Murders in Cleveland

Ninety-years ago there was tension in Cleveland, Ohio's underworld. Seven brothers by the the name of Porrello were the top purveyors of corn sugar in the region. A most needed ingredient in the manufacturing of alcohol. The Mayfield Road Mob, the top Mafia gang in the city, headed by Frank Milano, was attempting to seize control or, at the very least, shake down the Porrellos for protection money.

On July 5, 1930, Joe Porrello, head of family operations, and his lieutenant, Sam Tilocco, attended a meeting with Milano and a hand full of his gang at Milano's Venetian saloon. They played cards for a while and Milano laid it all out. He wanted a piece of the Porrello's corn sugar business. Porrello said no and, as he and Tilocco were getting up to leave, the guns came out.

Porrello never made it out of the saloon, with two bullets to the face, he fell to the floor. Tilocco, though wounded, was able to stagger outside before collapsing and having a another round of shots fired into him by Milano's retreating men.*

Joe Porrello

*For the full story on the Porrello clan and the Cleveland Mafia, check out Rick Porrello's book in the link. A great book.

Ohio State v Michigan

On this date in 1932, a railroad man was walking near the Dixie Highway in Michigan, about a mile and half over the Ohio border when he came upon the body of Toledo gangster, Joseph Lahey. The bootlegger was lying face up with his hands across his chest. He had been shot three times in the head and once in the neck, with a .45. 

Police said that, three days previous, he had hijacked a liquor truck from Cleveland en-route to Toledo. He had been on the spot for a while having dodged two attempts the the previous May. One of which took the life of a confederate named Aaron Harris.

The following year, the Detroit Free Press stated that Lahey was bumped off by Detroit mobster Yonnie Licavoli. Lahey had a total of twelve arrests.

Jimmy Lahey

One Bourbon, One Scotch and Three Bullets

In the early morning of this date back in 1932, St. Louis gangster Milford Jones stood drinking at the bar of Detroit's exclusive Stork Club. Jones speaking with the clubs entertainment, a singing duet known as Tracey and Duncan, when somebody, or somebodies, came up from behind and fired three bullets into his back and head. Tracey, Duncan and forty or so patrons and staff members vacated the club. Jones, sprawled on the floor, his feet entangled in the brass rail, lay by his lonesome for about seven hours before the club's owner decided he should call the police.

Jones was a former member of St. Louis' Cuckoo gang but split with them when his pal Tommy Hayes splintered from the group. From St. Louis he went to Kansas City where he had dealings with a casino, Effects found on his person told police that he had been traveling between Detroit, Cleveland, Toledo, Chicago and Kansas City.

Milford Jones

Pick one

This date in 1929 saw the demise of two Cleveland racketeers. 25 year-old Morris "Skinny" Fuerstman and his partner 43 year-old Isadore Schiller. Both men had long records and were known as shakedown men. They exacted tribute from gambling dens and houses of prostitution. It was also stated that they may have been involved in a kidnapping in Cincinnati and both were involved with a gang in Detroit. Speaking of the Motor City, it was speculated that the two may have been marked for death for hijacking a liquor truck from Detroit.

Whatever the reason, both men were taken somewhere and had their heads were caved in. Someone also drove an ice pick into Fuerstman's head with such force that it took several cops to pull it out. Their bodies were then loaded driven outside of town and dumped in a ditch in Independence Village.

Taps for Papp

On this date in 1933 Akron, Ohio lost its corn sugar king, Joseph Papp. Corn sugar was a main ingredient in manufacture of booze. So there was a needy market for the product. Unfortunately the customers and competition were gangsters who settled their differences with the gun.

The end came for Papp in the Bartges Street Pool Room, which was located next door to the grocery store that Papp owned. He was sitting on a stool when two men entered with guns drawn and hollered "Stick 'em up everybody!" Papp stood up and like the other patrons raised his hands. "Turn around Joe," one of the gunmen said. When Papp turned both men fired into the back of his head. Another round of shots were sent into his back and he dropped to the floor. Once prostrate, Papp's body was twitching, so one of the gunmen stood over him and fired into him again. Both killers then exited the pool room and jumped into a waiting car and were whisked away.

Papp's family noted that he seemed tense and worried in the days leading up to the murder but chalked it up to bad business due to the Depression. Local authorities felt that Papp was most likely bumped off by rival gangsters from Cleveland.

 Joe Papp

The spot

Here's mud in your...mouth?

The fact that he had mud stuffed in his mouth and mud all over his clothing led police to believe that Camello Licarti, age given as 41, was shot through the head out in the boonies somewhere and his corpse carted back to Cleveland's East Side, on this date in 1930, and dumped in the gutter.

Licarti was a long time gangster who was sent to prison for killing a cop in 1917. After serving about ten years, he was released and deported to Italy, but somehow managed to get back into the States.

Papers found on his person showed that he was acquainted with Anthony and Joseph Borsellino, who were bumped off about a week prior. Since their deaths were so close, police took a guess that Licarti was killed in retaliation for the Borsellino murders. One suspects that they could have just as easily  guessed that Licarti was knocked off because he was involved with the Borsellinos.

Two in the Trunk

On this date back in 1930 A coupe was found sitting in a field in the town of  Brecksville, about fifteen or so miles outside of Cleveland. Crammed the in trunk, or turtle back, as they were then called, were the bodies of Anthony Borsellino, 40,  and his 39 year-old cousin Joe*. Both men were described as Cleveland gangsters and both had been garroted with a cord and there wrists tied to their feet.

The last anyone had heard of them they said they were on their way to Akron to meet some people. Obviously they never made it. Cops thought that perhaps Akron gangsters took them out. It was also speculated that Cleveland gangsters may have taken them out. There was strife in the Cleveland underworld at the time and one paper stated that Anthony had replaced the recently dispatched Big Joe Lonardo as Mafia boss. Seeing that both men were executed in the same fashion as Sam Monastero, Pittsburgh authorities felt that perhaps there was an inter-state rum war going on and the Borsellinos fell victim to the same killers as Monestero. 

A 1932 Two-fer

On this date in 1932, Cleveland police approached a car assuming that the man slumped in the front seat was drunk. By 1932 they should have known better. The drunk turned out to be Frank Capillo who was an underworld power in the policy racket. Authorities also thought that he may have been involved in the corn sugar racket. According to his wife he left home the previous evening at 6.

Meanwhile, a little farther west in Chicago the body of Otto Fernick, Dutch Bill, to his cronies, was found in the back seat of a sedan with a number of bullets in his head.

Known as a conman, pickpocket who grew into a gangster, Dutch Bill previously chauffeured for Timothy Lynch, head of the Central Teamsters and Chauffeurs union, who was bumped off the previous spring. Police guessed that Fernick was bumped off for running beer through territory controlled by another gang while detectives felt that he got the works because of his association with the union.