Danny Greene
Encyclopedia
Daniel "Danny" J. Patrick Greene (November 9, 1933 – October 6, 1977) was an Irish American mobster and associate of Cleveland mobster John Nardi
during the gang war for the city's criminal operations during the 1970s. Competing gangsters set off more than 35 bombs, most attached to cars in murder attempts, many successful. Greene had gained power first in a local chapter of the International Longshoremen's Association
, where he was elected president in the early 1960s. Greene pushed into Cleveland rackets and began competing with local families of the Italian Mafia
. He set up his own group called the Celtic Club, complete with enforcers.
Daniel was born in Cleveland. Three days after the birth, his mother Irene died. He was called "Baby Greene" until after his mother was buried. His father named the boy Daniel after his own father. Drinking heavily, John Greene lost his job as a salesman for Fuller Brush. He moved in temporarily with his father, a newspaper printer, who had also been recently widowed. Unable and unwilling to provide for Daniel, his father placed the boy in Parmadale, a Roman Catholic orphanage
located in Parma, Ohio
, three miles outside of Cleveland.
In 1939 Daniel's father began dating a nurse and married her. They started their own family and brought Daniel home. At age six, he resented his stepmother and ran away on several occasions. His paternal grandfather took the boy in, and Daniel lived with him and an aunt for the rest of his childhood. When his father died in 1959, the newspaper obituary
listed his children from his second marriage, but did not mention Daniel.
At St. Jerome Catholic School, Daniel Greene developed a great fondness for the nuns and priests. He developed a lasting friendship with some of his teachers and served as an altar boy. An athletic boy, he excelled at baseball and was an all-star basketball player. Although a poor student, the nuns at St. Jerome let him play sports because he was valuable for the team.
Greene went to St. Ignatius High School. In frequent fights with Italian-American students, children of more recent immigrants' struggling for place, Daniel developed an intense dislike for Italians that lasted his entire life. After being expelled from Saint Ignatius, he transferred to Collinwood High School, where he excelled in athletics.
A Boy Scout
for a short time, Greene was kicked out of his pack. He was expelled from Collinwood High School due to excessive tardiness
, which he claimed was caused by the bullying of fellow students.
. He followed a rigid diet of fish, vegetables and vitamin supplements. Greene was a devoted animal lover and owned two pet cats. He had a habit of putting out food for the birds and squirrels.
While some say Greene privately disliked Italians , he collaborated with many Italian-Americans in business and criminal interests, notably John Nardi
.
, where he was soon noticed for his abilities as a boxer and marksman. He trained at the Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune
in Jacksonville, North Carolina
. He was transferred many times, possibly because of behavioral issues. Promoted to the rank of corporal in 1953, Greene taught new recruits how to be artillerymen. He was honorably discharged later that year.
(ILA). In his free time he read about Ireland and its turbulent history. He began to think of himself as a "Celtic warrior". Some writers have speculated that reading about such warriors inspired his criminal ambitions.
In 1961, the president of the local union was removed from office by the ILA and Greene was chosen to serve as interim president. He handily won the next election. Once president, Greene had the union office painted green [to represent his Irish ethnicity] and installed thick green carpeting. He was known to drive a green car, wear green jackets, and often handed out green ink pens. In office, he raised dues 25 percent and pushed workers to perform "volunteer" hours to assist in providing a "building fund." It was unwise to refuse, as those who did often found themselves losing out on work. He fired more than 50 members while denouncing them as "winos and bums" to the other workers.
Greene led sometimes violent protests and strikes to force the stevedore
companies to allow the ILA to oversee the hiring of dockworkers. As a prerequisite to landing a job as a longshoreman, many workers had to unload grain from the ships on a temporary basis and turn their paychecks over to Greene. Said to have been collected to build a union hall, most of the funds ended up in Greene's personal bank account. An unidentified ILA member would later recall about Greene, "He read On the Waterfront
. He imagined himself a tough dock boss. But he was thirty years too late. He used workers to beat up union members who did not come in line, but he was never seen fighting himself. He was a spellbinding speaker and a good organizer."
As a union organizer, Greene sometimes declared work stoppages, as frequently as 25 per day, to demonstrate to company owners his authority on the docks. On one occasion, he threatened to murder the two children of one owner; the FBI put the man's house and family under protection.
After Sam Marshall, a courageous investigative reporter, collected affidavits that supported charges of extortion, Greene was exiled from the union and convicted of embezzlement. The conviction was later overturned on appeal. Rather than face a second trial, he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of falsifying union records, was fined $10,000 and received a suspended sentence. Afterward, he did not pay the fine or receive any prison time. After returning to his rackets, Greene met and befriended Teamsters boss Louis Triscaro. He introduced Greene to Jimmy Hoffa
. After the friendly meeting, Hoffa later reportedly said to Triscaro, "Stay away from that guy. There's something wrong with him."
By 1964, the members of the union were fed up with Greene's behavior. The Plain Dealer began writing a nine-part investigative series about him. The series brought Greene unwanted attention from the U.S. Attorney, the Internal Revenue Service
, the Labor Department, and the Cuyahoga County prosecutor.
