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February 2007

Tommy James Sinito
AKA The Chinaman:
The Early Years
Part 1

By Amy A. Kisil

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The writer of this article is currently researching and writing a trilogy of novels loosely based on both people and events drawn from the Cleveland Mafia. She’s writing a book titled Three Cousins about Tommy Longo’s relationship with Cleveland’s Mafia and his Sinito cousins, Tommy and Chuck.
email: Aak4kats@aol.com

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     Tommy "The Chinaman" Sinito, a made man in the Cleveland Mafia Family, remains an enigma. The Full extent of his criminal career and influence is shrouded in mystery. He played a large part in the Cleveland Mafia. Tommy Sinito rose from being an errand boy to the rank of made man under Mafia Boss Big Ange Lonardo.

     Tommy Sinito caught Big Ange Lonardo’s attention when he tended bar in the early 1970s at the Highlander Restaurant and Lounge on Northfield Road..

     Sinito remained a major influence in the Cleveland Mafia until his death from a heart attack in the exercise yard at the Belmont Correctional Institute in 1997. His rapid raise in Mafia ranks from errand boy to made man has created a plethora of stories about him. Most of these are nothing more than fantastic tales.

     Tall, handsome, complex and strong willed Tommy Sinito has many stories swirling around him. Most of these stories are nothing more than embellished tales passed, like a game of Telephone, from person to person. With each retelling they become more fantastic. Scant facts and rumors become huge tales with little basis in reality.

     Even his nickname, the Chinaman, has conflicting stories about its origins. One person will tell you he got the nickname The Chinaman because his eyes look slanted "like a Chinaman’s."

     Another will tell you he was silent, stoic, and inscrutable, the qualities some people think a Chinaman possesses. Sinito always calm, always quiet and always in control.

     The funniest story about the origins of his nickname is Sinito made karate chops when he got mad. A couple of his Mafia pals thought he resembled Cain, played by actor David Carradine, in the old television show Kung Fu. This behavior earned him the nickname The Chinaman. If Tommy Sinito acted like this it could earned him the nickname "Crazy". He would not have moved up in Mafia ranks. He could have been regarded as unstable..

     One of the most persistent stories about Sinito is in either 1973 or 1974 Tommy Sinito supposedly cleaned out a bar located on Cleveland’s West Side., It’s unclear where this bar was located. Some will tell you it was in the Tremont area. Others say it was located on West 25th and Detroit Avenue. Everyone who tells this story agrees the bar was on Cleveland’s west side.

     The story goes like this:

     Tommy Sinito complains about the loud music and noise in the hazy smoke filled bar

     "We need a little quiet to drink in peace!" Sinito says..

     One of the bar’s drunken customers takes exception to Sinito’s remark. This drunk tries to slug The Chinaman

     During the bar brawl Tommy Sinito, according to who tells the story, tosses out 10, 15 or 30 people into the street. Sinito, steps over a couple unconscious people laying in the street, rubs his hands together and goes back inside the now emptied bar. Tommy lays down $500.00 on the broken glass filled bar surface to cover the damages.

     "That’s for the damage!" He says. "Now where’s my drink?"

     Even Danny Greene, Cleveland’s legendary Irish gangster, couldn’t claim ownership of an exploit like this.

     Unless Tommy Sinito learned some fancy boxing moves from his Uncle Joey Maxim, the 1952 Lightweight Boxing Champion of the World. Joey Maxim outlasted, after thirteen rounds, the legendary Sugar Ray Robinson to win the championship. It’s doubtful Tommy Sinito managed to clear out a bar on his own without some help.

     This story grows each time it’s told. There are no facts to support this Chinaman tale. There are no media or police reports about a massive bar brawl involving Tommy Sinito. This is another story traded around in internet chatrooms, growing bigger on each retelling..

     Ironically the one crime the 1978 plot to assassinate then Cleveland Mayor Dennis Kucinich during a parade, sounds like a internet chatroom story. The Kucinich plot was a real event. The Chinaman, along with other high raking Cleveland Mafia members who took part in planning the Kucinich assassination plot, were never indicted or charged with any crime.. The 1978 assassination plot sounds like another chatroom tale, but this one is based on facts, not fantasy.

     The Chinaman’s real life is a better story than any of the mixed truth tales swirling around him.

     Courageous, honorable, complex and strong willed Tommy Sinito left a lasting impression on those he came in contact with. James Willis, one of his former lawyers said about him during the eulogy Willis delivered at Tommy Sinito’s funeral services on December 23, 1977 at Cleveland’s St. John’s Cathedral , Willis called him "courageous and honorable. If he told you something you could take it to the bank. He wasn’t a cry baby. . .he was from the old school."

     These personal qualities separated Sinito from the crowd of errand boys and associates who surrounded Big Ange and other Mafia bosses. Tommy Sinito’s relationship with Big Ange proved beneficial to both men. Each man respected the other and with Big Ange’s backing Tommy Sinito could climb high in the Cleveland Mafia’s ranks.

     During the course of his Mafia career, the Chinaman, never flipped on any of his Mafia associates. He’d taken an oath and he kept it. Omerta, thecode of silence , was more than a word, omerta became the mainstream of his being. James Willis summed up his personality completely, Tommy Sinito "Was from the old school." .

     If the Chinaman had served out his jail sentence, he could have brought back the Cleveland Mafia family with a vengeance. Courageous, honorable and complex,. The Chinaman emerged from the crowd of Mafia errand boys and served as a Lieutenant for underboss Big Ange. Lonardo. A relationship that proved beneficial to both men over the years..

     All it could take to revive the Cleveland Mafia if someone filling the leadership vacuum, either an acting boss or a consigliore (legal adviser) would be to hold one initiation ceremony to bring new members into the Cleveland Mob. The Cleveland family could be revived and back in Business. With his determination and strong will Tommy Sinito could have held that initiation ceremony. There could have a revival of the Cleveland Mafia family. New members could have been proposed and made. Sinito could have been in charge of the new family, ruled by his iron hand.

     Even Big Ange Lonardo warned the FBI the Cleveland Mafia could be revived at any time. The Mafia could be revived after various Mafia leaders were released from federal prison cells

     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.

     Prisoners have time to think about their former lives and the crimes they committed. It’s no doubt that Sinito did the same. The long hours he spent in his cell and the exercise yard gave him time to think. Tommy Sinito had time to remember when he caught Bug Ange’s attention as a bar tender at the Highlander Restaurant and Lounge, a transition point for him and the later course of his life.

     Tommy caught the attention of Big Ange Lonardo the most respected underboss and Mafia leader in Cleveland, both socially and professionally. Big Ange might have seen a little of himself in Tommy Sinito. The Chinaman benefited from this association. He started to climb up the Mafia ladder from errands boy to "Amico Nostra".

     According to Plain Dealer columnist Brent Larkin, the Highlander Restaurant and Lounge, "is remembered as a gathering place" for people like Salvatore "Sam" Vecchio and other members of the Cleveland Mafia. Like Jackie Presser’s Mayfield Heights, Ohio restaurant, The Forge and the Pettibone Club in Bainbridge, Ohio. Along with the Theatrical Restaurant on Short Vincent Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio. The Highlander became a watering hole for local organized crime figures and celebrities . Mafia and Mafia wanabees rubbed shoulders and traded stories there.

     An ambitious man could, if he caught the right Mafia boss or underboss’s attention, could move up the Mafia ladder.

      Tommy Sinito came to Big Ange’s notice while he tended bar at the Highlander. He wasn’t a stranger to local Mob bosses, having spent long years as a Mob errand boy tending various vending machine routes. From this small beginning Sinito started his climb upwards through the Cleveland Mafia from errand boy to made man.

     The Cleveland Mafia coin operated vending machine and jukebox rackets weren’t new. The Mafia controlled many vending machine and jukebox routes . Most coin operated vending machines and jukeboxes, despite efforts by the Cleveland courts and police, remained under Mob control. Tommy Sinito ran some coin operated vending machine routes. He faithfully turned in his weekly pay envelope to the boss of the crew he worked for. Sinito became an earner, a man to be trusted.

