Detroit Mobster Onofrio “Nono” Minaudo

One of the more important, but shadowy and elusive mobsters connected to Detroit’s old Joe Zerilli Crime Family was Onofrio Minaudo. A longtime veteran of that borgata, this Sicilian-born mafioso operated for decades as a highly respected, trusted, and feared soldier in both the United States and Canada…and years later, in Sicily as well.

Onofrio (Nono) Minaudo — aka Nufio, Onofrio Minando, Angelo Magnasco — was born on June 17, 1900 (other sources report it as June 15th) in the little town of Custonaci, Trapani Province, Sicily. His father and mother were Filippo and Giuseppa (nee’ Bonventre) Minaudo. They had him relatively late in life. At the time of Onofrio’s birth his mother was already 42 years, his father Filippo — also known as Philip, was 43.

Onofrio was known to have at least one sibling, a brother named Sebastiano, who passed away on June 28, 1958, when Onofrio was 58 years old.

Onofrio (Nono) Minaudo

After entering the United States at Boston Harbor as an illegal stowaway in 1924, Minaudo made his way to the midwestern City of Detroit, Michigan, where he was reportedly warmly received by several close friends from his native homeland. With help from his amici to get started, Nono soon settled into the area and began what was to become a notorious career in organized crime.

FBI #395418

Detroit

By the time he was in his mid-twenties, he was introduced to and quickly smitten by a pretty Sicilian girl eight years his junior by the name of Giovanna (Anna) Bommarito, who hailed from a notorious, well-connected local Mafia family.

The young couple quickly fell in love, and before long, Onofrio and Giovanna decided to tie the knot. They took their formal wedding vows on July 20, 1927. Onofrio was 27 years old, and Giovanna was a mere 19.

Five years later, the Minaudos welcomed a child into their home when Giovanna gave birth to a daughter they named Vita Minaudo, who was born on April 20, 1932.

During those early years — which became a telltale trait he would carry for the rest of his days — Minaudo was seemingly always on the move and very active in many varied activities. His hectic and somewhat haphazard lifestyle required him to move around a lot. Subsequently, throughout his life, Minaudo lived in many different locations, some of which could be considered less than ideal.

In 1940, he rented a two-story colonial-style house at 14288 Cherrylawn Street, Detroit, Michigan. By the late 1950s, during a time he was under siege by American authorities, he moved to Canada and rented a nondescript, glorified little shack located at 301 Belleperche Place, Windsor, Ontario.

14288 Cherrylawn St., Detroit

301 Belleperche Place, Windsor, Ontario

Side Note: One can only hope that Minaudo only did this to keep a “low key” profile from law enforcement. As a top-ranked mafioso, it would be embarrassing to think he couldn’t afford better.

During this same time period, Nono was suspected of occasionally sneaking back over the border into Detroit to conduct mob business and to see friends and relatives as the need arose.

As far as his public persona was concerned, through the 1940s and 1950s, Minaudo often listed himself as an unspecified “merchant” on tax returns and other varied government documents.

By the early 1950s, the Michigan Liquor Control Commission (MLC) revealed that, although not listed as an owner of record, they had discovered that Minaudo was the true hidden licensee of the Winter Garden Recreation Center, a combination bowling alley and bar located at 345 Macomb Street, Detroit.

Alcohol Tax agents for the MLC stated the bowling alley was regularly frequented by both local mobsters and police officers connected to the Detroit Police Department’s headquarters, which was located only a few blocks away.

So the Liquor Commission filed a complaint and charged Minaudo with maintaining “a hidden ownership in a liquor licensed premises.” After a formal hearing on the matter, the bar’s liquor license was permanently revoked.

Canada

Years later, after he was expelled to Canada, law enforcement authorities say Minaudo opened up another ostensibly legitimate business after he became the owner of record and the operator of the Roma Bakery Company, 960 Wyandotte Street East, Windsor, Ontario.

But despite any legitimate business ventures he may have invested in over the years, Nono wasn’t really fooling anyone. Especially the Detroit policemen and FBI agents who continuously tracked his movements and criminal activities.

