Joseph Lonardo (; October 20, 1884 – October 13, 1927), also known as "Big Joe", was an Italian mobster in the United States, who became the first crime boss of the Cleveland crime family, which he structured from a number of competing organized crime gangs. When national Prohibition began in 1920, Lonardo became a dealer in corn sugar, an essential ingredient in the manufacture of corn whiskey. Lonardo became a "sugar baron" by driving other legitimate corn sugar merchants out of business, encouraging home distillation, and using intimidation, murder, and theft to eliminate or drive his criminal competitors out of business.
Lonardo transformed his gang, the Mayfield Road Mob, into a powerful organized crime family. He had the support of the D'Aquila crime family of New York City, and engaged in widespread bribery of local judges, police, and politicians. His criminal organization's reliance on low-quality corn whiskey led to a drop in revenues when consumers began favoring better quality, illegally imported liquor. He began demanding unquestioning loyalty while taking little risk, alienating many bootleggers, home distillers, and organized crime figures.
Lonardo's control of the Cleveland mafia was usurped in 1927 by underboss Salvatore "Black Sam" Todaro and the Porrello brothers while Lonardo was out of the country. When Lonardo returned to Cleveland, he attempted to regain control of the Cleveland mafia. His bodyguards were arrested as suspects in the Yorkell and Brownstein murders, leaving Lonardo unprotected. On October 13, 1927, he was murdered in a Porrello barber shop, likely on the orders of "Black Sam" Todaro. His death sparked Cleveland's Corn Sugar War.
Early life Lonardo was born October 20, 1884, in Licata, Sicily, to Antonia ( Verdi) and Angelo Lonardo. He had three brothers, Dominic, Frank, and John, and a sister. Angelo Porrello operated a sulfur mine near Licata, and the four Lonardo sons worked alongside Porrello's seven sons in the mine.
Lonardo emigrated from Italy to the United States, entering the country on February 4, 1901. He settled in New York City's Little Italy neighborhood, and his three brothers and his sister emigrated to the United States soon thereafter.
Lonardo moved to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1905, living on La Grange Avenue in the Hough neighborhood, then at 923 Orange Avenue by 1916, and then a few years later to E. 38th Street in the Central neighborhood. He became a naturalized citizen on August 14, 1914. Lonardo worked in various commission houses at first, then sold fruit for a living, and later opened a confectionery. By the early 1920s, his brothers Frank and John and family friend Salvatore "Black Sam" Todaro were working in the business. Many members of the Porrello family had also emigrated to the U.S. and settled in Cleveland. Among these was Joseph Porrello, who found work in Lonardo's confectionery business. By at least 1924, Lonardo had also partnered with Todaro in opening a grocery store.
Criminal career Lonardo and his brothers were originally legitimate businessmen, but they soon branched out into extortion and robbery. Lonardo's criminal career began soon after he arrived in Cleveland. He was convicted of aggravated assault in 1906 for stabbing a man, and imprisoned for 22 months in the Ohio State Reformatory. Shortly after his release, he was arrested for (but not charged with) robbery. He was accused of robbery in 1909 but not indicted. He shot and killed a man during an argument in 1916, but a grand jury declined to indict him. Police suspected he was involved in a number of robberies and by 1924 believed he had also committed two murders, but he was never arrested for any of these alleged crimes.
About 1913, a loosely organized Italian American gang known as the Mayfield Road Mob formed in Cleveland's Little Italy neighborhood. The protection racket was the core business of the Mayfield Road Mob at first. Lonardo's criminal activities were limited to small-time crimes, but once Prohibition began, he and his brothers began taking over the Mayfield Road Mob and organizing it, turning it into the dominant criminal organization in Cleveland.
Rise during early Prohibition Prohibition began in Ohio on May 27, 1919, and nationally throughout the United States on January 16, 1920. Once stockpiles of alcohol were consumed, the brewing of beer and distillation of liquor at home increased exponentially in the first few years of Prohibition. By 1920, Lonardo was so well-regarded nationally by other organized crime families that Buffalo underboss Angelo Palmeri asked Lonardo to be godfather to his daughter.
The start of Prohibition also saw the formation of the Cleveland Syndicate. Formed by Moe Dalitz, Maurice Kleinman, Louis Rothkopf, and Sam Tucker, the Cleveland Syndicate was a group of Jewish mobsters based in Cleveland and Akron who engaged in bootlegging, gambling, and smuggling luxury goods, among other things. The Cleveland Syndicate preferred to give a cut of its profits to mobsters in other criminal organizations, who then did the actual work of bootlegging or running the gambling operations. The Cleveland Syndicate dominated bootlegging in Cleveland during the early days of Prohibition, but swiftly partnered with the Mayfield Road Mob—which did most (but not all) of the bootlegging for the Syndicate. The Mayfield Road Mob's bootlegging operation moved large amounts of high-quality liquor from Canada into northeast Ohio and northwest Pennsylvania, generating substantial profits for those involved.