     Coin operated vending machines, especially jukeboxes, were an attractive and lucrative source of cash for the Cleveland Mafia. The endless source of untraceable metal coins were converted into currency and mixed with dirty money to launder it. It became clean money to be funneled into other financial interests, legal or illegal. There was exclusive control of both coin operated machine distributors and the route men who serviced the vending machine.. This was an endless supply of steady income. An ambitious associate could work and earn respect as an earner for his Mafia bosses.

     Vending machine and jukebox rackets aren’t new to the Cleveland Mafia. During the 1930’s and 40’s William Presser (Father of Jackie Presser, future President of the Teamsters Union) and John Nardi (Father of Mafia member Jack Nardi) organized various vending machine and jukebox rackets. The Chicago Crime Commission, said in its 1954 report. "Notwithstanding the inherently legitimate character of almost every section of the nation has become a racket." Jukeboxes and coin operated vending machines once an honest business became a Mob controlled operation in every large Eastern city.

     By World War II the Mob, especially in the large eastern cities, had a stranglehold on all coin operated vending machines. William Presser made strong ties with both Jewish gangsters and the Mafia to keep control. Usually a distributor sold their coin operated machines to a operation or a company holding exclusive rights to the route. Jukeboxes and other coin operated vending machine distributors were forbidden, sometimes violently from placing coin operated machines on Mob controlled routes.

     In Cleveland William Presser controlled the jukebox and vending machine rackets with muscle from the local Mafia.

     One of the first low level jobs a Mafia soldier did was servicing a vending machine route. An attractive way to launder money through an endless supply of untraceable metal coins. The profits provided an endless supply of converted currency to launder money, used to finance criminal activities.

     During the 1950’s and 1960’s many Mafia soldiers began became earners by servicing vending machines on routes controlled by the Cleveland Mafia. Without this source of income, a vital money source could dry up. Tommy Sinito started his Mafia career running vending machine routes.

     Frank "Little Frank" Brancato (Mafia Boss from 1972 - 1973) brought in Danny Greene and other Irish gangsters to act as errand boys and muscle to enforce the Mafia’s influence during the 1960’s . Greene was used as muscle in enforcing the Mob’s control over the garbage hauling contracts and other Mob influenced rackets.

     Brancato regretted this tactical move. Until his death he regretted bringing Danny Greene into the Mob and the damage it did.

     Big Ange Lonardo also had income from jukeboxes and vending machines. They provided a steady income and huge profits. This income was used to finance other illegal activities. Some of these laundered funds were invested in front companies were to launder money and funnel illegal goods through an front companies inventory. Various underbosses and bosses became silent investment partners in a mixture of front businesses. According to FBI records Appliance Mart was a front business, for the Mob.

     Appliance Mart,. like the gift basket shop Tommy Sinito opened in Beachwood, Ohio, was a front business for the Cleveland Mafia. Various illegal activities operated through the Bedford store. Appliance Mart, opened in 1972, had two locations, one in Euclid, Ohio and the other in Bedford, Ohio on Northfield Road. The Bedford store was located on the intersection of Rockside and Northfield Road. A Dollar General store now occupies the old Appliance Mart location. Appliance Mart too was located beside the former Bluegrass Hotel, a haven for racetrack people from the Thistledown Racetrack and another Mafia watering hole.

     Tommy and his brother Chuck co-owned Appliance Mart. FBI surveillance photos show both Tommy Sinito and Big Ange having regular meets in front of the store on Northfield Road. Other Mafia activities were conducted inside the Appliance Mart store during these meets.

     Plans and other long term criminal schemes and scams were hatched in Appliance Mart Sinito’s store like Joseph Gallo’s office in Orange Place in Beachwood, Ohio served the same purpose. Detailed plans for drug trafficking, conspiracies to kill police informers and other violent measures to protect Mob interests. These plans were conceived and acted on from meets in the back rooms of Appliance Mart.

     Probably the most lucrative of all was the loansharking scheme that operated out of Appliance Mart. Various customers and others got caught up in the loansharking schemes. Appliance Mart extended credit to customers it knew wasn’t credit worthy and then used "extortive measures" to collect money from them. One of the victims of this loansharking scheme, Carmen "Jinglebells" Zagaria, could later become a partner with Sinito and manage a major drug trafficking ring .

     Like others in the lower ranks, Tommy Sinito mixed both illegitimate and legitimate businesses together to earn a living. The Chinaman had an inherent business sense of what could be a good investment. He profited from the investments he made. Tommy Sinito flew under the radar of local law enforcement.

     Until 1973.

     In 1973 Sinito played a minor role in Cleveland’s Model Cities scandal.

     The shooting of Bob Doggett, Model Cities Director on a hot, humid August day in 1973 triggered an investigation into how the Cleveland Models agency was run..

     Doggett walking down a Cleveland sidewalk was approached by a tall , blonde haired, mustached man. Doggett ignored the man as he passed him.

     "Are you Bob Doggett?" The man asked him. "Come with me!"

     Doggett kept walking . two shots rang out on that hot, humid day. Only one bullet found its mark, Bob Doggett crumpled to the sidewalk, his blood pooled around him. While only one bullet entered him, it left it’s mark..

      In the long term Bob Doggett’s shooting was the tip of the iceberg. The Model Cities program was embroiled in graft and corruption. Every civic hand reached into the large, open ended; funnel of federal money. Money flowed in an endless stream, every public official in Cleveland came to feed at the trough.

.     The Model Cities program was a federal program created under President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society Program during the 1970’s. Model Cities funneled millions of dollars into major cities in an effort to help the poor. Some compared the Model Cities Program to granting everyone

three wishes. The money pot at the money rainbow overflowed with an endless source of federal funds. 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 dollars,. a later federal audit by the GAO showed much of the Federal funds were wasted. The GAO’s l audit showed at least as much as 9.2 million dollars were misspent on fraud and waste...

     One prominent Cleveland crime figure and drug trafficker Ronald Bey benefited. Bey was hired to conduct a drug control feasibility study. Hired by then Mayor Perk, despite protests from his staff, he hired Bey to a high level administrative staff position. An investigation of the corruption and graft in the Model Cities program could lead to Mayor Perk’s office.

     During the time Ronald Bey worked in Mayor Perk’s administration he appeared in several photographs with Mayor Perk, despite Perk’s protests he didn’t know Bey worked for the City of Cleveland, these photographs of both men decorated city hall.

     Bey became a suspect in the Bob Doggett shooting. Cleveland Police investigators uncovered 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.

     One of the witnesses subpoenaed was Tommy Sinito. . Although Sinito was granted immunity from any charges that might result from this Special Grand Jury’s findings, Sinito refused to cooperate.

      Sinito had served as an officer in the car rental agency that rented the car to the man who shot Bob Doggett. Tommy Sinto refused to cooperate, he could not testify before the Special Grand Jury.

      No individuals, including Bey, were ever indicted from the results of this Special Grand Jury . This investigation was a foreshadow of what could come later in the 1984 probe of Sinito’s involvement in a 1978 plot, along with other major Mafia figures, to assassinate Cleveland Mayor Dennis Kucinich.

     Tommy Sinito’s uncooperative behavior during the Special Grand Jury hearing to Investigate the Model City shooting, showed he had grit and determination. Sinito wasn’t a man to bend under any pressure, even legal pressure, to flip on his associates. This strong will could push him up the Mafia ranks.

     He showed he could be trusted, unlike other low level associates, who were shake and shiver boys who ran scared at the first sign of trouble.

     When Tommy Sinito tended bar at the Highlander Restaurant and Lounge on Northfield Road no doubt Big Ange Lonardo saw a little bit of himself in the young Mafia associate. Both men were forceful, ambitious and determined individuals. Each one balanced the others weaknesses and strengths, making a strong team.

     During his early Mafia years, Tommy Sinito, probably through a silent partner, found another way to make money. Sinito’s inherent business sense in real estate led him to invest in an amusement park in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. This amusement park provided another way to launder money from various illegitmate activities , such as gambling, drug trafficking and loansharking. Large amounts of dirty money could flow undetected through the amusement park’s cash flow, another source of laundered money for the Cleveland Mafia.

