Youngstown's Naples (Pittsburgh) & Carabbia (Cleveland) War

[coldshoulder]

In the late 70's, the Mafia stronghold of Youngstown, Ohio and the surrounding Mahoning Valley experienced a four-year period of *not* bombings as in the 60's, but outright murders as the Pittsburgh-affiliated faction of Jimmy Prato, Joey Naples, and Lenny Strollo moved to take total control of the area's lucrative rackets by squeezing out the competing Cleveland interests.

Cleveland Don John Scalish died somewhat unexpectedly in 1976, Cleveland's guy in Warren Tony "The Dope" DelSanter died in 1977, then the Cleveland mob was rocked with Danny Greene's bombing murder in October, 1977. Ray Ferritto was quickly identified as being at the crime scene, and he and Struthers' Ronnie Carabbia, Cleveland-aligned and DelSanter's heir apparent, were convicted in late 1978 and sent to prison in 1979.

Those events triggered the murderous mayhem that followed in the Youngstown area from 1978 through 1982. A detailed and insightful narrative of this period was provided by Ned Whalen of Cleveland Magazine, whose riveting look is still a fascinating read 40 years later. Through determination and some good fortune, I was recently able to obtain this article of his from March, 1982.

Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Youngstown folks will remember.

(Apologies for the small print and incorrect orientation)

[FriendofHenry]

Because I'm from Youngstown, I'm familiar with this article. Many other that may have interest in this area will find it very interesting.
BTW: Your avatar looks like someone involved in this article. I can't think of who it might be, please remind me

[coldshoulder]

Yes, the "supreme overlord" as described in the article
Looks like perhaps only the first page comes up when you click the attachment. I'll have to try to link the rest of the pages.

[FriendofHenry]

Yes, the "supreme overlord" as described in the article
Looks like perhaps only the first page comes up when you click the attachment. I'll have to try to link the rest of the pages.

Have you ever seen the "Overlord's" wife, Joan? Oh baby
Decked out in her one of two full length White Leopard coat and her 17ct. round brilliant cut diamond Life was good

[coldshoulder]

Well FOH looks like no one else wants to talk about our beloved Youngstown and its past cast of characters.

Interesting that through this reporting of Whelan's and the 4-5 page Vindicator-published FBI affidavits and accompanying articles around the same time, nary a peep about your other good friend CM. That man was apparently as low-key and under-the-radar as one can get, certainly he was a sharp and shrewd operator.

And no I never got a glimpse of Mrs. Naples but I'm sure she was fine and had the finest.

Here's the 2nd page of the Ned Whelan magazine story:

[Adam]

I find the Cleveland-Pittsburgh Youngstown war fascinating. What I find most interesting is that Cleveland seems almost to have been totally in the dark about it. Angelo Lonardo barely knew anything about it, but that fits with him seeming to not know too much about anything going on with Cleveland even though he was the underboss.

[coldshoulder]

Not so sure about that.
Lonardo along with Licavoli supposedly gave the go ahead to Naples and Prato to take out Charlie Crab, which did happen. Almost like he (Lonardo) was giving up and foreshadowing the beginning of the end, later flipping and giving this statement to the United States Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (a subcommittee of the Committee on Governmental Affairs) on April 15, 1988.

Former Cleveland Mafia underboss Angelo Lonardo testified before the United States Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (a subcommittee of the Committee on Governmental Affairs) on April 15, 1988.

Copied from: http://mafiahistory.us/maf-invl.html

Source info:
 Hunt, Thomas, "Cleveland Mafia insider Lonardo testifies," The American Mafia, mafiahistory.us, last revised 19 Jun 2021, accessed 19 Jun 2021.

Copyright © 2021, Thomas Hunt

[FriendofHenry]

Well FOH looks like no one else wants to talk about our beloved Youngstown and its past cast of characters.

Interesting that through this reporting of Whelan's and the 4-5 page Vindicator-published FBI affidavits and accompanying articles around the same time, nary a peep about your other good friend CM. That man was apparently as low-key and under-the-radar as one can get, certainly he was a sharp and shrewd operator.

And no I never got a glimpse of Mrs. Naples but I'm sure she was fine and had the finest.

Here's the 2nd page of the Ned Whelan magazine story:

CM was sent to Warren, bought into The Sunrise Inn so he could discreetly look after Pittsburgh's interests in The Jungle Inn.
Cleveland sent Tony DelSanter to Warren also to look after their interests in The Jungle Inn. Charlie and Tony gt to be good friends.
From the time Charlie arrived in Warren until the time he died there was only one article in the papers about him. Now that's really low key.

