A major drug offender who went to prison for a 1996 mob assassination has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for cocaine and heroin possession and trafficking and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity. Watch the Scribbler podcasts about Strollo and the a. They [Morford and Lynch] told me I did what no law enforcement agency could have done in 50 years, Armstrong said. Please complete the captcha to let us know you are a real person. This account already exists, but the email address still needs to be confirmed. When Gains awoke in the hospital, he was happy to be able to move his legs but perplexed by the shooting. Arthur Treacher's in Garfield Heights Reopened by New Owner Who Plans More Locations in Ohio, The Absolutely Nutty Cleveland/East Palestine/15-Minute City Conspiracy Theory, Explained. But jail might have been the safest place for a Youngstown mobster in the 1960s. Susany took revenge on Batcho, and we hear Lenny Strollo's story - the head of Youngstown's rackets. Enter your email below to receive a grief support message from us each day for a year. In 1983 Biondillo was convinced in Las Vegas for stealing jewelry. He has left the witness protection program and as he approaches his 70th birthday is willing to talk about his days with the Mafia in the Valley. They've basically been running Mahoning County as a criminal enterprise, because it suited a lot of people," says James Callen, president of the Citizens League of Greater Youngstown, which screens political candidates and speaks out about organized crime. The trial was the culmination of a four-year FBI investigation that yielded thousands of pages of sworn affidavits and two thousand hours of conversations secretly recorded by FBI phone taps and bugs. Judge O'Malley, meanwhile, permitted Melissa Biondillo Rich of Boardman to give a victim-impact statement. Gains, gunned down in his Boardman home Dec. 24, 1996 -- on Strollo's order -- spoke at the Canfield Township man's sentencing Tuesday in U.S. District Court. The only ones who didn't cop a plea, he noted bitterly, were "two shines and a Jew.". While Gains fed his cats and made a call on his cellular phone, Batcho entered through the side door. Operating the club got Strollo, as well as his brother Dante "Danny" Strollo and Altshuler, in trouble in 1988, when they were indicted for gambling and bribing a Mahoning County sheriff's deputy and a local police chief. He said the government could have gone to trial and put Strollo in prison, but the same corrupt system would still exist. Anthony C. Strollo (June 18, 1899 - disappeared April 8, 1962), also known as "Tony Bender", was a New York mobster who served as a high-ranking capo of the Genovese crime family for several decades. Please enter your email address and we will send you an email with a reset password code. Id buy something for a buck or buck and a half, give them the 10 and get the change, Armstrong recalled in a telephone conversation from his home outside Ohio. [2] [5] The LaRocca family is one of the original 26 mafia families in United States. There was no such window dressing in this case. WebberSites Website Design and Development "The death of Lenny Strollo? There was an error deleting this problem. The judge said, however, that given the nature of the government's allegations, Rich's father had participated in organized crime activity, too. By then, the disheveled Traficant had crafted a populist message, which struck a chord with Youngstown's unemployed mill workers, and he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. "The mob thought they had lightning in a bottle with the drug dealers," says Milano. Of the 46 people indicted from a four-year FBI probe of organized crime and corruption in the Mahoning Valley, 42 people took plea bargains, including Lenine "Lenny" Strollo, a made man in the Pittsburgh Mafia who ran the Youngstown rackets. Finally, on February 16, 68-year-old Lenny Strollo struck a deal with federal prosecutors that could have him out of jail in as little as twelve years. Instead, the mob moved into rackets like gambling, loan-sharking, and controlling the vending businesses. When Lenny Strollo testified at the federal courthouse, he was only a few miles from where the old Hotel Statler used to stand. Share this memorial using social media sites or email. Please reset your password. Lenine Strollo from Canfield, OH, age ~91. to view this obituary, sign the guest book and send condolences to the Strollo family.