     A lucrative source of income were the coin operated laundry machines located in the large hotel and apartment buildings in the Cleveland area. There was money to be made in handling these contracts. Money Sinito wanted and money he intended on getting for his own profit.

     Unfortunately this brought Tommy Sinito into conflict with Irish gangster Danny Greene brought into the Mob by Frank Brancato. Danny Greene controlled some of the more lucrative laundry contracts Tommy Sinito was competing for. Greene kept those laundry contracts by force and fear. Danny Greene murdered his competitors especially if they had Mob ties.

     Tommy Sinito considered Danny Greene an extortionist, Sinito felt Greene’s coined operated laundry contracts with their excessive fees were nothing more than extortion. The Chinaman knew if you wanted to wring a guy or a business you bleed them dry slowly. So you could make a profit and have a steady source of income.

      Some of those who competed with Danny Greene’s vending machine empire didn’t fare well in the fight. They became casualties of Danny Greene’s war!

     John Conte owned a vending machine business. While Conte owned a vending machine company, he worked as a route man for another one. Conte’s company provided slot machines to various private clubs and parties.

     Conte too was a close friend to Mob figure Joseph Gallo. Maybe Conte’s death served a twofold purpose. One, to eliminate a competitor. Two, to send a loud message to the Mob, that he, Greene, controlled the Cleveland’s vending machine market. Danny Greene meant to keep his control over it..

     In Danny Greene’s war with the Mob to build a vending machine empire, Conte became a victim. Conte told his wife he had a meeting with Danny Greene to discuss some business that morning. That was the last time Conte’s wife saw him. His badly, beaten body was found a few days later in Austintown, Ohio.

     Police investigators theorized that Conte was beaten to death in Danny Greene’s trailer. Conte’s body was latter transported to the dump site in Austintown.

`     Investigators found some physical evidence in Greene’s trailer that a violent act may have occurred. Danny Greene was never charged with Conte’s murder. Modern forensic science, in the 1970s, in some physical tests was still in its infancy. The laboratory tests and the methods used to gather evidence were in some cases inaccurate and imprecise. Even if the various physical items found in Greene’s indicated they might have been used to murder John Conte the forensic evidence wasn’t strong enough to make a case against Greene for Conte’s murder

     Tommy Sinito escaped being a victim of Danny Greene. Sinito found a bundle of dynamite wired to the frame of his car. He removed the bomb, disarmed it, and later destroyed it. Sinito avoided becoming a victim of the Danny Greene’s self declared war against the Mafia.

     This act by Danny Greene drew an unwilling Tommy Sinito into the Greene/Nardi war Mafia war in Cleveland during the 1970s. A war that made Cleveland the bomb capital of the world. Cleveland even eclipsed Youngstown’s reputation as Murder City. The Chinaman would later play a role in the Greene/Nardi war.     

     During the 1970s Tommy Sinito became a regular at Jackie Presser’s restaurant The Forge. These frequent stops at this Mayfirld Heights Mafia watering holes brought him under FBI surveillance..

     The Forge itself was a one story building, it’s outside appearance unappealing. The restaurant nestled between the two high raise towers of Carl Milstein’s Gates Mills Apartments in Mayfield Heights, Ohio. The Forge could play an important part in Jackie Presser’s role as an FBI informant on Mob activities..

     The restaurant’s decor was overdone and the food mediocre. Unfortunately for Presser, the restaurant didn’t attract the crowd he wanted to impress, the country club, horsy, social set from Gates Mills. What The Forge did attract was the Mafia in large numbers. The FBI soon learned of the new Mafia hangout in Cleveland.

     What the Mafia crowd, who were regulars at The Forge, didn’t realize was Jackie Presser, along with his business partner Tony Hughes were FBI informants. Jackie Presser had been feeding information to the FBI about Mob activities since 1968

     Having the Mafia crowd gathered at The Forge made Presser’s FBI informant role easier. The information exchange between Presser and the FBI was a two way street. The FBI gave Presser leeway to conduct his own illegal union activities with the Teamsters. The FBI turned a blind eye only as long as Presser remained a an informant on Mob activities..

     Jackie Presser and Tony Hughes appeared at The Forge when prominent Mob members were present. Whenever the Mafia appeared Presser and Hughes were present. High ranking Mafia members were treated like royalty. The Forge provided its own version of " Tin Roof " service, everything was on the house. No Mafia member who made a stop at The Forge ever paid a bill for anything.

     

      What the Mob crowd didn’t realize, while Jackie Presser and Tony Hughes were circulating by their tables, both men were listening closely to the conversations. Presser and Hughes probed discreetly for information, later passed to the FBI. As Mob members talked about their plans, who made out of town trips and other Mob deals, Presser and Hughes mentally stored away this information..

     Tony Hughes and Jackie Presser met regularly with Marty McCann, head of the Cleveland FBI’s Mob Squad Unit. The Forge’s manager Lemar Smith had an apartment in the Gates Mills Apartments complex . The three men used Lemar’s apartment for regular meets. at Lemar’s apartment. The apartment’s location was ideal. A short walk from The Forge for Presser and Hughes, a short ride up the elevator to Lemar’s apartment. As the three men talked under the shielding noise of a droning television set, Information flowed freely about Mob activities from Presser and Hughes to the FBI, each man then went his separate way, each party satisfied with the part they played.

     While Tommy Sinito sat in The Forge discussing his criminal plans, being treated like royalty, he slowly came under the FBI’s lens.

     Sinito moved from tending bar at Big Ange Lonardo’s Highlander Restaurant and Lounge to being treated like royalty at The Forge. Tommy Sinito could be proposed and made into the Cleveland Mafia in a few years, but for now, it was a heady sensation for The Chinaman to be treated as "Amico Nostra."

End of Part 1

Feature Article: April 2007: Part 2

Tommy James Sinito
AKA The Chinaman:
The Mafia Years
Part II

By Amy A. Kisil

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The writer of this article is currently researching and writing a trilogy of novels loosely based on both people and events drawn from the Cleveland Mafia. She’s writing a book titled Three Cousins about Tommy Longo’s relationship with Cleveland’s Mafia and his Sinito cousins, Tommy and Chuck.
email: Aak4kats@aol.com

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Tommy James Sinito AKA The Chinaman.

     If the early years of Tommy Sinito’s upward climb through Mafia ranks from errand boy to made man allowed him to expand his horizons. As a made man his life would be a mixture of triumph and tragedy. Throughout his Mafia career. Tommy’s grit and determination, qualities he used to climb the Mafia ranks, helped him to enforce orders of the Cleveland’s Mafia leaders. This stubborn streak emerged when he defended Licavoli’s and, Lonardo’s (the "old men" as he called them) leadership decisions to lower ranked Mafia associates.

     One of the more bizarre crimes Tommy Sinito became involved in was 1978 assassination plot to kill then Cleveland Mayor Dennis Kucinich. The three year on again, off again, assassination plot ended when Dennis lost the 1979 mayoral election.

     Dennis Kucinich, nicknamed "The Boy Mayor" in 1977 rode into office on a wave of optimism for the City of Cleveland. He planned to make Cleveland into a dynamic place to live and work. within months Kucinich found the honeymoon was over with the media and the public. His nickname changed from "The Boy Mayor" to "Dennis the Menace". His bright political future came to a dead stop, his decision not to sell the Cleveland Municipal Light Electric Company to the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company was one the major reason why. The city’s going into economic default was another..

     Kucinich found himself reviled by all of the public media outlets, both electronic and print, in Cleveland. Kucinich became material for late night talk show hosts and other standup comedians. Cleveland again became known as the mistake on the lake. When he appeared to throw out the first pitch of the season for the 1978 Cleveland Indians opening game at the old Municipal Stadium, Kucinch had to wear a bullet proof vest for protection.

