Joe Colombo — May 22, 1978

Joe Colombo was the mob boss who wanted to be a public figure — who founded a civil rights organisation, gave interviews, appeared on television and persuaded Hollywood to sanitise its portrayal of the Mafia. His reward was three bullets in the head in front of thousands of people at Columbus Circle. He never spoke another word.

Who Was Joe Colombo?

Joe Colombo was born on June 16, 1924, in Brooklyn. He rose through the Colombo crime family — then still known as the Profaci family — under Joe Profaci, eventually becoming boss himself around 1964. He was by most accounts a capable and politically astute mob leader. But it was not his criminal activities that defined his public image. It was his extraordinary appetite for publicity.

Just like John Gotti a generation later, Colombo enjoyed the media. Unlike Gotti — who was content to be photographed outside his social club and photographed arriving at court — Colombo actively sought the spotlight on political and social grounds. He gave interviews. He appeared at fundraising events and conferences. He positioned himself as a spokesman for Italian-Americans against what he characterised as government persecution.

The Italian-American Civil Rights League

In 1970 Colombo founded the Italian-American Civil Rights League — a political organisation dedicated to combating what he argued was the FBI’s discriminatory targeting of Italian-Americans and the negative portrayal of Italian people in American popular culture. The League grew with remarkable speed, attracting over 100,000 members and organising large, well-attended rallies in New York.

The organisation’s most visible achievement came when Colombo and the League pressured Paramount Pictures during the production of The Godfather. Colombo met with studio representatives and was given access to the scripts. He persuaded the producers to remove all references to the Mafia and La Cosa Nostra from the film. Mario Puzo’s novel used the word Mafia throughout; the film does not use it once.

For the other mob bosses watching from a distance, this was not a triumph. It was a catastrophe. A man who was supposed to be running a secret criminal organisation was negotiating with Hollywood studios and holding press conferences. The Commission was alarmed. Colombo was drawing exactly the kind of attention to the Mafia’s existence and influence that the entire organisation existed to avoid.

The Joey Gallo Factor

Running alongside the Commission’s concerns was a more personal threat. Joey Gallo — the volatile, intellectual Brooklyn gangster who had been at war with the Colombo-Profaci leadership since the early 1960s — had been released from prison in 1971 after serving ten years on extortion and conspiracy charges. The Gallo brothers’ feud with the Profaci family had been vicious and prolonged: kidnappings, murders, and a civil war that had destabilised the family for years.

Upon his release Colombo offered Gallo a $1,000 peace gesture — a sum Gallo found deeply insulting given the history between them. He refused it. A contract was subsequently placed on Gallo’s head by acting Colombo boss Vincenzo Aloi. Gallo, in return, was looking for a way to strike back.

According to the most widely accepted theory of the Columbus Circle shooting, it was Gallo who recruited Jerome Johnson — a Black activist with no mob connections — as the triggerman. Using a non-Italian, non-mob shooter was deliberate: it obscured the organised crime connection and made the killing appear to be the act of a lone individual or political extremist rather than an internal Mafia dispute.

June 28, 1971 — Columbus Circle

The Italian-American Civil Rights League’s Unity Day rally at Columbus Circle in Manhattan drew a large and enthusiastic crowd on June 28, 1971. It was the kind of public event Colombo thrived on — thousands of supporters, television cameras, a platform for his message.

As Colombo moved through the crowd towards the stage, Jerome Johnson — who had obtained press credentials and was carrying a camera — approached him and fired three shots at point-blank range into his head.

Johnson was himself immediately shot dead — presumably by a Colombo family member in the crowd, though the shooter was never identified. The shooting of the gunman was so swift and so clean that it strongly suggested prior organisation: someone had been positioned specifically to eliminate Johnson the moment he fired, preventing him from ever being interrogated.

Colombo was rushed to hospital. He survived the immediate shooting but the damage to his brain was catastrophic and irreversible. He was left in a permanent vegetative state — alive, but never again conscious, never again able to speak, recognise his family or respond to the world around him.

Seven Years in a Coma

Joe Colombo spent the next seven years in that condition. The Italian-American Civil Rights League — the organisation he had built to 100,000 members — collapsed within a year of his shooting, its energy and identity entirely dependent on the man who could no longer lead it. The Godfather, the film he had worked to sanitise, was released in 1972 to enormous success and became one of the most celebrated films in American history.

Joey Gallo — the man most widely believed to have arranged the shooting — did not live long to enjoy it. He was murdered at Umberto’s Clam House in Little Italy on April 7, 1972 — shot dead on his own birthday — in what was widely interpreted as retaliation from the Colombo family.

Joe Colombo died on May 22, 1978. He was 54 years old. He had not spoken, moved voluntarily or shown any sign of consciousness in seven years. His death was almost an afterthought — the real ending had come in Columbus Circle on a June afternoon seven years before.

Frequently Asked Questions — Joe Colombo

How was Joe Colombo shot?

Colombo was shot three times at point-blank range on June 28, 1971, at Columbus Circle in Manhattan during a rally of his Italian-American Civil Rights League. The gunman Jerome Johnson had posed as a press photographer to get close to him. Johnson was immediately shot dead by an unknown person in the crowd. Colombo never regained consciousness and died seven years later on May 22, 1978.

Who ordered the shooting of Joe Colombo?

The most widely accepted theory points to Joey Gallo, who had long-standing grievances with the Colombo-Profaci leadership. Gallo is believed to have recruited Jerome Johnson as a non-mob triggerman to obscure the organised crime connection. Gallo himself was murdered on his birthday in April 1972 — widely seen as retaliation. Some theories suggest Commission approval for the hit due to Colombo’s embarrassing public profile.

Who was Joe Colombo?

Colombo was boss of the Colombo crime family from around 1964. He founded the Italian-American Civil Rights League in 1970, which grew to 100,000 members. He persuaded Paramount to remove the words Mafia and Cosa Nostra from The Godfather. His very public profile made him deeply unpopular with the Commission, who feared he was drawing dangerous attention to the entire organisation.

What was the Italian-American Civil Rights League?

Founded by Colombo in 1970 to combat FBI targeting of Italian-Americans and negative media stereotypes. It grew to 100,000 members and persuaded Paramount to sanitise The Godfather script. The organisation collapsed within a year of Colombo’s shooting, its existence entirely dependent on him.

Did Joe Colombo ever recover?

No — Colombo never regained consciousness after the 1971 shooting. He spent seven years in a permanent vegetative state before dying on May 22, 1978, aged 54. His real ending came at Columbus Circle in 1971. The death in 1978 was only the formality.