The ILA began its own investigation and soon removed Greene from office. Eventually, Greene was convicted in federal court of embezzling $11,500 in union funds as well as two counts of falsifying records. The verdict was overturned by an appeals court, and federal prosecutors finally settled for Greene's guilty plea to two misdemeanor charges. He was fined $10,000, but paid only a fraction of it. Some think that his FBI connections worked to lessen his punishment.
, hired him as an enforcer for his various "numbers
" operators.
The Cleveland family underboss, Frank "Little Frank" Brancato, used Greene and other ethnic Irish gangsters to act as errand boys and muscle to enforce the Mafia’s influence during the 1960s over the garbage-hauling contracts and other Mob-influenced rackets. Until his death in 1973, Brancato regretted bringing Greene into the Mob, because of the damage he did.
In May 1968, under Birns's orders, Greene was supposed to attack a black numbers man who was holding out on protection money due. Unfamiliar with the military-type detonator, Greene barely made it out of his car before the bomb exploded. He told the police a story and survived being thrown nearly 20 feet, although the hearing in his right ear was damaged for life. In the future, Greene would only trust professionals to handle bombs for him.
Mike "Big Mike" Frato broke away from the guild and founded the more legitimate trade group called the Cuyahoga County Refuse Haulers Association. A legitimate businessman, he protested upon realizing that Greene was bringing mob involvement and strong-arm tactics to the guild (although he had his own connections). The Cleveland Solid Waste Trade Guild fell apart shortly thereafter.
In 1971, Frato's car was destroyed by a bomb
. Inside was found an accomplice of Greene named Art Sneperger. Sneperger had allegedly been careless with the bomb he was trying to plant, and Frato was across the street. The previous September, Greene had directed Sneperger to fix a bomb on Frato's car, but Sneperger had second thoughts and informed Frato of Greene's plan. Also, Sneperger had been a police informant and revealed everything to Sgt. Edward Kovacic, of the Cleveland Police
intelligence unit, including Greene's status as a top-echelon FBI informant.
Some investigators believed the explosion was an accident caused by a radio signal, possibly from a short wave radio or a passing police car. Others think Birns and Greene arranged Sneperger's death after learning of his informant status. Sneperger's girlfriend and Kovacic thought this; in addition, Kovacic was told by an underworld source that Greene had pushed the detonator, killing Sneperger instantly. The case was never officially solved.
A month later on November 26, 1971, Frato was shot and killed at Cleveland's White City Beach. Greene was arrested and interrogated. He admitted to the killing but claimed it was self-defense. He said Frato had fired two shots while Greene was jogging and exercising his dogs. Evidence seemed to corroborate Greene's story and he was released. Later, Cleveland police learned that Frato was armed and had an opportunity to kill Greene several weeks prior to the White Beach shooting. During their partnership, Greene and Frato had become so close that they had named sons after each other.
Not long afterward, Greene again found himself a target while jogging in White City Beach. A sniper, concealed several hundred feet away, fired several shots at Greene from a rifle. Instead of ducking to the ground, Greene pulled out his revolver and started shooting, while running toward his would-be assassin. The sniper fled and was never positively identified. Investigators later learned that this attempt was part of a murder contract left by Shondor Birns.
Soon after, Greene left his wife and their three children and moved to Collinwood, where he rented an apartment. The journalist Ned Whelan wrote about Greene: "Imagining himself as a feudal baron, he supported a number of destitute Collinwood families, paid tuition to Catholic schools for various children and, like the gangsters of the Twenties, actually had fifty, twenty pound turkeys delivered to needy households on Thanksgiving." He would often pick up tabs for friends, neighbors, and acquaintances at a restaurant, and left generous tips.
Greene evicted a bookmaker
who operated out of a small Waterloo business, and kept a local bar in order by personal visits. When a rowdy group of Hells Angels
moved into Collinwood, Greene visited their headquarters with a stick of dynamite. He threatened to light it and throw it into their club house until they came out to hear his warning to keep things quiet when in Collinwood.
He formed his own crew of young Irish-American gangsters, called The Celtic Club. His main enforcers were Keith Ritson, Kevin McTaggart, Brian O'Donnell, Danny Greene Jr., Billy McDuffy and enforcer-hitman James "Icepick" Sterling from Southwest Detroit. They set up gambling dens across the city. He allied with John Nardi
, a "Cleveland family" labor racketeer who wanted to overthrow the leadership. Underworld crime figures note that James "Icepick" Sterling, a gun and explosives expert, is believed to have almost 60 contract killings under his belt, but was never arrested or questioned in any of the Cleveland bombings. “Retired” after Greene’s 1977 death, Sterling moved to a quiet life in Troy, Michigan.
The relationship between Greene and Birns began to sour. Greene had asked Birns for a loan of $75,000 to set up a "cheat spot," a speakeasy and gambling house. Birns arranged for it through the Gambino crime family
. The money wound up in the hands of Billy Cox, a numbers operator, who purchased narcotics. The police raided his house, arrested him, seized the narcotics and what was left of the $75,000.
The Gambino family wanted their money. Shondor pressed Greene but Greene flatly refused to return the money. He told Birns that it was not his fault that it was lost.
To settle the dispute, Birns directed an associate to hire a hit man for Greene and gave him $25,000 for the job, especially in the event of any harm befalling him. Several minor underworld characters, burglars by trade, took the contract, but made numerous failed assassination attempts on Greene.