     Under his turbulent administration the city went into economic default. It had the poorest bond rating in the country. No finanical institution would extend credit to help Cleveland pay its bills. The city couldn’t burrow money. Cleveland as a major city had to pay its bills as it went. His time as Cleveland’s mayor is considered one of the worst in Cleveland’s history.

     Throughout his short time as Cleveland’s mayor both the city and he became the butt of every comedian in the country. Kucinich became the target of venomous outrage at his new found national identity. His naive political thinking didn’t meet the challenge of tough urban politics. He survived a recall election only to lose the mayoral election in 1979 to former Cuyahoga County auditor George Voinovich. For the next nine years under the leadership of then Mayor Voinovich, City Council Presidents Basil Russo and George Forbes, they repaired the economic damage Kucinich had done to the city. Under Voinovich’s leadership Cleveland was repaired to became a "comeback" city both nationally and economically.

     One decision Kucinich made while mayor was to review various city held contracts the city had with various companies. In an effort to save money for the financially strapped city have these contracts re-bid on, with the contracts going to the lowest bidder. This decision put him at odds with the Cleveland Mob. The Cleveland Mafia didn’t care 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

     Some city contracts, especially in garbage hauling, had been under total mob control since the late 1940s. When Dennis announced in both daily papers, the PlainDealer and the now defunct Cleveland Press, that he planned to review all city held contracts and open them to the lowest outside bids, he made Cleveland’s Mafia leaders angry. If he were successful, this decision would collide with Mob interests.

     Kucinich made other economic decisions affecting mob interests, reviewing all of the garbage hauling contracts made him the target of their anger. Every mob held front company having any city contracts could have been investigated and criminal charges might been brought. This meant being convicted on federal racketeering charges under RICO (Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations). Under RICO statutes, sentencing penalties are stiff with long jail sentences. None of Cleveland’s mob leaders wanted any investigations of their front businesses to happen.

     Sinito was ordered to find an "outsider" to assassinate Kucinich. The Cleveland Mafia leaders didn’t want any evidence traced back to them. Mob leaders didn’t want to use the services of the local Murder Machine of Carmen Zagaria, Kevin McTaggart and the Graewe brothers, Hans and Fritz, all serial killers. Using local talent would lead back to them Sinito had to obtain the services of an outside contract killer. Sinito’s uncle Joey Maxim, who worked in an Atlantic City casino helped his nephew Tommy make a connection. Maxim made contact with a contract killer. Maxim didn’t know wjen he’d contacted a Maryland State Police officer using the name Gene. A police officer who specialized in posing as a contract killer.

     First contact between the two men came in the Atlantic City casino where Tommy’s uncle worked. Gene walked into the casino’s lounge where he’d been told to meet Sinito. Tommy who felt he was being watched nodded his head twice. Gene nodded back, Sinito knew the Kucinich assassination plot was on. The only name Gene had to work with was the first name Tommy. Cleveland Police searched their records and made the connection to Mafia associate Tommy Sinito.

     The original plan was to pay Gene $25,000 for his services. Several plans were discussed; one, kill Dennis as he left Tony’s Diner on West 117th and Lorain Avenue. Gene would perch on an outside steel fire escape across the street, armed with a sniper rifle and shot Dennis when he came out of the diner. A seconnd plan shot Dennis as he marched down Euclid Avenue in the 1979 Columbus Day Parade. Both plans fell through when Dennis wasn’t re-elected in 1979.

     How did Dennis earn the Cleveland Mob’s hatred? There were some things they liked about Dennis. Nowever when he questioned the garbage hauling contracts various mob members had with the Cleveland. Dennis threatened them, they had held these contracts for years as an monoply Kucinch wanted all garbage hauling contracts reviewed and re-bid on going to the lowest bidder. A steady source of income would dry up if this occurred. Dennis had to go. No one thumbed their nose at the Mob and got away with it! Money runs deeper than blood to the Mob

     If Dennis and his people couldn’t be controlled by bribery, other plans had to be made. Bizarre plans were hatched to control Dennis. For three years the Mob bounced ideas between themselves, none of them were ever realized.

     Gene found the Cleveland Mob connected to an interlinked chain of criminal influence reaching from Cleveland to Youngstown, the corruption crescent of Ohio. The chain stretched to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and on to Washington, D.C. The Mob’s influence ran deeper than Gene realized.

     Even the Permanent U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Organized Crime warned in the 1970s that Mafia influence could migrate from major urban centers to smaller towns and cities that were easier to control. The Mob had fled the city to the rural wilderness to pursue its criminal activities.

     Gene’s involvement in the assisnation plot grew stranger. Each time Gene came to Cleveland and met with various mob members to investigate the plot, mob leaders, who thought he was a contract killer, gave him free rein to plan. While mob leaders Gene met with made veiled references to the Kucinich plot, none of them ever discussed it openly.

     Gene made two more trips to Cleveland and made one to West Virginia to discuss the assassination plot. To make his image as a successful contract hit man believable, he drove a expensive late model car and wore expensive clothing. He wanted to project success and fooled them into believing he could do the job. While the amateurs he’d dealt with before wanted to make the plans for each contract killing, the Mafia members let him plan he wanted to do. Cleveland Mafia leaders let Gene do the planning Gene bounced some assassination scenarios off them trying get their reactions

     They made Gene nervous, he’d never had dealings with real criminals and to protect himself. He couldn’t conduct any business until mob leaders approved of them. Gene wore a wire 24/7 to reecord his conversations with mob membeeers to protect imself. Dealing with professionals was a different game from dealing with amateurs. One slip in his cover he’d be killed.

     Every meet Gene had with the Cleveland Mafia became more dangerous.

     Always the hustler, Tommy Sinito ran interence between Gene and mob leaders, balanced both sides. During every meeeting Gene had with the mob, Sinito listened to both sides and tried to accomplish what the Cleveland Mob had given him orders to do.

      Gene grew more terrified sfter each meeting he had with Cleveland’s Mob leaders. Their professional behavior worried him, Gene played along to complete his investigation. To protect himself Gene traveled from Matyland to Cleveland with six other undercover policemen. Nothing resulted from the Mob’s assisnation plot, it fizzled out after Dennis lost the 1979 mayoral election. Gene returned home to Maryland. Case closed. In 1984 the 1978 Dennis Kucinich plot would result in a probe into the Cleveland Mafia’s part in the assisnation plot.

     Sinito along with other Mob associates he worked with weren’t afraid use their fists for beat downs and enforce the mob’s leadership decisons. Joseph "Joey Loose" Iacobacci a memeber of Sinito’s crew, earned his nickname from the fact he had a short fuse and a bad temper. His nickname came from screw loose. Early on Joey Loose earned his reputation with the big cigar boys running the mob.

     Iacobacci and Sinito earned their bones as they beat down associates of Irish gangster Danny Greene. It’s rumored Iacobacci and Sinito murdered one of Greene’s lower level associates and 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. Tommy Sinito disarmed and disposed of the bomb himself. Danny Greene’s act forced Sinto and Iacobacci to be drawn unwillingly into the Greene/Nardi wars. With Iacobacci in his crew Sinito wasn’t afraid of the outcome of any clashes he had with Danny Greene’s gang.

     Neither Sinito or Iacobacci were afraid of jail. They used threats and their fists to collect the interest on loansharked money owed to the mob. If caught and convicted, they weren’t afraid of jail, both men regarded jail as a rite of passage. They carried with them the reputation of action, not bragging to get things done.

     Long before being made, Sinito earned the reputation of being reliable and trustworthy. He, too, was a good earner, something the mob admired.

     Sinito and Iacobacci only used violence as a means to the end. Both men used their strength to enforce the Mafia’s rule. Even with his hair trigger temper Iacobacci didn’t enjoy bullying those weaker than he was. Sinito and Iacobacci looked down on bullies who attacked the weak and defenseless, behavior older Mafia leaders disdained, behavior they felt was beneath themselves.

     Bullies didn’t carry any street creds only disdain from older Mafia members. The rule wouldn’t brother with a bully it didn’t earn any one creds with mob leaders.