- See more at: http://www.vindy.com/news/tributes/#sthash.TAL3ieam.dpuf, U.S., Cemetery and Funeral Home Collection, 1847-Current, Ohio, U.S., Death Records, 1908-1932, 1938-2018, Thank you for fulfilling this photo request. Mandel was a former U.S. attorney within the Justice Department. The money came from Cleveland, and Strollo gave Armstrong and others thousands of dollars to launder. After I was released I was on parole for 10 months. "These people are a cancer on this society," he fumes. Search above to list available cemeteries. "I had lost any sensation of pain. It's a rare moment for the kid who swept floors to put himself through Catholic high school and served as president of the Youngstown Fraternal Order of Police. Greene fell victim to the same technique five months later. In lieu of flowers and to honor Dees life, the family requests material donations be made to Hospice of the Valley, 5190 Market St., Boardman, Ohio 44512. In addition, University Heights attorney Stewart Mandel pleaded guilty last year to filing a false corporate income tax return. He then called the two FBI agents who were assigned to the organized crime division in the Youngstown office, Larry Lynch and Craig Morford, and offered his services. "Who are the high rollers? Morford asked Strollo. Youngstown was once among the biggest steel cities along with Cleveland and Pittsburg. Try again later. She was always there to give a helping hand to anyone in need. Armstrong spent almost two years giving Morford and Lynch insider access to the mob. Financially strapped and with his campaign in need of funds, Appellant turned to Youngstown Mafia boss Lenine "Lenny" Strollo for help. YOUNGSTOWN Lenine "Lenny" Strollo, 90, was called home Wednesday, May 19, 2021. He should know. I would start cashing them, would take one, 10 and 20 [dollars] and put them together. Morford, in explaining the extent of Strollo's cooperation to Judge O'Malley, said whatever information he provided was "like money in the bank." The $65-an-hour fee the government paid Milano to represent Riddle is well below his regular rate, but he accepted the work because he wanted to be part of this trial. "It was worth it. Strollo ordered Biondillo to remove the machines. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/175814704/edina-m-strollo. For memorials with more than one photo, additional photos will appear here or on the photos tab. Thu, Apr 8, 1999 at 4:00 am. See more ideas about youngstown, youngstown ohio, mob. However, Armstrong has agreed to be a guest on the Louie Free Show on Monday, starting at 9:30 a.m. The balance of power changed irrevocably in 1976, when Cleveland don John Scalish died unexpectedly during open-heart surgery without having named a successor. When gambling kingpin Lenny Strollo spilled his guts in federal court last month, he broke the Mafia's decades-old grip on Youngstown and drew the final curtain on the fabled northern Ohio. Upset that he was not chosen to succeed Scalish, Nardi began plotting Moceri's demise with the help of Danny Greene, the colorful Collinwood tough responsible for the car-bombing death of Jewish loan shark Shondor Birns. Strollo implicated Altshuler, his friend of more than twenty years, in the murder of rival gangster Ernie Biondillo Jr. and attempted murder of Mahoning County Prosecutor-Elect Paul Gains. This browser does not support getting your location. Since then, he has participated in countless interviews with FBI agents and federal prosecutors, and testified at trials. Traficant countered that he accepted the $163,000 as part of a maverick operation to trap the mobsters. A bigger problem for Strollo was what to do with Biondillo, who was encroaching on his turf and making noise about being the "new kid on the block." Armstrong went into the governments witness protection program, got a new identity (he took the name Robert Carney), spent years in several cities, and ultimately put down roots in the South. Vericora and the data available through this service may not be used to make resolutions about consumer employment, insurance, credit, housing or for any other goals that would require FCRA compliance. Superior Avenue was cold, quiet, and nearly deserted on the morning of March 12, but the United States District Courthouse was buzzing with activity and anticipation. How was the mob able to get black men in their twenties and thirties to work for white men the age of their grandfathers? "Lenny Strollo is the last of the main characters in the long, sordid history of crime in the Valley. