Noted author and expert on organized crime Dan Moldea met with the Club on June 8.
Moldea, who grew up in Akron, began investigating crime and corruption as a graduate student at Kent State in 1974. Eight months after he began his investigations of the Teamsters and the Mafia for a small weekly newspaper—including an eight-part series about the union pension fund—Jimmy Hoffa disappeared on July 30, 1975. Forty-eight years later, Moldea—who described himself as Ahab searching for the white whale—is still looking for Hoffa.
He said that Cleveland was like the Wild West for a time during the 1890s-1920s immigration phase and Prohibition. Then, as the city grew, so did the Mafia. “Its heyday was in the 1950s and ‘60s,” Moldea declared. “It was very influential nationally.
Because of influential mob associate Moe Dalitz, Cleveland was instrumental in the development and success of Las Vegas. Dalitz arranged the financing of the Desert Inn and other hotel/casinos with the help of Hoffa and the Teamsters pension fund. “Dalitz’s memory is still cherished in Las Vegas,” Moldea said. “He’s regarded as kind of the George Washington of Las Vegas.”
The leader of the Cleveland Mafia beginning in the 1940s was John Scalish, who, according to Moldea, “was a kind of bon-vivant and natty dresser. But he did not bring younger men into the organization such that by the mid-1970s, all the leaders were themselves past 60. When Scalish died during heart surgery in 1976, none of the three senior Mafia men wanted the top job.”
But John Nardi—persona non grata among Mafioso while working in Cleveland with Irish gangster Danny Greene—did.
When Nardi was told he would not be selected to succeed Scalish as the boss of the local crime family, Nardi and Green attempted to take control of the Mafia’s territory. Violence resulted. Three prominent racketeers were murdered by 1977, including Nardi and Greene.
However, the killing of Greene was handled in such a sloppy manner that federal prosecutors managed to flip one of Greene’s killers, which led to the prosecution and total downfall of the entire hierarchy of the Cleveland Mafia.
“The Cleveland mob never really recovered from that,” Moldea said, adding that the 2011 movie, Kill the Irishman, depicted the Cleveland mayhem. Moldea praised the work of Rick Porrello, the author of the book upon which that motion picture was based.
Moldea reaffirmed statements he made in his 1978 book, The Hoffa Wars, that Jimmy Hoffa, New Orleans Mafia boss Carlos Marcello, and Tampa Mafia boss Santo Trafficante engineered the assassination of President John Kennedy in 1963, the reason being to stop Attorney General Robert Kennedy’s relentless assault against the Mafia.
Moldea also had strong words about legalized sports gambling: “It’s a disaster for both America and for sports,” he said. “The legalization of gambling always leads to the proliferation of illegal gambling and organized crime activities. Instead of paying the high commissions in legal gambling operations and then taxes to local, state, and federal jurisdictions, more sophisticated bettors will turn to illegal operations in which bookmakers only make bettors put up eleven dollars to win ten—and only take a ten-percent vigorish on the losing bets booked. Plus, the illegals will extend credit. After drug trafficking, the Mafia’s top money-making activity is gambling on NFL games.”
Moldea added that “organized crime has now become very sophisticated. It’s gone online, high- tech, and offshore. These guys are no longer fourth-grade dropouts. The top leadership is well- educated. They are not like the old Mafia.”
In response to a question from one of our members, Dan offered the following links to stories about organized crime in Cleveland: two about the Tong Wars among Chinese in the 1920s and one about crime hangouts on and near Short Vincent Avenue downtown.
The Tong Wars (1911-1930)
Mob hangouts along Short Vincent: https://clevelandhistorical.org/items/show/6
You can learn more about Dan Moldea, his books, and his views at his website, www.moldea.com