     Sinito learned to behave as a made man from older members .He learned to blend in with his Mafia bosses, being a good talker he could use charm to work around problems he needed to solve.

     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.

      Tommy Sinito found himself on the inside looking out, Joseph Gallo and he had been made! They’d joined a brotherhood, one with extensive political and criminal connections.

     The small pain of having his trigger finger pricked, was nothing compared to the effort he’d used being made, and the pain and the worry were worth it! He still had to earn for the Cleveland Family in the next years he would. The loansharking scheme that operated out of the Appliance Mart stores he co-owned with his brother Chuck and the massive drug ring he’d financed, would make lots of money for the Mob.

     Sinito came a long way from the cramped Cleveland neighborhood he’d grown up in. During the 1930s, 40s and 50s Cleveland neighborhood were populated with a mixture of Italians and other ethnic, most of them first and second generation immigrants. An ethnic community filled the narrow brick streets City streets lined with two story Cleveland Doubles sitting on tiny fifty foot lots. Their well tended green yards smooth as velvet arpets surrounded the small homes with yards filled with colorful flower beds. Tree lawns filled with leafy Maple and Oak trees shadied the streets and sidewalks.

     Every back yard had a vegetable garden filled with tomato, pepper, onions, zucchini, squash, eggplants, garlic and herbs. Gardens yielded their harvest in the fall to be canned or pickled preserved for future use. Surplus vegetables were given to their neighbors. Nothing from these gardens was wasted Some back yard gardeners cultivated grapevines for the illegal wine making a skill every first generation immigrate Italian used to make wine for private use.

     People sat on their front porches and they watched the daily show of their neighbors walking past. They yelled "Hello" at people they knew. Strangers were regarded with suspicion. A hold over from the old country outsiders can’t be trusted. Keep silent and watch any outsiders carefully and be quiet when the police appeared. Strangers and authorities weren’t to be trusted. Be quiet, don’t talk to the police and other authorities, solve your problems yourself!

     In 1951 Cleveland’s east side neighborhoods were still ethnic. It wouldn’t be until the great urban migration out to the inner ring neighborhoods surrounding Cleveland. Bedford, Bedford Heights, Maple Heights, Garfield Heights and Solon were Cleveland suburbs who saw a major influx of people flooding in to these cities increasing their populations. In the late 1940s and early 1950s the Kinsman and Woodland neighborhood remained fill of Italians and other ethnics.

     It was a different time too for the Cleveland Mafia. During the early 1930s. Mafia members numbers hadn’t been whittled down, it was a strong presence beyond Cleveland and retained control of the city. Under the leadership of Al Polizzi (Boss from 1931-1945), Mafia membership remained strong, t had over 50 made men on its books. There were over 60 Mafia associates to run errands and do the low level jobs the made men wouldn’t do. These members guarded the neighborhoods they lived in.

     Unfortunately under John Scalish’s (Mob Boss from 1978 to 1983) leadership, Mafia membership declined. Scalish, a poor manager, failed to replace members lost too either retirement, death or were imprisoned. He didn’t open the books and create new members. Men, who could be trained as successors to manage the Cleveland family and keep it running.

     What Scalish had was political influence, a lot of political influence. He was on a first name basis with most, if not all major political figures in the Cleveland area. John Scalish used his political influence, he was never arrested or convicted of any crimes.

     Under Scalish’s leadership the Cleveland Mafia’s numbers declined, a poor shadow of it’s former glory.

     Even with it’s reduced membership, the Cleveland Family still remained a strong presence in some of Cleveland neighborhoods. Men who traded small favors, a bag of groceries here, a loan of money there, for small favors in return. Using their influence to control their neighborhoods. These favors were given with the promise of future payment in return.

     Wherever mob associates lived it became their neighborhood, a place to protect and reap profits from. People who lived and grew up in these neighborhoods understood this. Mob members protected their turf, they became the others who ruled the local neighborhoods.

     Others, mob associates, lived in the neighborhood. members of the Mafia. When they went to any of the local stores, they were placed first in line. Local bakers kept the best baked goods for them. When they walked down the sidewalks everyone who saw them whispered and shook their heads. Men of respect who were treated like royalty. Young men who lived in the neighborhood saw the wealth and respect Mob members earned and they wanted it for themselves.

     On one of the front porches a teenaged boy sat and watched as the expensive, late model car moved slowly from house to house in the neighborhood. Sinito baby-sitting his younger cousin Tommy Longo studied the quiet, well dressed men on their weekly rounds to collect money owed to the mob. Longo, seven years younger than Sinito, sat on the wooden floor of the porch and played with a small rubber jack ball. Sinito’s timid, shy, cousin ignored what went on outside of the porch. Sinito watched the men move from house to house collecting on the factory gate loans, loan-sharked money used to finance other illegal mob activities. Sinito polished his glasses wondering how he could ease his way into the mob.

     Tommy Sinito wanted in, he started to gain their trust by running small errands. He always finished any small job older Mafia members ordered him to do. Resourceful he always found ways to turn a profit. From his early Mafia years Tommy gained the reputation of being an earner.

     Surrounded by family members who dabbled in illegal activities Sinito gravitated to illegal ways to earn a living. He knew people, some even in his own family, connected to Cleveland’s criminal underground. Seeing the respect they got.Tommy always the street hustler and good talker eased his wayin to work with the big cigar boys. Running small errands, being quiet with no big talk. Doing the criminal dozens by bragging about what he could do wouldn’t work, action would!

     Sinito’s uncle Joey Maxim had emerged triumphant from a brush with the Illinois Boxing Commission. Maxim, in 1951, had been accused of being doped before his heavy weight fight with Ezzard Charles.

     The Illinois Boxing Commission found Joey Maxim innocent. The boxing commission reprimanded his manager Jackie Kearns of starting the rumors by "loose talk." Kearns was warned to be quiet in the future about the boxers he managed. The next year, in 1952, Maxim became boxing’s Lightweight Champion of the World on June 25 by defeating the legendary boxer Sugar Ray Robinson

     On June 26, 1952 headlines set in 72 point print, the largest size available, announced in Joey Maxim’s win in both The Cleveland Plain Dealer and The Cleveland Press Joey Maxim’s win over Sugar Ray Robinson after a fourteen round fight, fought in New York’s Madison Square Gardens. Joey Maxim’s win caused Cleveland to go into a frenzy of excitement local boy made good! Cleveland had something to celebrate! The last sporting event to have a frenzy surrounding it was the Indians winning the 1948 Championship Pennant. Maxim became a star, he’d earned his place in the fight game. Through his uncle Tommy Sinito had early connections to Cleveland’s criminal underworld, connections that would be useful to him later on..

     The fight game, as some called it was controlled by criminal syndicates. The fights were a good source of money for the Mob. The money earned by kickbacks from ticket sales, concession sales, illegal betting on fixed fights and other activities made it a profitable sport. The next profitable sport for the mob was horse racing, it too generated a lot of money to finance mob activities. There isn’t any evidence Joey Maxim did anything illegal in his boxing career. People in the sport regarded him as an "honest" boxer, unlike other boxers in the fight game.

     Twenty minutes away from the Kinsman and Woodland neighborhood, by either trolley, bus or car was Cleveland’s original municipal sports stadium. League Park.

     League Park, until 1961, remained the original home of the Cleveland Indians. Cleveland’s original municipal sports stadium, League Park was located at the intersection of East 65th and Lexington Avenue. An odd shaped ball park, it only seated 4,000 people. The Cleveland Indians only played day games, there were no lights installed for watching night games. Indian fans, gathered to watch the team play sat in the steel and concrete double decker seats. Fans drank beer, ate roasted peanuts, hot dogs, popcorn and cheered the home team.

     Every summer the Cleveland Indians played their home games at League Park. League Park became a regular gathering place for various members of the Cleveland mob. Angelo "Big Ange" Lonardo along with his associates and hangers on, attended the home games to cheer on his team.

     On warm summer afternoons while the boys of summer played ball, home games faithfully attended by Tommy and his brother Chuck. Others attended the home games too. Sinito recognized them like everyone else did, mob members who sat by themselves, an unfriendly circle to outsiders. Noisy while they cheered, quiet when outsiders approached.