When a local newspaper reporter once asked Detroit Police Commissioner George Edwards about Onofrio Minaudo’s alleged deep involvement in organized crime, the commissioner quickly responded by labeling Minaudo a top Mafia lieutenant.

Commissioner Edwards stated, “The Detroit Mafia is connected to Windsor, Ontario, and their entire crime empire in this particular area does a $200,000,000-a-year business in gambling, labor extortion, narcotics, prostitution, and other rackets. Onofrio Minaudo plays a pivotal role within that criminal network.”

Onofrio Minaudo

In the late 1950s, Canada held several investigations into organized crime. During those hearings, the Ontario Crime Commission also publicly named Minaudo as one of that country’s leading Mafia figures.

When queried in the early 1960s about their elusive resident mafioso, Canadian law enforcement officials admitted that, except for an income-tax violation in Canada, Minaudo had technically broken no other Canadian laws, but because of his underworld ties, he still became one of the most-watched individuals in Canada.

And because of his unsavory reputation, law enforcement authorities in both Canada and America repeatedly acknowledged through the years that they regularly scrutinized Minaudo’s every movement.

Closer to home, when a news reporter once dared to approach and question Minaudo about his past and about how he had repeatedly reentered Canada after being deported, Minaudo became incensed and threatened to sue the reporter for “millions of dollars.” Nono completely denied any past criminality and said he was “framed” on the Detroit strike-breaking charges. He also stated that his old criminal convictions back in Italy had been completely quashed and dismissed.

Minaudo also went on to deny to that same reporter any relationship whatsoever to the Mafia or to playing any role in syndicated crime. And despite allegedly being related by marriage to the equally notorious “Cockeyed-Joe” Catalanotte, Minaudo vehemently denied having had any dealings with Catalanotte, who had also since been deported from the U.S. and Canada.

Side Note: The Detroit Police Department reported that Zerilli Family “Capodecina” Giuseppe (Cockeyed Joe) Catalanotte’s sister was once married to Onofrio Minaudo.

Much of this public exposure stemmed from a major investigation that was started in the late 1950s-early 1960s by Canada’s House of Commons after disturbing allegations surfaced about Onofrio Minaudo having paid bribes to five of their government’s cabinet members to pull strings on his behalf to enable him to stay in the country despite a pending deportation order then pending against him.

One phase of the investigation focused on evidence that Minaudo successfully snuck back into Canada on three separate occasions. On May 15, 1958, he entered the country through Malton Airport in Toronto. On May 27, 1958, he quietly entered a second time at Dorval Airport in Montreal. The third time he was accused of illegally reentering was on October 21, 1961, when he came in through Malton Airport again.

In each of these three instances, Canadian Immigration authorities said that Minaudo possessed an unauthorized ‘non-immigrant’ Canadian visa.

A Riddle, A Mystery, An Enigma

Onofrio Minaudo’s life could probably best be described by a statement Winston Churchill once made back in 1939. Referring to the Soviet Union, he is quoted as saying they were, “A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” This now famous phrase fit Nono Minaudo to a T.

Although much of his personal life always remained a mystery, we do know that at some point, Onofrio and Giovanna split up because years later, while he was residing in Canada, he seems to have taken up with another woman by the name of Ninetta, whom he eventually married.

The former Ninetta Gerardi was born in the town of Marsala, Sicily (Trapani Province) in 1904. He and Ninetta resided in the city of Windsor, Ontario. Ninetta was also known to have a daughter named Ann, who may well have also been Minaudo’s child.

One law enforcement source claims this marriage to Ninetta was actually illegal at the time because Minaudo was still married to his previous wife when he and Ninetta took their vows. Whether that's true or false, Nono never seemed to blink an eye. And from that time forward, Nono and Ninetta lived together as man and wife.

Onofrio Minaudo

Long viewed as the Detroit Mob’s “mystery man” by American and Canadian authorities, Minaudo was said to have been extremely active in many criminal rackets over the years.

