Cleveland Car Bombings Nardi, Greene, Birns, etc.

[FriendofFamily]

I find it interesting some of the Details about the Car Bombings in Cleveland like John Nardi - where the Stolen Car Plates come from (Toledo) where the Stolen car comes from (Akron). Each and every car Bombing that went on during this era is quite interesting along with various details about the crime scene immediately after.

http://blog.cleveland.com/pdextra/2011/ ... bombi.html

(Originally published in The Plain Dealer on May 18, 1977.)

Stories about the bombing death of John A. Nardi were prepared by chief police reporter Donald L. Bean and reporters Mairy Jayn Woge, Robert J. McAuiey, Lou Mio, Christine J. Jindra, Jim Strang, William F. Miller and Richard M. Peery.

John A. Nardi, the reputed "caretaker capo" of organized crime here, died yesterday afternoon shortly after a bomb exploded as he approached his car in a downtown parking lot.

Nardi, 61, was the victim of what police say was a professional killing.

Police said a red, 1975 Pontiac wired with a high-grade explosive equivalent to 15 sticks of dynamite was parked next to Nardi's 1976 Oldsmobile 98 in a lot west of the Teamster Union's Council 41 hall, 2070 E. 22d St. Nardi was secretary-treasurer of the Teamsters' Vending Machine Local 410, with offices in the hall.

Police think someone watched as Nardi walked through an alley behind the building and approached his car, then detonated the explosive by remote control as the rackets figure stood between the vehicles.

Nardi was found, moments after the 3 p.m. blast, by two passersby who heard the explosion. He was lying across the front seat of his car, most of his clothing blown off, his legs shattered.

The men pulled Nardi through the blown out passenger window and started cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Moments later Nardi's brother, Nick A., also a Teamster official in the building, joined them and took over revival attempts until an Emergency Medical Service ambulance arrived. Nardi was taken to St. Vincent Charity Hospital, where he was dead :at 3:27 p.m.

Investigators called it one of the : most sophisticated gangland slayings

in recent years. They believe the car bomb contained several pounds of nuts and bolt's that acted as shrapnel in the explosion. The left side of the Olds was perforated by dozens of metal fragments.

The force of the explosion was such that the vinyl roof of the Pontiac was blown over the two-story, yellow brick Teamsters building into a parking lot about 200 feet away.

The car-bomb carried license plates stolen about two months ago

from a car in a suburb of Toledo. The car was stolen in March in Akron. Investigators said they think the thefts were intended expressly for this killing.

Nardi's car was registered to Local 410. Sources said that since someone fired six shots at Nardi last September as he left the Italian-American Brotherhood Club on Mayfield Rd. in Little Italy, Nardi had frequently changed cars.

Treasury agents from the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Division have joined Cleveland police in the investigation, and FBI agents are making their resources available, although the FBI does not have jurisdiction.

Although investigators are certain it was a rackets-related slaying, the exact motive has not been deter mined, they said.

"I ain't nobody," Nardi told Plain Dealer reporters in an interview last month.

But the man who was born Giovanni Narchione on Jan. 21, 1916, in Cleveland's Little Italy was well-known to police and the FBI.

Although he was charged with blackmail in 1939, and with conspiracies to operate interstate gambling and smuggle drugs in the 1970s, Nardi was never convicted of a crime.

But federal agents and local police maintained that he was among the most powerful in organized crime here.

One investigator dubbed him "the caretaker capo" in reference to his shaky hold on the reins of power and the fact that the top position there is usually inherited by men with traditional mob ties.

Nardi always denied involvement with organized crime, saying he was nothing but a legitimate labor leader.

'"They're trying to make a big man out of me," he said. "I'm not involved in any illegal things."

But police think Nardi was an important liaison between organized crime and the Teamsters. He was a nephew by marriage to Antonio Milano, another major figure in organized crime here

It was Milano who helped Nardi move into the lucrative vending machine union in the 1950s, police say. Nardi said he got the job by asking Ohio Teamster boss William Presser.

