Santino (Sandy Naples) DiNapoli

Sandy Naples was a name that commanded attention in Youngstown’s underworld . From his early days in the “Brier Hill” district to his rise as a feared racketeer, Naples carved out a reputation as a ruthless operator who didn’t shy away from conflict. But as alliances fractured and rivalries escalated, his story took a deadly turn that left an indelible mark on mob history.

Santino (Sandy Naples) DiNapoli -- aka Joseph Naples, Giuseppe DiNapoli, and Joseph Sandy Naples -- was born in 1908 in Italy and immigrated to the U.S. with his parents and siblings as a child.

They soon settled in Youngstown, Ohio, where he would live the rest of his life. Santino was one of four brothers and three girls born to Giuseppe and Lucia DiNapoli. He was raised within the “Brier Hill” district, a largely Italian area he’d come to dominate into adulthood. As he later gained success, he moved to a home at 605 Carlotta Drive, where he’d reside for years to come.

Side Note: DiNapoli’s d.o.b. was also reported as 1906 and 1910.

Sandy Naples

The “Naples” brothers -- James, Sandy, Billy, and Joey -- all became heavily involved in the rackets as they reached adulthood.

It is debatable whether Naples was actually formally “inducted” into the Pittsburgh Family of LCN.

Regardless of his “official” status, by the time of his death, Naples was ranked by police as the number #2 leading racketeer in the town's gambling rackets.

He was known as a “serious guy” not to be fucked with. Naples had a reputation for having done “work” as needed in his rise up the underworld ladder.

Although he and his brothers were front and center in the Youngstown rackets and a controlling force for years, some have said that he was not officially a member. In later years, it would make all the difference in the world.

It’s said that Sandy started off in partnership with a fellow hoodlum named James (Vince) DeNiro. They were originally close and became partners in the policy numbers business and the vending machine rackets.

He was known to rob “spots” or locations for placement of his vending machines from other vendors, mob guys or not. This was his way of expanding and growing the jukebox and cigarette route as he became one of the biggest vendors in town. He just strong-armed his way into the bar, restaurant, or club, tossing the machines of rivals onto the sidewalk.

Vince DeNiro

As time passed, the two started having problems. DeNiro accused Naples of usurping his orders and instructions to underlings and of slowly bringing his three brothers into their racket operations, which wasn’t agreed upon between them.

He additionally accused Sandy of using narcotics, which was a mob no-no, and endangered them both. They eventually broke up the partnership and went their separate ways. And in time, they went from having been partners and good friends to the worst of enemies and competitors.

Side Note: Although a very capable hoodlum not to be trifled with, it was well known in the Youngstown underworld that, at some point, Sandy started using heroin. Some of his close associates questioned his judgment and future actions. It would later become a bone of contention.

As things heated up between them, an old-timer from Cleveland named Jimmy Lupo, who had befriended DeNiro years earlier, started bringing Vince to see mob higher-ups back in Cleveland to discuss what could be done about these conflicts with Naples.

Side Note: They went to see John DeMarco and Frank Brancato, both bosses in that borgata.

In time, DeNiro would drift into Cleveland’s orbit. It was thought by authorities and those in the know that Sandy Naples’ killing was orchestrated shortly thereafter...it would lead to much more bloodshed that would become a tit-for-tat, back-and-forth type of warfare.

Several underlings included Dave Coman and “Skin” Bajnok, both of whom were said to assist the Naples brothers with the numbers business.

Sandy was also said to be at least friendly, if not allied, with Gabriel and Sam Mannarino of Pittsburgh. Also, Dominick (Big Dom) Mallamo, an old-time Calabrian racketeer well known among Pennsylvania’s mafiosi, and Mallamo’s nephew Vincenzo Prato, aka “Two-Gun Jimmy,” who would later rise to become a capo partially governing the territory.

Additional top rackets figures active in the area at that time were Jasper (Fats) Aiello and James (Jimmy Dankers) Petrella.

It seems that Naples was both an ally and rival of many of the town's hoodlums. Some say he never kicked up a “tribute” to the powers that be as is traditional.

The Naples brothers owned and operated the United Music Company, a distributor of cigarettes, jukeboxes, and pinball games to area bars and restaurants. They also owned and operated the Center Sandwich Shop along Wilson Avenue, which was used as the main drop for their numbers ring.

