# Cleveland Canonical: https://mobfiles.org/regions/cleveland/ Cleveland in public records: 1927-1930 wire reports on the Lonardo and Porrello killings; the Kefauver Committee's Cleveland hearing of 1951; FBI files on John Scalish and James Licavoli; the Sixth Circuit's account of the 1977 killing of Danny Greene; the 1982-83 Gallo and Lonardo case file; and Angelo Lonardo's 1988 Senate testimony. This section holds the Cleveland records filed so far. Each statement below comes from the record linked beside it. Where a record calls someone a boss, an underboss or a member, that is the record's word, labelled by the kind of record it is. ## Prohibition and the 1920s and 1930s **Wire reports, 1927 to 1930.** Sixteen pages from Chronicling America carry the wire services' Cleveland stories. On 14 October 1927 they reported that the brothers Joseph and John Lonardo, called sugar dealers in one version and commission merchants in another, had been shot in a barber shop. [Washington Times](/clippings/clip-washington-times-1927-10-14-p3/), [Daily Alaska Empire](/clippings/clip-daily-alaska-empire-1927-10-14-p1/). In December 1928 police arrested twenty-three visiting men at the Hotel Statler, and investigators linked their visit to the corn sugar trade. [South Bend News-Times](/clippings/clip-south-bend-news-times-1928-12-07-p17/), [New Britain Herald](/clippings/clip-new-britain-herald-1928-12-06-p3/). Sam "Black Jack" Todaro was killed in June 1929; Frank Lonardo was killed in October 1929; Mrs. Concietta Lonardo, indicted with her son Angelo in Todaro's death, was acquitted in November 1929. [Brownsville Herald](/clippings/clip-brownsville-herald-1929-06-11-p1/), [Evening Star](/clippings/clip-evening-star-1929-10-21-p3/), [Indianapolis Times](/clippings/clip-indianapolis-times-1929-11-15-p6/). In July 1930 Joe Porrello and a lieutenant were shot at the restaurant of Frank Milano. [Bismarck Tribune](/clippings/clip-bismarck-tribune-1930-07-05-p6/), [Brownsville Herald](/clippings/clip-brownsville-herald-1930-07-06-p2/). The theories in these reports are the police's and the press's. ## The Kefauver evidence, 1951 The Senate committee sat in Room 318, Federal Building, Cleveland, in January 1951. [Part 6: Ohio-Kentucky](/items/kefauver-part-6-ohio-kentucky-1951/). Governor Frank J. Lausche described gambling clubs "run by Cleveland men" and his orders to close them. [Lausche](/items/kefauver-part-6-lausche-testimony-1951/). Safety Director Alvin G. Sutton named Morris Kleinman, Lou Rothkopf, Moe Dalitz, Sam Tucker and Maxie Diamond as "at the top of Cleveland's bootleggers" and described their move into Kentucky and Las Vegas. [Sutton](/items/kefauver-part-6-sutton-testimony-1951/), [exhibits 31 and 32](/items/kefauver-part-6-exhibits-31-32-rothkopf-kleinman-1951/). Accountant Alvin Giesey described their shares in the Detroit Steel Corp. [Giesey](/items/kefauver-part-6-giesey-testimony-1951/). Thomas McGinty named his Desert Inn partners as Wilbur Clark, Dalitz, Kleinman and Tucker. [McGinty](/items/kefauver-part-6-mcginty-testimony-1951/), and see [Dalitz and Tucker in Part 10](/items/kefauver-part-10-dalitz-tucker-1951-02-28/). Alfred Polizzi denied the accusations that he belonged to the Mafia or the "Mayfield Road gang." [Polizzi](/items/kefauver-part-6-polizzi-testimony-1951/). James Licavoli and Anthony Milano testified in part and refused in part. [Licavoli](/items/kefauver-part-6-james-licavoli-testimony-1951/), [Milano](/items/kefauver-part-6-anthony-milano-testimony-1951/). Youngstown's police chief drew a chart for the committee whose labels are his own. [Allen](/items/kefauver-part-6-allen-testimony-1951/), [exhibit 61](/items/kefauver-part-6-exhibit-61-licavoli-chart-1951/). The committee's contempt reports include [Senate Report 86](/items/kefauver-contempt-s-rept-82-86-james-licavoli/), [Report 208](/items/kefauver-contempt-s-rept-82-208-kleinman/) and [Report 209](/items/kefauver-contempt-s-rept-82-209-rothkopf/). ## The 1950s to the 1980s **FBI files and the Apalachin case.** The Cleveland FBI file on John Scalish was opened after the Bureau was told he had been at the November 1957 Apalachin meeting; its background section collects unevaluated informant reports about the Desert Inn and the Cleveland "syndicate." [Scalish file](/items/fbi-vault-john-scalish/). Scalish was one of the twenty men whose Apalachin convictions the Second Circuit reversed in 1960. [United States v. Bufalino](/items/courtlistener-us-v-bufalino-285-f2d-408/). The Vault also holds a file on James Licavoli, alias Jack White. [Licavoli file](/items/fbi-vault-james-licavoli/). The Supreme Court's 1974 grand-jury ruling in [United States v. Calandra](/items/courtlistener-us-v-calandra-414-us-338/) arose from a 1970 search of a Cleveland machine shop. **The Greene case.