Not long after, Greene found an unexploded bomb in his car when he pulled into a Collinwood service station for gas. The explosive was wired improperly and failed to detonate. Greene disassembled the bomb himself, removed the dynamite, and brought the rest of the package to the Cleveland police lieutenant, Edward Kovacic. Kovacic offered him police protection, but he refused. He also refused to hand over the bomb, telling him, "I'm going to send this back to the old bastard that sent it to me". Suspecting that Birns was behind it, Greene decided to retaliate. On March 29, 1975, Holy Saturday, the eve of Easter, Birns was blown up via a bomb containing C-4
, a potent military explosive in the lot behind Christy's Lounge, the former Jack & Jill West Lounge, a go-go spot at 2516 Detroit Ave. near St. Malachi Church.
On May 12, an explosion rocked Collinwood. Greene's building was destroyed, but the man had only minor injuries. As the second floor fell, he was shielded from the debris by a refrigerator that had lodged against a wall. A second, and more powerful, bomb had failed to explode. Greene credited his miraculous escape to the intercession
of St. Jude, whose medal he always wore around his neck.
In 1975 Greene began to push into the vending machine racket, traditionally controlled by the Mafia, as well as muscling into gambling operations. The Cleveland family leadership was angry, especially the soldier Thomas "The Chinaman" Sinito
. He thought Greene was an extortionist, especially because of the excessive fees he charged for coin-operated laundry contracts.
Greene controlled some of the more lucrative laundry contracts that Sinito wanted. Sinito and mob soldier Joseph "Joey Loose" Iacobacci murdered one of Greene’s lower-level associates. Greene had dynamite wired to the frame of Sinito’s car. Sinito found the bomb, removed and disarmed it, and later destroyed it.
In Greene’s competition with the Mafia to build a vending machine empire, John Conte became a victim. 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 was also a close friend of Mob figure Joseph Gallo
. On the day of his disappearance, Conte told his wife that he had a meeting with Greene. That was the last time she saw him, as his badly beaten corpse was discovered a few days later at a dump site in Austintown. Police investigators theorized that Conte was beaten to death in Greene’s trailer and his body later transported to Austintown. They found some physical evidence, but Greene was never charged with Conte’s murder.
In 1976, longtime mobster John Scalish
died, leaving control of Cleveland’s lucrative criminal operations, specifically the city's Teamsters Union locals, up for grabs. Scalish had appointed James Licavoli
as his successor, but other mobsters such as John Nardi
challenged him for leadership of the organization. With the assistance of Greene, within weeks Nardi had many of Licavoli's supporters killed. They included Licavoli's underboss, Leo "Lips" Moceri. The Cleveland family's enforcer, Eugene "The Animal" Ciasullo, was seriously injured and sidelined for several months by a car bomb.
Soon after, a bomb planted in Alfred "Allie" Calabrese's car killed an innocent man. Frank Pircio, 50, of Collinwood, died when he tried moving the mobster's Lincoln Continental before getting his own car out of their shared driveway. This started a longstanding war between Licavoli's Cleveland crime family and Greene's Celtic Club.
In 1976 alone, 36 bombs exploded around the Cleveland area. It was soon to be called "Bomb City, U.S.A." The use of bombs became a favorite weapon in the Northeast Ohio underworld. The ATF
had to triple its staffing in northeast Ohio in order to handle the bomb investigations. A suspected bombmaker, Maertin Heidtman, was arrested, but he was eventually released due to lack of evidence.
According to the book To Kill The Irishman by Rick Porrello, Greene killed at least eight of the Mafia hit men sent to assassinate him. He most often used bombs or bullets.
During a televised interview, Greene said to one television reporter,
In response to the reporter's assertion that he was a cat with nine lives, Greene said, "I am an Irish Catholic. I believe that the Guy upstairs pulls the strings, and you're not going to go until he says so. It just wasn't my time yet."
In another televised interview, Greene denied any knowledge of the underworld war. He said, "I have no axe to grind, but if these maggots in this so-called Mafia want to come after me, I'm over here by the Celtic Club. I'm not hard to find." This was a public insult to the reputation of the Licavoli Crime Family
. Their inability to kill Greene made them look like a laughing stock.
On May 17, 1977, Greene's longtime ally John Nardi was killed by a bomb. The bomb was planted by Pasquale Cisternino, Sr. and Ronald Carabbia. After Nardi was murdered, Mafia boss James Licavoli arranged a ceasefire with Greene, hoping to kill his rival while off guard. Shortly after their meeting, Greene muscled in on a large West Side gambling operation originally run by John Nardi. Greene offered Licavoli a percentage, but it was declined.
On October 6, 1977, Greene went to a dental appointment at the Brainard Place office building in Lyndhurst, Ohio
. Members of the Mafia had tapped his phone and were aware of the visit. After Greene's dental visit, he left the office building and approached his car. The automobile parked next to his exploded, killing Greene instantly.
In the aftermath of Greene's murder, the FBI intercepted some conversations through its Title III hidden-microphone surveillance at Licavoli's house. Licavoli, his right-hand man John Calandra, and an unidentified male were complaining about Frank Embrescia, Frank Brancato, and John Nardi.
