Angelo Anthony Lonardo (January 21, 1911 − March 31, 2006) was an American

mobster A gangster (informally gangsta) is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from '' mob'' and the suffix '' -ster''. Gangs provide a level ...

who became the acting boss of the

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, an ...

in the early 1980s.

Criminal career

Lonardo was born in

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

in 1911 to

Joseph Joseph is a common male name, derived from the Hebrew (). "Joseph" is used, along with " Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the modern-day Nordic count ...

and Concetta Lonardo. His godfather was Anthony Milano. The Lonardo family had immigrated to the United States from

Licata Licata (, ; , whence or ''Plintis''), formerly also Alicata (), is a city and ''comune'' located on the south coast of Sicily, at the mouth of the Salso River (the ancient ''Himera''), about midway between Agrigento and Gela. It is a major se ...

in Sicily in the early 20th century and settled in the Woodland district of Cleveland.Angelo "Big Ange" Lonardo, One-time Highest-Ranking Mobster to Become a Federal Witness, Dead at age 95
Rick Porrello, AmericanMafia.com (April 2006) During the

Prohibition era Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacturing, manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption ...

, Lonardo's father and uncles were involved in a gang war with the Porrello brothers over control of sugar distribution to regional bootleggers. After his father was murdered by a member of the Porrello crime family on October 13, 1927, 16-year-old Lonardo swore revenge. On June 11, 1929, the 18-year-old Lonardo and his cousin, Dominic Sospirato, shot and killed Salvatore "Black Sam" Todaro at a cigar store owned by the Porrellos at the corner of East 110th Street and Woodland Avenue. After several months in hiding in California, where he was harbored by his uncle Dominick Lonardo, Angelo Lonardo and his cousin were arrested and charged over the murder of Todaro. Lonardo and Sospirato were convicted of murder sentenced to life in prison. However, after serving a year and a half of their sentence, the pair were granted a second trial in which they were acquitted in December 1931. Angelo Lonardo and several other former members of the Lonardo gang subsequently became affiliated with Frank Milano's Mayfield Road Mob, which was based in Cleveland's

Little Italy Little Italy is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave populated primarily by Italians or people of Italian ancestry, usually in an Urban area, urban neighborhood. The concept of "Little Italy" holds many different aspects of the Italian cul ...

and affiliated with the Syndicate, a

Jewish mob Jewish-American organized crime initially emerged within the American Jewish community during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In media and popular culture, it has variously been referred to as the Jewish Mob, the Jewish Mafia, the Kos ...

group headed by

Moe Dalitz Morris Barney Dalitz (December 25, 1899 – August 31, 1989) was an American gangster, businessman, casino owner, and philanthropist. He was one of the major figures who shaped Las Vegas in the 20th century. He was often referred to as "Mr. Las ...

. In February 1932, Lonardo was questioned by police over the murders of Raymond and Rosario Porello and one of their underlings, Dominic Gueli, who had also been shot dead in a cigar store. In 1933, Lonardo and another cousin, John Demarco, killed Dr. Joseph Romano, a former Cleveland mob boss, because he believed that Romano had been involved in the murder of his father. Demarco, a " made" member of the

Mafia "Mafia", as an informal or general term, is often used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the Sicilian Mafia, original Mafia in Sicily, to the Italian-American Mafia, or to other Organized crime in Italy, organiz ...

, was sentenced to death by his superiors because he had violated ''Cosa Nostra'' rules by killing a boss without the permission of The Commission, while Lonardo was vindicated because he was not a member of the Mafia. Lonardo later accompanied Alfred Polizzi, the boss of the Cleveland Mafia, to

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

, where Polizzi defended Demarco's actions before other Commission members and was able to have Demarco's death sentence rescinded. In June 1939, Lonardo was one of nine mobsters indicted for running a numbers racket. Lonardo was inducted as a "made member" of the

during the late 1940s when John Scalish, Lonardo's brother-in-law, was boss of the family.3 Mob Families Linked to Teamsters Fund
George Lardner Jr., ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' (November 22, 1985) As a family

soldier A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a Conscription, conscripted or volunteer Enlisted rank, enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, a warrant officer, or an Officer (armed forces), officer. Etymology The wo ...

, Lonardo was designated with collecting protection money from casinos in

Northern Kentucky Northern Kentucky is an urban area in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. Commonwealth of Kentucky consisting of the southern part of the Cincinnati metropolitan area. The three main counties of the area are Boone County, Kentucky, Boone, Kent ...

and

Western Pennsylvania Western Pennsylvania is a region in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the Unite ...

, and he eventually worked his way up to underboss in 1976. Lonardo was convicted in 1983 of multiple racketeering and drug trafficking charges and sentenced to serve a life sentence plus 103 years at Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary. After his first judicial appeal was denied, Lonardo contacted the FBI and offered to become a government witness. He testified against his former colleagues and several mob figures throughout the United States. Lonardo and Jimmy Fratianno, the acting boss of the

Los Angeles crime family The Los Angeles crime family, also known as the Dragna crime family, the Southern California crime family or the L.A. Mafia, and dubbed "the Mickey Mouse Mafia" by former Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates, is an Italian American Mafia crime fa ...

, were the highest-ranking mobsters to become federal witnesses until Gambino underboss Sammy "the Bull" Gravano during the early 1990s. He eventually went into the federal witness protection program, but left it to return to

Death

Lonardo died in his sleep on April 1, 2006, aged 95. He was buried in Calvary Cemetery in Cleveland.

References

Bibliography

* * Porrello, Rick. ''To Kill the Irishman: The War that Crippled the Mafia''. Novelty, Ohio: Next Hat Press, 2004. * Vigil, Vicki Blum (2007). ''Cemeteries of Northeast Ohio: Stones, Symbols & Stories''. Cleveland, OH: Gray & Company, Publishers. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lonardo, Angelo 1911 births 2006 deaths 20th-century American criminals American crime bosses American drug traffickers American gangsters of Italian descent People of Sicilian descent American Mafia cooperating witnesses American male criminals American people convicted of drug offenses American prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Burials in Calvary Cemetery (Cleveland) Cleveland crime family Gangsters from Cleveland People convicted of racketeering People who entered the United States Federal Witness Protection Program Prisoners and detainees of the United States federal government