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In the past year, Gambino has assumed wide-ranging control of the organization as no one had done since the Commission was created in the mid-'30s. He has become the boss of bosses and as his power has grown, so has his disapproval of Colombo. Commission members, who had taken such care to dissociate themselves from each other, were appalled to discover the contents of a plastic briefcase that Colombo was carrying when he was picked up by the FBI. Colombo had often patted the brief case and informed his listeners: "God is in this briefcase." What concerned his fellow Mafiosi was the presence not of a bigger being, but of a roster of contributors to the league's benefit show at Madison Square Garden. When the case was opened, it was found to contain such names as Al ("Alley Boy") Persico, John ("John Wop") Caeca-mo, Frank ("Beast") Falanga, Albert ("Blast") Gallo and Carlo Gambino. Furthermore, Colombo's distinctly high-profile leadership conflicted with Gambino's ideas of how a Mafia chief should conduct himself.
While some observers considered Colombo the prototype of the new Mafia leader, the public relations-oriented businessman needed to run the growing list of legitimate Mafia-controlled enterprises, to Gambino he was a recklessly visible member of a society that still needed invisibility in order to function properly. There is speculation that Gambino and other Colombo associates were unhappy over their failure to share in the estimated $2,000,000 the league has raised since its founding. Gambino be came convinced, as were law-enforcement officials, that Colombo was using the league for his own benefit.
As Colombo worked on preparations for what was to have been the triumph of the second Italian-American Unity Day, opposition was solidifying within the Mob. Tommy Eboli, acting boss of Vito Genovese's New York family, let his disgust with Colombo be known in Mob circles. Gallo's soldiers went among Brooklyn merchants, telling them not to close for Unity Day, tossing league buttons into trash cans, burning Colombo's signs and asserting that Colombo was using poor Italian people's dues to help him fight the FBI. Longshoremen, who had swelled the previous year's crowds, withheld their support this year, partly accounting for the fact that only 8,000 showed, a drop of more than 40,000 from last year's rally.
The Word Was Out When Colombo pressed on, the pressure — and the signals — increased. In mid-May, league officials were assaulted in Brooklyn, and Colombo was shoved and slapped when he tried to break up the fight. On June 11, Gambino lieu tenants sent word for Colombo to ease up on Unity Day preparations, but he refused. A week later, Colombo was beat en once more. A golf partner reported that when a golf -cart tire blew out with a bang, "Colombo dove for the ground and crawled under the cart."
Two weeks before the Unity Day Rally, some gangsters suspected that Colombo was a murder target.