John Nardi
John Nardi was an influential associate of the Cleveland crime family who was involved in labor racketeering in Cleveland, Ohio. At the end of his criminal career, Nardi turned against his crime family in a bloody gang war.-Early years:...
during the gang war for the city's criminal operations during the 1970s. Competing gangsters set off more than 35 bombs, most attached to cars in murder attempts, many successful. Greene had gained power first in a local chapter of the International Longshoremen's Association
International Longshoremen's Association
The International Longshoremen's Association is a labor union representing longshore workers along the East Coast of the United States and Canada, the Gulf Coast, the Great Lakes, Puerto Rico, and inland waterways...
, where he was elected president in the early 1960s. Greene pushed into Cleveland rackets and began competing with local families of the Italian Mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
. He set up his own group called the Celtic Club, complete with enforcers.
Early life and education
John Henry Greene, born in Cleveland, Ohio and Irene Cecelia Fallon, born in Pennsylvania, were a young couple who married in Cleveland. Their fathers, Daniel John Greene and Patrick John Fallon, were born in Cleveland, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, respectively. A popular local Cleveland legend tells that Danny J. Greene was the son of Irish immigrants, but his parents were native-born in the United States. His ancestors on both sides were ethnic Irish.Daniel was born in Cleveland. Three days after the birth, his mother Irene died. He was called "Baby Greene" until after his mother was buried. His father named the boy Daniel after his own father. Drinking heavily, John Greene lost his job as a salesman for Fuller Brush. He moved in temporarily with his father, a newspaper printer, who had also been recently widowed. Unable and unwilling to provide for Daniel, his father placed the boy in Parmadale, a Roman Catholic orphanage
Orphanage
An orphanage is a residential institution devoted to the care of orphans – children whose parents are deceased or otherwise unable or unwilling to care for them...
located in Parma, Ohio
Parma, Ohio
Parma is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. It is the largest suburb of Cleveland and the seventh largest city in the state of Ohio...
, three miles outside of Cleveland.
In 1939 Daniel's father began dating a nurse and married her. They started their own family and brought Daniel home. At age six, he resented his stepmother and ran away on several occasions. His paternal grandfather took the boy in, and Daniel lived with him and an aunt for the rest of his childhood. When his father died in 1959, the newspaper obituary
Obituary
An obituary is a news article that reports the recent death of a person, typically along with an account of the person's life and information about the upcoming funeral. In large cities and larger newspapers, obituaries are written only for people considered significant...
listed his children from his second marriage, but did not mention Daniel.
At St. Jerome Catholic School, Daniel Greene developed a great fondness for the nuns and priests. He developed a lasting friendship with some of his teachers and served as an altar boy. An athletic boy, he excelled at baseball and was an all-star basketball player. Although a poor student, the nuns at St. Jerome let him play sports because he was valuable for the team.
Greene went to St. Ignatius High School. In frequent fights with Italian-American students, children of more recent immigrants' struggling for place, Daniel developed an intense dislike for Italians that lasted his entire life. After being expelled from Saint Ignatius, he transferred to Collinwood High School, where he excelled in athletics.
A Boy Scout
Boy Scouts of America
The Boy Scouts of America is one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with over 4.5 million youth members in its age-related divisions...
for a short time, Greene was kicked out of his pack. He was expelled from Collinwood High School due to excessive tardiness
Tardy
Tardy means to be late, slow, or sluggish.* A form of misconductAs a surname, Tardy may refer to:* Donald Tardy , American drummer* Gregory Tardy , American jazz saxophonist...
, which he claimed was caused by the bullying of fellow students.
Personality
As an adult, Greene was 5'10" with curly blond hair; although handsome, he was self-conscious about his personal appearance. He pursued physical fitness; lifting weights and jogging. As he became older, he quit smoking and drinking, and had hair prosthesisHair prosthesis
A Hair prosthesis , is a custom-made wig specifically designed for patients who have lost their hair as a result of medical conditions or treatments, such as alopecia areata...
. He followed a rigid diet of fish, vegetables and vitamin supplements. Greene was a devoted animal lover and owned two pet cats. He had a habit of putting out food for the birds and squirrels.
While some say Greene privately disliked Italians , he collaborated with many Italian-Americans in business and criminal interests, notably John Nardi
John Nardi
John Nardi was an influential associate of the Cleveland crime family who was involved in labor racketeering in Cleveland, Ohio. At the end of his criminal career, Nardi turned against his crime family in a bloody gang war.-Early years:...
.
Military service
Expelled from high school in 1951, Greene enlisted in the United States MarinesUnited States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
, where he was soon noticed for his abilities as a boxer and marksman. He trained at the Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune
Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune
Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune is a United States military training facility in North Carolina. The base's of beaches make it a major area for amphibious assault training, and its location between two deep-water ports allows for fast deployments.The main base is supplemented by five satellite...
in Jacksonville, North Carolina
Jacksonville, North Carolina
Jacksonville, North Carolina, is a city in Onslow County, North Carolina, United States. As of the 2010 United States census, the population stood at 70,145, which makes Jacksonville the 14th largest city in North Carolina...
. He was transferred many times, possibly because of behavioral issues. Promoted to the rank of corporal in 1953, Greene taught new recruits how to be artillerymen. He was honorably discharged later that year.
