Angelo Lonardo

Who was Angelo Lonardo?

Angelo Anthony Lonardo was a Cleveland crime family mobster who later became the acting boss of the family in the early 1980s. Lonardo was born in 1911 in Warren to Joseph and Concetta Lonardo. His godfather was Anthony Milano. After his father was murdered by a member of the Porrello crime family in 1929, 18-year-old Lonardo swore revenge and murdered Salvatore Todaro with his cousin Dominic Sospirato. Lonardo was tried and sentenced to life in prison. However, his lawyer was able to get a second trial and he was discharged and released. He later joined Milano's brother Frank in the Cleveland crime family. He eventually worked his way up to underboss in 1976. After his arrest in 1983, Lonardo became a government informant and testified against his former colleagues and several mob figures throughout the US. Lonardo and Jimmy Fratianno, the acting boss of the Los Angeles crime family, were the highest-ranking mobsters to become federal witnesses, until Gambino crime family underboss, Sammy "the Bull" Gravano during the early 1990s. He eventually went into the federal witness protection program, but left it to return to Cleveland.