In 1970, Shorty Spero approached Sammy Gravano with a job. This time, the family needed him to kill someone for them. Sammy readily agreed, and he was told that his target was his fellow associate and crew member, Joe Colucci. If Shorty expected any reaction from Sammy, he got none. Instead, he simply asked, "Why?" According to Shorty, Joe was planning to kill his nephew and Sammy's friend, Tommy.
Tommy was supposedly having an affair with Camille, Joe's wife. When Joe found out about the affair, he began plotting to kill Tommy for the disrespect. However, Shorty explained, Joe was not willing to kill Shorty's nephew when Shorty was still in the picture. Instead, his plan was to kill Shorty, then kill Sammy because Sammy was likely to retaliate if Tommy got harmed in any way. Once Shorty and Sammy were taken care of, Joe would then kill Tommy. Joe believed that if the three were killed in that order, no one would ever suspect that the three murdered were connected. Unfortunately, Joe confided in Frankie, another one of his associates, and revealed his entire plan. Frankie quickly recounted Joe's plan to Shorty. For Sammy, Joe's death was no longer a homicide. Rather, it was self-defense.
Sammy, Frankie and Tommy devised a plan to lure Joe to his death. The three invited Joe to party with them, and after a long night in the club, they went into a cafeteria for a snack. The four piled into a car with Tommy in the driver's seat, Joe riding shotgun, and Sammy and Frankie in the backseat. When a Beatles song began playing on the radio, Tommy turned the volume up. Sammy seized the opportunity – he quietly drew his gun, pointed it at Joe and shot him multiple times. They dumped the body onto the street and drove home, where they cleaned the car. Sammy was 25 years old at the time. As expected, the murder cemented Sammy's position in the Colombo family, thus beginning his rise in the mafia.