Beginning in 1924, Lonardo began a campaign of intimidation and murder to win control of the majority of bootlegging in northeast Ohio. The barriers to entry into the illegal liquor industry were low, which meant that Lonardo could reduce, but not entirely eliminate, the competition. Lonardo relied on several associates in his effort, including Salvatore "Black Sam" Todaro, his top lieutenant; Frank Milano, one of the top leaders in the Mayfield Road Mob; and gangsters John Angersola, Charles Colletti, Lawrence Lupo, and Charles Russo. Salvatore "Sam" Tilocco and Porrello also became part of the Lonardo crime family, and Porrello rose to a position of some prominence in the organization.
Sugar baron years: 1925–26 In 1925, with pre-Prohibition stockpiles of alcohol exhausted, corn whiskey—which had been manufactured on a small scale—became the illegal liquor of choice in northeast Ohio. Corn sugar was key to the manufacture of corn whiskey. Corn whiskey was usually made with cornmeal or unground corn mixed with rye as the mash. Corn sugar could not only be substituted for grain as the mash ingredient but also permitted faster production of the final liquor. Control of the corn sugar industry as well as the distribution of illegal liquor was critical to anyone seeking to dominate the illegal liquor industry.
Lonardo essentially established a cottage industry in the production of illegal corn whiskey. He and his brothers used their profits from previous criminal activities to invest heavily in corn sugar manufacturing, a completely legal enterprise. They purchased a warehouse located at Woodland Avenue and E. 9th Street. Todaro ran the warehouse, oversaw the bookkeeping, and assisted home brewers in obtaining and setting up stills. Frank Lonardo oversaw the collection of the corn whiskey and its distribution to buyers. Lonardo sold corn sugar sold to home distillers, who in turn sold their corn whiskey to the Mayfield Road Mob. The mob, in turn, sold the alcohol at high prices to local speakeasies. Lonardo offered his corn sugar customers easy credit, which encouraged expansion in home distilling and drove most legitimate corn sugar merchants out of business. The cottage industry system dispersed distillation operations so that no single raid by law enforcement could seriously interrupt production. The cottage industry system also created few opportunities for law enforcement aggrandizement. The vast majority of home distillers used by Lonardo were immigrants, and few law enforcement officers wanted the media to depict them breaking into the homes of poor immigrants. By 1925, law enforcement recognized that home distilling had become so widespread it was now an industrial concern.
The corn sugar industry generated immense wealth for the Lonardos. Lonardo's personal profits from the industry were estimated at $5,000 ($ in dollars) a week. He became Cleveland's first "corn sugar baron", and this in turn allowed him to become boss of the Mayfield Road Mob within just a few years. Lonardo then began to use intimidation and murder to force other corn sugar dealers and purchasers of home-distilled liquor out of business. Tactics included hijacking other people's liquor shipments, stealing liquor from warehouses rented by other gangs, or tipping off the police about where liquor was stored or how it was being moved. The Mayfield Road Mob killed so many small-time corn sugar merchants, distillers, and bootleggers that police claimed hit men were charging a flat fee of $25 ($ in dollars) per murder. Lonardo used the same tactics to discourage home distillers from selling liquor directly to speakeasies, and to encourage retailers to sell liquor at the highest possible price. When his better corn sugar customers ran into trouble with the law, Lonardo often donated money for attorneys and bail. As law enforcement improved, the Mayfield Road Mob strengthened its organization and promoted gangsters with stronger personalities and more talent to leadership positions within the mob. Lonardo and his organization also began the widespread bribery of judges, police, and politicians.
The Mayfield Road Mob's influence was not limited to Cleveland. In Akron, a large industrial city to the south, Frank Bellini and Michael Corcelli controlled the imported illegal liquor and home distilling operations (but not corn sugar sales). The Akron mob owed its allegiance to Lonardo.
Boss of the Cleveland crime family The political economist Dennis M.P. McCarthy suggests that the Cleveland mafia went through three stages: An initial stage, where rival gangs and families contended with one another for power; a second stage, when these gangs sometimes cooperated and sometimes competed; and a third stage, where a powerful boss dominated all the gangs and families and the mafia acted more like a unitary organization. The Mayfield Road Mob under Lonardo, he concludes, is typical of the initial stage. The distinctiveness of the Mayfield Road Mob as a crime family is supported by mafioso Nicola Gentile, who called the group (dominance of those from Licata).
Lonardo and the Mayfield Road Mob had become so dominant in Cleveland that other mafia families began to take interest in what was happening in the city. Prohibition also encouraged the much more powerful New York City mafia organizations to seek alliances with crime families in other cities to ensure reliable and large supplies of illegal liquor. Among the many friends Lonardo made while living briefly in New York City were several who later became important mafioso, including Nicola "Uncle Cola" Gentile (a powerful mafia figure who played a major role in peacekeeping among crime families and helped create The Commission in 1931) and Salvatore "Toto" D'Aquila. D'Aquila, who was rapidly expanding his influence in New York City and was heavily involved in bootlegging, began supporting Lonardo in his efforts to establish himself as the sole boss in Cleveland. According to Gentile, Lonardo "worshipped" D'Aquila "like a god" and was one of D'Aquila's most avid supporters even though D'Aquila tended to murder any of his associates who grew too rich and powerful.