Thomas James Sinito, also known as "The Chinaman" (September 18, 1938 − December 21, 1997), was a powerful caporegime in the Cleveland crime family who was once accused of plotting the assassination of then mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, Dennis J. Kucinich in 1979."Kucinich abandons White House bid" , WRAL-TV, January 24, 2008 Kucinich later became a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in the 2004 and 2008 elections.
Biography Early life Sinito was born on Woodland Ave in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. His father was a maternal cousin of the convicted corrupt Cleveland municipal prosecutor, Thomas Longo who represented the Bedford, Highland Hills and Chagrin Falls townships and was a candidate for the Bedford Municipal Judgship in May 1997. Sinito was the nephew of (Giuseppe Antonio Berardinelli) Joey Maxim by marriage, the legendary Italian-American boxer who became the 1952 Lightweight Boxing Champion of the World.
Thomas Sinito married Irene B. Mitroff in 1960 and they had two children. In 1990, Irene died in a Lake Erie boating accident. After divorcing Irene, Sinito took a second wife, Kristine, with whom he had a daughter.The encyclopedia of Cleveland history: Thomas Sinito
Early association with the Cleveland family Thomas Sinito's involvement with the Cleveland family Capo, Angelo "Big Ange" Lonardo began when he worked as a bartender at Angelo's Highlander Restaurant and Lounge on Northfield Road. Prior to this acquaintance, he had served many years as an errand boy for the mob, tending various vending machine routes. Later, Sinito had several of his own ventures, including part ownership in a Valley Forge, Pennsylvania amusement park. This amusement park provided an ingenious way to launder money undetected, which came from various gambling, drug trafficking and loansharking pursuits, through the amusement park's cash flow.
Sinito had a wide assortment of interest and investments in both legitimate as well as illegitimate businesses. Sinito cautiously invested in many illegitimate business holdings, and greatly profited from the investments he made. Locally, he entered the vending machine business with lucrative washer and dryer accounts at numerous apartment buildings. Sinito also ran some coin-operated vending machine routes, from which he derived a significant bulk of his earnings. His business front was a gift basket company, on Chagrin Boulevard, once a favored area for Mob business and socialization.
In addition to the gift basket shop Sinito opened in Beachwood, Ohio, he also co-owned the Appliance Mart with his brother Chuck. The Appliance Mart was a business front for the Cleveland family. The mart, which opened in 1972, had two locations, one in Euclid, Ohio and the other in Bedford, Ohio on Northfield Road. The Bedford store soon became a major base of operations for Sinito, from which he regularly met with Lonardo and other mobsters, discussed various illegal activities, short term as well as long--term criminal plots, schemes and scams, and operated various illegal activities. Detailed plans for drug trafficking, conspiracies to kill police informers and other violent measures were conceived and acted on from meetings in the back rooms of Appliance Mart.
Sinito was a talented extortionist and operated a lucrative loansharking scheme out of Appliance Mart. Appliance Mart would extend credit to customers it knew weren't credit-worthy and then use forceful extortion tactics to make good on the payment. One of the victims of this loansharking scheme included a small-time career criminal named Carmen "Jinglebells" Zagaria, who would later become a partner with Sinito and manage a major drug trafficking ring. Zagaria owed Sinito a large amount of money, the interest on which grew larger and larger. Sinito and the other mob leaders controlled Zagaria as a result of the high interest on his loan shark debts.Dicing and Drugs: Carmen Zagaria and Tommy Sinito Part 3
The nickname There are many stories on how Sinito acquired the nickname "The Chinaman". One version said that nickname derived from his eyes, which allegedly look slanted "like a Chinaman’s". Another version stated that the nickname described his silent, calm, stoic, disciplined and inscrutable demeanor, the stereotypical qualities of a Chinese man. Another version cited a resemblance to actor David Carradine to the television show Kung Fu, and to a claim that Sinito made karate chops when angry. However, the most popular story was that in either 1973 or 1974 Sinito allegedly threw 10 to 30 people out of a bar on Cleveland's West Side during a brawl.Tommy James Sinito: The Early Years, Part 1
Cleveland’s Model Cities scandal Sinito was a minor figure involved in the 1973 Cleveland's Model Cities scandal. In August 1973, Robert Doggett was the director of the Model City program, which was a federal initiative created under President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society Program during the 1970s. The program funneled millions of dollars into major cities in an effort to help the poor. Local Cleveland area civic and community groups were to determine how to use these funds. Originally the first planned amount was to be $45 million. A federal audit later undertaken by the GAO showed much of the Federal funds were wasted. The General Accounting Office's audit showed at least as much as $9.2 million were misspent on fraud and waste.