His job with Local 410 paid him $34,750 in 1975, and that year he earned another $18,500 as an employee of Council 41, plus $2,123 in expenses. But Teamster sources said he spent little time on union business.

Nardi and his wife, Lillian, lived in a $65,000 condominium at 2626 S. Green Rd., University Heights. The building is owned by American Concrete Builders Inc., which is in turn owned by Dominick E. Bartone.

Bartone, one of Nardi's friends here, is awaiting sentencing for a $249,000 bank fraud conviction. He is also under indictment in Miami, Fla., for gunrunning.

In his last contact with the law, Nardi was acquitted last year in U.S. District Court in Miami of conspiring to import tons of marijuana from Colombia.

In 1971, Nardi was charged with operating interstate gambling. Those charges were dropped for lack of evidence in 1975.

Recurring bomb blasts blow area into No. 1 rank

Almost overnight, Greater Cleveland rose from No. 7 in the nation in bombings to No. 1.

This is because there were 21 bombings in the city last year, a total of 37 in Cuyahoga County.

So common have bombings become in the area that the Alcohol, Tobacco , and Firearms Unit of the U.S. Treasury Department has designated northeastern Ohio as a district headquarters and doubled the size of its staff here,

Authorities have said frequently that bombings are the most difficult crimes to solve, because the evidence ordinarily goes up with the bomb.

Bombs, they have said, are used for a variety of reasons, most commonly to either warn someone or to kill.

They are used as tools in disputes ranging from petty quarrels to underworld power struggles.

The most noteworthy Cleveland bombing in the past five years killed longtime rackets figure Alex (Shondor) Birns, who in life was known widely as Cleveland's most powerful numbers man.

The bomb went off in his car behind a bar near W. 25th St. and Detroit Ave. March 29, the night before Easter, 1975. Birns' body was collected in pieces. The case remains unsolved.

Another well-known name in Greater Cleveland bombings is that of Daniel J. (Danny) Greene, who was blown out of his car by a bomb in the late 1960s, and whose apartment and office on Waterloo Rd. were leveled by an explosion a little more than a month after Birns was killed. Greene escaped injury both times.

Greene told police the bomb that blew him from his car was thrown into it by someone driving past in the other direction. Insiders have since told police it was in Greene's car to begin with, that he was taking it somewhere.

Greene was also quizzed in November 1971 about the Halloween night bombing that year of a car be longing to Michael W. Frato, a Cleveland Heights trash hauler.

The blast killed Arthur Sheperger, a small-time police figure, and demolished Frato's car.

Less than a month later, Greene shot and killed Frato at White City Beach. A judge ruled the shooting self-defense and Greene was freed.

Other notable bombings in Greater Cleveland in the past several years included:

• A blast that caused extensive damage at the commercial offices of William H. Seawright, 7508 Cedar Ave., in March 1973. Seawright, a former numbers racketeer, had asked for police protection two years earlier because he had received threats over a trash-hauling contract he held.

• The death in June 1973 of Larry D. Steele, 32. Steele had just got into a van owned by Drug Abuse Centers Inc. outside a bar on Carnegie Ave. when the bomb exploded.

• The killing of three persons — including a 2-year-old boy — when a bomb wrecked a house at 6101 Lansing Ave. in January 1975.

• The death in February 1975 of Richard H. Moss, 41, Beachwood, who was killed when a gift-wrapped box exploded in his hands in his garage. The box, according to police, had been left on the seat of Moss' car.

• The serious injury in May 1975 of Robert Beavers, 36, Medina, who lost his right leg when a bomb exploded in his car. The blast occurred shortly before Beavers was to have testified against another man in a liquor theft case

• The death last September of Frank P. Pircio, 50, of 1010 Evangeline Rd., killed when a bomb exploded as he started his neighbor’s car. Police said the bomb was probably intended for the neighbor, Alfred S. Calabrese Jr.

• The bombing two days later of the home of Eugene J. Ciasullo, 45, Richmond Heights. No one was home. It was the second time in two months the house was bombed.

'Man, I coulda been killed!' says witness at bomb scene

By David T. Abbott

It had been another frustrating day of job-hunting for Marshall Gaither. But the blast that killed John A. Nardi shocked Gaither out of his self-pity. "I was about to walk down that alley. Man, I coulda been killed!" Gaither said.