Back in 1964, a local Canadian newspaper, The Windsor Star, reported that the since-deported Minaudo “was a ‘mystery man’ in every sense of the word.”

According to government documents in the United States and Italy, Nono had a long and very serious criminal arrest record back in his native Italy which included convictions for 1st-degree murder, assault, armed robbery, theft, and another homicide — a double murder — for which he was later sentenced in absentia to serve a minimum of 30 years-to-life imprisonment behind bars. But he avoided prison by fleeing the country and settling in North America.

According to information gathered by American law enforcement authorities, after immigrating to the United States, he initially took up residence in Detroit and, for a time, operated a bar and was also active in local politics.

In 1947, he became involved with more extreme violence during a strike-breaking racket he and his underworld cronies started regarding labor unionizing activities at the Michigan Stove Works Corporation.

These highly publicized incidents revolved around labor racketeering schemes orchestrated by Minaudo and Santo (Cockeyed Sam) Perrone, who was described at the time by the police as another notorious Detroit hoodlum.

Santo Perrone

Perrone and Minaudo were both later arrested, tried, and convicted on charges of conspiracy to violate the state labor laws. Minaudo was sentenced to two years criminal probation and fined $1,000. His conviction in this case would soon be used to start deportation proceedings to have him expelled from the U.S.

Federal authorities said that after being convicted of the labor racketeering charges in May 1952, Minaudo was fined and placed on criminal probation, but that he never even bothered to pay one dime toward the fine, and eventually completely stopped reporting to his court-appointed probation officer only five months later, in October 1953.

Almost simultaneously with this conviction, the U.S. Immigration & Naturalization Service (INS) started a concerted effort to have him deported back to his native Sicily.

By declaring that he had never become a citizen of the United States, and also citing his extensive criminal record, on July 29, 1953, the United States Justice Department in Washington formally ordered Onofrio Minaudo to be deported back to his native Italy. Once decided, U.S. legal guidelines allowed Minaudo a mere 10 days by which to appeal the order.

Eventually, Minaudo’s lawyer and the U.S. Government preliminarily worked out an agreement to deport him to the Island of Cuba instead.

But as it would turn out, it didn’t matter anyway. Because instead of filing a formal appeal — or waiting out the results of a possible deal worked out as far as where he might be extradited to — Nono decided to flee the jurisdiction altogether.

One afternoon, Minaudo just completely disappeared into thin air…Poof!

It would take U.S. authorities another six months of intensive investigation to track his movements before they finally nabbed him. On April 27, 1954, Minaudo was taken into custody by Federal U.S. Immigration Agents in Key West, Florida, as he stepped off a plane from Cuba.

After tracking him to Cuba, American authorities notified the Cuban government about the mafioso’s background and the open arrest warrants on him. Subsequently, a team of Cuban Policemen arrested Minaudo in Havana, charged him as an undesirable alien, and detained him until U.S. Marshals arrived to take him into custody.

The elusive mafioso was then placed on an airplane and escorted straight back to the United States, landing in Key West, Florida.

From there, Minaudo was driven up to Miami and locked away in the Dade County Jailhouse to await arraignment. Several days later, a judge declared Minaudo a fugitive from justice and then ordered the 53-year-old gangster to be held without bond indefinitely at the Dade County Jail until Federal officials could decide what to do with him.

At the time, the U.S. Government in Washington debated between immediately deporting him back to his native Italy, where he faced multiple sentences of up to life in prison, or detaining him in the United States and lodging new charges of being a fugitive, unlawful flight from justice, and probation violation charges potentially pending against him.

Side Note: Years later, when questioned about their handling of this incident, the U.S. Government explained that no formal request for extradition had ever been received from Italian law enforcement authorities regarding Minaudo’s previous convictions, and that the prison term he had once been sentenced to in Italy had long since been declared “prescribed” by the Italian Courts — a legal term equivalent to a dismissal.

