The resident Cosa Nostra clan in control of underworld activities in the State of Ohio is best known to law enforcement and the public as the John Scalish Crime Family. Originally known as the “Mayfield Road Gang” because their home base was the Mayfield Road section of Cleveland’s “Little Italy” neighborhood, this Mafia network also maintained racket operations in many other outlying cities and towns all across the State of Ohio through small satellite crews comprised of “key” soldiers and associates operating in these locations.
Dating back to the early 1920s, Cleveland has had a storied underworld history.
Leading up to the Prohibition Era, the city saw much strife and many gangland killings as mobsters fought one another for control of the city’s rackets. Cleveland experienced something of the Mafia version of “The Hatfields and the McCoy” as rival underworld factions led by the Porellos and Lonardos played a tit-for-tat game of murder. After a series of vendetta killings, by the early 1930s, the gunsmoke had cleared and the “Cleveland “Family” was firmly reestablished with a clearly defined hierarchy ratified by New York’s Mafia Commission.
For the next decade, this borgata would be led by a highly respected “Don” named Francesco (Ciccio) Milano.
