Mob FilesPublic-domain archive of American organized crime

Angelo Lonardo

Convicted in Cleveland in 1983 and sentenced to life without parole plus 103 years; described by the Justice Department as underboss of the Cleveland LCN, he later testified for the government and, in 1988, before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

Aliases
Angelo A. Lonardo, Big Ange, Angelo Lombardo (as printed once in 868 F.2d 524)
Family
Cleveland La Cosa Nostra family (Justice Department report, 1983; Second Circuit, 1989; his own testimony, 1988)
Role
"underboss of the Cleveland LCN" (Justice Department strike force report, 1983); "a Cleveland underboss" (Eighth Circuit, describing the government's witness, 1987); "a former acting boss of the Cleveland La Cosa Nostra family" (Second Circuit, 1989); "the former underboss of the Cleveland organized crime family" (his own testimony, 1988)
Source
Senate hearing 'Organized Crime: 25 Years After Valachi' (1988), Lonardo testimony
Rights
Biography on this page is limited to what the cited federal records and the filed newspaper pages state.

On the record

  • 1929-10-21 — Evening Star (AP): "Mrs. Concietta Lonardo, common law wife of 'Big Joe,' and her eldest son, Angelo, 20 years old, were indicted for first-degree murder in Todaro's death." An indictment is a charge; no outcome for Angelo is on any page filed here.
  • 1938/1942 — Kefauver Committee (1951): Cleveland Safety Director Alvin Sutton listed "Angelo Lonardo, heir to a corn-sugar fortune," among those convicted in the extortion cases of Eliot Ness's 1938-1942 investigation. Lonardo told the Senate in 1988 he had served twenty-three months "In 1942."
  • 1982-10-27 — Superseding indictment, CR82-119, N.D. Ohio: "Angelo A. Lonardo, a/k/a 'Big Ange'" is named with Gallo, the Graewes, McTaggart and Sinito.
  • 1983-04-07 — Justice Department report of 18 April 1983: "ANGELO 'Big Ange' LONARDO, underboss of the Cleveland LCN," was sentenced by Judge John M. Manos to life without parole on the continuing-criminal-enterprise count and 103 years concurrent.
  • 1985-05-29 — United States v. Gallo (6th Cir.): "The evidence indicates that Lonardo was one of the leading directors and investors in the profitable but illicit joint enterprise." The court affirmed his convictions in full.
  • 1986-04-02 — United States v. Salerno, 631 F. Supp. 1364: the government proffered that Lonardo would testify, and the court summarized, that "Lonardo at the time was the head of the Cleveland LCN family that reported to the Genovese Family in New York." That is a proffer, not a finding.
  • 1987-10-08 — United States v. Cerone (8th Cir.): the government's trial witnesses included "Angelo Lonardo, a Cleveland underboss."
  • 1988-04-15 — Senate testimony: "I am a member of the La Cosa Nostra. I am the former underboss of the Cleveland organized crime family. I became a member of La Cosa Nostra in the late 1940's." He said, "I became underboss after Moceri's death" in 1976.
  • 1989-01-31 — United States v. Salerno, 868 F.2d 524 (2d Cir.): the government's live witnesses included "Angelo Lombardo [as printed], a former acting boss of the Cleveland La Cosa Nostra family."
  • 1983 — FBI Cleveland Division history: "After being sentenced to life in prison in 1983, Lonardo became a cooperating witness."

The family and role lines are labelled by kind: the Justice Department’s 1983 report, the Eighth and Second Circuits’ descriptions of the government’s witness, and his own sworn testimony. The Sixth Circuit’s 1983 Sinito opinion calls him “the reputed ‘Boss’” of the Cleveland Organized Crime Family, which reports reputation. None of these is copied onto a family chart.

Senator Nunn’s introduction in 1988 gives his conviction as “April 7, 1988”; the court and Justice Department records date the sentencing to April 7, 1983. A Cleveland lawyer named Angelo F. Lonardo appears as counsel in United States v. Licavoli; the opinion does not connect him with this man, and this page does not. His statements about other people are his own testimony. No filed record gives his birth date or death.