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate, or jump to a slide with the slide dots. Prosecutors accused the Strollo brothers and Mandel, a former assistant U.S. attorney and University Heights law director, of skimming hundreds of thousands of dollars from a Conneaut fireworks company Mandel owned. Strollo pleaded guilty to racketeering and tax charges . I would keep 40 percent of the change; Lenny got the rest.. It's tough to imagine longtime Cleveland don John Scalish burping as his final show of bravado, much less cooperating with federal agents. "That was why malls didn't go in or projects didn't get done, just on the fact that [the mob] always owned everything," Stiller says. He went to the meeting and was never seen again. He went to the Draught House, a Youngstown bar where he caught up with some lawyer friends, then made his way to the Caffe Capri in Boardman. Patricia Meade Here those conditions have combined to produce a breakdown of the democratic process. All contact info about Lenine Strollo, 91 from Canfield, Ohio - address, e-mail, phone, public records, etc at Vericora FOR FREE When Strollo heard Biondillo might have him killed, he decided to strike first. Ernie Biondillo often cut through this desolate street on his way to work at Youngstown United Music, which he ran after Naples's death. Biondillo had been paying off politicians on his own and putting video poker machines in private clubs in Hillsville, Pennsylvania--Strollo's territory--without telling the mob boss. So they got Riddle and Turnage to get high rollers in.". Biondillo went to back up, but by then another car, driven by Warren Willis, had pulled behind him, boxing him in. Its marble pillars and ornate gold, green, and maroon fixtures give the building an air of nobility. 5 Ernest (Big Ernie) Biondillo - A strong-minded and business-savvy "button man" in the Pittsburgh mafia's Youngstown rackets, Biondillo, who came up under Little Joey Naples and Briar Hill Jimmy Prato, feuded with Lenny Strollo, Naples' replacement as the syndicate's Youngstown captain, and was shot to death while driving to work . But it wasnt long before vendors taking the $10 bills to the banks to be deposited found out they were counterfeit. But Strollo and Altshuler had a plan. "He came in, and I pirouetted and saw the gun," Gains says. He'll die of a heart attack with two bimbos in Barbados.". Nine days later police found the car, but no Moceri. Failed to report flower. Convinced that Traficant was responsible for her husband's disappearance, Carabbia's widow approached the FBI with conversations Carabbia had secretly recorded between himself and Traficant. He was arrested at his Canfield home and remained in protective custody until he reached a plea agreement and became a government witness. Morford asked Strollo. "I don't think about it too much," he says, slapping his hand on his desk with a sense of finality. By episode 11, Congressman Traficant hopes to free a man facing convictions of being a Nazi war criminal. To view a photo in more detail or edit captions for photos you added, click the photo to open the photo viewer. 25020 Divot Dr, Bonita Springs, FL 34135, lived here in 2017 $1,360: C. 21825 . Weve updated the security on the site. Education. The money came from Cleveland, and Strollo gave Armstrong and others thousands of dollars to launder. According to Harris's testimony, Riddle asked Batcho if Gains was dead. When I got off parole I went back to Lenny. "Yes," Strollo responded. He panicked, ran out of the house, and hopped in the car where Riddle and Harris waited. You know what? Your new password must contain one or more uppercase and lowercase letters, and one or more numbers or special characters. All Rights Reserved. "That's how confident, how cocky they were [that] they could get away with anything. Morford said that Mahoning County, when the organized crime investigation began in 1994, was corrupt, violent and out of control. Later, Strollo, standing to address the judge, his voice faltering, offered apologies to anyone he'd hurt intentionally or unintentionally and apologized to the court. Case Files BOARDMAN Some 20 years ago, Lenine "Lenny" Strollo was expected to end up the last mob boss to go down in Cleveland's federal court. With rumors circulating that Gains would hire FBI agent Bob Kroner--who had investigated the Traficant case in the 1980s and was responsible for busting the All-American Club--as a criminal investigator, discussions turned to ways to "eliminate Paul Gains." Arrangements have been entrusted to the professional care of the Rossi & Santucci Funeral Home, 4221 Market St., Boardman (new location). The government needed to go "high, broad, wide and deep" to break the criminal enterprise, he said. But veteran courthouse observers are still scratching their heads over Riddle's and Turnage's decisions to go to trial, even with some demented notion of honor at stake. "Approximately when did this occur? one of the men who participated in Corruption persists in most cities. There is a problem with your email/password. His groundbreaking 1983 testimony established the existence of a national Mafia network and is still cited in mob-related cases. This relationship is not possible based on lifespan dates. Bernard Altshuler, an associate of one-time Valley mob boss Lenine "Lenny" Strollo, has died. 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