Little Joe Blumetti: Youngstown’s Low-Key Labor Racketeer

Born and raised in Youngstown all his life, Joe Blumetti grew up to become a low-key but pivotal underworld figure and labor racketeer who operated in tandem with the local mafia in Youngstown, Ohio .

Giuseppe (Little Joey) Blumetti - aka Joseph Blumetti, Frank Rose, Frank Rosa, and Giuseppe Thomas Blumetti (TN) - was born to Frank and Mary (nee DeChime) Blumetti on August 6, 1913, in Youngstown, Ohio. He was one of five sons in the Blumetti family. His brothers were named Albert, Charles, Vincent, and Paul.

Blumetti was a nice-looking fellow who stood about 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighed 170 pounds. He had smooth features, dark hair and eyes, and liked to wear dark-tinted glasses.

Joe Blumetti

In 1932, at the age of only nineteen, he met and married a local girl named Rose. But less than five years later, in 1937, he was already fooling around with other women, and the couple divorced.

The very next year he got married again to another local girl named Elizabeth Adams. The Blumettis resided at 3923 Shelby Road in Youngstown.

"In Tight" with The Boys

Among several private social clubs, bars, poolrooms, and other mob hangouts Blumetti first gravitated around as a younger man, as he came of age in the coming years, “Little Joe” would also become a daily fixture at a local Teamsters Union headquarters.

FBI #1625158

In 1938, Blumetti started logging arrests for such offenses as counterfeiting U.S. currency, selective service violation (ducking the draft,) and white slavery (promoting prostitution.)

By this time, federal and local law enforcement sources believed him to be actively engaged with other members of Youngstown’s organized underworld. In fact, Joe Blumetti was thought to be “in tight” with several top members of the Youngstown Mafia.

Blumetti's criminal associates included such notorious local mafiosi as Gaspare (Joe Fats) Aiello , Mariano (Marino) Paolacci, Nicholas Constantino, and capos Calogero (Charlie) Vizzini, Frank (Frank C) Cammarata, and the iconic, Charles (Cadillac Charlie) Cavallaro.

Earlier in his underworld career, “Little Joe” was active with many of the above-named hoodlums in street rackets such as counterfeiting, gambling, and narcotics trafficking.

A Special Graduation

After years of criminal activity in which his elders had a chance to gauge Joe’s abilities and intelligence and to gain their trust, Blumetti eventually graduated to the lusher fields of labor racketeering.

He was installed as the “business agent” for Vending Machine & Jukebox Union, Local #410. He also subsequently became a top official of both the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Union - Local #377, and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

During his years as a union official, Blumetti became an intimate of fellow Teamsters official Jackie Presser and his dad William (Big Bill) Presser, one of the most important mob-connected Teamsters Union bosses to ever come out of Cleveland, Ohio.

Blumetti died on February 6, 1981. He was 67 years old.

Until next time..."The Other Guy"

Little Joe Blumetti: Youngstown’s Low-Key Labor Racketeer

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Little Joe Blumetti: Youngstown’s Low-Key Labor Racketeer

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