Colombo (Contd.)

Mafia Leader Joseph Colombo Sr., shot during an Italian-American Unity Day rally in Manhattan (TIME, July 12), clung to life through a third week. Meanwhile, the investigation into the attempted murder continues. No one apparently saw, or is willing to admit he saw, the gunman who killed the would-be assassin, Jerome Johnson, with three shots, even as police swarmed around him. Significantly, however, many did see what Colombo's bodyguards were doing in the seconds immediately prior to and after their boss was shot.

Three of Colombo's men--one identified only as wearing a purple shirt, a second seen wearing a white shirt and a third recognized to be Anthony ("The Gawk") Augello--accompanied him to the rally. The man in the purple shirt has so far occasioned the most suspicion, because he happened to stray from Colombo's side at the precise moment that the Mafia chieftain was shot, raising the possibility that his part in the plot may have been to leave Colombo vulnerable to Johnson's attack.

Within seconds of Colombo's shooting, all three guards were very much in evidence, menacing bystanders with pistols or, in the case of Augello, dashing from one side of the grandstand to the other, punching strangers who got in his way. It is unlikely that any of the three killed Johnson.

Additional wisps of information on Johnson's activities in the months prior to the shooting have come from a Manhattan photographer who befriended the young black in March, and knew him well enough to snap several photographs of him. What emerges is the image of a flamboyant man who affected odd dress to set himself apart. According to his friend, however, Johnson could not handle a camera, an assessment that conflicts with Johnson's boasts that he was an accomplished film maker.

There is increasing doubt that Johnson was in the service of Brooklyn Mobster Joe Gallo, as was initially theorized. There is no evidence to link Johnson with the black gangsters recruited by Gallo. Moreover, there is a growing rumor that the contract for the Colombo "hit" was let by Carlo Gambino, the most powerful of the New York Mafiosi; and that Carmine ("Snakes") Persico, a Colombo caporegime, played a key role in carrying out the attempt.

According to this thesis, the Colombo rackets will fall to Persico as his reward. Then, the scenario goes, Persico, who has never been much of a leader, will botch up, leaving the road clear for Gambino to take uncontested control of the Colombo interests.

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