Records

itemSenate subcommittee hearing, 1988: testimony of Angelo LonardoOn 15 April 1988 Angelo Lonardo, testifying behind a screen under a court immunity order, told the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations that he was 'the former underboss of the Cleveland organized crime family' and described its leaders, its Las Vegas casino income and its dealings with New York and Chicago.itemSenate subcommittee hearing, 1988: prepared statement of Angelo LonardoThe written statement Angelo Lonardo filed with the Senate subcommittee in April 1988, printed from page 529: his initiation at the Statler Hotel in Cleveland, the people he says were present, the family's ties to New York, Chicago, Las Vegas and Youngstown, and a chronology of Cleveland-area violence.itemJustice Department report: Cleveland strike force sentencings of 7 April 1983An 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.itemJustice Department summary of 'additional successes against organized crime', with the Cleveland convictions (June 1983)A Justice Department summary sent under a cover note of 8 June 1983 lists the April 1983 Cleveland sentencings and says that James 'Jack White' Licavoli, 'the alleged Godfather of the Cleveland LCN', 'was convicted in the summer of 1982 for a 1977 car bomb murder'.itemUnited States v. Gallo, 763 F.2d 1504 (6th Cir. 1985)Sixth Circuit opinion of May 29, 1985 on the Cleveland RICO, continuing-criminal-enterprise and Travel Act convictions of Joseph Gallo, Frederick and Hartmut Graewe, Kevin McTaggart and Angelo Lonardo. It affirmed all but one count and describes Lonardo as 'one of the leading directors and investors' in the enterprise.itemSuperseding indictment, United States v. Gallo et al., CR82-119, N.D. Ohio (filed 27 October 1982)The 84-page superseding indictment in the Cleveland case before Judge John M. Manos, charging RICO conspiracy, Travel Act, narcotics and continuing-criminal-enterprise counts; Count 1 alleges an enterprise 'controlled by the Cleveland Organized Crime Family'.itemTranscript of trial proceedings, Volume 1, United States v. Gallo et al., CR82-119 (November 1982)Volume 1 (pages 1-242) of the sixteen-volume transcript of the Cleveland jury trial of Gallo, the Graewes, Lonardo and McTaggart before Judge John M. Manos, which began on 5 November 1982.itemUnited States v. Sinito, 723 F.2d 1250 (6th Cir. 1983)Sixth Circuit opinion of December 23, 1983 rejecting Thomas Sinito's double-jeopardy challenge to the 1982 Cleveland RICO indictment, which alleged an enterprise known as the 'Cleveland Organized Crime Family'.itemUnited States v. Salerno, 631 F. Supp. 1364 (S.D.N.Y. 1986)District Judge Walker's April 2, 1986 order detaining Anthony Salerno and Vincent Cafaro before trial on a Genovese Family racketeering indictment. It names the two Manhattan social clubs where the government's recordings were made, the Palma Boys Social Club and the club at 2244 First Avenue.itemUnited States v. Cerone, 830 F.2d 938 (8th Cir. 1987)Eighth Circuit opinion of October 8, 1987 affirming the Kansas City convictions of Aiuppa, Cerone, Lombardo, LaPietra, and Rockman for skimming the Stardust and Fremont casinos in Las Vegas.itemUnited States v. Salerno, 868 F.2d 524 (2d Cir. 1989)Second Circuit opinion on the appeal from the Southern District of New York trial of Anthony Salerno and seven other defendants, decided January 31, 1989.itemFBI history: the Cleveland DivisionThe FBI's own history of its Cleveland field office mentions the 'Top Hoodlum' program and describes 'Operation Busmark', which it credits with the convictions of Angelo Lonardo, Joseph Gallo, Frederick Graewe and Kevin MacTaggart and with Lonardo's later cooperation.itemKefauver Committee, Cleveland: testimony of Public Safety Director Alvin G. Sutton (January 1951)Cleveland's Director of Public Safety, Alvin G. Sutton, gave the committee his account of the city's Prohibition bootleggers, naming Morris Kleinman, Lou Rothkopf, Moe Dalitz, Sam Tucker and Maxie Diamond, their move into gambling in Kentucky and Las Vegas, and the later numbers rackets.clippingEvening Star, 21 October 1929, page 3: Retired 'racket' baron is slainAn Associated Press report from Cleveland: Frank Lonardo, a one-time corn sugar baron, was shot dead at a card table in a downtown barber shop; the item adds that Mrs. Concietta Lonardo and her eldest son, Angelo, 20, had been indicted for first-degree murder in Todaro's death.itemSenate subcommittee hearing, 1988: testimony of Angelo LonardoOn 15 April 1988 Angelo Lonardo, testifying behind a screen under a court immunity order, told the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations that he was 'the former underboss of the Cleveland organized crime family' and described its leaders, its Las Vegas casino income and its dealings with New York and Chicago.itemSenate subcommittee hearing, 1988: prepared statement of Angelo LonardoThe written statement Angelo Lonardo filed with the Senate subcommittee in April 1988, printed from page 529: his initiation at the Statler Hotel in Cleveland, the people he says were present, the family's ties to New York, Chicago, Las Vegas and Youngstown, and a chronology of Cleveland-area violence.itemOrganized Crime in America, Senate Judiciary Committee hearings, Part 1 (1983)Part 1 of the 1983 Senate Judiciary Committee hearings, opening with the Attorney General and FBI Director William H. Webster. Webster called Jimmy Fratianno "an LCN member" and a government witness in the witness protection program; a note for the record reports Angelo A. Lonardo's 1983 conviction.itemOrganized Crime: 25 Years After Valachi (S. Hrg. 100-906, 1988)Hearings of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, April 1988, in which FBI officials compared the 1963 Valachi charts with the Bureau's 1987 charts of the families. FBI testimony about its own intelligence, not court findings.