Joseph Lonardo

Joseph Lonardo
Born	(1884-10-20)October 20, 1884 Licata, Agrigento, Italy
Died	October 13, 1927(1927-10-13) (aged 42) Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
Cause of death	Gun shots
Resting place	Calvary Cemetery, Cleveland
Nationality	Italian
Other names	Big Joe
Citizenship	American
Occupation(s)	Sugar merchant, crime boss
Predecessor	None
Successor	Salvatore Todaro
Spouses	Concetta Paragone ​ ​ (m. 1902; sep. 1925)​ Fannie Lanzone ​ ​ (m. 1925; sep. 1927)​
Children	5, including Angelo
Allegiance	Cleveland crime family

Joseph Lonardo (Italian pronunciation: [loˈnardo]; October 20, 1884 – October 13, 1927), also known as "Big Joe", was a Sicilian emigrant to the United States who became the first crime boss of the Cleveland crime family, which he structured from a number of competing organized crime gangs. When national Prohibition began in 1920, Lonardo became a dealer in corn sugar, an essential ingredient in the manufacture of corn whiskey. Lonardo became a "sugar baron" by driving other legitimate corn sugar merchants out of business, encouraging home distillation, and using intimidation, murder, and theft to eliminate or drive his criminal competitors out of business.

Lonardo transformed his gang, the Mayfield Road Mob, into a powerful organized crime family. He had the support of the D'Aquila crime family of New York City, and engaged in widespread bribery of local judges, police, and politicians. His criminal organization's reliance on low-quality corn whiskey led to a drop in revenues when consumers began favoring better quality, illegally imported liquor. He began demanding unquestioning loyalty while taking little risk, alienating many bootleggers, home distillers, and organized crime figures.

Lonardo's control of the Cleveland mafia was usurped in 1927 by underboss Salvatore "Black Sam" Todaro and the Porrello brothers while Lonardo was out of the country. When Lonardo returned to Cleveland, he attempted to regain control of the Cleveland mafia. His bodyguards were arrested as suspects in the Yorkell and Brownstein murders, leaving Lonardo unprotected. On October 13, 1927, he was murdered in a Porrello barber shop, likely on the orders of "Black Sam" Todaro. His death sparked Cleveland's Corn Sugar War.