Cuba

Law enforcement authorities admit that Nono lived very well during the time he spent in Cuba. Although they also admit his time there was “clouded in mystery,” and they couldn’t accurately track his activities or determine how he earned a living.

Around 1956, Canadian authorities were notified that Onofrio Minaudo was now living and operating there after the U.S. had deported him. Several years later, around 1960 or so, Minaudo began applying for permanent Canadian residency.

But like a seesaw, his unsavory reputation and Mafia background always led the Canadian government to waffle back and forth about him, until they finally issued their formal “Order of Deportation” against Minaudo on February 9, 1961.

As previously mentioned, during the later investigation into Minaudo’s movements, it was determined that the mafioso had reentered Canada at Malton Airport on numerous occasions, including May 22, 1955, June 24, 1956, and June 25, 1960.

Yet, despite the deportation order, it would take another three years for Minaudo to get kicked out of Canada. He was finally booted out on March 11, 1964.

Nono Minaudo at the height of his underworld power.

But his ability to remain in the country despite the deportation order soon led to a second investigation as well as a major scandal into the possible corruption and bribery of certain Canadian public officials to allow the mafioso to remain in Canada so long.

During the probe into the Canadian government’s malfeasance and possible corruption the judiciary stated for the record, “A convicted murderer, a Mafia lieutenant, a man described by the United States Immigration and the narcotics service as an extremely dangerous and slippery character, was permitted to stay in Canada for three years after he was ordered to be deported.”

The judiciary went on to state that “the immigration department knew Minaudo’s record.” They then posed the question, “With this information in hand, who made the incredible decision to let this dangerous gangster remain in Canada, and why?”

Canada’s House of Commons, as well as law enforcement sources in the U.S., all agreed that Minaudo was an important mafioso. Over the years, he was named in a continuing series of crime probes, including the 1950s Kefauver Hearings, which described him as a “big-time crime figure in the Detroit area.”

In 1958, he first entered Canada after landing at Malton Airport on a flight from Cuba. He was said to have traveled by air, via Mexico City. Thereafter, he quietly settled into a neighborhood called Riverside in Windsor, Ontario, where he rented a small apartment for himself.

Located in the eastern part of Windsor, Riverside was a waterfront community that conveniently ran along the Detroit River.

Side Note: Minaudo was not the only mobster to be deported back to his homeland from America and Canada during that time period. His partner in crime and brother-in-law, Giuseppe (Cockeyed Joe) Catalanotte, was booted back in 1957. And there were a handful of other Detroit-based mafiosi who also suffered the same fate.

At one time or another each of the following hoodlums was deported back to Sicily, including; Vincenzo (Jimmy) Catalanotte (in 1934); Salvatore (Toto) Vitale (in 1939); Raffaele (Ralph) Cannavo (1954); Sebastiano (Bastiano) Vermiglia (1956); Calogero (Charlie) Bommarito, (1958); and Francesco (Frankie C) Cammarata (in 1958).

Very Well "Connected"

During his lifetime, “Nono” Minaudo was thought to have become one of the most important operatives of the so-called Detroit Combination. He was certainly one of their most notorious members — of that there is little doubt.

And Nono seemed to know everybody worth knowing in the underworld, whether it was Detroit, Canada, or across the Atlantic Ocean in his native homeland of Sicily. He sure knew how to get around. He was also a very well-respected and a very feared man.

Among the most important mafiosi he was known to be close to was Family boss Giuseppe (Joe Z) Zerilli himself, Zerilli’s brother-in-law and underboss, Guglielmo (Black Bill) Tocco.

Two other close associates were Detroit Family elder-statesmen, Giovanni (Papa John) Priziola and Angelo Meli, both of whom headed their own factions of the Family and were considered among the most powerful and respected mafiosi around, not only within Detroit but across the nation as well.

1963 — Minaudo is listed on a FBI chart depicting Detroit’s Zerilli Family hierarchy.

Onofrio (Nono) Minaudo was known to be a very important man with very important friends.

