? With his strong crew on the street Carmine could easily know how unhappy people were w/Colombo. So Snake hires a black man to do the job knowing that Gallo will catch the heat for it and not the Persico crew. Gambino is fine as long as Colombo goes away and the civil rights B/S dies with Colombo & the hired hand(Johnson).

Well said. & I agree.

If it was Persico don't you think he would of needed Gambino's ok beforehand? Just taking out a boss without the ok from Carlo or the other family bosses? I could see Gallo doing it without the ok but Persico? Pretty dangerous move if thats what happened.

Anybody know how the relationship was between Gambino and Carmine Persico? That is if they even had one. Would he have been Gambino's choice to be the next Colombo boss?

Clearly Gambino had no issue with it being done nor the other bosses. No move was ever made against Persico. Colombo's sons did not have the backing inside or outside of their family to step up. Persico's crew was the only one to move into the vacum. Gambino had pulled his support of Colombo, clearly Carmine Persico set emmisaries out to the other families or the acting bosses he put into place would have been dealt with. If Gallo was behind the hit why didn't he make a move against Persico(whom he has a violent history with) or the Persico acting bosses? If he had the balls to hit Colombo, he would have made the move against the Persico crew as well.

Thats pretty much what i asked, if it was in fact Persico, did he have the ok from the other families and most importantly from Gambino before the attempted hit went down. Then clearly he did have the ok or like you said he would of had a serious problem.

Back to my question in the other post, did Carmine have any kind of relationship with Gambino? Would he have been Gambino's pick to take over the Colombo's? I'm just curious to know the back story between them or if there even was one.

I believe Persico and Gambino were totally on the same page with this one. It had to be that way for it to work so well. Carlo was practically the Commission at that point. I don't have tangible evidence and I wasn't there by any stretch, but a lot of accounts tell the same thing.

In the book Gangland Gotham it says that Jerome Johnson used to "frequent an after-hours club" run by Gambino soldier Paul DiBella. I believe it was a gay bar.

In Mafia Dynasty by John Davis it says the bar was being run for DiBella by Gambino associate and porn dealer Michael Umbers who was seen with Johnson in the weeks prior to the Colombo shooting.

I have it. It's a pdf file.

"Suspect in Shooting of Colombo linked to Gambino Family"

http://www52.zippyshare.com/v/3763562/file.html

Just click the "Download Now" button on the right and you can download the pdf.

I believe Johnson was just some nut acting alone. Shooting political leaders/activists was the thing to do for whack jobs in that era. Whoever in the mob that may have wanted Colombo gone just got lucky.

I've looked into a lot, including this thread, and am in agreement with you.

Yeah, just like Booth, Oswald & Sirhansirhan. Naw, planned, organized, executed & wiped clean, with the real culprits untraceable.