Hillsville boss on trial for his life

November 2022 issue contents - Feature

Underworld abandons 'code of silence' as Rocco Racco is tried for murder

By Thomas Hunt and Margaret Janco

"The first few witnesses called by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania merely set the stage. They testified about the topography of the Hillsville, Pennsylvania, area and about relatively minor events on March 2, 1906, the last day that Deputy Game Protector L. Seeley Houk was known to be alive. It was late on Tuesday, September 15, 1908, when District Attorney Charles H. Young’s fifth witness, Scott Hoffmaster, foreman for the Pennsylvania Railroad, was called to the stand in Judge William E. Porter’s Lawrence County courtroom. Hoffmaster described his April 24, 1906, discovery of Houk’s body. Hoffmaster was at work that April day, when an engineer on a passing train reported seeing the body of a man lying in a backwater area on the south side of the Mahoning River east of Hillsville Station..."

Book page count: Thirty-six pages, including five sidebar stories, about four pages of notes and thirteen images. 

Magazine page count: Twenty and a half pages, including five sidebar stories, about three pages of notes and thirteen images.

Learn more about Informer's November 2022 issue. 

When the Mafia fed America

November 2022 issue contents - Feature

Sicilian produce merchants in Ohio and Pennsylvania had an edge

By Justin Cascio

"In 1912, Salvatore Arrigo was quite literally the picture of Italian organized crime in America. A full-length portrait of the fruit dealer illustrated an article in McClure’s, a popular muckraker, titled, 'Imported Crime: The Story of the Camorra in America.' Arrigo (1844-1922) was just released from the U.S. Peniteniary at Leavenworth, Kansas, after serving a four-year sentence for conspiracy to use the federal postal service to extort. In 1908, Arrigo had been the head of a dangerous 'Black Hand' extortion ring with members from coast to coast in America and back in his native Sicily..."

Book page count: Sixteen pages, including two pages of notes and seven images.

Magazine page count: Eight and a half pages, including one page of notes and seven images.

Learn more about Informer's November 2022 issue.

Boss Falcone gunned down at saloon

 November 2022 issue contents - Feature

'Big Jim' Falcone was early Prohibition Era Sicilian underworld king.

By Thomas Hunt

"At the time of his April 1921 murder, James “Big Jim” Falcone was known as “king” of the vice-ridden “tenderloin” district in Youngstown, Ohio. It was about a quarter to ten, Thursday evening, April 28, when Falcone (or “Falconi”) stepped to the doorway of his business at 128 East Front Street, near the intersection with Walnut Street. He looked out across the B&O Railroad yards and the Mahoning River, winding a short distance away to the south and west and defining the lower boundary of downtown Youngstown..."

Book page count: Eleven pages, including two and a half pages of notes and three images.

Magazine page count: Five and a half pages, including one and a half pages of notes and three images.

Learn more about Informer's November 2022 issue.

The murders of Dominic and Frank Barber

November 2022 issue contents - Feature

One year separated killings of Barber brothers, Calabrian gang leaders

By Thomas Hunt and James Barber

"Two brothers, believed to have held leadership posts within a northeastern Ohio criminal society, were murdered precisely one year apart in the Youngstown area. Both were shot from behind. Their precise positions in the regional underworld, even the outlaw organization to which they belonged, remain mysteries to this day. It appears likely that they were involved with a tightly knit Calabrian organization later linked to Paul and Mike Romeo. There are very few clues regarding the identities of their killers or the motivations behind their murders..."

Book page count: Eleven pages, including two pages of notes and six images.

Magazine page count: About six pages, including one page of notes and six images.

Learn more about Informer's November 2022 issue. 

Barber brothers allied with Sewickley mob

 November 2022 issue contents - Feature

Mike Rosato ruled Gizzeria gangsters in western Pennsylvania

By Thomas Hunt and James Barber

"The brief and ultimately tragic 1924 stay of Youngstown’s Rocco Michael 'Mike Barber' Barbaro at a Sewickley, Pennsylvania, home belonging to Michelangelo 'Mike Ross' Rosato called attention to the close alliance of two Calabrian underworld factions in the region. While Barbaro’s older brothers – Dominick and Frank Barber – led a criminal organization transplanted to Youngstown, Ohio, from Casignana, near the Ionian Sea in the Reggio Calabria Province, Rosato’s Sewickley-area group was rooted in Gizzeria, near the Tyrrhenian coast in the Calabria region’s Catanzaro Province..."