In fact, American and Canadian law enforcement authorities both agree that during his criminal career, Nono was largely acknowledged by both his fellow mafiosi and the law enforcement officials who chased him as Family boss Joe Zerilli’s hand-picked choice to oversee that borgata’s vast Canadian-based racket activities.

They say that Minaudo accomplished this task by working in coordination with two other key Zerilli family members. One was longtime Family “Capodecina” Giuseppe (Cockeyed Joe) Catalanotte, a very notorious guy in his own right who also just happened to be Nono’s brother-in-law. The other was a veteran Family soldier named Nicola (Nick) Cicchini.

Giovanni (Papa John) Priziola

Headquartered in the City of Windsor, Ontario, these three men were appointed by Zerilli to control a crew of lesser hoodlums and racketeers who collectively handled lucrative gambling rackets, robberies, shakedowns and extortion, and liquor bootlegging and narcotics smuggling within Canada and across the Detroit River into the City of Detroit and beyond.

Other key Canadian mob figures thought to have operated under Minaudo and Catalanotte’s tutelage and control included soldiers Santo (Sam) Caruso, Vincenzo (Jimmy) Galici, Salvatore (Sammy Rocks) Misuraca, and Vincenzo (Jimmy) Renda.

Side Note: Authorities say that after Jimmy Renda’s death, Nono married Renda’s widow in the fall of 1960 in Canada. One official in Ottawa said he believed the marriage was also illegal because, at the time Minaudo took his marriage vows, his divorce from his first wife back in Detroit was not yet finalized.

Sicily: A Violent End for a Violent Guy

On May 17, 1965, approximately one year after he was deported from Canada back to his native homeland, Italian authorities reported that Minaudo was shot to death on a rabbit farm he owned and operated in Trapani, Sicily.

Several local police officers were called to the crime scene, where Minaudo’s lifeless body was found lying inside a barn located alongside a road in the village where he had been born. At the time he was found, Sicilian authorities reported that the corpse was bullet-riddled. A later autopsy revealed that the assassin, or assassins, had killed the aging mafioso with four bullets.

Authorities say Minaudo was initially found by his brother Vincenzo, who had gone to take food to Nono at his home, which was situated on the farm in Custonaci.

Onofrio Minaudo poses for a police mugshot in Sicily, shortly before his murder.

The Carabinieri immediately started checking their records for links to old murders Minaudo was suspected of committing before leaving for America some forty years earlier. But they could not determine any clear evidence indicating his slaying stemmed from an old Sicilian vendetta.

When word of his death eventually traveled back to the FBI, they dryly reported it on an internal memo as, “On j18/5/65 — Minaudo, Onofrio, aka Nono — DEAD. Found shot in Sicilian village where he was born. Mafia member deported from the US and Canada.”

For all the transatlantic traveling and secretive machinations he was involved in during his lifetime — on review — the end result was that he was born and he died in the quaint little village of his birth. The town of Custonaci — with a population of only 4,000 residents — would become the “bookends” of Minaudo’s life.

At the time of his very untimely death, Nono Minaudo was just a month shy of turning 65 years old.

Postscript: Canadian News reporters later interviewed Mrs. Onofrio Minaudo about her feelings regarding her husband’s murder. Nono’s 61-year-old estranged wife told them she had expected her husband would one day die a violent death.

“Somehow I always felt he would go that way,” said Mrs. Minaudo. “But I had hoped God would just call for him — that he would just pass away gently.”

Mrs. Minaudo, who stated she was now working as a cashier in a restaurant, said her husband’s nephew had phoned her the day before, after he received a wire telegram from Italy with the bad news of her husband’s death.

“All it said was: ‘Your uncle has passed away. Notify the family,” she said.

She then replied, “There will be another terrible blast in the newspapers. I have two grown sons and two beautiful grandchildren. I don’t want them to get hurt by this.”

Ninetta Minaudo lived another three decades, passing away on December 21, 1994. Ninetta made it to the ripe old age of 90.

Until next time…”The Other Guy”

Detroit Mobster Onofrio “Nono” Minaudo

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