# Joseph Lonardo

Canonical: https://mobfiles.org/people/joseph-lonardo/

Killed with his brother John in a Cleveland barber shop in October 1927; wire reports of the time call the brothers sugar dealers or commission merchants, later reports call him 'Big Joe' Lonardo, and his son Angelo testified in 1988 that he had been 'the former boss of the Cleveland family'.

The role line quotes his son's sworn statement sixty years later; it is testimony, labelled as such. The wire reports' "sugar king" and "baron" are press descriptions and set no role. The 1927 dispatches do not themselves say that the Joseph Lonardo killed in 1927 was Angelo's father; that link rests on Angelo's testimony and on the 1929 report that called Angelo the eldest son of "Big Joe." The death year is from the October 1927 dispatches; they differ on whether the shooting was the night before or the same day.

## Sources

- The Washington Times, 14 October 1927, page 3 (Library of Congress, Chronicling America): https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84026749/1927-10-14/ed-1/?sp=3