     "Gangsters, people muttered when they saw the group sitting there .Mobsters!" they whispered while edging around them to find seats.

     "Like royalty," Sinito probably thought, "Treated with more respects than the suckers who work regular jobs. Jobs at the Collinwood Yards! Sweaty factory jobs! Small pay, small respect. No small pay jobs for me!"

     Sinito eased his way in taking his brother Chuck with him. He made himself indispensable to those mobsters around him. He earned his street creds makimg a name for himself by finishing what he started. You could take his word to the bank, if Tommy Sinito said it would be done, it would be done!

     Tommy Sinito had moved on from the cramped Cleveland neighborhood he’d grown up in. He moved on to larger horizons in a bigger world, one he’d only seen from the outside. Now he was inside looking out, a heady sensation. The slight pain from the pin prick faded as he celebrated his new rank.Tommy "The Chinaman" Sinito made man in the Cleveland Mafia. His loyalty was to them, they were his family now the brotherhood who asked him to join. The oath he took, he kept. The Mafia Oath he’d be going to hell for

     Unlike some of the associates Sinito surrounded himself, Carmen Zagaria,. Kevin McTaggart and the Graewe brothers, Hans and Fritz. Men who enjoyed inflicting pain and then murdered their victims, using these tools as a means to an ends in protecting their interests and profits from their criminal enterprises. Tommy Sinito remained a peaceful man, he preferred to use reason. He didn’t enjoy violence. He didn’t use violence, except to protect mob interests, he wasn’t shy about using threats or his fists to enforce the mob leaders decisions. if vtolence was needed, Sinito wasn’t afraid to use it. With the exception of mob member David Perrier’s murder. A murder he’d been ordered to do by Big Ange Lonardo to eliminate David Perrier who Big Ange felt the FBI could flip Perrier as a possible informant on the mob’s activities. The violent acts Sinito did committed were done on orders of his mob bosses.

     Tommy Sinito surrounded himself with men who weren’t afraid to use violence to achieve their ends. The Graewe brothers, Hans nd Fritz, Kevin McTaggart and Carmen Zagaria. Men who became Cleveland’s version of Brooklyn’s Mafia family Murder Machine. The Graewes, McTaggart and Zagaria had nineteen murders to to their credit, murders people didn’t knew about until Zagaria became an FBI informant and confessed about them. Cleveland’s Murder Machine used violence to enforce and protect large drug ring they operated. Everything from beat downs on street drug dealers, to torture and murder. All four men functioned as a well oiled team each man complementing the other’s deadly talents.

     None of the men Sinito surrounded himself with were as pathologically violent as Fritz and Hans Graewe. Hans eclipsed his brother Fritz in his murder skills and rode around in an battered Volkswagen bus he called the Ambulance, he’d called himself "The Surgeon", other people called him "The Butcher". Everyone who dealt with him feared him. Hans, like Zagaria, was a major player in the massive drug ring operation Zagarua managed.

     The Graewe brothers learned to love cruelty from their father, a first generation German immigrant, who had been an SS officer in Nazi Germany. He taught them to be cruel and kill from an early age. The Graewe brothers tortured and killed small animals, they escalated to torturing and killing people. Life meant nothing to them.

     Not only did they learn cruelty from their father. Both Graewe brothers absorbed the Nazi philosophy their father taught them. The philosophy of a "master race" superior to those around them. One of Hans Graewe’s burning ambitions was "to kill a Jew!"

     Fritz and Hans for them murder was a lifestlyle, a causal thing, something to refined and enhanced. Few people crossed drug kingpin Carmen Zagaria , they knew the Graewe brothers and Kevin McTaggart backed Zagarua’s decisons.

     Everyone including the FBI agents who who conducted the BUSMARK investigation of the drug ring admited they were afriad of Hans Graewe.

     Dean Winslow, lead FBI agent in the BUSMARK probe learned of Hans’s threats to his family. An informant had told Winslow " Hans was threatening to kill his family." Everyone the agents interviewed agreed they were afraid of Hans. No one wanted to testify against either Carrmen Zagaria, Kevin McTaggart or the Graewe brothers.

     Winslow said, "I wasn’t concerned, but we couldn’t stay home all day to protect our families.

     For their own protection the agent’s families were moved from place to place for six months to keep them out of Hans Graewe reach. The FBI considered him a dangerous man. After Hans was convicted and imprisoned on all the charges, the agents families were brought out of hiding to resume their normal lives.

     Hans Graewe’s grisly acts of murder generated a lot of fear. "Everyone who ever talked about him is scared to death of the man." Winslow said.

     Graewe left a grisly, bloody trail of dead and dismembered bodies behind him.

     Hans served his purpose in the drug ring’s operations. Even mob associates, like James Coppola, who worked with the Graewes, McTaggart and Zagaria felt they were out of control.

     These men guarded Sinito’s interests. Violence was the chosen method, it worked, inducing an atmosphere of fear around the drug ring kingpins. The massive drug ring operation created by the merger of the smaller drug rings in the 1970s continued to operate and generate profit for the mob. It operated until the FBI arrested and got convictions to imprison the drug kingpins running it. The Zagaria, Gallo and Sinito drug ring accounted for 40% of illegal drug sales in Cuyahoga County.

     The criminal acts committed by the Graewe brothers, Kevin McTaggart and Zagaira were the tip of the iceberg. The illegal activities committed to protect mob interests and the 20 million dollar profit a year from its illegal drug sales, made it a worth while investment. The money flowed in and everyone profited. Tommy Sinito was personally responsible for ordering three murders, he committed himself. Sinito being Machivallian, who, to keep power, used the tools around him..

     Sinito while basically peaceful was no lovable gangster. He had no trouble in committing murder when it served his purposes. He was always loyal to Cleveland’s Mafia family.

     Tommy Sinito ruled, with an iron hand, his part of the Mafia family. He wasn’t tolerate of those he considered sliding through, and not serving both his and the mob’s interests. Machivaillian in his decisions, he used the tools around him. Zagaria, McTaggart and the Gaewe brothers. Sinito became a fox who recognized the traps, a lion who guarded against the wolves who could ravage the Mafia’s interests.

     He guarded his interests well, if these interests were served by violence and murder, then Sinito used these keep control. He owed his alliance to the old men who ruled the Cleveland Family. Sinito guarded their interests and guarded them well.

End of Part 2

Feature Articles: Part 3

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June 2007 Dicing and Drugs Carmen Zagaria and Tommy Sinito Part III By Amy A. Kisil The writer of this article is currently researching and writing a trilogy of novels loosely based on both people and events drawn from the Cleveland Mafia. She’s writing a book titled Three Cousins about Tommy Longo’s relationship with Cleveland’s Mafia and his Sinito cousins, Tommy and Chuck. email: Aak4kats@aol.com

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Tommy James Sinito AKA The Chinaman.

     Money from Gallo's, Sinito’s and Zagaria’s drug ring’s profits flowed into the Cleveland Mafia's coffers. More profit than any one realized came from the sale of illegal drugs. Until the FBI shut Zagaria’s drug operation down in 1983, it created a new set of players in the Cleveland Mafia.

     Everyone was happy! Drug kingpin Carmen Zagaria, Kevin McTaggart and the Graewe brothers, Hans and Fritz, had enormous sums of money flowing through their hands. More money than any of the men running Zagaria’s drug ring ever dreamed of. Zagaria’s illegal profits were used to finance other mob enterprises, illegal gambling, loan sharking, pornography and prostitution. Under Zargaria’s management the drug ring expanded. He developed a delivery network of over 80 drug mules and street dealers to sell illegal drugs.

