Original subtitles

Gangs rule their territories through ruthless enterprises, fear, and a strict code.

Deviate from this code, or challenge their power.

Retribution soon follows.

Especially for the calculating and innovative Cleveland Mafia.

This disciplined outfit builds an impressive money-making empire,

only for it to collapse into ruin.

Here are three stories from one of the mob's most industrious crime families.

First, the Cleveland Mafia bets big on a risky new venture in the West.

Banks did not want to invest in Las Vegas.

It was the mob that brought that money here.

Next, an unexpected death jeopardizes their control over Cleveland.

The whole thing falls apart to this total chaos.

Finally, a member of the family breaks the code of silence and

exposes the inner workings of the entire American mafia.

It doesn't matter what the deal is. You don't snitch. You don't rat.

These are stories from the Cleveland Mafia.

This is Gangland Chronicles.

Cleveland, Ohio.

After building a fortune on bootlegging during Prohibition,

the Cleveland Mafia expands their operation in every direction.

Whether it was from extortion, the numbers racket, fixing races at the racetrack,

the Cleveland mob dealt in dealing with whatever they could to make a buck.

Their numerous criminal enterprises are overseen

by Cleveland's shrewd boss, John Scalish.

John Scalish was known for being very careful in his business affairs.

He was focused on the money.

The Cleveland family tended to want to have one foot in their organized

crime activities and one foot in legitimate businesses.

But beneath the appearance of respectability,

the Cleveland Mafia is ruthless and cunning.

My grandfather, Frank Brancato, his legitimate job was as a car salesman,

but he was a bank robber and a murderer.

The violence did happen when it needed to happen,

but the murders are usually very well planned and not detected.

Cleveland keeps its crimes under wraps by strict observance of OMERTA,

the Mafia code of silence.

Once you started talking about the family business, it could be your life.

Scalish's key advisor, or consigliere, is Milton Rockman,

leader of the Jewish crime syndicate.

Milton Rockman had the connection in the major cities of organized crime.

People knew who he was.

Through Rockman, the Cleveland Mob adds casinos across Ohio

and Kentucky to their growing list of cash businesses.

Gambling became just a centerpiece of the Cleveland Mob's revenue.

With some local casinos pulling in as much as $300,000 a week,

almost $4 million today, the Cleveland mob is raking it in.

Now they have their eyes on an even bigger payout, but it requires a big gamble.

1949. Las Vegas.

Seeing unlimited potential,

mafia outfits from coast to coast start investing in this tiny desert town.

But the Cleveland mob hasn't.

At least, not yet.

Milton Rockman spots an opportunity with the Desert Inn,

a casino resort that is the brainchild of entrepreneur Wilbur Clark.

But there's a catch.

The resort is only half-built.

Wilbur Clark did not have the capital he needed to complete the Desert Inn.

Rockman pitches John Scalish on investing, but the stakes are high.

The Desert Inn needs a big influx of cash just to open its doors.

$1.3 million, $16.8 million today.

John was hesitant about putting the money into it because they're

investing in outside business that you can't control.

Other mafia outfits have been burned by Vegas.

Perhaps none more famous than the New York Mafia's disastrous

financing of Bugsy Siegel's Flamingo Hotel.

The Flamingo cost a lot more than it was supposed to.

The New York families got upset over what was happening there.

Bugsy Siegel is mysteriously murdered.

Some believe he paid the price for losing mafia money.

Now Wilbur Clark has to make sure he can deliver on the Desert Inn.

When you're part of a business with the mob, if you cross them,

there's a pretty good chance you're in serious trouble. 1950.

Las Vegas, Nevada.

Backed by money from the Cleveland Mafia,

entrepreneur Wilbur Clark completes construction

on his hotel casino, the Desert Inn.

Will Clark be able to satisfy his investors?

Or will its open flop like Bugsy Siegel's flamingo?

The Desert Inn opened April 24, 1950. And it was a hit right away.

But Wilbur Clark is not out of the woods yet.

He needs to make sure the Desert Inn pays off big for his mafia backers.