Gaither, 22, said he was crossing E. 21st St. between Prospect and Carnegie avenues when he saw a man or two walking toward some cars parked behind Teamsters Council 41 hall.

"I didn't pay any attention to them," Gaither Said. "Then there was this boom. It was like a cannon. Then there was all this black smoke. You couldn't see nothin'. Then it was fire."

The explosion also startled Darrell Dillard, who was drinking wine and chatting with a woman in the Union Bar, 2120 Prospect. "We all ran out," he said. "We didn't know what was going on."

Dillard, 23, raced down an alley to a fence in front of the burning car at about the same time Gaither and two other men reached it.

"We jumped the fence, and I heard someone yell to get him out," Dillard said. "We tried to get the door open, but the window was blown out so we pulled him out — by the arms. His legs were nearly gone."

The four men carried the man they later learned was Nardi into a nearby alley. "So many people started showing up in that alley that you’d think it was a ball game," Dillard said.

"His pants were burned off. Those guys started to unbutton his shirt and I said, 'Hey, man! Rip it off! He's already in his drawers. The shirt don't matter.'"

Dillard and Gaither said Nardi's legs were mangled below the knees and that he bled from cuts over much of his body.

"Everyone was standing around so I tried pushing on his chest," Dillard said. "I wasn't gonna try mouth-to-mouth. His mouth was bleeding."

For a moment, they thought Nardi had been revived. "There were bubbles" coming out of his mouth," Gaither said.

While Dillard pumped Nardi's chest, a man ran up saying he was the victim's brother. That was Nick Nardi. "He took over until the ambulance came." Dillard said. "He didn't say much."

Gaither said that as soon as he saw Nardi, "I knew it would be a miracle if he lives."

"Yeah," Dillard said. "But we did the best we could.”

Omerta for Nardi

Omerta.

It's an Italian word with elastic meanings. One of them is keep quiet, don't say anything to anybody. The code of silence.

"Did you hear about Johnny Nardi," asked a bar patron on Mayfield Rd. in Cleveland's Little Italy yesterday. The word of his death had spread fast.

"Yeh, I heard," was the reply. Nothing else. Nardi was from Little Italy, although he resided in University Heights in recent years.

To someone coming from outside the neighborhood to gauge reaction, the message was clear and in English. "People will dummy up. They won't say a thing."

A barmaid at the Italian American Brotherhood. Club, where Nardi had played cards, was polite, but firm. "Come back tomorrow," she said. The last attempt on Nardi's life was outside the club.

If people were talking about Nardi's death, they did it privately or in short, vague, clipped sentences in public.

"He was a nice guy, but I didn't know him," said one restaurant worker. Then he went back to work.

Outwardly, Little Italy looked normal. A sign was strung across Mayfield Rd. announcing an upcoming festival.

A basketball game was in progress at an outdoor court. A Softball game was getting under way.

And two old women slowly climbed the steps to Holy Rosary Catholic Church.

Motive for Nardi bombing is mystery to Rini

"Oh my God, not John," Michael P. Rini said in his City Hall office when he was told of the bombing death that ended his 40-year friendship with John A. Nardi.

Rini, 66, Mayor Ralph J. Perk's labor adviser, had told The Plain Dealer last month about his long relationship with Nardi. A past president of Teamsters Local 400, Rini said his office was next to Nardi's for 37 years.

"John doesn't stick his nose out of union business," Rini was quoted in the interview. "He's a hell of a guy and that's as far as I know."

Rini added then that be was amazed about the intense scrutiny of Nardi by law enforcement officials and doubted that reports of rackets activities were true.

"From knowing the man all these years ... always smiling, I've never known him to be discussing any of these kinds of things."

Last Sept. 10, Rini was in the Italian American Brotherhood Club, 12020 Mayfield Rd., when shots were fired at Nardi as he got into his car parked nearby. Rini said he immediately rushed outside, but could not see the assailant. Nardi was unhurt.