     Cocaine, marijuana, repackaged illegally obtained prescription drugs, hashish, LSD, PCP and heroin were sold through Zagaria’s ring. Drug mules made regular deliveries of raw drugs to safe stash houses in Cleveland. The raw drugs would be processed for street sales. Jungle Aquarium, Carrmen Zagaria’s front business on Cleveland’s Lorain Avenue, served as headquarters. Zagaria’s drug ring became a candy store for illegal drugs, Zagaria’s recruited new street level workers to keep the drug operation running,, money counting, distribution, mules, processing raw drugs for sale and selling the drugs. Some of these new recruits, Keith Ritson and Greene’s cousin, Kevin McTaggart, were former members of the Celtic Club, Danny Greene’s old gang.. The Gallo, Sinito and Zagaria drug operation flourished, a triumph for all of its managers.

     Zagaria received his illegal drugs through regular shipments on the old drug trail nicknamed the White Line Highway. The trail gained its nickname from the kilos of cocaine and other illegal drugs driven up to Ohio and other Midwestern states from Florida and Georgia.

     The drug mules traveled on commercial flights to Florida or Georgia. They drug mules connected to Zagaria’s drug dealers there. The mules paid cash for the drugs, rented cars, started the trip back to Ohio with the illegal drugs stored in. the car's trunks.

     The While Line Highway was an attractive drug route. Unlike the heavily patrolled major interstate highways, I-75 and I-95. the White Line Highway took the back route. The Florida route started on Florida’s State Route 301 and connected to Georgia State Route 321. Drug mules traveling from Atlanta, Georgia, another major hub for illegal drugs, used Georgia’s State Route 321. These were the back roads, lightly patrolled by both state and federal officials. Massive quantities of illegal drugs were shipped from the southern states to Ohio. Some drug couriers used horse trailers and vans for large marijuana deliveries to Cleveland.

     Tampa, Florida was the main point for the illegal drug trade. Santo Trafficante, a major crime figure, controlled the drug trade in Tampa. Drugs were smuggled into Florida through the old Mexican drug trail starting in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico to Tampa, the smuggled drugs were then shipped north. Some of Zagaria's drug mules made connections in Tampa to buy drugs. Then started their trip back to Ohio on the White Line Highway, Florida’s State Route 301. 301 started in Tampa and went through the center of Florida. After I-75 and I-95 were built on Florida’s east side 301 was virtually empty of all tourist traffic. Tourists traveled on the large interstate highways. The Florida highway patrols concentrated their attention on stopping drug couriers traveling the intestates, little attention was paid to stopping drug mules carrying illegal drugs up the White Line Highway.

     Route 301, a wide divided four-lane highway, runs empty and open up the center of Florida. Ideal for drug mules, they drove at high speeds and weren’t afraid of being caught by the Florida’s Highway Patrol.

     Couriers traveled up 301 until they connected to Georgia State Route 321, then they traveled on 321 until connecting in West Virginia to I-77 which went straight to Ohio. Drug mules who drove carefully weren't interfered with and drug shipments reached Cleveland safely.

     The drugs were delivered to safe, stash houses located in Cleveland and it’s suburbs. Since Zagaria brought the illegal drugs by the pound not by the ounce this large quantity of raw drugs were later processed for street sales.

     During the 1970s and early 1980s the drug ring at it’s height according to FBI files, brought over 400 to 800 pounds of marijuana a week to be processed for street sales. Zagaria expanded his drug ring to sell LSD, PCP and hashish. Dealers from Atlanta and Tampa kept a steady stream of drugs flowing for sale on Cleveland’s streets.

     As the demand for marijuana grew larger, drug shipments went from 400 to 800 pounds to 3,000 pounds during a ten-day period in the 1980s. This was near the end of the drug rings operation.

     Zagaria became the drug kingpin of Cleveland. The Gallo, Sinito and Zagaria drug ring controlled every ounce of illegal drugs sold in Northeastern Ohio. Nothing moved unless Zagaria approved the sale. Zagaria became a big earner for the Cleveland Mafia, a step up from being a small time hood who controlled two small pennies barbute games to selling over 15 million dollars of illegal drugs a year.

     Tommy Sinito and Joseph Gallo regarded their $500,000 investment in Zagaria good one! The loan sharked money they’d extended to him was repaid two fold. One, they exerted control over Zagaria by the amount of interest he owed on the loan shark debt hew owed. Two, the drug profits he earned and tribute he paid to Cleveland’s Mob leaders financed other criminal activities. Cleveland’s Mafia leaders, the old men, as Tommy Sinito called them, regarded Zagaira as a major player. No longer a small pennies errand boy scourging to earn for the mob, he now commanded respect.

     Ironically Antonio " Tony" Delmonti, who in the early 1980s became a paid FBI informant worked for Zagaria as a drug distributor. Delmonti's information lead to the arrest of the remnants of the original drug operation. It caused the arrest and conviction of mob figures Russell Papalardo and Joseph "Joey Loose" Iacobacci. They were two of thirteen people arrested in a FBI dragnet. Delmonti made more money as a paid FBI informant than when he’d worked for Zagaria’s drug ring.

     Joey Loose said about Delmonti, " I missed most of the 1980s because of him. He was a punk and a son of a bitch! I hate the guy!" Delmonti, like other FBI informants, earned the reputation of being a rat.

     Lester "Skip" Williams another drug dealer associate of Zagaria's. Willaims helped run the numbers rackets operating out of the Hotel Sterling in Cleveland. Williams made connections through former members of Zagaria's old drug ring to buy a 1000 pounds of marijuana in Cheektowaga, New York. Willaims caused the downfall of ex-municipal prosecutor Thomas Longo. He testified Longo had provided him with a partial payment of $65,000 to buy a 1000 pounds of marijuana to sell on Cleveland's streets, In exchange for a reduced jail sentence on the RICO drug charges, Williams became an informant in the FBI’s drug conspiracy case against Longo.

     Both of these former Zagaria workers weren’t afraid of committing criminal acts. They were minor players, who knew how to maneuver their way in the criminal underground and the legal system. Squealing rats when they needed to slip out of their legal troubles.

     Zagaira, a career criminal, ran illegal barbute games at the Hotel Sterling in Cleveland and the infamous Card Shop in the heart Cleveland’s Murray Hill district. He barely earned small profits from the barbute games Zagaria was considered by Cleveland’s Mafia leaders a minor player. The illegal dice games made an average of $2,000 to $4,000 a day. Zagaria could clear from $10,000 to $20,000 a week depending on the number of barbute players and other expenses he’d incurred, food, drinks and protection for the dice games. The house at either dice game took from 1 to 7 percent of the pot. His weekly profit from barbute small pennies compared to the money he’d earn as a drug kingpin.

     Unfortunate victims of large losses at Zagaria’s barbute games found themselves deep in debt. Loan sharks offend the losers high interest, usually 150% to 256% on loans to cover their losses. Loan sharks, waiting for another victim, hovered by the barbute games Zagaria ran. They benefited from the losers large gambling debts too! Large losses at Zagaria’s dice tables made money for them as every game made new victims for the loan sharks.

     Barbute, the illegal dice game Zagaria ran are what gamblers call an even deal game, each side has a 50/50 chance of winning. The game itself is very profitable. Originating in the Middle East, barbute migrated, through Arab traders, to other Mediterranean countries. In some parts of the Mediterranean, like Italy and Greece, it’s a passion. Like Craps, another dice game, any number can play, usually the number of Barbute players is restricted by those who can crowd around a poker table.

     The dice, traditionally miniature ones, are thrown from a small leather cup. Each barbute player gets a turn to throw the die, the thrower becomes the high shooter. Barbute unlike Craps doesn’t specify the amount of the wager. The man on the right of the high shooter is called the fader, bets in a high stake game the limits are large. Winners of each round usually stakes it all on the next throw.

     The shooter may or not count the bets, he may allow the other players make side wagers on his bet or the shooter can refuse any wagers and pass. Side bets can be placed on each throw every body playing can bet and win..

     Barbute an even chance game is a betters paradise. There are enough winners making barbute attractive to betters. The odds are good for both sides, usually the house manages to stack the games odds for itself.