Waterfront
In the early 1960s, Greene worked steadily as a longshoreman at the Cleveland docks years before the work was unionized by the International Longshoremen's AssociationInternational Longshoremen's Association
The International Longshoremen's Association is a labor union representing longshore workers along the East Coast of the United States and Canada, the Gulf Coast, the Great Lakes, Puerto Rico, and inland waterways...
(ILA). In his free time he read about Ireland and its turbulent history. He began to think of himself as a "Celtic warrior". Some writers have speculated that reading about such warriors inspired his criminal ambitions.
In 1961, the president of the local union was removed from office by the ILA and Greene was chosen to serve as interim president. He handily won the next election. Once president, Greene had the union office painted green [to represent his Irish ethnicity] and installed thick green carpeting. He was known to drive a green car, wear green jackets, and often handed out green ink pens. In office, he raised dues 25 percent and pushed workers to perform "volunteer" hours to assist in providing a "building fund." It was unwise to refuse, as those who did often found themselves losing out on work. He fired more than 50 members while denouncing them as "winos and bums" to the other workers.
Greene led sometimes violent protests and strikes to force the stevedore
Stevedore
Stevedore, dockworker, docker, dock labourer, wharfie and longshoreman can have various waterfront-related meanings concerning loading and unloading ships, according to place and country....
companies to allow the ILA to oversee the hiring of dockworkers. As a prerequisite to landing a job as a longshoreman, many workers had to unload grain from the ships on a temporary basis and turn their paychecks over to Greene. Said to have been collected to build a union hall, most of the funds ended up in Greene's personal bank account. An unidentified ILA member would later recall about Greene, "He read On the Waterfront
On the Waterfront
On the Waterfront is a 1954 American drama film about union violence and corruption among longshoremen. The film was directed by Elia Kazan and written by Budd Schulberg. It stars Marlon Brando, Rod Steiger, Eva Marie Saint, Lee J. Cobb and Karl Malden. The soundtrack score was composed by Leonard...
. He imagined himself a tough dock boss. But he was thirty years too late. He used workers to beat up union members who did not come in line, but he was never seen fighting himself. He was a spellbinding speaker and a good organizer."
As a union organizer, Greene sometimes declared work stoppages, as frequently as 25 per day, to demonstrate to company owners his authority on the docks. On one occasion, he threatened to murder the two children of one owner; the FBI put the man's house and family under protection.
After Sam Marshall, a courageous investigative reporter, collected affidavits that supported charges of extortion, Greene was exiled from the union and convicted of embezzlement. The conviction was later overturned on appeal. Rather than face a second trial, he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of falsifying union records, was fined $10,000 and received a suspended sentence. Afterward, he did not pay the fine or receive any prison time. After returning to his rackets, Greene met and befriended Teamsters boss Louis Triscaro. He introduced Greene to Jimmy Hoffa
Jimmy Hoffa
James Riddle "Jimmy" Hoffa was an American labor union leader....
. After the friendly meeting, Hoffa later reportedly said to Triscaro, "Stay away from that guy. There's something wrong with him."
FBI informant
Marty McCann of the Organized Crime Division of the FBI recruited Greene as an informant. He became a top-echelon confidential informant. Greene passed along information to the FBI, but only that which suited his personal needs and would not hurt those close to him. His codename was "Mr. Patrick", a reflection on his Irish pride. It was his confirmation name and that of his beloved Irish saint. Protected by his informant status, Greene increased his criminal activities.By 1964, the members of the union were fed up with Greene's behavior. The Plain Dealer began writing a nine-part investigative series about him. The series brought Greene unwanted attention from the U.S. Attorney, the Internal Revenue Service
Internal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...
, the Labor Department, and the Cuyahoga County prosecutor.
The ILA began its own investigation and soon removed Greene from office. Eventually, Greene was convicted in federal court of embezzling $11,500 in union funds as well as two counts of falsifying records. The verdict was overturned by an appeals court, and federal prosecutors finally settled for Greene's guilty plea to two misdemeanor charges. He was fined $10,000, but paid only a fraction of it. Some think that his FBI connections worked to lessen his punishment.
Criminal career
Greene started working for the Cleveland Solid Waste Trade Guild, where he was hired to "keep the peace". Impressed with his abilities, mobster Alex "Shondor" BirnsAlex Birns
Alex Birns , also known as Shondor, was a notorious Jewish-American mobster and racketeer from Cleveland, Ohio who was once labeled as the city's Public Enemy No. 1 by the local newspapers...
, hired him as an enforcer for his various "numbers
Numbers game
Numbers game, also known as a numbers racket, policy racket or Italian lottery, is an illegal lottery played mostly in poor neighborhoods in the United States, wherein a bettor attempts to pick three digits to match those that will be randomly drawn the following day...
" operators.
The Cleveland family underboss, Frank "Little Frank" Brancato, used Greene and other ethnic Irish gangsters to act as errand boys and muscle to enforce the Mafia’s influence during the 1960s over the garbage-hauling contracts and other Mob-influenced rackets. Until his death in 1973, Brancato regretted bringing Greene into the Mob, because of the damage he did.
