Who was behind the Joe Colombo hit?

Was it Carlo Gambino displeased with all the attention stirred up by Colombo and his Italian American League or was it Crazy Joe Gallo?

The 3rd option could be Carmine Persico. Could he have been behind the hit?

Gambino using gallo to recruit. That blacks on the sneak then he got sneaked

It may have been a combined effort....

I have heard it was Carlo Gambino and the commission due to all the attention that was being brough by Columbo's Anti Italian Defamation League(I think this is the name of the group, if not then my bad)

The group Joe 'the Double Crosser' Colombo founded was the Italian-American Civil Rights League and since he was such a Chatty-Cathy around the media outlets I'm sure he worried the Commission. I heard he was asked on numerous occasions to stop and did not listen to the others.

This is the theory put forth by Selwyn Raab in his book The Five Families, although I think there are still people who believe Gallo was behind it.

The most likely person was Joey Gallo. He was still unhappy about the setup of the crime family after he returned from prison. Carlo Gambino rumored to being involved in the Joe Colombo hit has been around before Selwyn Raab put it in is book. Colombo was the founder of the Italian-American Civil Rights League, and charged store owners for placing his stickers in their stores. If there was a conspiracy in the Colombo hit, then other members should be mentioned, at the top of my head the three members who had sitdowns or had others sit down with Colombo in their place were Natale "Joe Diamonds" Evola of the Bonannos, Vincenzo "Vinny" Rao and Vincent Foceri of the Luccheses, Thomas DiBella and a few of the other Capos of the Colombos who went through Joseph "Joey Yack" Yacovelli about their complaints. These sitdowns happened a lot from 1970 till the Colombo shooting, the stickers seems to be the big issue with these sitdowns, weather Colombo was not sharing in the profits or he was forcing the personal family members of these other crime families to pay to place the sticker in their shops is not known. One thing that is known is that Joey Gallo had the motive, opertunity and the means to carry out the Colombo hit, as well as the crime families felt Gallo was behind the hit.

I always thought his son got picked up on a drug charge and they thought Joe C was gonna cooperate to get his son off. He suggested Jimmy Roselli, the singer, to head the league. I guess he knew all that public exposure was not so smart after all.

I also read that Gambino was pissed when Colombo got picked up and LE found a piece of paper in his pocket with Gambino's name on it and $30,000 mark next to it for a donation to the league...I'm sure that and all the publicity he was causing led to his demise, who knows tho.

Gambino used Gallo imo. He was one sneaky old fucker.

We'll never know with 100% certainty but I think Gambino was behind it and Gallo was responsible for it.

Don Carlo was very upset with Colombo's involvement with the League and all the public attention it was getting. Gambino actually slapped Colombo across his face and told him to cut out all the shit with the League. Two weeks after that incident (in a Brooklyn bar) Joe was shot at the rally in NYC.

Gambino almost certainly sanctioned the hit even if he wasn't directly involved with it. I suspect that Don Carlo was probably upset that Colombo's shooting took place in such a public manner (bringing even MORE attention to the Mob).

i think richard the iceman kuklinski did it

I think it was Gambino as well he was a sneaky man and at that time he would be the main man to orchestrate something like that.

Never heard that one before, source?

He was in Vietnam killing the Vietcong single-handed at the time. The man can not be everywhere at once.

Pages 70-71....It doesn't have Gambino's name in there (page 71 bottom left hand corner) but it does say he got slapped once or twice by a gang that beat Colombo's companions with lead pipes.

http://books.google.com/books?id=PkAEAAA...ers&f=false

It was big news around the neighborhood that Gambino slapped Colombo across his face because he was pissed that Joe was bringing too much publicity to the Mob. Some time later I read an account of this story in a (wonderful) book by former Deputy Police Commissioner, Robert Daley, entitled "Target Blue".

Daley wrote that two weeks before the hit Colombo was sitting with a bunch of his guys in Monti's Bar in Brooklyn on either June 14th or June 15th when Carlo Gambino and his entourage entered. Gambino yelled at Colombo to "cut the crap" and at the end of the speech slapped Colombo hard on the face. Colombo had to just sit there and take it.

The book just backed up (with some details) what I had heard before so I'm confident that story is true. I don't mean to suggest that this is proof that Gambino was behind the hit, but it certainly makes it look like Gambino was pissed at Colombo.