     Big losers were sent to Tommy Sinito, Sinito operated loan sharking schemes out of his Appliance Mart stores and his gift basket shop in Beachwood, Ohio. Front businesses he’d set up to launder money from the loan sharking. Zagaria found himself a victim of Sinito’s loan sharking. He owed Tommy Sinito a large amount of money, the interest on the principle owed grew larger. Sinito and other mob leaders controlled Zagaria by the high interest on his loan shark debts.

     The Hotel Sterling located at the intersection of East 30th and Prospect Avenue, not far from Cuyahoga Community College’s Metropolitan Campus, was owned and operated by local mob figure Samuel G. Lucarelli. The Hotel Sterling housed transient day to day renters. Hotel Sterling served another purpose too. Illegal gambling and loan sharking operated out of the building. The hotel’s basement served as an casino for the illegal gambling, and an upstairs office became an informal meeting room for conducting mob business.

     Lucarelli operated a 4 million dollar a year illegal gambling empire out of the Hotel Sterling. Some of the illegal dice games were run by Zagaria. Corrupt police officers from Cleveland’s Third District Police Station and other law enforcement agencies along with heavily armed mob guards protected the Mafia’s gambling games operating in the Hotel Sterling

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     During the winter of 1980 to 1981, while Zagaria operated his high stakes barbute game in The Hotel Sterling's basement. Zagaria’s profits from the barbute games were watched closely. As he had to pay his loan sharked debt’s interest from the weekly profits from his barbute games.

     The Card Shop, another location for Zagaria’s illegal barbute games was located in the heart of Cleveland’s Murray Hill District. Unlike the Hotel Sterling, the Card Shop barbute players weren't a seedy collection of semi homeless regulars. Most of the illegal gambling at the Card Shop was done by Mafia associates and other Murray Hill residents.

     Unlike the Hotel Sterling, the FBI obtained a court order to have a bug installed. At the Card Shop. The FBI installed a bug in the box of a telephone located in the Card Shop’s back room. The FBI taped over 440 hours of conversations between mob associates they played barbute. The wiretapped records proved the Card Shop was another local mob hang out.

     Martin "Mutt" DiFabio managed the Card Shop's illegal activities. He felt the visiting Mafia figures were good for business. Locals, seeing high ranking mob figures playing there felt the games weren't rigged. Who’d cheat local gangsters as they

gambled? An illusion on their part! Vanaculo, an Italian obscenity, was heard when some of the players lost a round of barbute. High ranking mob figures, like James "Jack White" Licavoli, played at the Card Shop, they provided a draw for locals to play.

     In 1983, after the FBI raided the Card Shop, it closed for the day. The regular barbute players returned after breakfast and found DiFabio had locked the Card Shop’s doors. Other people tried to move the shop’s gambling to other locations and failed. Poor location and police harassment made it impossible to resume operations.

     The Card Shop was the center of illegal gambling in the Murray Hill District. It became another Mafia hang out on the Mafia social circuit.

     Zagaria ran his barbute games, at the Hotel Sterling and the Card Shop. As he had to pay off his immense loan shark interest to the mob, the games profits provided him with a way to accomplish this. Zagaria’s games were a preferred stop on the Mafia social circuit. Zagaria became a familiar face to local high ranking Mafia figures.

     In the Hotel Sterling's basement, in a hazy cigarette smoked filled room, a group of men sat around a poker table and watched the shooter, this time Zagaria. He rattled the two miniature dice in the leather cup he held. He throws the dice!. The men sitting waiting scream and shout as the dice are thrown.

     The FBI tapes record some conversations at the Card Shop that sound like they were e written for the HBO series The Sopranos.

     "Vanaculo!" One player yelled, using an Italian obscenity, showing his disappointment at losing.

     "You can’t put shit back in the donkey!" Another said pushing his winnings to the center of the poker table, staking them on the next throw of the dice

     Life imitates art!

     The barbute player’s losses added to Zagaria’s pot and to the house’s take.

     Zagaria presiding over the barbute game smiled. Some of the players won, others lost, none lost without paying their tab.. He didn’t worry about the losses.

     Outside of the basement room stood heavily armed guards, Mob associates and corrupt Cleveland police officers stood and waiting for trouble. Loan sharks hovered waited for another victim of gambling losses.

     Zagaria studied the men around the poker table, he saw the regular players he always saw at his weekly barbute games, a mixture of Mafia and non-Mafia players, Joseph "Joey Loose" Iacobabbi, who's addicted to gambling of any kind. Other regulars were low level mob associates who conducted business in the office at the Hotel Sterling.

     One of the regular players at Zagaria’s barbute game at the Card Shop in Murray hill was high ranking Mafia figure John Licavoli. Other barbute players who saw Licavoli playing assumed Zagaria’s dice games were "honest", maybe for the mob bosses, small players still found the house odds stacked against them. Mob members from Youngstown appeared at Zagaria’s dice tables and according to DiFabio the Card Shop’s manager, the losses from these visits were over $175,000 a game. Zagaria welcomed them, he treated these men royally, everything on the house, their losses meant big profits for him.

     Zagaria’s personal bodyguard, helped guard the barbute game. The guard would tap on the shoulder of one of the big losers at the barbute table. Disgruntled losers, making noise about the "rigged" barbute games were tossed out of the game,. But not until they made arrangements to pay their gambling debts. Zagaria never let anyone leave without paying.

     Zagaria ran both barbute games at the Hotel Sterling on Cleveland’s Prospect Avenue and in the infamous Card Shop in the Murray Hill district. These illegal dice games were protected by the Cleveland mob. FBI informants told about high wagers bet by high rollers, some losses were reported to over $175,000 in an evening. Losers who owed money were sent to Tommy Sinito who advanced loan shark money so these high rollers pay off their gambling losses. Everyone made money, except the unfortunate victims of Zagaria’s stacked dice games.

      After receiving $500,000 of mob money to expand and create a large drug ring,. he gained too Cleveland’s Mafia leaders respect. Zagaria gained protection and the right connections to buy large anoints of illegal drugs. Zagaria approved of the violence it took to protect his interests. The violence escalated to levels seen only during the Greene/Nardi wars in the 1970s.

     Zagaria, morbidly obese, tipped the scales at over 400 pounds, was according to a FBI informant, "A piggy man who always looked like he needed a good shower. He had long, stringy, brown hair and a ratty mustache, we called him "Jinglebells" because he looked like a fat elf." Carmen wore lots of garish gold jewelry to show he had bling. Zagaria used his bulky size to intimidate people. He did have muscle to back up his orders. The mob provided him with people to back up him up.

     The Graewe brothers were major players in the Zagaria, Sinito and Gallo drug ring. They contrasted sharply with Zagaria. The Graewes were thin, nervous, always on the move, predators looking for prey. Their nervous energy made them perfect as enforcers and guards.

     His morbid obesity let people misread Zagaria's intentions. They assumed because he moved slowly, he was stupid and easily duped. This wasn't the case! Zagaria had a shrewd, cunning intelligence, however he wasn't on the intellectual level with Gallo and Sinito. Zagaria crossed people who supplied him drugs for his trafficking operation. Any complaints from his workers were answered by the Graewe brothers. His network of workers feared him because of the Graewe brothers

.

     Zagaria couldn't manage a large criminal operation, he’d been successful managing his small illegal dice games, they were easily controlled. As a drug kingpin he let things escalate out of control, excessive violence, haphazard and poorly planed murders eventually caused the drug ring to implode. His upper level associates, after they started to fear for their lives and their families, became FBI informers.

     Zagaria’s illegal profits were used to protect the drug ring. He paid tribute to Cleveland’s mob leaders and expected total protection in return. He had high interest on his loan shark debt to pay each missed payment caused the interest to grow from 150% to 250%. Cleveland’s Mafia leaders used this debt to control both Zagaria and his drug operation. The drug kingpin became a victim himself.

     The drug ring’s activities drew the attention of the FBI and it started a two year investigation of the drug ring’s activities. Zagairia found himself the focus of the FBI's investigation code named OPERATION BUSMARK. The FBI considered him a major player, they wanted to close his drug ring’s operation down. Despite OPERATION BUSMARK the drug ring remained profitable for everyone involved. Nineteen people were killed to protect the Zagaria’s interests