All language subtitles for Gangland Chronicles - S01E12 - The Cleveland Mafia

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.