Cleveland crime family
The Cleveland crime family, also known as the Scalish crime family or the Cleveland Mafia, is an Italian American Mafia crime family based in Cleveland, Ohio, and throughout the Greater Cleveland area. The organization formed during the 1900s, and early leadership turned over frequently due to a series of power grabs and assassinations. In 1930, Frank Milano became boss and was able to bring some stability to the Cleveland family. Under the control of the family's longest-serving boss, John T. Scalish, who led the organization from 1945 until his death in 1976, the Cleveland family exerted influence over the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, profiting from labor racketeering and the skimming of revenue from Las Vegas casinos. The family's membership peaked at around sixty "made men" during the 1950s.
When Scalish died unexpectedly during heart surgery without naming a successor in 1976, the Cleveland family fell into turmoil. A violent gang war erupted during the late 1970s when Irish mobster Danny Greene attempted to take over the city's criminal rackets. James T. Licavoli, who became boss of the Cleveland family after Scalish's death, hired hitman Ray Ferritto to kill Greene. After several failed attempts on Greene's life, Ferritto succeeded with a car bomb, ending the mob war. The war drew significant law enforcement attention, however, reducing membership and influence of the family. Much of the family's weakening can be attributed to Jimmy Fratianno, who turned government witness and provided the Federal Bureau of Investigation with incriminating information on the organization.
Following a series of convictions, including those of bosses Licavoli, Angelo Lonardo and John Tronolone, the Cleveland family nearly ceased to exist during the 1980s and 1990s. Lonardo became the highest-ranking member of the Mafia to turn government witness when he began cooperating with authorities in 1983. During the early 2000s, law enforcement agencies believed the family was a smaller group attempting to rebuild itself. In the 2020s, the organization has been characterized as a small crime family involved in illegal gambling and loansharking.
History
Early organized crime in Cleveland
Semi-organized Sicilian American- and Italian American-run "Black Hand" extortion rackets first emerged in Cleveland around the year 1900. The Cleveland Division of Police soon established an "Italian squad" to deal with the problem. After a series of Black Hand-related murders in the city in 1906, the Italian squad largely suppressed this first expression of organized crime in Cleveland.Loosely organized gangs emerged again in the 1910s. One Italian American gang, known as the Mayfield Road Mob, formed in Cleveland's Little Italy neighborhood about 1913. Elsewhere in Little Italy, notary public Angelo Serra oversaw a gang primarily specializing in auto theft that at one point yielded $500,000 a year. At roughly the same time, Dominic Benigno led a gang which monopolized in payroll robberies. Meanwhile, another Italian American gang, the Collinwood Crew, operated around the intersection of St. Clair Avenue, E. 152nd Street and Ivanhoe Road in Collinwood. A less organized criminal organization was the "reservoir gang", a group of criminals engaged in armed robbery, auto theft, burglary and other property crimes which established a base at the Baldwin Water Treatment Plant reservoir.
Following the institution of Prohibition in 1919, and nationally throughout the United States on January 16, 1920. many small, organized gangs emerged to illicitly import liquor from Canada, diverting alcohol from legitimate purposes and distilling and distributing home-brewed alcohol. Small bootlegging operations were run by formerly legitimate businessmen like Michelino Le Paglia, August L. Rini and Louis Rosen. A number of small bootlegging gangs, run by Jewish residents, began operating in the "Little Hollywood" area of Hough, an area bounded by Lexington and Hough Avenues between E. 73rd and E. 79th Streets. The brothels, speakeasies and gambling halls of Little Hollywood became the favorite hangouts of small gang leaders throughout Cleveland, many of whom established their offices in the city's tiny red-light district. Larger organizations included an Italian American gang centered on Woodland Avenue and E. 55th Street, and an Italian American gang centered on Woodland and E. 105th Street. The Mayfield Road Mob grew larger as it focused more on bootlegging.
The Lonardo and Porrello brothers
The four Lonardo brothers and seven Porrello brothers were immigrants to the United States from Licata, Sicily, Italy. Initially establishing themselves as legitimate businessmen, the Lonardos and the Porrellos dabbled in various criminal activities including robbery and extortion but were not considered a major organization prior to Prohibition.At the start of Prohibition, Joseph "Big Joe" Lonardo, the second eldest of the Lonardo brothers, became the first boss of the Cleveland crime family. His top lieutenant, Joseph Porrello, supervised various criminal operations throughout the early to mid-1920s.
