Alfred Polizzi

Alfred "The Owl" Polizzi (born March 15, 1900 in Siculiana , Sicily ; † May 26, 1975 ) was an American mobster in Ohio , Cleveland and was from 1936 to 1944 as the head of the Cleveland family , a smaller clan within the La Cosa Nostra .

Life

In 1900, the year he was born, the family emigrated to New York City . During the 1920s and 1930s, the young Polizzi was already active in the criminal environment of his brother Joseph Polizzi , to whom u. a. Antonio Milano and Moe Dalitz belonged.

Good connections also existed with Kosher Nostras , as the brother Charles Polizzi (born as Leo Berkowitz ) had been adopted and was originally of Jewish descent.

The marriage to Philomena Valentino had three children: Joanne , Raymond and Nicholas . His criminal record includes arrests for robbery , violation of the Prohibition Act, tax evasion and various suspicions of murder.

In 1935, Polizzi ruled organized crime in Cleveland and was named after the murder of Dr. Joseph Romano head of the so-called Cleveland family .

Together with Moe Dalitz , he secured the family's share in Las Vegas by enabling Wilbur Clark to complete the Desert Inn , which he then opened in 1950. The clan also controlled many casinos in Ohio and Kentucky .

In 1944, Polizzi was charged and pleaded guilty of tax evasion, which limited his sentence to one year. He moved to Coral Gables , Florida after his imprisonment . Nevertheless, he is said to have continued to have an immense influence on his old sphere of activity. In Florida, Polizzi made profits from illegal gambling and drug trafficking while officially acting as an investor and project planner in the real estate and construction sectors.

Alfred Polizzi died of natural causes in May 1975.

literature

• Jerry Capeci: The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Mafia . Indianapolis: Alpha Books, 2002. ISBN 0-02-864225-2
• Albert Fried: The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Gangster in America . New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1980. ISBN 0-231-09683-6
• James B. Jacobs, Coleen Friel, Robert Radick: Gotham Unbound: How New York City Was Liberated from the Grip of Organized Crime . New York: NYU Press, 2001. ISBN 0-8147-4247-5
• James B. Jacobs, Christopher Panarella, Jay Worthington: Busting the Mob: The United States Vs. Cosa Nostra . New York: NYU Press, 1994. ISBN 0-8147-4230-0
• Curt Johnson, R. Craig Sautter: The Wicked City: Chicago from Kenna to Capone . New York: Da Capo Press, 1998. ISBN 0-306-80821-8
• Thomas A. Reppetto: American Mafia: A History of Its Rise to Power . New York: Henry Holt & Co., 2004. ISBN 0-8050-7798-7
• Rick Porrello: To Kill the Irishman: The War That Crippled the Mafia . Novelty, Ohio: Next Hat Press, 2004. ISBN 0-9662508-9-3
• Rufus Schatzberg, Robert J. Kelly, Ko-lin Chin, ed .: Handbook of Organized Crime in the United States . Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1994. ISBN 0-313-28366-4
• Carl Sifakis: The Mafia Encyclopedia . New York: Da Capo Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8160-5694-3
• Bureau of Narcotics, US Treasury Department, "Mafia: the Government's Secret File on Organized Crime, HarperCollins Publishers 2007 ISBN 0-06-136385-5

Web links

• Clevelandmob on clevelandmob.com (English)
• Alfred Polizzi at www.onewal.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Crime Bosses of Cleveland at www.onewal.com

predecessor	Office	successor
Dr. Joseph Romano	Head of the " Cleveland Family " of La Cosa Nostra 1936 - 1944	John Scalish