Reached at the club last night, Rini said everybody there was "in shell-shock."

Rini said he did not know of a motive for the bombing.

"They must be animals," he said.

Nardi's brother, Nick A., the club's secretary, also said he was baffled by the killing.'

"All his life, the only thing be did was try to help everybody," Nick said when telephoned at his brother's home at 2626 S. Green Rd., University Heights.

"He loved everybody. That was the only thing he was guilty of," Nick said in an emotional voice;

Other members of the family could not be reached for comment.

Labor leaders express regret over killing of ‘nice guy’ Nardi

By William F. Miller

Startled when the bomb exploded that killed John A. Nardi, Anthony A. Granata rushed to his office window to see a car roof fly over the Teamsters building and land in a nearby parking lot.

Granata, president of the Cleveland Federation of Musicians Local 4, said the explosion "shook the office and nearly knocked me out of my chair."

His office at 2200 Carnegie Ave. overlooks the Teamsters Joint Council 41 headquarters and parking lot, where the car rigged up as a bomb exploded.

Granata said of Nardi, "He was a nice guy, who always paid his way. He was not a tough person.”

Charles R. Pinzone, executive secretary of the Cleveland Building and Construction Trades Council, said the Nardi killing gives labor an unfair reputation.

"It's a shame to see this happen," Pinzone said. "You would think there are other ways to settle problems."

Pinzone said he did not know Nardi well. "I ran into him at some civic dinners."

"I'm shocked by the killing," said John R. Vinegard, president of Hotel, Motel, Restaurant

Employes and Bartenders Local 10. The union has close ties to the Teamsters, although it is a part of theAFL-CIO.

"John Nardi was a gentleman as far as my relationship with him," said Vinegard, who knew him for 25 years.

Vinegard said he knew of no reason for the bombing.

Jackie Presser, Teamsters Joint Council 41 leader, was out of town and could not be reached for comment.

Federal agents join police checking out bombing links

A score of agents from the FBI and the Treasury's Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms Division joined Cleveland police yesterday in investigating the bombing death of reputed racketeer John A. Nardi.

Agents in Akron and Toledo interviewed the owners of the stolen license plates and auto used in the bombing. Authorities said the plates and car appeared to have been stolen specifically for the bombing. They said the tactic is similar to that used by terrorists in Ireland.

The plates-were reported stolen two month sago by David Cupp of Cygnet, O., near Toledo, while his car was parked outside a Toledo, bar.

The 1975 Pontiac used as the bomb car was reported stolen March 7 by George O. Morrow from a parking lot outside his Akron office.

Police and federal agents believe Nardi's death is related to a

power struggle in the area labor movement, but said they did not know the specifics in the dispute.

Police and federal agents believe yesterday's bombing is related to recent bombings of Eugene J. Ciasullo of Richmond Heights and Alfred S. Calabrese Jr. The bomb apparently meant for Calabrese killed his neighbor, Frank P. Pircio.

Ciasullo, Calabrese and Pasquale (Butch) Cisternino are believed to be allied with reputed gangster James Licavoli (Jack 'White), who reportedly was at odds with Nardi.

Licavoll's cousin, Akron loan shark Leo (Lips) Moceri. disappeared last August, and federal authorities speculate the bombing of Nardi may be in retaliation for Moceri's disappearance and presumed death.

It was learned that Ciasullo was in Hallandale, Fla., and that authorities discussed the bombing with him late yesterday.

[Ivan]

Fun fact: Two of the three confirmed made guys still alive were participants in either the Nardi (Russell Papalardo) or Greene bombings (Ronald Carabbia).

[Adam]

Fun fact: Two of the three confirmed made guys still alive were participants in either the Nardi (Russell Papalardo) or Greene bombings (Ronald Carabbia).

What verification do we have that Carabbia was made? I don't doubt it, but do we have information on when it was or any kind of details?

[Ivan]

Fun fact: Two of the three confirmed made guys still alive were participants in either the Nardi (Russell Papalardo) or Greene bombings (Ronald Carabbia).

What verification do we have that Carabbia was made? I don't doubt it, but do we have information on when it was or any kind of details?