Book page count: Sixteen pages, including three and a half pages of notes and five images.

Magazine page count: Nine pages, including two pages of notes and five images.

Learn more about Informer's November 2022 issue.

Joseph 'the Wolf' DiCarlo at Youngstown

November 2022 issue contents - Feature

Former Buffalo mafioso sought to control Mahoning Valley gambling

By Thomas Hunt and Michael A. Tona

"Events must have convinced Joseph DiCarlo that there was limited opportunity for advancement in the western New York Mafia once commanded by his father. Following the death of Buffalo-based boss Giuseppe DiCarlo in 1922, a Mafia faction originating in coastal Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, became dominant in western New York, and its leader, Stefano Magaddino, was selected as the new boss. Giuseppe DiCarlo’s sons, Joseph 'J.D.' and Salvatore 'Sam,' and other mafiosi with roots in the Vallelunga-Valledolmo region of Sicily were reduced to supporting players. Joseph DiCarlo’s efforts to carve out a lucrative rackets territory for himself in the Buffalo area were repeatedly thwarted..."

Book page count: Twenty-seven pages, including five pages of notes and six images.

Magazine page count: Fourteen and a half pages, including two and a half pages of notes and eight images.

Learn more about Informer's November 2022 issue. 

Cammarata the Untouchable

 November 2022 issue contents - Feature

The law never really made an impression on gangster Frank Cammarata

By Thom L. Jones

"Following a December 1958 committee hearing, Senator John L. McClellan reportedly wondered how a notorious hoodlum, with a criminal record as long as your arm, managed to escape prosecution for evading income taxes. He might well ask. The hoodlum, Francesco Cammarata, had been committing crimes, spending time being arrested or in prison, and avoiding taxes for a lot of his adult life in America..."

Book page count: Eighteen pages, including two pages of notes, six images and a two-page sidebar.

Magazine page count: Eight and a half pages, including one page of notes, six images and a one-page sidebar.

Learn more about Informer's November 2022 issue.

Chief Edward Allen testifies

 November 2022 issue contents - Feature

Youngstown police head brought his view of organized crime to U.S. Senate's Kefauver Committee

"On Thursday, January 18, 1951, Youngstown Police Chief Edward Joseph Allen appeared in Cleveland’s Federal Building to testify before the U.S. Senate’s Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce (Kefauver Committee). The committee hearing was attended by its chairman, Senator Estes Kefauver; Chief Counsel Rudolph Halley; Assistant Counsel Joseph L. Nellis; and Investigator John McCormick. Allen provided a diagram of criminal organizations engaged in rackets in Youngstown and discussed his understanding of group relationships and criminal activities... His 1951 testimony indicates he believed northwestern Ohio organized crime was under the control of mafiosi in the Detroit area, who he saw as superiors to Cleveland mobsters. Allen seems not to have fully understood the various competing criminal interests present in his city. Portions of his testimony are shown here to illustrate law enforcement’s view of Youngstown organized crime in the period..."

Book page count: Ten and a half pages, including a half-page of notes and two images.

Magazine page count: Six pages, including a third-page of notes and three images.

Learn more about Informer's November 2022 issue.

Syria-born Farahs partnered with mafiosi

November 2022 issue contents - Feature

Mike Farah lost his political allies and then lost his life

By Thomas Hunt

"Mike Farah was practicing his golf swing in the small back yard of his comfortable brick home at Kenilworth Avenue SE and South Street SE in Warren, Ohio. It was a warm and humid Saturday morning in late spring. What caused him to busy himself in that fashion is unknown. Possibly, he was just passing time. Possibly, he was waiting for a visitor. Farah was positioned about fifteen feet from his home’s back door and about thirty feet from South Street, when a gray-green 1959 Chevrolet four-door sedan pulled up to the South Street curb. A shotgun appeared in the automobile’s rear window, and it fired three times at Farah..."

Book page count: Nineteen and a half pages, including three and a half pages of notes and five images.

Magazine page count: Nine and a half pages, including two pages of notes and five images.

Learn more about Informer's November 2022 issue. 

