Cleveland: Sinito son raided by feds

[Ivan]

https://www.cleveland.com/court-justice ... utType=amp

Some more Cleveland Mafia hauntology in the present day. You see this a lot in the upper echelons of Cleveland society, guys with familiar last names who are kind of shady and semi-legit.

[Newyorkempire]

Unreal house he has in Waite Hill. Def surpassed his grandfather

[Ivan]

I'm told this is actually his son, not grandson. My bad. Edited the subject.

[Ivan]

Unreal house he has in Waite Hill. Def surpassed his grandfather

Yeah you can see it in the video below, that's one big place. Papalardo's house in Independence is 6000 square feet too. They're both big real estate guys. Wonder if they ever work together in that field? Papalardo knew his dad no doubt, was made a few years after him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_VHSgIb3Y0

[Newyorkempire]

Unreal house he has in Waite Hill. Def surpassed his grandfather

Yeah you can see it in the video below, that's one big place. Papalardo's house in Independence is 6000 square feet too. They're both big real estate guys. Wonder if they ever work together in that field? Papalardo knew his dad no doubt, was made a few years after him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_VHSgIb3Y0

Safe bet. His brother too id assume

[Stroccos]

https://www.cleveland.com/court-justice ... utType=amp

Some more Cleveland Mafia hauntology in the present day. You see this a lot in the upper echelons of Cleveland society, guys with familiar last names who are kind of shady and semi-legit.

Surprised it took this long for them to Raid him , he’s been Under the microscope for scamming federal housing for awhile now

Pap has. A nice house but it’s not comparbile to Frankie’s

[Newyorkempire]

https://www.cleveland.com/court-justice ... utType=amp

Some more Cleveland Mafia hauntology in the present day. You see this a lot in the upper echelons of Cleveland society, guys with familiar last names who are kind of shady and semi-legit.

Surprised it took this long for them to Raid him , he’s been Under the microscope for scamming federal housing for awhile now

Pap has. A nice house but it’s not comparbile to Frankie’s

Is Sinito close to any of the younger guys still involved with rackets? Minutemen guys?

[Ivan]

Is Sinito close to any of the younger guys still involved with rackets? Minutemen guys?

I'm sure he's friendly with the Minutemen people, I'd be shocked if he's not involved or associated with that somehow.

[Newyorkempire]

Updated

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.clevel ... utType=amp

[NothingNew44]

Did Lonardo confirm Thomas Sinito was a member? I apologize as I’m sure this has been discussed. I’ve seen and read different things.

[chin_gigante]

Did Lonardo confirm Thomas Sinito was a member? I apologize as I’m sure this has been discussed. I’ve seen and read different things.

He did

[PolackTony]

Just to document one reference, Lonardo referred to Sinito as made during his 1988 Senate testimony:



I believe that Lonardo also told the Feds that Sinito and Joe Gallo were both inducted in a 1979 ceremony in a Mayfield Rd social club. I don’t recall offhand where this might be documented, I don’t believe that it was in Lonardo’s 1988
testimony.

Prior to this, Carmen Zagaria had told the Feds that Sinito and Gallo had approached him twice with the offer to make him into the Cleveland outfit. If what Zagaria told the government was accurate, this would have come immediately on the heels of Sinito and Gallo having been made themselves. From an appeal ruling in 1985 for the Lonardo, Gallo, Graewe, et al narcotics case:

[NothingNew44]

Thanks Tony. I appreciate it.

[Stroccos]

does anyone belive franks story that he started without his fathers money ?

[chin_gigante]

I believe that Lonardo also told the Feds that Sinito and Joe Gallo were both inducted in a 1979 ceremony in a Mayfield Rd social club. I don’t recall offhand where this might be documented, I don’t believe that it was in Lonardo’s 1988 testimony.

Does anyone else remember where details of this ceremony came from? I've looked everywhere I could think of but I haven't found anything particularly convincing.

This is all Lonardo says about it in his Senate testimony:

Joe Gallo got to be made a member, I believe, around 1979. Thomas Sinito, 1979. They both got 'made' together, in 1979 or 1980.

Then earlier in his testimony he says he was there for the ceremony and told Gallo and Sinito not to deal in drugs:

We told them when we 'made' them that as far as drugs, that was a no-no in the Cleveland family and they could not do anything like that.

