https://gangsterreport.com/final-na...g-of-lenny-strollo-youngstowns-last-don/

Final Nail In The Coffin: The Mafia In Mahoning Valley Officially Dead With Passing Of Lenny Strollo, Youngstown’s Last Don

Scott Burnstein 

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May 20, 2021

May 20, 2021 – Disgraced former Youngstown (OH) mob don Lenny Strollo died of natural causes this week at the age of 91, living quietly in the shadows of his old mafia kingdom forced to wear the scarlet letter of a cooperator. Strollo was the final mob boss in Mahoning Valley history. He became a government witness in 1997 after an arrest for racketeering and murder and helped state and federal officials make dozens of convictions, which effectively put an end to the mob rule in the area for good. The cooperation he provided got his prison sentence shaved down to just 13 years and Strollo walked free — and back to Youngstown – in 2010.

Youngstown was dubbed “Crimetown USA” or “Bombtown USA” for its rampant mob violence in the 1960s and 70s. The territory was shared by Cleveland and Pittsburgh crime families and tensions between the two groups ebbed and flowed through the decades. By the time Strollo was taking power, the Cleveland mob’s presence in the Mahoning Valley barely existed, if at all, leaving the whole region ripe for the taking by the Pittsburgh group.

Strollo’s run as boss of the Youngstown mafia began in the late summer of 1991 with the murder of his mob rival in the area, Joseph (Little Joey) Naples. His reign continued the tradition of deeply embedded ties into the local justice and political system and made alliance with the region’s African-American underworld.

Before he became skipper of the Pittsburgh mob crew in Youngstown, Strollo oversaw the cash-cow All-American Club, a massively profitable backdoor casino located in Campbell, Ohio, on behalf of his mentor, Mahoning Valley mafia capo Vincent (Brier Hill Jimmy) Prato. Strollo’s inner-circle was a rogue’s gallery of cartoonish gangland characters from different ethnic backgrounds, including his brother Danny, Larry (Jeep) Garano, Bernard (Bernie the Jew) Altshuler and Jeff Riddle, the self-proclaimed “Black John Gotti.
Both Strollo and Little Joey Naples were inducted into Pittsburgh’s mob family in a 1987 ceremony, according to court records. Brier Hill Jimmy Prato is alleged to have sponsored them. When Prato retired shortly thereafter, Strollo and Naples began feuding.

Naples was killed by a sniper’s rifle on a piece of property he was building a house on in August 1991. Naples’ brothers were all slain in the Youngstown mob wars of the 1960s.

Strollo ordered the murders of Naples’ right hand man, Ernie Biondillo, mob associate Larry Sisman, defense attorney Gary Van Brocklin (a one-time state prosecutor) and Mahoning County State’s Attorney, Paul Gains, in the years that followed. Van Brocklin and Gains survived their attacks. Biondillo, who was gunning for Strollo’s job as crew boss, and Sisman, an “Ernie B,” loyalist and strip-club owner, weren’t as lucky.

In order to “make his bones,” Strollo lured Youngstown mob figure Ron (Ronnie the Crab) Carabbia to his murder in 1980, per FBI informant files. Carabbia and his two brothers were the Cleveland mafia’s Mahoning Valley representatives at the time. Ronnie the Crab’s body has never been recovered. Orlando Carabbia just died last month.

As usual Furio is on top of all things Youngstown/Pittsburgh. However I posted the Vindicator's first notice of Lenny's death yesterday.

FOH I didn't see it.Anyway despite you're the expert of Youngstown/Pittsburgh,I only posted the gangster report article.That's it.

I don't know about being an "the" expert, but whatever I know are my own personal experiences and not from the internet.

Expert in the sense that everything you have learned, you have learned from experience and from having met some of the member of the mob. For the article on Strollo's death, I just posted an article nothing more.
Take it easy man,I live in Italy and the few that know on Pittsburgh family I read on internet and never say that Im an expert.
So again take it easy.

Fair enough and in a way I admire your interest in Pittsburgh. I was somewhat surprised that you post something similar to what I had already posted.

Frankly speaking as soon as I read the article, I posted it wondering what you would write. Have you ever had the opportunity to know Strollo in person? For my interest in Pittsburgh family,I've always wondered why a family that could still viable on the paper in the early 2000s was done while the mob in Detroit is still active.

