Joe Lonardo
? to Oct. 13, 1927.
"Big Joe"
Lonardo was a Mafia bigshot in Cleveland during the Prohibition Era and a strong supporter of New Yorker Toto D'Aquila's claim to the Mafia boss of bosses title.
Lonardo's source of income appears to have been a monopoly on the corn sugar used in midwest moonshine operations during the Prohibition Era.
According to legend, the Porrello Brothers began moving in on Lonardo's rackets in the mid-1920s. The Porrellos were generally blamed as Lonardo was killed in their Cleveland barbership on Oct. 13, 1927.
It is more likely, however, that the Porrellos were important figures within the Lonardo Mafia and had nothing to do with the Lonardo assassination.
Joe Porrello became the boss of the Cleveland underworld.
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