As long as Clark is not being a problem, he's fine.

And that's really how you have to deal with organized crime.

But don't cross them.

Wilbur Clark keeps the Cleveland Mafia happy

with a cut of the desert inn's cash profits,

$40,000 a month. That's almost $5 million a year today.

What you were seeing with Las Vegas was big money right off the bat,

and this went on for years.

Despite taking control over a portion of Vegas,

unexpected events threatened their grasp over Cleveland.

May 26, 1976, Cleveland, Ohio.

Cleveland Mafia boss John Scalish undergoes a scheduled heart procedure.

Open heart surgery in 76 was a major concern.

But the doctor said it went well.

Unfortunately, John died in the recovery room.

There's even more shocking news.

No one knows who the next boss of the Cleveland Mafia will be.

The fact that Scaler did not name a successor,

he left a void in Cleveland that a number of different people wanted to fill.

But there's a problem.

For years, John Scalish hasn't been making new members, and pickings are slim.

In the running to lead the Cleveland Mafia are veteran capo James Liccavoli,

the wildcard local union brass John Nardi,

who is not recognized as a full member of the Cleveland Mafia.

John Nardi was always angry, always looking for a fight.

And the favorite, Scalish's underboss, Angelo Leonardo.

But Milton Rockman threw a bomb into the mix.

Scalish wanted James Liccoboli to take over.

But while the rest of the Cleveland mob pledges

loyalty to Liccoboli, John Nardi refuses.

Nardi, he was not going to play by the rules of the Cleveland family.

He was going to fight to try to get that job of the boss.

John Nardi needed an ally that hated the Cleveland organization as much as he did,

and that was Danny Green.

Danny Green is an Irish-American mobster.

His ambition and love of violence makes him the perfect partner for John Nardi.

Danny Green had great aspirations to take over

the rackets from the Italian-Americans.

So from the Cleveland mob standpoint, he needed to be eliminated.

But in the battle for Cleveland, it's John Nardi and Danny Green who strike first.

August 22nd, 1976.

Police find the car of Cleveland underboss Leo Moceri.

The trunk is covered in blood.

There was never any trace of a body.

But there was bragging that Danny Green asked Nardi to kill Leo Maceri.

The Cavoli vows revenge, igniting an all-out war with Nardi and Green.

It was just a free-for-all of who could kill who first.

As the body count rises on both sides,

the struggle for control of the city's underworld

puts the Cleveland Mafia's empire at risk. 1976.

Cleveland, Ohio.

The deadly battle between new mafia boss James Liccavoli and challengers

Danny Green and John Nardi explodes across the city.

There were 31 bombings in that timeframe.

Cleveland became a chaotic,

violent mess for several years when everybody was vying for this power.

May 17th, 1977.

After several failed attempts,

Cleveland mob boss James Liccavoli gets another chance to take out John Nardi.

The Mafia retaliates by getting Nardi in the quiet,

small parking lot by the Teamsters Union.

John Nardi's death does nothing to stop his ally, Danny Green.

They tried to kill him three times.

Danny Green felt like he was invincible, like he was a cat with nine lives.

Lucavoli was putting more and more pressure on his underlings to get Danny Green.

Where is he?

What is he doing?

We have to get to him.

They were desperate.

October 6th, 1977. The Cleveland Mafia takes their biggest risk yet.

Hitmen park a car filled with dynamite next to Danny Green's

car while he's at a dental appointment.

When they saw Danny Green coming out, And he got into his car.

They hit the button to detonate the bomb.

Danny Green dies in the explosion.

But the public display of midday violence leaves the Cleveland Mafia exposed.

They got desperate doing it in broad daylight. There were other people in the area,

and they paid the price for it.

Eyewitness accounts lead to the conviction of three men for Danny Green's murder.

But Liccavoli remains untouchable.

There was no way that anybody believed that these three people just

on their own had come up with this idea to kill Danny Green.

In the federal system, we had better statutes that

we might be able to get the higher level people.

1982. Federal prosecutors use the RICO statutes to convict James Liccavoli and

other Cleveland mobsters with conspiracy to commit the murder of Danny Green.

