Justice Department report: Cleveland strike force sentencings of 7 April 1983
An Organized Crime and Racketeering Section report of 18 April 1983 that Judge John M. Manos sentenced five Cleveland defendants after a twelve-week jury trial, among them Angelo 'Big Ange' Lonardo, 'underboss of the Cleveland LCN', to life without parole plus 103 years.
- Date
- 1983-04-18
- Kind
- case-file
- Retrieved
- 2026-10-12
- Rights
- A record of the United States Department of Justice, public domain under 17 U.S.C. § 105, published by the National Archives from Record Group 60, Accession 60-88-0498, Box 5, Correspondence Files of Ken Starr, 1981-83, folder "Organized Crime."
A one-page report on page 5 of the National Archives PDF of the Justice Department folder “Organized Crime,” headed “Organized Crime and Racketeering Section, Criminal Division,” “Northern District of Ohio,” and dated April 18, 1983. It reads: “The Cleveland Strike Force reports that on April 7, 1983, U.S. District Court Judge John M. Manos sentenced five defendants who were convicted for their participation in a multi-million dollar narcotics trafficking operation after a twelve week jury trial.”
It continues: “ANGELO ‘Big Ange’ LONARDO, underboss of the Cleveland LCN, convicted of 21 U.S.C., Section 848, engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, and 23 related counts … was sentenced to life in prison without parole on the CCE count and to the maximum consecutive sentence for all remaining counts, 103 years, concurrent with the life sentence.” Hartmut Graewe and Joseph Charles Gallo, described as “the former street boss of the Cleveland organized crime family,” received life without parole on the CCE count with further terms. The next page records the same sentence for Kevin Joseph McTaggart, described as “a former lieutenant of LCN rival Danny Greene who aligned with the LCN after they murdered Greene,” and 42 years for Frederick Graewe, and names the prosecutors.
The descriptions of the defendants are the Justice Department’s own characterizations in an internal report; the sentences are those the report records. The scan has a text layer, and the figures above were checked against the page image.
