Geauga County has long inspired pleasant Sunday drives through its pristine, peaceful landscapes, but underneath its rural charm is a secret history of not-so-peaceful moments — when organized crime from Cleveland, Youngstown and Pittsburgh spilled into the area.
Geauga County has long inspired pleasant Sunday drives through its pristine, peaceful landscapes, but underneath its rural charm is a secret history of not-so-peaceful moments — when organized crime from Cleveland, Youngstown and Pittsburgh spilled into the area.
During the days of Prohibition in the 1930s, when organized crime “families” rose in power to provide thirsty Americans with alcohol, through illegal gambling and prostitution between the 1940s and 1960s, and into the more recent years of drug smuggling, the Mob provided illegal goods and services, often with the cooperation of politicians, law enforcement and even the courts. Many people got rich from the exploitation of the poor, hopeful and greedy.
Two of the most notorious among Cleveland organized crime figures of that era were Danny Greene and Alex “Shondor” Birns, who made and lost illegal fortunes, spent much of their energy and considerable talents avoiding prison, and whose lives ended in violence. Most people have heard of them, but may not realize both men spent time in Geauga County.
“Danny and Shondor were bigger than life characters, and I saw a lot of theatrical potential in their stories,” said Russell Township resident and retired police Chief Rick Porrello. His latest book, “Bombs, Bullets and Bribes,” chronicles Birns’ life as an immigrant from what is now the Czech Republic through his long career in Cleveland organized crime, to his car bomb murder in 1975.
Porrello has written three other books about organized crime in Cleveland, most notably, “To Kill the Irishman,” written in 1998 about Collinwood area crime figure Danny Greene, who was killed, also by a car bomb, when he visited his dentist in Lyndhurst in 1977.
“Kill the Irishman,” based on Porrello’s book, was made into a successful movie in 2011. Porrello is currently working with screenwriter Danielle Alberico to develop “Bombs, Bullets and Bribes” as a cable TV series.
Porrello’s life would also make an interesting biography, but on the other side of the crime element.
He became a professional drummer at the age of 16 and toured with Sammy Davis, Jr. He spent several years with the iconic Davis on the road, working with music royalty such as Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, and comedy legends Billy Crystal and Jerry Lewis.
“That was an education in itself and very exciting,” Porrello recalled. “But since I was a kid growing up in Cleveland Heights, and got a police radio for Christmas one year, I always wanted to be a cop.”
He quit a promising career in music to enroll in law enforcement studies at Lakeland Community College, where he studied under the late criminal justice professor and Geauga County Sheriff Jim Todd.
“It was the beginning of a whole new chapter in my life,” he explained.
He spent 33 years in law enforcement, in Cleveland Heights, Mayfield Village and Lyndhurst, where we served as police chief from 2009 to 2010.
During that time, he was married and raising two children. His wife, Lee, works at the West Geauga Library. The family moved to Geauga County 20 years ago.
“I’m a little bit city and she’s a little bit rural, so here we are,” he explained.
Several years ago, Porrello, an avid researcher, began looking into a family rumor that claimed his grandfather had been murdered and the story was somehow related to the Mob.
“That planted the seed,” he said. “So I visited libraries and looked up old records on microfilm and I found that it was a huge story. My grandfather and three great uncles had been killed during the beginnings of the Mafia in Cleveland. The more I researched, the bigger it got. I decided I was going to write about it.”
He completed the first book, “The Rise and Fall of the Cleveland Mafia,” in 1995. When asked about why ordinary, law-abiding people find the topic of organized crime so fascinating, he recounted how colorful crime bosses such as Birns and Greene were popular figures in the local bars, restaurants and public events.
“I think most of us are in the middle of society,” Porrello explained. “Above are the rich, powerful and famous. Below are the dregs, organized crime and secret societies. Humans have a natural curiosity about both of those extremes.”
When asked whether Cleveland organized crime had a presence in Geauga County, Porrello nodded. During the wars among the various crime families, Geauga was considered a convenient place to dispose of bodies, the most notorious of which was Mervin Gold, whose body was found in 1963 in the trunk of his Mercury near the Chagrin River, just over the line into Geauga County. Although it was never proved, many believe Birns ordered the hit.
“Whoever did it wanted to dump the body outside Cuyahoga County,” Porrello said.
Then there was another Mob hit at the former Orchard Hills Golf Course, now a part of the Geauga County Park District.
Pierino “Pete” DiGravio, who reportedly ran a money lending business in Cleveland, was shot and killed by a sniper on the 16th hole of the golf course. That was never solved either, Porrello said.
A popular Mob hangout was Locust Farm, also in southwest Geauga County. Porrello said he wasn’t sure of its location, but speculated it was in Bainbridge Township just over the line from Chagrin Falls. Birns was a regular there.
“And then, of course, there was the Pettibone Club,” he said.
From 1939 to 1949, a Mob-owned illegal gambling casino operated on Pettibone Road in Bainbridge, just over the line from Solon, very close to the current location of Parkside Church, said Porrello.
Originally called the Arrow Club, the casino had slot machines, dice games and other forms of illegal entertainment. It was allegedly part of a network of Mob-run gambling clubs that included the infamous Mounds Club in Willoughby Hills, now the location of the LaVera Party Center.
Following the Mob wars of the late 1960s through the mid 1970s, when Mob bosses ordered hits on each other, many of the surviving organized crime leaders were arrested, tried and sent to prison. And as many old vices were legalized or changed, the remnants of the old Mobs have mostly dissolved altogether or developed a low profile, according to the author.
“I think it’s probably still there, but how active it is, I don’t know,” he said. “Society has changed, law enforcement has changed and it’s difficult for them to be active with no cooperation from the police or the courts.”
Porrello is excited more of his work seems to be headed to television. He said he plans to continue writing about organized crime because people seem to enjoy reading about it.
“It’s still a sexy subject,” he said.
