joe colombo was anything but a freedom fighter, civil rights leader, or anything to the like. he extorted his own foundation and extorted shop owners, business people, politicians and whoever else he could to hand over money and support him and only him. if colombo would have lived any longer, and it went on for a couple more years it all would have folded. it was nothing but a good scheme for a year or two. i believe the gambino theory more than gallo. gallo had just done alot of time in prison got out recently and was in really no position to go to war with another boss, esp after loosing the first. colombo brought so much unwanted attention it was insane. the first to make a public pull out was Paul Vario. Luchesse capo. who were the Luchesse family controlled by? you guessed it! the gambinos! real bosses that were making money hand over fist didn't not want this kind of media being brought on by the weakest poorest family of all the 5.