Nice one, Carlo was acient at that point, would have loved to be a fly on the wall right there.

^^^^
Don't let SC fool ya. Just because he rarely posts in the OC section doesn't mean he doesn't know a thing or two. I can personally attest to his knowledge of South Brooklyn back in the '60s .

I'm surprised he continued the League after that if it is in fact true. I never did like Colombo after reading he ratted to the bosses about the assassination plot on Carlo and other members of the commission. They should have wacked him right then.

The League was a joke. It would be tantamount to a bunch of Crips and Bloods crying about Black stereotypes today.

Worthy cause, wrong guy leading the charge.

What was his goal in starting the League? Did he think he was actually fooling the authorities? Sounds a little crazy to me.

I'm no expert on Colombo but all the documentaries say it was to do with his son being arrested, he skimmed millions off the top of a worthy cause, he's a scumbag.

He was a self-important asshole. And there's no accounting for crazy.

I do remember hearing something about his son being arrested now that you say that. I didn't know about the skimming of millions through the League though - that's the icing on the cake.

Truth be told because pulling some shit like that and not expecting to be wacked is fucking insane in my opinion.

Might be a bit off topic and it was mentioned above, but why was Joe Colombo installed as boss, after ratting on Magliocco and Bonanno. I would have thought he would have been whacked after reveiling the deception. Also Joe Colombo was only a Captain, Who was Underboss and Consigliere at the time Magliocco got shelved?

This is the fact that still amazes me ,how can a guy who most experts say was running card and dice games in Brooklyn just be anointed BOSS of a family ... OVER ALL THOSE OTHER SENIOR GUY'S ? and where was the proof Bonnano plotted to kill other bosses ?

Gambino pushed for Colombo to be boss, then controlled him..smart move, made him even more dominant over the commission.

Are you talking about Colombo? If so because of Gambino, just showed how much influence he had over the commission.

Who was Underboss and Consigliere under Magliocco before Joe Colombo was installed and overstepped them both as Boss.

Does make alotta sense that Carlo would do that.

Magliocco certainly did not have an easy time as a boss. The Family was splintered into different factions, a fact the Commission used as an excuse to depose him. (They said that not all the factions had been present when he was made Profaci´s successor. In reality they were right but this argument was used selectively against him and not used against others in similar cases.) So on top of the Gallo problem, Magliocco also had to deal with the Commission´s pressure on him. He made it somewhat worse when he demoted many of the captains who had been under Profaci, replaced them with younger guys in order to make his captains totally loyal to him. This backfired because many of the younger guys, for more reasons than one (and Colombo being one of them), rather sought the guidance of the Commission than followed Magliocco´s orders.

Magliocco´s first underboss was "Big" John Misuraca. He stepped down a year later and the official reason was to concentrate on his legal buisnesses in Florida and NJ. Magliocco did not replace him with anyone. There was no official consigliere either. The one who acted in this position, Charlie LoCicero secretly opposed Magliocco and according to some accounts, sought Commission´s permission to hit Magliocco. He was supposedly replaced by Mussacchio, a Magliocco loyalist but Mussacchio was not an effective consigliere. He was considered weak, a brokster and a puppet. So the Family was in extreme disarray at the time.

Oh, one more thing just to add to this thread´s actual topic. There is yet another theory on who and why Colombo was shot. It says that Jerome Johnson acted on his own as a revenge killing. Will not go through explaining this theory again (it has been posted here before) so If interested, use the search function to find the post.

Gambino…..he was causing to much attention and didn't step down as head of the italian league, So he got hit

Wonder if the genovese and Luchese family had voted for the hit or gambino did it on the sneak. I think tony ducks was in jail.and Benny squint was just taking over plus the bona no had no boss perfect oopertunity for gambino

Gambino probably brought it up to the commission and tbh why would they argue? He was Gambino's puppet to start with and was in the spotlight too much, he had to go.

STILL DON'T MAKE SENSE ... Gambino wasn't official boss until 62 ,ok now you mean he's gonna just promote COLUMBO . And Bonnano a charter member gets ousted ???

Yeah, it's that simple. Remember it wasn't just Carlo, he was tight with Lucchese. They were the two most powerful guys on the commission.

Great info on Joe - never hear much about him and now I see why. In all honesty I think he had enough money of his own and didn't really want to be the boss of the family.