Angelo A. (Enzo Bruno) Amato – aka Enso Bruno, Bruno Enzo, Andrew Camara, and Carl Cauravana – was born on November 11, 1910, in the town of Licata, Sicily.
By the early 1930s, he had already immigrated to the United States with his parents. Some years later, Angelo became a naturalized American citizen.
FBI #1189758, Cleveland-PD #58105
Amato is described in police files as 5-feet 7-inches tall and weighing 165 pounds. He had curly receding-black hair, brown eyes, and a ruddy complexion. His face was marked by small moles on each cheek.
He married Lillian Angela (nee’ Orteca,) the sister of a known Cleveland narcotics trafficker by the name of Joseph Orteca. The couple had two children named Angelo Joseph and Serena Marie.
The Amato family resided for years at 16615 Throckley Avenue in Cleveland.
Amato listed his employment as a local grocer. Authorities say he was known to frequent Captain Frank’s Restaurant (owned by fellow mafioso Frank Visconti,) and various Cleveland nightclubs along Short Vincent Street.
His police record started in Cleveland in 1936 when he was picked up for Federal Internal Revenue Law Violations (untaxed alcohol). Other arrests and convictions included Theft from Interstate Commerce (truck cargo theft,) and a Federal Narcotics Law Violation.
But his primary criminal activity seems to have been as a major narcotics dealer.
Both local Cleveland Police and the Federal Bureau of Narcotics identified Angelo Amato as “an interstate narcotics trafficker.”
By the early 1960s, the Federal Bureau of Investigation labeled him “one of the highest-ranking Mafia figures in the Cleveland, Ohio area.”
He numbered among his criminal confederates some of the most important mafiosi of the Cleveland Family, including Joseph Orteca, Sylvester (Studo) Pappalardo, Samuel (Sammy Pap) Pappalardo, Amato (Tutti) Bucci, Salvatore (Sammy Polo) Poliafico, Francesco (Captain Frank) Visconti, and Frank Liosi.
Amato was also said to maintain close connections to such top New York City Mafia figures as Family boss Carlo Gambino and Lucchese capo-regime Anthony (Tony Higgins) Castaldi.
Until next time…”The Other Guy”
