Aspects of this topic are discussed in the following places at Britannica.
...28, 1971, Colombo, speaking at an Italian-American rally in Columbus Circle, was shot by a young black man, who was himself immediately slain. Colombo was probably the target of the followers of Joseph Gallo, with whom Colombo had fought gang wars for a decade.
In 1960 the so-called Profaci–Gallo war erupted, when one of his lieutenants, Joseph Gallo, and Gallo’s brothers began challenging his rule and complaining of an insufficient share of the spoils. Several gang members on both sides were murdered in the two years preceding Profaci’s death from liver cancer in 1962. He was succeeded, after more than a year, by Joseph A. Colombo, Sr.
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