Split factions (1926–1927)
In 1926, the Porrellos broke away from the Lonardos and formed their own faction, establishing their headquarters on upper Woodland Avenue, around E. 110th Street. In 1927, hostilities between the Lonardos and the Porrellos escalated as the families competed in the manufacture of corn sugar, the prime ingredient in bootleg liquor.In the summer of 1927, "Big Joe" Lonardo left Cleveland for Sicily amongst rising tension between the two factions. He left his brother John and his adviser, Salvatore "Black Sam" Todaro, as acting heads of the Cleveland family. When Lonardo returned, a sitdown was scheduled between the Lonardos and the Porrellos. On October 13, 1927, Big Joe and John were to meet with Angelo Porrello in a Porrello-owned barbershop. After the brothers were relaxed into playing a card game, they were ambushed and killed by two Porrello gunmen. This allowed Joseph Porrello to take over as boss of the Cleveland family and become the most influential corn sugar baron in Greater Cleveland.
The Porrellos (1927–1930)
Through late 1927 and much of 1928, the remaining Lonardo loyalists, which included members of the Mayfield Road Mob and various Jewish allies within the Cleveland Syndicate, continued to rival the Porrellos for the leadership within the Cleveland underworld. They vied for control of the most lucrative rackets outside of the corn sugar business, which included gambling, the most profitable hustle for crime families of the period after bootlegging.To establish dominance, the Porrellos needed backing from the top Mafia bosses in New York City, as well as other leading Mafia families across the U.S. On December 5, 1928, one of the earliest-known Mafia summits in American history was held at Cleveland's Statler Hotel. Joseph Porrello, with the help of his top lieutenant Sam Tilocco, hoped to urge the other bosses, which included Joe Profaci and Vincent Mangano of New York, to declare him the official boss of Cleveland. However, the meeting turned into a fiasco as some of the well-known attendees were recognized by local law enforcement and arrested along with their associates. The Porrellos arranged for their associates to be bailed out of jail. In spite of the chaos, Joseph Porrello was declared the boss and recognized nationwide as head of the Cleveland family.
On June 11, 1929, "Black Sam" Todaro was murdered. By the end of Prohibition, most of the Porrello brothers and their supporters had been killed or had sided with the Mayfield Road Mob. Joseph Porrello himself was ambushed and killed along with an underling at the Venetian Restaurant, owned by Porrello rival Frank Milano. Vincenzo "Jim" Porrello succeeded his brother as Cleveland boss, but was shot and killed three weeks later in a grocery store on East 110th Street and Woodland Avenue, in an area considered a Porrello stronghold. Raymond Porrello declared revenge, and on August 15, 1930, an explosion leveled his home. He was not present at the time.
Mayfield Road Mob (1930–1944)
During the early 1930s, Frank Milano and the Mayfield Road Mob gradually replaced the Porrello brothers as the Cleveland area's premier Mafia group, with Milano becoming the official boss of the Cleveland family. In 1931, Milano joined the National Crime Syndicate, a network of powerful criminals which included Charles "Lucky" Luciano and Meyer Lansky. By 1932, Milano had become one of the top Mafia bosses in the country and a charter member of The Commission, the Mafia's governing body.On February 25, 1932, Milano finished off the Porrello brothers by having Raymond and Rosario Porrello, along with their bodyguard Dominic Gueli, murdered in a smoke shop on East 110th Street and Woodland Avenue while playing cards. The remaining Porrellos subsequently backed out of the Cleveland underworld and fled the area.
In 1935, Milano fled to Mexico after being indicted for tax evasion. Alfred Polizzi, another leading member of the Mayfield Road Mob, seized power and reigned as boss until 1944, when he himself was convicted of tax evasion.
Scalish era (1944–1976)
Following Polizzi's ouster in 1944, John Scalish began the longest reign of any Cleveland boss. Under his leadership, the Cleveland family developed ties with important crime figures such as Lansky, Shondor Birns, Moe Dalitz and Tony Accardo, as well as the Chicago Outfit and the Genovese crime family in New York. Additionally, the family expanded its influence to areas throughout the Midwest, California, Florida and Las Vegas. The family helped finance the construction of Las Vegas' Desert Inn casino hotel in the late 1940s and received a percentage of profits from the resort in exchange for providing protection.In the 1950s, the Cleveland family reached its peak in size, with about sixty "made" members, and several times as many associates. By the 1970s, however, the family's membership began to decrease after Scalish chose not to induct new members. The family's main streams of revenue during this period came from two primary sources; a partnership with other Midwestern crime families which allowed the organization to profit from the "skim" of various Las Vegas casinos, and an arrangement with the Pittsburgh crime family which entitled the Cleveland family to twenty-five percent of the Pittsburgh family's profits from rackets in Youngstown. The Cleveland, Kansas City and Milwaukee crime families also exerted influence over the multibillion-dollar Central States Pension Fund of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and in 1974 the three groups backed a $62.75 million Pension Fund loan to buy two Las Vegas casinos. Additionally, the Cleveland family collected protection money from casinos in Western Pennsylvania and Northern Kentucky.