Yes. I originally met Lenny when I was in my early 20s with Henry. Much later when I was in business for myself, Henry thought it best that he reacquaint me with Lenny.
I had a few encounters with Lenny and it would bev safe to say that he wasn't one of my favorites. I actually found Joey Naples to be more down to earth.

Good story,you should write a book.Any problem with the mob due your bussiness?

Book - No Cigar. No issues with the Mob and my business mainly because of my friendship with Henry and Charlie.

Henry who?

Since you didn't ask "Charlie who" then you must know who Henry.
I seem to recall you know more about went on in the Mahoning Valley that I did.

Here's an old City Confidential episode where he tried to kill the prosecutor !!

[img]https://dai.ly/x5yg55j[/img]

Cadillac Charlie? No I just don't agree with you that the Joey Naples hit was a lone nut case. Joey Naples and Lenny Strollo were known rivals.

No, Charlie Murgie. Seeing as how you know more about who wacked Joey Naples than either the FBI or dozens of others, then you know who Charlie Murgie was.
Now let's try and help you with who Henry was. Look at my User Name and my avatar, Henry's picture plus my sign off and who I was quoting. Got it now?

Intresting enough I was talking to a 15 year vet of the US Marshalls
Who I works with me now.
He talked at length about his boss Phil Chance when started out
As a Deputy Sheriff in Mahoning County.
He said he was at the Strollo estate a great deal many times in Canfield
He basically said nothing new that alot of already know.
He did say technology was the biggest single factor in bringing down the mob

Technology isn't the biggest single factor in bringing down the mob, most LCN families would've died out anyway because they never recruited any fresh blood to replace jailed and dying members. But strangely the government gets the credit for taking out most of the nation's 26 or so crime families, groups that were dying anyway. A factor? Yes. But the biggest single factor? Yeah right.

FBI and dozens of others? Like who? Last I checked most law enforcement agree and the general consensus is that Lenny Strollo was behind the murder of his chief rival Joey Naples.

Too funny as you probably know Phil did time for taking bribes from Lenny.
Phil wasn't really a bad guy he just wasn't the sharpest pencil in the box and got caught.

We've been down this road before. Obviously you didn't bother to read any of the other threads where where "AD" was discussed as Joey's killer.
Once again you've shown yourself to be a not know it know it all. Now go troll someone else's threads. We're done!

I don't doubt your firsthand knowledge of the Pittsburgh mob scene, I am just having trouble wrapping my head around your new theory.

I know better than to answer but just in case you'll listen. No new theory, just what has always been known. One of the most famous bank robbers just that happened to live in the Mahoning Valley and who was a former Marine trained sniper wacked Joey. Only with the hopes of gaining favor with Lenny. What favor, only he knows but Lenny had no prior knowledge of the shooting. End of story!

With Strollos passing that leaves I guess Ronnie Carrabia as the oldest living survivor that is linked
To the Danny Greene Saga and Cleveland Pittsburgh "War"

RC lives primarily in Florida where his son, RC Jr. is mega successful in the fireworks business.
Jr. owns all the prime real estate that his stores are located. I understand that RC isn't in the best of health.
Although I was close to Pittsburgh I played in quite a few of RC's poker games. I often sat next to Jimmy Prato.
2 Gun Jimmy never saw a card he didn't like ;-) All in all I found RC to be a fair and likeable kinda' guy.

Wow great for Ronnie the Crab glad to know his son is doing well.

That killed more mob families: why a third or fourth generation italian boy should joint the mob when he can made legit money and enjoy it in peace?

Exactly Furio

Totally agree but keep in mind that these third or fourth generation boys from Mob families may have the advantage of Pop's bank roll. Not a bad thing.

Intresting side note about the 3rd and 4th generations of
The Big players in Cleveland, none of their sons followed
Their fathers footsteps......

John Scalish....His son Frank I dealt with I worked for International
Garment Union out of a shop in Twinsburg
And his extented family successful body and auto repair
In Mentor and Streetsboro

Tony Liberatore...his son Dom just a normal hard working
Guy that at one time was a bike courier in downtown Cleveland.

Eugene Ciasullo his son operated pretty pizza sub shop
In suburban Cleveland.

They were smart enough to bankroll legit businesses for their sons or kin as an exit strategy.