In May 1968, under Birns's orders, Greene was supposed to attack a black numbers man who was holding out on protection money due. Unfamiliar with the military-type detonator, Greene barely made it out of his car before the bomb exploded. He told the police a story and survived being thrown nearly 20 feet, although the hearing in his right ear was damaged for life. In the future, Greene would only trust professionals to handle bombs for him.
Mike "Big Mike" Frato broke away from the guild and founded the more legitimate trade group called the Cuyahoga County Refuse Haulers Association. A legitimate businessman, he protested upon realizing that Greene was bringing mob involvement and strong-arm tactics to the guild (although he had his own connections). The Cleveland Solid Waste Trade Guild fell apart shortly thereafter.
In 1971, Frato's car was destroyed by a bomb
Car bomb
A car bomb, or truck bomb also known as a Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device , is an improvised explosive device placed in a car or other vehicle and then detonated. It is commonly used as a weapon of assassination, terrorism, or guerrilla warfare, to kill the occupants of the vehicle,...
. Inside was found an accomplice of Greene named Art Sneperger. Sneperger had allegedly been careless with the bomb he was trying to plant, and Frato was across the street. The previous September, Greene had directed Sneperger to fix a bomb on Frato's car, but Sneperger had second thoughts and informed Frato of Greene's plan. Also, Sneperger had been a police informant and revealed everything to Sgt. Edward Kovacic, of the Cleveland Police
Cleveland Division of Police
The Cleveland Division of Police is the law enforcement agency responsible for the city of Cleveland, Ohio. Since 2005, Michael McGrath has been the chief of police.-Pre-World War II:...
intelligence unit, including Greene's status as a top-echelon FBI informant.
Some investigators believed the explosion was an accident caused by a radio signal, possibly from a short wave radio or a passing police car. Others think Birns and Greene arranged Sneperger's death after learning of his informant status. Sneperger's girlfriend and Kovacic thought this; in addition, Kovacic was told by an underworld source that Greene had pushed the detonator, killing Sneperger instantly. The case was never officially solved.
A month later on November 26, 1971, Frato was shot and killed at Cleveland's White City Beach. Greene was arrested and interrogated. He admitted to the killing but claimed it was self-defense. He said Frato had fired two shots while Greene was jogging and exercising his dogs. Evidence seemed to corroborate Greene's story and he was released. Later, Cleveland police learned that Frato was armed and had an opportunity to kill Greene several weeks prior to the White Beach shooting. During their partnership, Greene and Frato had become so close that they had named sons after each other.
Not long afterward, Greene again found himself a target while jogging in White City Beach. A sniper, concealed several hundred feet away, fired several shots at Greene from a rifle. Instead of ducking to the ground, Greene pulled out his revolver and started shooting, while running toward his would-be assassin. The sniper fled and was never positively identified. Investigators later learned that this attempt was part of a murder contract left by Shondor Birns.
Soon after, Greene left his wife and their three children and moved to Collinwood, where he rented an apartment. The journalist Ned Whelan wrote about Greene: "Imagining himself as a feudal baron, he supported a number of destitute Collinwood families, paid tuition to Catholic schools for various children and, like the gangsters of the Twenties, actually had fifty, twenty pound turkeys delivered to needy households on Thanksgiving." He would often pick up tabs for friends, neighbors, and acquaintances at a restaurant, and left generous tips.
Greene evicted a bookmaker
Bookmaker
A bookmaker, or bookie, is an organization or a person that takes bets on sporting and other events at agreed upon odds.- Range of events :...
who operated out of a small Waterloo business, and kept a local bar in order by personal visits. When a rowdy group of Hells Angels
Hells Angels
The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club is a worldwide one-percenter motorcycle gang and organized crime syndicate whose members typically ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles. In the United States and Canada, the Hells Angels are incorporated as the Hells Angels Motorcycle Corporation. Their primary motto...
moved into Collinwood, Greene visited their headquarters with a stick of dynamite. He threatened to light it and throw it into their club house until they came out to hear his warning to keep things quiet when in Collinwood.
He formed his own crew of young Irish-American gangsters, called The Celtic Club. His main enforcers were Keith Ritson, Kevin McTaggart, Brian O'Donnell, Danny Greene Jr., Billy McDuffy and enforcer-hitman James "Icepick" Sterling from Southwest Detroit. They set up gambling dens across the city. He allied with John Nardi
John Nardi
John Nardi was an influential associate of the Cleveland crime family who was involved in labor racketeering in Cleveland, Ohio. At the end of his criminal career, Nardi turned against his crime family in a bloody gang war.-Early years:...
, a "Cleveland family" labor racketeer who wanted to overthrow the leadership. Underworld crime figures note that James "Icepick" Sterling, a gun and explosives expert, is believed to have almost 60 contract killings under his belt, but was never arrested or questioned in any of the Cleveland bombings. “Retired” after Greene’s 1977 death, Sterling moved to a quiet life in Troy, Michigan.
The relationship between Greene and Birns began to sour. Greene had asked Birns for a loan of $75,000 to set up a "cheat spot," a speakeasy and gambling house. Birns arranged for it through the Gambino crime family
Gambino crime family
The Gambino crime family is one of the "Five Families" that dominates organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Mafia . The group is named after Carlo Gambino, boss of the family at the time of the McClellan hearings in 1963...
. The money wound up in the hands of Billy Cox, a numbers operator, who purchased narcotics. The police raided his house, arrested him, seized the narcotics and what was left of the $75,000.
