Danny Greene - Criminal Career

Criminal Career

Greene started working for the Cleveland Solid Waste Trade Guild, where he was hired to "keep the peace". Impressed with his abilities, mobster Alex "Shondor" Birns, hired him as an enforcer for his various "numbers" operators. The Cleveland family underboss, Frank "Little Frank" Brancato, used Greene and other Irish-American gangsters to act as errand boys and as muscle to enforce the Mafia's influence during the 1960s over the garbage-hauling contracts and other rackets. Until his death in 1973, Brancato reportedly regretted bringing Greene into the mob due to the damage Greene did. In May 1968, under Birns's orders, Greene was supposed to attack a black numbers man who was holding out on protection money due. Unfamiliar with the military-type detonator, Greene barely made it out of his car before the bomb exploded. He told the police a story and survived being thrown nearly 20 feet, although the hearing in his right ear was damaged for life. In the future, Greene would only trust professionals to handle bombs for him.

Mike "Big Mike" Frato broke away from the guild and founded the more legitimate trade group called the Cuyahoga County Refuse Haulers Association. A legitimate businessman, he protested Greene bringing mob involvement and strong-arm tactics to the guild (although he had his own connections). The Cleveland Solid Waste Trade Guild fell apart shortly thereafter. In 1971, Frato's car was destroyed by a bomb. Inside was found an accomplice of Greene named Art Sneperger. Sneperger had allegedly been careless with the bomb he was planting, and Frato was across the street. The previous September, Greene had directed Sneperger to fix a bomb on Frato's car, but Sneperger had second thoughts and informed Frato of Greene's plan. Sneperger had also been a police informant and revealed everything to Sgt. Edward Kovacic, of the Cleveland Police intelligence unit, including Greene's status as a top-echelon FBI informant.

Some investigators believed the explosion was an accident caused by a radio signal, possibly from a short wave radio or a passing police car. Others posit that Birns and Greene arranged Sneperger's death after learning of his informant status. Sgt. Kovacic was told by an underworld source that Greene had pushed the detonator, killing Sneperger instantly. The case was never officially solved. On November 26, 1971, Frato was shot and killed at Cleveland's White City Beach. Greene was arrested and interrogated. He admitted to the killing but claimed self-defense. He said Frato had fired three shots while Greene was jogging and exercising his dogs, and he fired one back. Evidence seemed to corroborate Greene's story and he was released. Cleveland police later learned Frato was armed and had an opportunity to kill Greene several weeks prior to the White Beach shooting. During their partnership, Greene and Frato had become so close that they had named sons after each other. Not long afterward, Greene again found himself a target while jogging in White City Beach. A sniper, concealed several hundred feet away, fired several shots at Greene from a rifle. Instead of ducking to the ground, Greene pulled out his revolver and started shooting, while running toward his would-be assassin. The sniper fled and was never positively identified. Investigators learned that this attempt was part of a murder contract left by Birns. Greene left his wife and their three children for their own safety and moved to Collinwood, where he rented an apartment. Journalist Ned Whelan wrote about Greene: "Imagining himself as a feudal baron, he supported a number of destitute Collinwood families, paid tuition to Catholic schools for various children and, like the gangsters of the Twenties, actually had fifty, twenty pound turkeys delivered to needy households on Thanksgiving." He often picked up restaurant tabs for friends, neighbors, and acquaintances, and left generous tips. Greene evicted a bookmaker who operated out of a small Waterloo business, and kept a local bar in order by personal visits. When a rowdy group of Hells Angels moved into Collinwood, Greene visited their headquarters with a stick of dynamite. He threatened to light it and throw it into their club house until they came out to hear his warning to keep things quiet while in Collinwood.

He formed his own crew of young Irish-American gangsters, called The Celtic Club. His main enforcers were Keith Ritson, Kevin McTaggart, Brian O'Donnell, Danny Greene, Jr. and Billy McDuffy, who set up gambling dens across the city. He also allied with John Nardi, a "Cleveland family" labor racketeer who wanted to overthrow the leadership. Underworld crime figures note that James "Icepick" Sterling, a gun and explosives expert, is believed to have almost 60 contract killings under his belt but was never arrested or questioned in any of the Cleveland bombings. “Retired” after Greene's 1977 death, Sterling moved to Troy, Michigan. The relationship between Greene and Birns began to sour. Greene had asked Birns for a loan of $75,000 to set up a "cheat spot", a speakeasy and gambling house. Birns arranged for it through the Gambino crime family. The money wound up in the hands of Billy Cox, a numbers operator, who purchased narcotics. The police raided his house, arrested him, seized the narcotics and what was left of the $75,000. The Gambino family wanted their money. Shondor pressed Greene but Greene flatly refused to return the money. He told Birns it was not his fault that it was lost.

