Colombo supporters led by Carmine Persico won the second war after the exiling of the remaining Gallo crew to the Genovese family in 1975.

[4] With his olive-oil-importing business doing well, Profaci made deals with friends from his old town in Sicily, and one of his largest buyers was Tampa mobster Ignazio Italiano.

The dominant Cosa Nostra groups in Brooklyn were led by Frankie Yale, Giuseppe Masseria, Nicolo Schirò and capo di tutti capi Salvatore "Toto" D'Aquila.

[4] Attendees representing Brooklyn included Profaci, Magliocco, Vincent Mangano (who reported to D'Aquila family boss Manfredi Mineo), Joseph Bonanno (who represented Salvatore Maranzano and the Castellammarese Clan), Chicago mobsters Joseph Guinta and Pasquale Lolordo, and Tampa mobster Ignazio Italiano.

Abbatemarco controlled a lucrative policy game that earned him nearly $2.5 million a year with an average of $7,000 a day in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

[11][12] In early 1959, Abbatemarco, with the support of Gallo brothers and the Garfield Boys, began refusing to pay tribute to Profaci.

[13] On November 4, 1959, Frank Abbatemarco walked out of his cousin's bar in Park Slope, Brooklyn and was shot and killed by Joseph Gioielli and another hitman.

Gallo survived a strangulation attempt in the Sahara club of East Flatbush by Carmine Persico and Salvatore "Sally" D'Ambrosio after a police officer intervened.

In 1963, Carmine Persico survived a car bombing and his enforcer Hugh McIntosh was shot in the groin as he attempted to kill Larry Gallo.

[18] Magliocco was assigned the task of killing Lucchese and Gambino, and gave the contract to one of his top hit men, Joseph Colombo.

[19] Therefore, Colombo set about reshuffling the family's ranks, placing old-time gangsters in greater positions of power than the younger, more ambitious ones who could have potentially posed a threat to his rule.

In a sign that the New York bosses had turned on Colombo, the league's chief organizer, Gambino family capo Joseph DeCicco, resigned, ostensibly due to ill health.

Killing Gallo so soon after the attempt on Colombo would also likely give the police the impression that a full-scale mob war was ensuing on the streets of New York and would therefore draw too much heat.

On April 7, 1972, acting on a quick tip, four gunmen walked into Umberto's Clam House in Little Italy and killed Joe Gallo as he was dining with his family.

[27] Looking for revenge, Albert Gallo sent a gunman from Las Vegas to the Neapolitan Noodle restaurant in Manhattan, where Yacovelli, Alphonse Persico, and Gennaro Langella were dining one day.

[21] Aloi's tenure as acting boss was to be short-lived as well, however, as he was convicted of perjury on June 26, 1973, for lying to a grand jury when he claimed he had not visited a Colombo family safe house in Nyack, New York prior to the Gallo murder.

Brancato, however, had no interest in a permanent leadership position and only took the job of acting boss for the purpose of finally negotiating an end to the war with the Gallo crew, which by then had split itself into two groups that had started fighting each other.

[30] Having successfully negotiated a peaceful resolution to the Gallo wars, Brancato stepped down as acting boss and returned to running his Long Island crew.

With Colombo in a coma, the family leadership went to Thomas DiBella, a man adept at evading the authorities since his sole bootlegging conviction in 1932.

[40] Mafia historian and The New York Times organized-crime reporter Selwyn Raab later wrote that the Colombos suffered more long-term damage than any other family as a result of the Commission Trial.

In 1988, he dissolved the panel and named Victor Orena, the capo of Little Allie Boy's former crew in Brooklyn, as temporary acting boss.

However, Persico empowered Orena to induct new members and order murders on his own authority–two prerogatives rarely granted to an acting boss.

It is unclear what roles the two brothers played in the murders during the war, but F.B.I agents are certain they were responsible for the disappearance of 15 associates and business partners of the Orena clan.

Shortly afterward, he ordered the murder of underboss William "Wild Bill" Cutolo, an Orena supporter during the Third Colombo War.

In June 2008, Gioeli, underboss John "Sonny" Franzese, former consigliere Joel Cacace, captain Dino Calabro, soldier Dino Saracino and several other members and associates, including Orlando "Ori" Spado,[48][49] were indicted on multiple racketeering charges, including loansharking, extortion and three murders dating back to the Colombo Wars.

On December 17, 2009, the FBI charged DeLeo and Colombo family members with drug trafficking, extortion and loansharking in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, Florida and Arkansas.

On January 20, 2011, street boss Andrew Russo, acting underboss Benjamin Castellazzo, consigliere Richard Fusco, and others were charged with murder, narcotics trafficking, and labor racketeering.

[60] In December 2011, it was revealed that capo Reynold Maragni wore a wire for the FBI and gained information about Thomas Gioeli's role in the 1999 murder of William Cutolo.

[69] On September 14, 2021, an indictment was served that included the Colombo family's boss, Andrew "Mush" Russo, underboss Benjamin "Benji" Castellazzo, consigliere Ralph "Big Ralphie" DiMatteo, captains Vincent Ricciardi, Richard Ferrara and Theodore "Teddy" Persico Jr., soldier Michael Uvino, and associates Thomas Costa and Domenick Ricciardo.

[70] The indictment charged these members of the Colombo family with infiltrating and taking control of a Queens-based labor union and its affiliated health care benefit program, as well as conspiring to commit fraud in connection with workplace safety certifications.