The Wikipedia article for Thomas Sinito is the only other place I could find mention of specific details of the ceremony:

In 1979, Sinito together with his mob colleague, Joseph C Gallo, was eventually made into the Cleveland family. The induction ceremony took place in a small private back room at the Italian-American brotherhood Club in Cleveland's Murray Hill district, on Mayfield Road. The sacred mafia vow of omerta was administered to the duo by the underboss, Angelo 'Big Ange' Lonardo. Also present in the ceremony was mob boss, James T Licavoli, and Charlie Casra, a retired member of the Cleveland family.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Sinito#Made_man

There's currently no source attributed to that paragraph, but through the Way Back Machine I was able to find a now-deleted reference to a two-part American Mafia article on Sinito from 2007 by somebody called Amy A Kisil. I can't find much about this writer, and the current webpage for part 2 of the article says it was 'removed by request' in 2020.

Part 2 (still available on the Way Back Machine) is where details of the ceremony were discussed:

In 1979 in a small private back room at the Italian-American brotherhood Club in the Murraiy Hill district on Mayfield Road in Cleveland. Surrounded by Angelo 'Big Ange' Lonardo, John 'Jack White' Licavoli and Charlie Casra (a retired member of the Clveland Family) Tommy and joseph Gallo became made men Lonardo joked he had to conduct the induction because he was the only one who remembered the Oath.

Each man repeated the rules they had to obey as made men as Big Ange spoke it. 'No one leaves the family alive.They couldn’t talk to the FBI. No use/or sale of drugs. Never engage in prostitution or use the services of a prostitute. Never become involved with other Mafia members wives or girlfreinds.'

Both men were instructed in the rules they had to obey in the Cleveland Mafia family. They had to let Licavoli and Lonardo know what their plans were and let the the bosses know about them. Nothing could be done unless the bosses approved of them.

Big Ange pricked their trigger fingers and drew blood. Both men were told not to their blood brothers. These who had also taken the Oath. They would be those brothers they could trust in the future.

Lonardo handed each man a Saint card, he set the Saint cards on fire and the men held them in the palms of their hands, they juggled the burning Saint cards from hand to hand. They watched them buen to ashes.

'As these ashes are blown away so shall you soul if you betray those who are your brothers/' Big Ange said. 'If you betray any of your brothers, you will blow away like these ashes. After Lonardo said this, he ordered the men to blow the ashes away. 'Do not betray your trusted brothers!'

Sinto and Gallo became made men. For Toomy, like the first time he’d entered Jackie Presser’s resturant in Mayfield Heights, The Forge. He found himself part of the upper Mafia leadership. Despite all odds he’d made it! He’d become made! Sinito was more than an errand boy, a lower level associate, he was made. Now he would direct business for the Cleveland mob. No more reflected glory from his bosses, now he would create his own glory.

https://web.archive.org/web/20110501101 ... s_384.html

I've included the entire excerpt above and it's very strange. Not only is it littered with spelling and punctuation errors, but the style of the prose is quite bizarre and hard to take seriously. The information appears to come from Lonardo but, unfortunately, there are no citations or explanations as to how she obtained the information she discusses. I tried to contact the author for additional information but the email address provided no longer works.

This writer also appears to be the only person I can find who has explicitly discussed details of Iacobacci and Papalardo's ceremony. From part 1 of the Sinito article:

Tommy Sinito along with Joseph Gallo held enough influence in the Cleveland Family to recommend new members to be inducted in the 1983 ceremony inducting two more made men into the Mob, Russell Papalardo and Joseph 'Loose Lips' iacobacci, Jr. Both men were made into the Mob. Sinito could have with his strong will and determination could have revived the Cleveland Mob.

Even from his prison cell in the Federal Correctional Institute Milan, in Milan, Michigan. Tommy Sinito remained an influence in the Cleveland Mafia. Two men Sinito recommended Russell Papalardo and Joseph 'Loose Lips' Iacobacci, were proposed and made into the Cleveland Mafia in 1983.

https://www.americanmafia.com/Feature_Articles_377.html

Again, this is very poorly written and no sources for the author's claims are provided. Another reason I'm sceptical about this source is that at the top of each article it states that Kisil is 'researching and writing a trilogy of novels loosely based on both people and events drawn from the Cleveland Mafia.'

For that reason I think it's reasonable to suspect that she may have been making some things up.

I know this information on Sinito and Gallo's ceremony was also featured on one of the 1980 Cleveland charts put together by Angelo, Stroccos, and others:

Screenshot 2024-10-29 at 11.19.35.png

Is there a more reliable source out there that Amy Kisil was quoting or is she the only source for this information about the 1979 ceremony at the IAB?