Uploaded May 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
Check out The Original Tombstone Tourist website at thetombstonetourist.com/graves/joseph-porrello for the complete biography and more exciting content!
At the start of Prohibition, Joseph "Big Joe" Lonardo was the boss of the Cleveland crime family. He and his brothers began by supplying Cleveland's bootleggers with the corn sugar they needed to produce liquor. His top lieutenant was Joseph Porrello, who supervised various bootlegging and other criminal operations throughout the early to mid-1920s. In 1926, the Porrello brothers broke away from the Lonardo family and formed their own faction. In 1927, hostilities between the Lonardo and Porrello families escalated as the families competed in the corn sugar business. During Prohibition, corn sugar was the prime ingredient in bootleg liquor.
On July 5, 1930, Joseph Porrello was invited to a sitdown with Frank Milano where he and an underling were shot dead. Vincenzo "Jim" Porrello was then deposed as underboss by the new Milano regime. Three weeks later Vincenzo was also murdered and Raymond Porrello vowed to seek revenge. On August 15, 1930, an explosion leveled Raymond's home, but he was not home at the time. Unfortunately he too would eventually fall victim to hitmen's bullets when he was killed in 1932 along with his brother Rosario, effectively ending the Porrello brother's influence in the Cleveland underworld.
Big Joe, Vincenzo and Raymond are all buried together (with Sam Tilocco next door) at Calvary Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio in Section 21, Lot 215.
#famousgraves #gravesite #grave #cemetery #cemeterylovers #mafia #truecrimestories
Check out The Original Tombstone Tourist website at thetombstonetourist.com/graves/joseph-porrello for the complete biography and more exciting content!
At the start of Prohibition, Joseph "Big Joe" Lonardo was the boss of the Cleveland crime family. He and his brothers began by supplying Cleveland's bootleggers with the corn sugar they needed to produce liquor. His top lieutenant was Joseph Porrello, who supervised various bootlegging and other criminal operations throughout the early to mid-1920s. In 1926, the Porrello brothers broke away from the Lonardo family and formed their own faction. In 1927, hostilities between the Lonardo and Porrello families escalated as the families competed in the corn sugar business. During Prohibition, corn sugar was the prime ingredient in bootleg liquor.
On July 5, 1930, Joseph Porrello was invited to a sitdown with Frank Milano where he and an underling were shot dead. Vincenzo "Jim" Porrello was then deposed as underboss by the new Milano regime. Three weeks later Vincenzo was also murdered and Raymond Porrello vowed to seek revenge. On August 15, 1930, an explosion leveled Raymond's home, but he was not home at the time. Unfortunately he too would eventually fall victim to hitmen's bullets when he was killed in 1932 along with his brother Rosario, effectively ending the Porrello brother's influence in the Cleveland underworld.
Big Joe, Vincenzo and Raymond are all buried together (with Sam Tilocco next door) at Calvary Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio in Section 21, Lot 215.
#famousgraves #gravesite #grave #cemetery #cemeterylovers #mafia #truecrimestories
