More files on Youngstown:
http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=90172&relPageId=2http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=90179&relPageId=2http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=92768&relPageId=3***IF you read this file directly, the answers for the Naples brothers are in here. In a nutshell, there were two groups who controlled Youngstown in the 1930's through the 1960's and into the early 1970's: The Calabrese Organization and the Sicilian Organization. Both groups were their own organization and for the most part, operated without alot of bodies dropping. If you were doing anything illegal in Youngstown, you had to kick up to one or both of these organizations. Paul Romeo and Dominic Mallamo r4an the Calabrese Group and Vince DeNiro and Charlie Cavallaro ran the Sicilian group. Romeo and Mallamo reported to one of the most powerful mobsters in America, Anthony "Old Man Tony" Milano on Murray Hill but also reported to Antonio Ripepi/John Bazzano Jr in Pittsburgh. The Sicilian group, DeNiro and Cavallaro reported to Scalish/Licavoli in Cleveland.
The Naples brothers had their own numbers lottery and other gambling ventures but refused to kick up to Mallamo/Romeo as well as DeNiro & Cavallaro. The only ones left standing through that war was Dominic "Big Dom" Mallamo and Paul Romeo Sr. Deniro, Cavallaro, both Naples brothers (Sandy & Billy) were all killed in high profile fashion, especially Cavallaro. It has been widely reported that the Naples brothers and DeNiro were arch enemies, however, DeNiro was very powerful and connected to casinos in Havana and Las Vegas. DeNiro built an empire. According to the FBI, Naples had DeNiro and Cavallaro murdered by Dominic Moio. When Cleveland caught wind that DeNiro got blown up, John Scalish was not happy because DeNiro was one of his top earners. On orders from Anthony Milano (who was Calabrese and his family went back to Calabria with mallamo and Romeo), he wanted the Naples brothers taken out of the picture...especially since Cavallaro's son was in the car that exploded. He gave the orders to Mallamo/Romeo to take care of the problem. Three days before Sandy died, they had that meeting at Romeo's house to plan the execution of Sandy & Billy for refusing to pay the two groups who were in charge of all Youngstown rackets.
After Romeo died in 1976, Mallamo was in semi retirement and passed the power to his oldest sister's son, Vincenzo "Brier Hill Jimmy" Prato who was only a few years younger than Big Dom. Big Dom still collected envelopes until he died in April of 1987. It was decided by Mallamo that Joey & Jimmy were not Sandy & Billy and Prato took Joey under his wing. After the Cleveland-Pittsburgh mob war that started in 1978 and ended in 1982, Pittsburgh emerged as the true power and Joey Naples aligned himself with the Pittsburgh group. Joey was made in 1987 along with Lenny Strollo by Mike Genovese in the basement of Antonio Ripepi's house.
***IF you read closely, Charles "Charlie Murgie" Imburgia, who was originally from Pittsburgh and close to the upper echelon of Pittsburgh, was sent to Warren, OH to keep an eye on John & Mike Farah who operated the Jungle Inn Casino. Charlie settled in Warren in the Avalon Country Club neighborhood and was the eyes and ears of Frank Amato Sr., John LaRocca and Michael Genovese. If you read the obituaries for Charlie, Dominic Mallamo and Paul Romeo, they are very short and inconspicuous...which is exactly how they wanted it. No flash, no notoriety, everything was quiet and low key. Jimmy Naples was never made into a family as he handled the books for his brother Joey. Jimmy operated quietly (the way it was supposed to be) which is why he survived one of the tumultuous gang wars in Youngstown history. If Mallamo/Romeo wanted the Naples brothers dead, they would have been.
**I know for a fact that every single week, Joey Naples would go with Jimmy Prato to pay his respects to Big Dom Mallamo either at his house on Medford Ave off of Youngstown-Poland Rd in the Brownlee Woods neighborhood or at Lord Chesterfield Menswear, Nicky Polito's business where Joey bought all of his clothes. Mallamo and Polito were first cousins and Big Dom would hang around in Polito's office which was equipped with a large bar, leather sofa's and quite a bit of homeade wine. I know that because I spent alot of time at Nicky's business and quite a bit of time at Big Dom's house, which was a small, unassuming home. In fact, Mallamo would not let any of his guys drive new cars or anything expensive, he felt it brought too much attention. Romeo was the same way who lived in Campbell and later in Coitsville.
**By the time Joey and Lenny took over as Co-boss in late 1988, organized crime in Youngstown wasn't the same. They took over on the tail end of things and Joey was only in power for less than 3 years before he was shot. By December of 1997...it was all over.