It was said that the brothers had a near-lock on the numbers business operating in the black neighborhoods and that they had many negro policy runners who worked for them.

In fact, there is a well-told story that once, when Naples was in the hospital recovering from gunshots in the 1940s, nurses and staff were surprised to see dozens of black townspeople coming by to wish Sandy a speedy recovery.

When questioned as to why they came in droves, they answered that Sandy Naples had done more for their people and neighborhood than anybody, even the mayor and local government.

Naples had been a very well-known racketeer, both to the local underworld and to the media and public.

When he was 17 years old, Sandy served a long prison term at the Western Penitentiary for a vicious felonious assault and robbery. He was jailed between 1934 to 1944 on this conviction. In later years, he also served a minor six-month “bid” for gambling in 1958 at the Mahoning County Jail.

Side Note: While serving this gambling sentence (for operating a numbers racket), Sandy made the headlines once again after authorities caught him sneaking out of the county lockup every weekend to visit his longtime girlfriend. It once again showed the level of local police corruption.

In 1949, he was wounded in an attempted gangland “hit” after a mob assassin strolled into his Center Sandwich Shoppe and shot him several times.

Side Note: Naples was himself a murder suspect several times over the years, including the killing of Jerry Pascarelli in April of 1945. The victim was said to have been a heist, scam artist, and conman who eventually disappeared. Pascarelli’s blood-stained car was later found abandoned near Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, some seventy miles from Youngstown. His body was never found.

A Controversial Figure

Sandy Naples was always a controversial figure who seemed to make the front pages.

In 1957, while he was building his sprawling ranch-style home on Carlotta Street on the North Side valued at a whopping $60,000, some mob enemies dynamited the home one evening, blowing it to smithereens.

But the final chapter for Sandy would come quickly. On March 11, 1960, he was caught short by two mob gunmen who were waiting in the shadows off the porch of his girlfriend's home.

Brandishing two sawed-off “Lupara” (shotguns to kill a “wolf” in Sicilian), Sandy, who was only 52 years old, was hit by buckshot along with his 28-year-old girlfriend, Mary Ann Vrancich, on the front stoop of her home at 623 Caledonia Street.

Sandy had managed to empty his .38 caliber revolver at his assailants to no avail. Both shotguns were later found abandoned in a sewer.

It was widely suspected but never proven that Cleveland capo Charles (Cadillac Charlie) Cavallaro and his close minion Vince DeNiro were behind the Sandy Naples killing.

But they would each pay the ultimate price shortly thereafter.

Side Note: Santino DiNapoli was such a well-known and popular figure in Youngstown that he was reported to have had a 92-car hearse procession of mourners as they made their way down Belmont Avenue for his funeral...in today’s world, that’s unheard of regardless of who may have died.

Less than two-and-a-half years later, his kid brother Billy (35 years old) was killed by a car bomb that completely destroyed his automobile on July 1, 1962. It was thought that Sandy’s kid brother Billy had avenged him by whacking out both Cavallaro and DeNiro in the coming months, with Billy killed in turn by the Cleveland mob.

After that, another brother, Jimmy, aka “Jinx,” backed up, choosing to fade into the woodwork and understandably keeping his head low. He still stayed active but in a low-key and shadowy way. But if Jimmy backed up a bit, their brother Joey certainly did not. In the coming years, he went full steam ahead.

Joey Naples

Joey Naples would become a major force in the Youngstown underworld. He would achieve what had eluded his three older brothers: overall control of the Youngstown rackets.

But his success would be short-lived as well. Naples no longer had to worry about outside forces, such as the Cleveland mob’s representatives, fighting him for control of the town. But rather “the enemy from within.”

Lenine (Lenny) Strollo, a fellow soldier from the Pittsburgh Family, and his brother Dante (Danny), who was a mob associate, would plan Naples's murder.

Why? ...because many mob guys are greedy, jealous, and as envious as washwomen. The Strollo brothers fell into that category. And they wanted all of what Naples had.

Lenny Strollo was not content with sharing control with his fellow borgata blood brother.

Until next time..."The Other Guy"

Santino (Sandy Naples) DiNapoli

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