[coldshoulder]

So with DelSanter passing away in 1977, and with Charlie likely spending most of his time by then in Florida, there was another leadership void that Naples and his associates exploited, what with Ronnie Carabbia in prison and brother Charlie Carabbia taken out quickly.

If the Jungle Inn was shut down for good in 1949 (or so I thought), what were Charlie and DelSanter doing during the 50's and 60's? Other than gladly counting and splitting the other racket profits during a time of great economic prosperity in the then still-thriving steel industry valley of Youngstown and Warren. The All-American Club became a worthy successor to the Jungle Inn; I would guess but I could be way off, it operated in Campbell from the late 70's thru about 1988...?

[Adam]

Not so sure about that.
Lonardo along with Licavoli supposedly gave the go ahead to Naples and Prato to take out Charlie Crab, which did happen. Almost like he (Lonardo) was giving up and foreshadowing the beginning of the end, later flipping and giving this statement to the United States Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (a subcommittee of the Committee on Governmental Affairs) on April 15, 1988.

Former Cleveland Mafia underboss Angelo Lonardo testified before the United States Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (a subcommittee of the Committee on Governmental Affairs) on April 15, 1988.

Copied from: http://mafiahistory.us/maf-invl.html

Source info:
 Hunt, Thomas, "Cleveland Mafia insider Lonardo testifies," The American Mafia, mafiahistory.us, last revised 19 Jun 2021, accessed 19 Jun 2021.

Copyright © 2021, Thomas Hunt

I have this thing about Lonardo's lack of knowledge of things. For the Youngstown mob murders this is Lonardo's testimony:

12/3/78 CHARLES GRISHAM: I have no knowledge of Grisham. I did not authorize or participate in any matters relating to him.

1/11/79 JAMES CONONICO: I have no knowledge who Connonico was. I did not authorize or participate in any matters relating to him.

4/12/79 ROBERT FUREY: I have no knowledge of who Furey was. I did not authorize or participate in the shooting.

7/25/79 JOHN TOBIN: I did not know Tobin. I have no knowledge of him. I did not authorize or participate in the shooting.

1/6/80 JOHN MAGDA: I have no knowledge of Magda.

2/13/80 ROBERT DE CERBO: I have no knowledge of De Cerbo.

5/14/80 JOSEPH DE ROSE. JR: The shooting was by the Youngstown Group who were at that time under the control of Pittsburg.

10/2/80 DOMINIC SENARINO: I have no knowledge.

[FriendofHenry]

With all due respect, did you really expect Lonardo to fess-up and say: "One way or another Bobby and his brother worked for me"? Junior was RC's cousin and Joe DeRose wanted to be a gangster since he was in high school so he got his chance and got wacked. You gota' know that ain't gona' happen.

[Adam]

With all due respect, did you really expect Lonardo to fess-up and say: "One way or another Bobby and his brother worked for me"? Junior was RC's cousin and Joe DeRose wanted to be a gangster since he was in high school so he got his chance and got wacked. You gota' know that ain't gona' happen.

Fair point, but he was very open about the Carabbia murder. Very specific as to what led to it and discussions with Pittsburgh about Charlie's transgressions before it happened and Pittsburgh apologizing for leaving the car where they left it. It does in my mind coincide with Lonardo seemingly being oblivious to a lot of actual LCN stuff that was going on in Cleveland while he was underboss. Just an opinion, but he so comes across as a Natale kind of guy where the people doing things didn't feel the need to involve/communicate what was actually going on. His post cooperation testimony I've found very unimpressive. For an underboss of a family.

[FriendofHenry]

As you probably know, I'm a Pittsburgh kinda' guy and don't know whole lot about Cleveland people other that Tony Delsanter. A hell of a guy that was smart enough not to be Boss. If you're telling me that Lonardo wasn't the sharpest pencil in the box, so be it.

[Adam]

As you probably know, I'm a Pittsburgh kinda' guy and don't know whole lot about Cleveland people other that Tony Delsanter. A hell of a guy that was smart enough not to be Boss. If you're telling me that Lonardo wasn't the sharpest pencil in the box, so be it.

Hi Henry, obviously I know you're the Pittsburgh expert. I've had this issue with Lonardo for years. His lackluster testimony in cases. He's literally a courier in the Las Vegas Strawman cases. He never testifies about anything in Detroit. He's constantly claiming he didn't know anything about what was going on with so many murders/drug dealing in Cleveland. Even the Greene war his testimony is mainly based on things he heard. It's really weird. He really does come across as the guy who liked being called the underboss and liked hanging out at the local Italian social club in Little Italy on the Hill. Very much like Natale.

[FriendofHenry]

All in all, he really wasn't the sharpest pencil in the box