A prominent Cleveland mobster and drug trafficker Ronald Bey was hired by then Mayor Ralph J. Perk, into a high level administrative staff position, for the purpose of conducting a drug control feasibility study. An investigation of the corruption and graft in the Model Cities program lead to Mayor Perk’s administration. Bey worked in Mayor Perk’s administration, and appeared in several photographs alongside Mayor Perk. In spite of Perk’s protests that he didn’t know Bey worked for the City of Cleveland, the photographs of both men decorated city hall.
The mob wanted its front companies to receive the biggest contracts. While walking to his office on St. Clair, Doggett was shot in the stomach and nearly died. His would-be assassin was found a few days later, floating facedown in the Ohio River. The shooter's name was Gerald "Chick" Johnson, a former employee of a shady contractor who was seeking a city contract.
Bey became a suspect in the Robert Doggett shooting. Cleveland Police investigators uncovered information, that three days earlier, Doggett had refused to pay Bey's $3,111 fee on his service contract. A Special Grand Jury was convened to Investigate the Model Cities shooting. Its purpose was to investigate Doggett's shooting and how the Model Cities program was administered.
Sinito was one of the witnesses subpoenaed to testify. According to Sgt. Edward Kovacic, of the Cleveland Police intelligence unit, Johnson's car was leased from a dealership where Sinito worked. Although Sinito was granted immunity from any charges that might result from this Special Grand Jury's findings, he refused to cooperate, and testify before a grand jury. No individuals, including Bey, were ever indicted from the results of this Special Grand Jury.
Conflict with Danny Greene In 1975, the legendary Irish-American mobster, Danny Greene began asserting himself in the vending machine racket, which had traditionally been a Mafia racket, and began muscling into many of the Cleveland Mafia's gambling operations. This greatly angered the Cleveland family leadership. According to a mob informant, this move brought him into conflict with Sinito. Sinito considered Greene an extortionist and felt that Greene's coined operated laundry contracts with their excessive fees were nothing more than extortion.Porrello, To Kill the Irishman, pp. 108
Danny Greene controlled some of the more lucrative laundry contracts which Sinito was competing for. Sinito and mob associate, Joseph "Joey Loose" Iacobacci soon murdered one of Greene's associates. Greene's response was to have one of his gang, possibly his cousin Kevin McTaggart, wire a bundle of dynamite to the frame of Sinito's car. Sinito found the bomb in his car, attached to the frame. He removed the bomb, disarmed it and later destroyed it. This act of war by Greene drew Sinito into the Mafia war with Greene in Cleveland during the 1970s, where he would play a significant role.
Kucinich assassination plot As the Cleveland family waged its gang war against Danny Greene, newly elected Mayor Dennis J. Kucinich fought hard to sever the Mafia's old ties to local government. In 1977, Kucinich mandated that all city contracts Cleveland had with various companies would be re-evaluated. In an effort to save money for the financially strapped city, he would have these contracts re-bid on, with the contracts going to the lowest bidder. This decision put him at odds with the Cleveland Mob. That same year, Kucinich refused to sell Municipal Light, Cleveland's public power plant, to private interests that stood to financially gain from the purchase.
The Cleveland family didn't care whether or not Kucinch sold the Municipal Light system to the highest bidder, its sale didn't affect them. Re-bidding on the city contracts they held through various front companies would, however, adversely affect the Cleveland family's interests. The most coveted deal was the garbage-hauling contract once held by Danny Greene, before an associate of his named James Palladino took it over. Palladino made no secret of his contempt for Kucinich, after the mayor awarded the contract to another businessman not directly connected to organized crime.
Some city contracts, especially in garbage hauling, had been under total mob control since the late 1940s. When Kucinich announced in both daily papers, the Plain Dealer and the now defunct Cleveland Press, that he planned to review all city held contracts and open them to the lowest outside bids, it greatly infuriated the Cleveland family hierarchy. Kucinich also began reviewing all of the garbage hauling contracts after coming to office. Every mob-held front company having any city contracts were to be investigated and criminal charges brought against the racketeers. This meant being convicted on federal racketeering charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, with its stiff penalties, such as long jail sentences.
These aforementioned reasons propelled mob boss, James Licavoli, with the advice of Lonardo to order a hit on Kucinich in 1978. In face of some opposition by lower level associates, Sinito stubbornly defended Licavoli's decision and it was then decided to use the services of an outsider professional hitman, since using local associates for the job could trace back to them.
Sinito's uncle Joey Maxim, who worked in an Atlantic City casino helped him contact a contract killer. However, the supposed killer was, in fact, an undercover Maryland State Police officer using the name Gene, who specialized in posing as a contract killer. The two met in the Atlantic City casino where Maxim worked. Gene walked into the casino's lounge where he'd been told to meet Sinito. During the meeting, Sinito introduced himself only as Tommy and successfully hired Gene for the Assassination plot. Gene was initially paid $25,000 for his services. After the meeting, Gene informed Cleveland Police who soon made a connection to Sinito, after checking police records.