The Gambino family wanted their money. Shondor pressed Greene but Greene flatly refused to return the money. He told Birns that it was not his fault that it was lost.
To settle the dispute, Birns directed an associate to hire a hit man for Greene and gave him $25,000 for the job, especially in the event of any harm befalling him. Several minor underworld characters, burglars by trade, took the contract, but made numerous failed assassination attempts on Greene.
Not long after, Greene found an unexploded bomb in his car when he pulled into a Collinwood service station for gas. The explosive was wired improperly and failed to detonate. Greene disassembled the bomb himself, removed the dynamite, and brought the rest of the package to the Cleveland police lieutenant, Edward Kovacic. Kovacic offered him police protection, but he refused. He also refused to hand over the bomb, telling him, "I'm going to send this back to the old bastard that sent it to me". Suspecting that Birns was behind it, Greene decided to retaliate. On March 29, 1975, Holy Saturday, the eve of Easter, Birns was blown up via a bomb containing C-4
C-4 (explosive)
C4 or Composition C4 is a common variety of the plastic explosive known as Composition C.-Composition and manufacture:C4 is made up of explosives, plastic binder, plasticizer and usually marker or odorizing taggant chemicals such as 2,3-dimethyl-2,3-dinitrobutane to help detect the explosive and...
, a potent military explosive in the lot behind Christy's Lounge, the former Jack & Jill West Lounge, a go-go spot at 2516 Detroit Ave. near St. Malachi Church.
On May 12, an explosion rocked Collinwood. Greene's building was destroyed, but the man had only minor injuries. As the second floor fell, he was shielded from the debris by a refrigerator that had lodged against a wall. A second, and more powerful, bomb had failed to explode. Greene credited his miraculous escape to the intercession
Intercession
Intercession is the act of interceding between two parties. In both Christian and Islamic religious usage, it is a prayer to God on behalf of others....
of St. Jude, whose medal he always wore around his neck.
In 1975 Greene began to push into the vending machine racket, traditionally controlled by the Mafia, as well as muscling into gambling operations. The Cleveland family leadership was angry, especially the soldier Thomas "The Chinaman" Sinito
Thomas Sinito
Thomas James Sinito, also known as "The Chinaman" , 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...
. He thought Greene was an extortionist, especially because of the excessive fees he charged for coin-operated laundry contracts.
Greene controlled some of the more lucrative laundry contracts that Sinito wanted. Sinito and mob soldier Joseph "Joey Loose" Iacobacci murdered one of Greene’s lower-level associates. Greene had dynamite wired to the frame of Sinito’s car. Sinito found the bomb, removed and disarmed it, and later destroyed it.
In Greene’s competition with the Mafia to build a vending machine empire, John Conte became a victim. 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 was also a close friend of Mob figure Joseph Gallo
Joseph N. Gallo
Giuseppe “Uno-Punzone” Nicholas Gallo, Jr. also known as Joseph Nicholas Gallo was a New York mobster, who allegedly became consigliere of the Gambino crime family.-Biography:He was born on January 8, 1912...
. On the day of his disappearance, Conte told his wife that he had a meeting with Greene. That was the last time she saw him, as his badly beaten corpse was discovered a few days later at a dump site in Austintown. Police investigators theorized that Conte was beaten to death in Greene’s trailer and his body later transported to Austintown. They found some physical evidence, but Greene was never charged with Conte’s murder.
In 1976, longtime mobster John Scalish
John T. Scalish
John T. Scalish was an Ohio mobster who became the boss of the Cleveland crime family. Scalish was the brother-in-law of Philadelphia crime family boss Angelo Bruno and Cleveland mob associate Milton Rockman....
died, leaving control of Cleveland’s lucrative criminal operations, specifically the city's Teamsters Union locals, up for grabs. Scalish had appointed James Licavoli
James T. Licavoli
A member of the Licavoli Crime Family, James T. "Blackie" Licavoli also known as "Jack White" was a Cleveland, Ohio mobster and one of the earliest organized crime figures to be convicted under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act .-Early life:James Licavoli was born Vicentio...
as his successor, but other mobsters such as John Nardi
John Nardi
John Nardi was an influential associate of the Cleveland crime family who was involved in labor racketeering in Cleveland, Ohio. At the end of his criminal career, Nardi turned against his crime family in a bloody gang war.-Early years:...
challenged him for leadership of the organization. With the assistance of Greene, within weeks Nardi had many of Licavoli's supporters killed. They included Licavoli's underboss, Leo "Lips" Moceri. The Cleveland family's enforcer, Eugene "The Animal" Ciasullo, was seriously injured and sidelined for several months by a car bomb.
Soon after, a bomb planted in Alfred "Allie" Calabrese's car killed an innocent man. Frank Pircio, 50, of Collinwood, died when he tried moving the mobster's Lincoln Continental before getting his own car out of their shared driveway. This started a longstanding war between Licavoli's Cleveland crime family and Greene's Celtic Club.
In 1976 alone, 36 bombs exploded around the Cleveland area. It was soon to be called "Bomb City, U.S.A." The use of bombs became a favorite weapon in the Northeast Ohio underworld. The ATF
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is a federal law enforcement organization within the United States Department of Justice...
had to triple its staffing in northeast Ohio in order to handle the bomb investigations. A suspected bombmaker, Maertin Heidtman, was arrested, but he was eventually released due to lack of evidence.