Apparently was given his button in prison by Angelo Lonardo's decree. This info comes from the poster jcb1977 here.

[Adam]

[/quote]

Apparently was given his button in prison by Angelo Lonardo's decree. This info comes from the poster jcb1977 here.
[/quote]

Lonardo okayed him to get made in prison? During the few months Lonardo was on the street and Licavoli was in prison or some other time? Even so wouldn't that be a Licavoli decision? Sorry, I realize it's not your information, but I'm curious. I've been very interested in what the Cleveland organization looked like post Scalish dying for a long time. In particular I've been intensely curious as to who the made members were in 1976 right after Scalish died and which ones were still active and which ones were retired and semi retired. But that's a side discussion.

I did not realize Papalardo was part of the Nardi hit. I've heard that possibly Montana, Cisternino, Bonariggo and maybe that Grecco guy that gets mentioned from time to time, but not Papalardo. Any more information on that?

[Ivan]

Papalardo drove the Nardi bomb car, IIRC. It's what made him eligible to get straightened out. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

[FriendofHenry]

Fun fact: Two of the three confirmed made guys still alive were participants in either the Nardi (Russell Papalardo) or Greene bombings (Ronald Carabbia).

What verification do we have that Carabbia was made? I don't doubt it, but do we have information on when it was or any kind of details?

Apparently was given his button in prison by Angelo Lonardo's decree. This info comes from the poster jcb1977 here.

Ivan's correct. All of this has been previously discussed. Included in the conversation was that RC's family was taken care of while he did his time and kept his mouth shut. Rc has been out for a while and splits his time between Struthers and Florida where his son has several fireworks business. RC Jr. has done quite well.

[Adam]

So when was Carabbia made? I'm sorry, I missed the earlier discussion. I appreciate all information. Henry, I don't think I've specifically asked you a question before, but if you ever get the chance I have a Wheeling question.

Adam R.

[Pogo The Clown]

If I remember right it was Licavoli who made him prison when they were on trial for the Greene murder.


Pogo

[FriendofHenry]

So when was Carabbia made? I'm sorry, I missed the earlier discussion. I appreciate all information. Henry, I don't think I've specifically asked you a question before, but if you ever get the chance I have a Wheeling question.

Adam R.

There's damn few of us that have interest in Cleveland? Pittsburgh/Youngstown LCN, so welcome aboard
As you may know I can and will only answer questions from my own personal experiences. Ask whatever and I'll see if I'm able to answer.

[Adam]

So when was Carabbia made? I'm sorry, I missed the earlier discussion. I appreciate all information. Henry, I don't think I've specifically asked you a question before, but if you ever get the chance I have a Wheeling question.

Adam R.

There's damn few of us that have interest in Cleveland? Pittsburgh/Youngstown LCN, so welcome aboard
As you may know I can and will only answer questions from my own personal experiences. Ask whatever and I'll see if I'm able to answer.

Thanks Henry. I'm a Detroit guy. FBI files say that the Detroit family asked Pittsburgh(Mannarinos) to kill Nick Miller in 1957. Which they did and I thought his body got left in Wheeling. But I've come across nothing linking Miller to Detroit. So I'm wondering if that was a Detroit hit request, and why? Or did it have nothing to do with Detroit and the FBI was wrong. That happens.

[FriendofHenry]

I have no knowledge of any Detroit requested hit and any body left in Wheeling as a result of any such hit. Sorry 'bout that.
Maybe JCB with his research abilities can provide an answer?

[Adam]

Fair enough. FBI files say the Mannarinos(literally the brothers physically) strangled him for Detroit in 1957. Just curious.

Adam R.

[FriendofHenry]

I can only tell you what I was told or heard in my conversations during my encounters with the Pittsburgh Family.
Never were there any Capital Crimes ever discussed or over-heard.

[scott22]

When I was spending time with Tony Zerilli before he died in FLA, he kept waking up in the middle of the night yelling "Kelly, Kelly,"

His wife asked me who "Kelly" was. I asked Tony Z and he said "Kelly Mannerino, who else?"

SCOTT