Do you blame Joe Colombo ?

I personally don't blame him for turning his back on his boss Joseph Magliocco, and reporting the murder plot to Tommy Lucchese and Carlo Gambino because they were two of the most powerful of the five families at the time, and The Gambinos could take on three of the families at the same time alone. It would be career sucide if he tired that.

I can understand him as a person, but it would have been interesting to see what would have happened if Gambino and Lucchese were whacked.

Gambino wasn't some sort of god there's no way he could have took on 3 families on his own, his power came from his allies at the head of the other familes. I assume you were including the Genovese in this and i'm not even sure if the Gambinos were bigger/more powerful than them at the time.

I think Colombo was shrewd enough to calculate the odds on this one. The Bonanno/Magliocco plot was an egotistical attempt to install Joe Bananas as head of the Commission.Knowing that Magliocco was not respected by the other bosses,and that in addition to Gambino and Lucchese,Maggadino was a target,Colombo made the right call. He knew that there was almost no chance for the plot to succeed. By tipping off the potential victims,he assured himself a nice future. What I think is the most interesting detail is that Colombo wasn't whacked after the plot was destroyed. Given the mob mentality,the feeling is usually "Even though he did us a favor and saved our lives,he still ratted out his own boss,so how can he be trusted?"

It was a bit opportunistic. Colombo actually ended up being a better don, though. He started screwing up when the League came in to play. If anyone's interested I have a lot of stories on the subject.

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Bonanno and Magliocco would have been whacked as retaliation and the mob's decline would have been spearheaded by a decade.

Carlos gambino was smart but he had know balls, in joe bananno book he said carlos was the weakest of al of the old don's, he said anastasia slapped him once and he did nothing

Carlos Gambino

Actually,as far as Gambino being slapped by Anastasia goes,Gambino did do something a little later. He had Anastasia killed and took over his Family.

I don't see it so much as Colombo being opportunistic as much as him playing it safe. He could stay loyal and be a part of war he may have lost and loose money and his life or reveal the plot and prevent anything from happening.

On the other hand, he couldn't be 100% sure he wouldn't have been killed later. I mean, Gambino and Lucchese could have thought "if Colombo betrayed his boss Magliocco to them, then he could later betray them to somebody else." Once a traitor, always a traitor. Seriously, I don't know what would I have done in Colombo's place. Probably just turned everybody to the FBI

i blame him for the death of jerome johnson....was prob a good guy doing the world a favor

Jerome Johnson was told if he pulled that off he'd be given his own store front to run numbers outta

@ lou para: anastasias death was actually more of a chess move on vitos part than it was gambino growing a set, anastasia was knocked down because he alligned himself with frank costello, lansky and gambino just benifited from it

Bigfella,you're absolutely right. I forgot about the whole whirlwind of Mob politics around that time.You had the Anastasia hit ,the Costello attempt,Apalachin,etc. All in all it was an amazingly formative period in Mob history.Thanks for the reply.

No problem lou, gambino was actually the greatest boss from a weaker pool of bosses

Imagine this black guy Jerome really believing that he could just squeeze the trigger and get away surrounded by so many whites.. Kinda stands out if you ask me. Guess he really wanted to run those numbers from his own store front.

Colombo would have been a very good boss I think had he not gotten into the civil rights campaign.
The Colombo's have slid downhill ever since.

Remember the guy saying that was also the same guy gambino threw out of NYC and the mob !!

Carlo was weak physically but when you are surrounded by bad ass guys why would you need to be a tough guy?

Carmine Galante vowed that he would make Don Carlo shit in times square.
Galante had balls no doubt but had little brains.

Did he honestly think he could get away with upsetting the other 4 families AND be able to kidnap/torture Carlo?