According to the book To Kill The Irishman by Rick Porrello, Greene killed at least eight of the Mafia hit men sent to assassinate him. He most often used bombs or bullets.
Media personality
After the failed Waterloo Avenue bombing, Greene played up the stories of the Mafia's failed assassination attempts to his benefit. His bravado and flamboyant behavior only added to his growing aura of invincibility and power in the urban legends of the Cleveland criminal underworld. To this end, he granted interviews to all the local television stations. For a newspaper photographer, he posed proudly in front of a boarded-up window of his destroyed apartment building.During a televised interview, Greene said to one television reporter,
"The luck of the Irish is with me and I have a message for those yellow maggots (Cleveland MafiaCleveland MafiaThe Cleveland crime family, also known as the Cleveland Mafia or Licavoli crime family, is a crime syndicate that is part of the phenomenon known as the American Mafia or Cosa Nostra...
). That includes the payers and the doers. The doers are the people who carried out the bombing. They have to be eliminated because the people who paid them can't afford to have them remain alive. And the payers are going to feel great heat from the FBI and the local authorities.... And let me clear something else up. I didn't run away from the explosion. Someone said they saw me running away. I walked away."
In response to the reporter's assertion that he was a cat with nine lives, Greene said, "I am an Irish Catholic. I believe that the Guy upstairs pulls the strings, and you're not going to go until he says so. It just wasn't my time yet."
In another televised interview, Greene denied any knowledge of the underworld war. He said, "I have no axe to grind, but if these maggots in this so-called Mafia want to come after me, I'm over here by the Celtic Club. I'm not hard to find." This was a public insult to the reputation of the Licavoli Crime Family
Licavoli Crime Family
The Licavoli Mob was an Italian American mob that was based in Detroit and St. Louis. The mob was formed by the brothers Thomas "Yonnie" Licavoli and Peter "Pete" Licavoli.- Background :...
. Their inability to kill Greene made them look like a laughing stock.
Assassination
On October 6, 1977, Greene went to a dental appointment at the Brainard Place office building in Lyndhurst, Ohio
Lyndhurst, Ohio
As of the census of 2000, there were 15,279 people, 6,642 households, and 4,397 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,480.1 people per square mile . There were 6,855 housing units at an average density of 1,561.4 per square mile...
. Members of the Mafia had tapped his phone and were aware of the visit. After Greene's dental visit, he left the office building and approached his car. The automobile parked next to his exploded, killing Greene instantly.
In the aftermath of Greene's murder, the FBI intercepted some conversations through its Title III hidden-microphone surveillance at Licavoli's house. Licavoli, his right-hand man John Calandra, and an unidentified male were complaining about Frank Embrescia, Frank Brancato, and John Nardi.
- LICAVOLI: "Embrescia was so fuckin' burned up when Shondor got it. Hey, if he couldn't handle him, that's his own fault."
- CALANDRA: "That's right. That's right."
- UNIDENTIFIED: "How can a marked man put a big flag in front of his house? He had a big Irish flag out by the side; anybody could see it. He put it there on purpose. He'd be sitting out there under the sun."
- CALANDRA: "He has some pretty good connections, though."
- LICAVOLI: "He had some connections all right. The fucking FBI. He used to tell them about every goddamned thing everyone did."
- CALANDRA: "You know that with Greene. He was the FBI's boy."
- LICAVOLI: "Oh, fuck yes. But he didn't work with the FBI; he told them what to do! He told them what to do. He said FBI your ass. He thought he got so fuckin' big. Well, he wanted it all; that's all. Him and Nardi. That fucker. He used to give them the money, and he used to give them all the information. He created a monster."
- CALANDRA: "Nardi and Brancato?""
- LICAVOLI: "That's right. They created that guy. And all the fuckin' headaches we used to have."
In popular culture
- 1998, Rick Porrello, a former Cleveland-area police lieutenant, wrote To Kill The Irishman: The War that Crippled the Mafia (1998), about Greene's engagement with the Mafia. He won a national Non-Fiction award for the book. It was adapted as a movie first entitled The Irishman: The Legend of Danny Greene.
- 2011, the biopic Kill the Irishman, which loosely chronicles Danny Greene's life, was released to favorable reviews. It was directed by Jonathan HensleighJonathan HensleighJonathan Blair Hensleigh is an American screenwriter and film director, working primarily in the action/adventure genre of films.-Early life:...
and stars Ray StevensonRay StevensonRaymond Leslie "Ray" Stevenson was a writer and political activist in Canada. He was an executive member of the International Council for Friendship and Solidarity with Soviet People and Associate Editor of Northstar Compass - the organization's organ publication. Stevenson wrote articles for and...
as Greene.
External links
- Danny Greene: The Most Influential Mobster You've Never Heard Of by Rick Porrello
- Danny Greene at the Crime LibraryCrime LibraryThe Crime Library is a website documenting major crimes, criminals, and trials, forensics, and criminal profiling from books, police reports, crime television shows, and writers...
- Kill the Irishman: The real story behind the movie about Danny Greene (timeline)