** The Sixth Circuit, affirming the RICO convictions of James T. Licavoli and five others in 1984, stated that the evidence established that "In the spring of 1976 Licavoli decided that he needed to have one Danny Greene killed," and that Greene was killed by a remote-controlled bomb on 6 October 1977 as he left a dentist's appointment. [United States v. Licavoli](/items/courtlistener-us-v-licavoli-725-f2d-1040/). A 1964-1966 FBI file on Daniel J. Greene, president of an ILA local in Cleveland, is filed separately; no record filed here says he is the same man. [Daniel Greene file](/items/fbi-vault-daniel-greene/). **The Gallo and Lonardo case.** A superseding indictment filed on 27 October 1982 charged Joseph Gallo, the Graewes, Angelo Lonardo, Kevin McTaggart and Thomas Sinito; Count 1 alleged an enterprise "controlled by 'the Cleveland Organized Crime Family.'" [Case file](/items/nara-315949004-us-v-gallo-case-file-cr82-119/), [indictment](/items/nara-315949009-gallo-superseding-indictment-1982/), [transcript, Volume 1](/items/nara-315949012-gallo-trial-transcript-vol-1-1982/), [Sinito](/items/courtlistener-us-v-sinito-723-f2d-1250/). On 7 April 1983 Judge John M. Manos sentenced Lonardo to life without parole plus 103 years. [Justice Department report](/items/doj-cleveland-strike-force-sentencing-report-1983/), [summary](/items/doj-organized-crime-successes-cleveland-1983/). The Sixth Circuit affirmed. [United States v. Gallo](/items/courtlistener-us-v-gallo-763-f2d-1504/). The FBI's history calls the case Operation Busmark. [FBI history](/items/fbi-history-cleveland-division/). **Cleveland in the Las Vegas and New York cases.** The Eighth Circuit's opinion in the Stardust and Fremont skimming case recites the government's charge that Milton Rockman "was an associate of the Cleveland group" and names Angelo Lonardo among its witnesses. [United States v. Cerone](/items/courtlistener-us-v-cerone-830-f2d-938/). In New York, a 1986 bail opinion summarized the government's proffer of Lonardo's testimony about the Cleveland family, John Tronolone and the Greene and Nardi killings; the 1989 Commission opinion lists Lonardo among the government's witnesses; and the 1991 opinion records that Tronolone and Rockman were acquitted on the Teamster charges. [631 F. Supp. 1364](/items/courtlistener-us-v-salerno-631-f-supp-1364/), [868 F.2d 524](/items/us-v-salerno-868-f2d-524/), [937 F.2d 797](/items/courtlistener-us-v-salerno-937-f2d-797/). **The 1988 Senate hearing.** In "Organized Crime: 25 Years After Valachi," Angelo Lonardo testified behind a screen that he was "the former underboss of the Cleveland organized crime family," and FBI Special Agent in Charge Joseph E. Griffin described the Cleveland cases. Both are testimony. [Volume](/items/psi-1988-25-years-after-valachi/), [Lonardo](/items/psi-1988-lonardo-testimony/), [his prepared statement](/items/psi-1988-lonardo-prepared-statement/), [Griffin](/items/psi-1988-griffin-fbi-cleveland/). ## People Person pages list only what their records state, with family or role lines labelled by kind. [Angelo Lonardo](/people/angelo-lonardo/), [Joseph Lonardo](/people/joseph-lonardo/), [John Scalish](/people/john-scalish/), [Alfred Polizzi](/people/alfred-polizzi/), [James Licavoli](/people/james-licavoli/), [Danny Greene](/people/danny-greene/), [John Nardi](/people/john-nardi/), [Milton Rockman](/people/milton-rockman/), [John Tronolone](/people/john-tronolone/), [Anthony Milano](/people/anthony-milano/), [Frank Milano](/people/frank-milano/), [Morris Dalitz](/people/morris-dalitz/), [Morris Kleinman](/people/morris-kleinman/), [Louis Rothkopf](/people/louis-rothkopf/), [Sam Tucker](/people/sam-tucker/), [Thomas J. McGinty](/people/thomas-mcginty/). ## Not filed yet No Cleveland daily newspaper is in Chronicling America, and post-1930 issues, including coverage of the 1977 bombings, are not filed. The Kefauver Committee's interim and final reports on the "Cleveland syndicate," the testimony inside the sixteen Gallo transcript volumes, Lonardo's trial testimony in other cities, the photographs printed as exhibits to the 1988 hearing, the remaining parts of the Licavoli Vault file, and the Sixth Circuit opinions in the Graewe and Presser cases have not been read. No record of Eliot Ness's 1938-1942 extortion cases other than Sutton's 1951 testimony is filed, and no street address from the 1927-1930 reports is mapped.