Youngstown in Ohio holds a special place in gangland. It always has! The Land of Lincoln had it’s Windy City of Chicago, and The Empire State certainly had it’s Big Apple of New York City. But although those two large cities housed most of the big-name gangsters and racketeers that splashed across front-page headlines all across this nation, little ole’ Youngstown had played the gangster game as well as anybody, and arguably more deadly than many.
The city of Youngstown is located on the Mahoning River just 65 miles southeast of Cleveland, and 61 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. Youngstown is also the midway between New York City and the City of Chicago, Illinois via Interstate 80.
It is a midwestern City, located in Mahoning County, within the larger region known as the Rustbelt. Traditionally known as a center of steel production, Youngstown was forced to redefine itself when the United States steel industry fell into deep decline during the decade of the 1970s.
Since it’s 1950 high point, the area has seen its population plummet over 60% from 170,000 residents to its current populous of 65,000…it also has the lowest median income of any city in the U.S for a population of that size.
And although in the last few years it’s made a bit of a comeback with a revitalization project, it’s still a far cry from its vibrant days of yesteryear.
Too small a population to warrant a resident Cosa Nostra Family itself, it nonetheless would become ground zero in a vicious protracted gangland battle for supremacy over its lucrative rackets.
In many ways Youngstown had it worse by not having a resident Mafia Family to call its own. One strong underworld entity that governed its territory with an iron fist for all to respect and fear. Because the result was that several different Mafia Families made a bloody grab for it.