When Youngstown became 'Bombtown'

November 2022 issue contents - Feature

Shotgun murder leads to car-bombings of rackets leaders

By Edmond Valin

"The 1960 shotgun murder of racketeer Sandy Naples triggered a car-bombing campaign in Youngstown’s underworld that killed hoodlums Vincent DeNiro, Billy Naples and Charles Cavallaro. The violence overwhelmed local law enforcement. United States Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy dispatched the FBI to take control of the investigation. Despite the deployment of massive resources to the case, federal agents discovered there were no easy answers..."

Book page count: Twenty-six pages, including three and a half pages of notes and eleven images.

Magazine page count: Thirteen pages, including one and a half pages of notes and ten images.

Learn more about Informer's November 2022 issue.

Last bosses of Calabrian mob?

November 2022 issue contents - Feature

Mallamo and Prato led secret subgroup linked with Mafia

By Thomas Hunt

"During the Prohibition Era, American Mafia units across the United States and Canada absorbed local branches of a Calabrian gangster network. In some cases, remnants of Calabrian gangs lingered informally as factions within crime families. In the Youngstown area, the Calabrian criminal network continued for several more decades as a distinct, locally led, tightly knit and highly secretive organization within the overlapping territories of the Pittsburgh and Cleveland Mafia families. The early history of the Youngstown Calabrian organization and the identities of its first bosses are somewhat hazy..."

(Photo of Nick Mallamo, murdered brother of "Big Dom" Mallamo. Nick likely served as an earlier boss of the Calabrian mob in Youngstown.)

Book page count: Twenty-five pages, including five pages of notes and eight images.

Magazine page count: Thirteen pages, including two and a half pages of notes and eight images.

Learn more about Informer's November 2022 issue.

Local boy makes very bad

November 2022 issue contents - Feature

Youngstown native and city crime boss, Lenine "Lenny" Strollo (1931-2021)

By Thomas Hunt

"At the time of this writing, it is just about one year since the passing of Lenine 'Lenny' Strollo, infamous as a Youngstown crime boss and as an underworld turncoat. Obituaries published following his May 19, 2021, death by natural causes noted that he was preceded in death by a number of close relatives. The obituaries made no attempt to list the rivals, underworld associates, corrupt government allies and racket victims who went to their graves before Strollo went to his. Even the criminal organization he once led, which could trace its history back to the dawn of the twentieth century, is believed to have perished before Strollo exited this life. And, more than anyone else, Strollo looks to have been responsible for its destruction..."

Book page count: Twenty-four pages, including five pages of notes and seven images.

Magazine page count: Twelve pages, including two and a half pages of notes and seven images.

Learn more about Informer's November 2022 issue.

Biographies collection

 November 2022 issue contents - Feature

Other Youngstown-area mobsters

Brief biographies of crime figures involved in the underworld of the Youngstown, Ohio, area: "Fats" Aiello; Ernie Biondillo; Giacinto Brogna; Ron, Charlie and Orlie Carabbia; Peter Devino; "Red" Giordano; James Licavoli; "Happy" Marino; Sandy, Billy, Jimmy and Joey Naples; Fedele Penna; Paul Romeo; Dominic Testa; "Zebo" Zottola.

Book page count: Thirty-two and a half pages, including ten and a half pages of notes and nine images.

Magazine page count: Seventeen pages, including six pages of notes and nine images.

Learn more about Informer's November 2022 issue.

Gangland violence timeline

 November 2022 issue contents - Feature

Brief descriptions of dozens of blood-spilling events from Youngstown-area history are placed in chronological order. (Not included in audiobook format.)

Book page count: Eight pages.

Magazine page count: Three and a half pages.

Learn more about Informer's November 2022 issue.

Book news

 November 2022 issue contents - Books

News of several crime-history titles, released in 2022 and expected in 2023. (Not included in audiobook format.)

Book page count: Two pages, including four images.

Magazine page count: About one and a third pages, including four images.

Learn more about Informer's November 2022 issue.

Looking back from 2022

 November 2022 issue contents - Looking Back

Collection of brief organized crime news items from ten, fifty, 100 and 150 years ago. (Not included in audiobook format.)

Book page count: One and a half pages.

Magazine page count: Half page.

Learn more about Informer's November 2022 issue.