Liccavoli never spoke to anyone in jail.

He followed Omerta.

With Liccavoli out of the picture, Angelo Leonardo becomes the mob's acting boss.

As he moves into the crosshairs of federal prosecutors,

his actions will soon seal the fate of the Cleveland Mafia. 1982.

Federal prosecutors go after what's left of the Cleveland Mafia,

a handful of members led by acting boss Angelo Leonardo.

To survive, they made an alliance with people who

would probably never be part of a mafia family.

They were more or less career criminals, especially very involved in drugs,

and some of them were very involved in murders, and that's what led to my case.

In 1983, federal prosecutors convict Angelo Leonardo on RICO

charges for overseeing a drug ring and eight murders.

At that time, very few bosses had been successfully prosecuted.

It was a huge thing nationally that we had succeeded in that way.

Angelo Leonardo is sentenced to prison for life.

Angelo Leonardo, he was in his 70s at the time in 1983.

It was a pressure of you're going to spend the rest of your life in jail,

or do you want to get out and live a peaceful life?

One of the FBI agents had been visiting him and left a card,

and when he heard that his appeal was denied, he called that agent and said,

are you still there? Just those four words.

What he does next sends shockwaves throughout the American mafia.

1985, Cleveland.

Faced with spending his final years in prison,

acting mob boss Angelo Leonardo calls the FBI, saying he wants to talk.

The agents immediately picked him up, and he said,

I can tell you about almost every mafia boss in the country.

Leonardo and the government make a deal.

In exchange for his freedom, Leonardo must testify in any case prosecutors demand.

But in saving himself, Leonardo turns his back on the mafia's most important rule.

One of the rules when you're in the mob, when

you're in the mafia, is this rule of omerta.

You don't snitch. You don't rat. It doesn't matter what the deal is.

He was one of the highest ranking mafia bosses ever

to violate Omerta and come forward and say,

I'm going to tell you everything I know about this criminal underworld.

Leonardo is a witness for the prosecution in mafia cases in Chicago and Detroit.

And he's also a star witness in the landmark commission trial against

New York's Five Families and the American mafia's national leadership.

The decision by Angelo Leonardo to flip put the

fear into mob bosses all over the country,

really, because Angelo Leonardo knew people in every city in America,

and he knew what they were doing.

He starts to talk about how the Cleveland Mob

had teamed up with other outfits from places

like Chicago to Milwaukee to Kansas City to not only skim this money from casinos,

but then use that money to further invest the Mafia's

interests in the construction of Las Vegas casinos.

He gave the whole gamut of what was going on with the separation,

and that helped to seal the fate of,

I think it was 17 different mob guys throughout the country.

Every prosecution was successful,

and it's pretty much the upper echelon of each mafia family all across the country.

Finally, as the last part of his deal, Angela Linardo appears before the U.S.

Senate in 1988, publicly airing the American mafia's secret inner workings.

My name is Ancelo Leonardo.

I am 77 years old, and I am a member of the La Cosa Nostra.

By pulling back the curtain and sort of revealing

the mafia politics behind how decisions are made,

the government is now seeing that this is a multi-tiered

organization with numerous people involved.

That brought the limelight to what the Mafia was all about,

from the skimming and drug smuggling aspects of it. Angelo Leonardo gave it all,

which was something to where I think he was cleansing

his own soul for the things he did.

After the bloody turf war of the 1970s,

And the criminal cases of the 1980s take out the Cleveland Mob leadership.

The airing of its innermost secrets deals a fatal

blow to this once-thriving criminal organization.

Having the same boss for 32 years, that was a great thing,

but it led to the whole thing falling apart because a successor

who really probably wasn't the most qualified Comes in and

everything that's happening around him leads to some bad decisions

that really bring about the fall of the entire family.

The rise and fall of the Cleveland Mafia pretty well follows

the pattern that we have seen in other cities across America.

During the 50s, 60s, 70s, this was really peak mob.

By the 1980s and certainly the 1990s,

the traditional organized crime in America was a shadow of its former self.