Joseph Anthony "Joe" Colombo, Sr. (16 June 1923 – 22 May 1978) was the boss of the Colombo crime family from 1964 to 1971, succeeding Joseph Magliocco and preceding Vincenzo Aloi. Colombo was the first American-born Five Families boss, and he was known to lead the most violent of the Mafia families.
Biography[]
Colombo during the 1960s
Joseph Anthony Colombo, Sr. was born in Brooklyn, New York City, New York on 16 June 1923. His father, a Colombo crime family member, was found strangled in a car with a mistress in 1938. Colombo worked as a longshoreman, a meat company salesman, and a real estate salesman before following his father into the American Mafia. He became one of the family's top enforcers and, eventually, a capo. In 1961, Joe Gallo and his crew kidnapped Colombo and other members of the family leadership, demanding a more equitable split of income with Colombo. In 1962, following Joe Profaci's death, Joseph Magliocco became the new boss, but The Commission forced him to retire after plotting against Tommy Lucchese and Carlo Gambino, and Colombo became the boss of the family in 1964. At the age of 41, he was one of the youngest crime bosses, and he was the first American-born boss of a New York crime family.
In 1970, Colombo created the Italian-American Civil Rights League, which stood up for the Italian people against the federal government and the demeaning entertainment industry. Unlike the other, more secretive, Mafia dons, Colombo appeared on television interviews, fundraisers, and speaking engagements for the League, and he allied with Meir Kahane's Jewish Defense League in 1971. That same year, the crazy Joe Gallo was released from prison, and Colombo offered him peace and $1,000. However, Gallo demanded $100,000 to end the conflict, and Colombo's lieutenant Vincenzo Aloi responded by ordering Gallo's death. On 28 June 1971, Gallo's hitman Jerome Johnson, disguised as a photojournalist, shot Colombo three times in the head and neck. Colombo remained paralyzed for the next seven years, and he died at St. Luke's Hospital in Newburgh in 1978.