To settle the dispute, Birns directed an associate to hire a hit man for Greene and gave him $25,000 for the job, especially in the event of any harm befalling him. Several minor underworld characters, burglars by trade, took the contract, but made numerous failed assassination attempts on Greene. Not long after, Greene found an unexploded bomb in his car when he pulled into a Collinwood service station for gas. The explosive was wired improperly and failed to detonate. Greene disassembled the bomb himself, removed the dynamite, and brought the rest of the package to a policeman, Edward Kovacic. Kovacic offered him police protection, but he refused. He refused to hand over the bomb, telling him, "I'm going to send this back to the old bastard that sent it to me". Suspecting that Birns was behind it, Greene decided to retaliate. On March 29, 1975, Holy Saturday, the eve of Easter, Birns was blown up by a bomb containing C-4, a potent military explosive in the lot behind Christy's Lounge, the former Jack & Jill West Lounge, a go-go spot at 2516 Detroit Ave. near St. Malachi's Church.

On May 12, an explosion rocked Collinwood. Greene's building was destroyed, but the man had only minor injuries. As the second floor fell, he was shielded from the debris by a refrigerator that had lodged against a wall. A second, more powerful, bomb failed to explode, for which Greene credited the intercession of St. Jude, whose medal he always wore around his neck. In 1975, Greene began to push into the vending machine racket, traditionally controlled by the Mafia, as well as muscling into gambling operations. The Cleveland family leadership was angry, especially the soldier Thomas "The Chinaman" Sinito. He thought Greene was an extortionist, due to the excessive fees he charged for coin-operated laundry contracts. Greene controlled some of the more lucrative laundry contracts that Sinito wanted. Sinito and mob soldier Joseph "Joey Loose" Iacobacci murdered one of Greene's lower-level associates. Greene had dynamite wired to the frame of Sinito's car, but Sinito found the bomb, removed and disarmed it, and later destroyed it.

In Greene's competition with the Mafia to build a vending machine empire, John Conte became a victim. Conte owned a vending machine company, but worked as a route man for another one. His company provided slot machines to various private clubs and parties. Conte was also a close friend of Joseph Gallo. On the day of his disappearance, Conte told his wife he had a meeting with Greene. That was the last time she saw him, as his badly beaten corpse was discovered a few days later at a dump site in Austintown.

Police investigators theorized that Conte was beaten to death in Greene's trailer and his body later transported to Austintown. They found some physical evidence, but Greene was never charged with Conte's murder. In 1976, longtime mobster John Scalish died, leaving control of Cleveland's lucrative criminal operations, specifically the city's Teamsters Union locals, up for grabs. Scalish had appointed James Licavoli as his successor, but other mobsters such as John Nardi challenged him for leadership of the organization. With the assistance of Greene, within weeks Nardi had many of Licavoli's supporters killed. They included Licavoli's underboss, Leo "Lips" Moceri. The Cleveland family's enforcer, Eugene "The Animal" Ciasullo, was seriously injured and sidelined for several months by a car bomb. Soon after, a bomb planted in Alfred "Allie" Calabrese's car killed an innocent man. Frank Pircio, of Collinwood, died while moving Calabrese's Lincoln Continental before getting his own car out of their shared driveway. This began a longstanding war between Licavoli's Cleveland crime family and Greene's Celtic Club.

In 1976 alone, 36 bombs exploded around the Cleveland area, which was soon given the moniker "Bomb City, U.S.A." The ATF tripled its staffing in northeast Ohio in order to handle the bomb investigations. A suspected bombmaker, Martin Heidtman, was arrested, but was released for lack of evidence. According to To Kill The Irishman (by Rick Porrello), Greene killed at least eight of the Mafia hit men sent to assassinate him, using bombs or bullets.