The Irish Mob TV - Mobsters TV - One Nation: Overdosed TV - Drugs Inc TV - Mastermind TV - Gangland TV - Kill the Irishman 2011 - Welcome to Collinwood TV - Danny Greene: The Rise and Fall of the Irishman 2011 -
On December 11th 1978 the biggest robbery in US history took place, the Lufthansa Heist. It was the perfect robbery and the mastermind behind it was the Irish gangster Jimmy the Gent Burke. The Irish Mob s1e3, 2016
The basis for Robert De Niro’s character in the film Goodfellas. ibid.
Jimmy Burke was one of the richest and most powerful gangstas in New York. ibid.
Burke was sentenced to life in prison where he died on April of 1996 at the age of 64. ibid.
In the 1970s a war was fought for control of the Cleveland rackets in Ohio, a war that ripped the city apart. On one side was the Mafia, and on the other was the Irishman known as the Celtic warrior, Danny Greene. ibid.
Multiple assassination attempts failed. And Greene put it all down to the luck of the Irish. ibid.
Cleveland, Ohio, March 29th 1975: Christie’s Lounge: a well-dressed older man sipped his drink. He was telling a familiar story to the regulars. He was getting out of the rackets, leaving the Mob life, retiring to sunny Florida. He threw back his last swallow, put on his hat and walked out into the cold spring air. Moments later the bar was rocked by a powerful blast outside. Patrons rushed out and choked on the awful smell of burning flesh. Mobster [Alex] Shondor Birns was finally out of the rackets. Just not the way he planned. Mobsters: Danny Greene
One man refused to hide: Irish mobster Danny Greene. His war would tear apart one of the country’s oldest and most successful Mafia families. ibid.
The Cleveland Mafia had a good thing going. The Boss, John Scalish, ran a quiet operation but one that pulled in bucket loads of cash. ibid.
He [Greene] resigned from the union and after pleading guilty to corruption charges he was also hit with a $10,000 fine. Danny was out of a job, but his turn as a shady labour leader had got the attention of gambling kingpin Shondor Birns. ibid.
Greene enlisted local thugs and hoodlums into what he called a band of Celtic warriors. ibid.
The thought of taking over the Italian rackets appealed to Greene. ibid.
Cleveland was rapidly becoming the bombing capital of the world. The following year – 1977 – 37 explosions rocked the city and surrounding area. ibid.
More Americans are dying of overdoses than ever before. And this is the epicentre of that crisis. Welcome to Montgomery County, Ohio, where thanks to a drug so powerful it could kill you if you touch it, police work isn’t what it used to be. One Nation: Overdosed, MSNBC 2017
What’s ravaging this community is made in a laboratory: Fentanyl. ibid.
A couple of years ago traffickers began mixing Fentanyl in with the heroine. ibid.
Since 2007 heroin ODs in Ohio have caused more deaths than car accidents. Drugs Inc s6e9: Hardcore Heroin, National Geographic 2015
Ohio’s heroin is more deadly than ever. ibid.
There are 700,000 heroin users in the US – double those in 2005. ibid.
A dazzling cache of jewellery that vanishes into thin air. A mystery woman, a cop turned robber, and a flawless crime. It was the greatest unsolved robbery in the mid-west. Masterminds: The Jewellery Show Job, 2003
August 1994 Columbus, Ohio: hundreds of jewellery salesman arrived at the Hyatt Regency Hotel for the biggest jewellery convention in the mid-west. ibid.
The mysterious lady who had checked in late had completely disappeared. ibid.
They didn’t have the slightest inkling that the mastermind was really one of their own: the legendary ex-chief of Chicago police William Hanhardt. ibid.
With solid connections on both sides of the law the opportunity was too tempting to pass up. Jewellery salesmen became Handhardt’s prey and he called on his old gangsta friends for help. ibid.
Karen [Hanhardt’s wife] testified about the entire gang’s involvement in the Hyatt Regency heist. ibid.
Colombus, the capital of Ohio. And home to some 750,000 people … A criminal network to rival any city. Among the most notorious gangs here the Aryan Republican Army or ARA: ‘They’re misfits and losers, radical neo-nazi white supremacists who wanted to overthrow the federal government and install a white supremacist dictatorship, and they also really liked guns and bombs. Gangland s7e8: Army of Hate, History 2010
The ARA is also known as The Company. The gang has built a reputation for robbing banks: 22 since 1994 and pushing its racist agenda. ibid.
Is that all you’ve got? It’s gonna take more than a few fire-crackers to kill Danny Greene! Kill the Irishman 2011 starring Ray Stevenson & Val Kilmer & Christopher Walken & Linda Cardellini & Marcus Thomas & Vinnie Jones & Tony Lo Bianco & Paul Sorvino & Laura Ramsey & Mike Starr & Bob Gunton et al, director Jonathan Hensleigh, opening scene
Is it true? All of it? ibid. her to him
I provide a unique financial service to men who like to gamble. ibid. Walken to Stevenson
Big money in garbage. I highly recommend it. ibid.
That summer in 1976 – 36 bombs exploded in Cleveland. ibid.
I’m laughing at Life. Welcome to Collinwood 2002 starring William H Macey & Isaiah Washington & Sam Rockwell & Patricia Clarkson & George Clooney & Michael Keter & Luiz Guzman & Andrew Davoli et al, directors Anthony & Joe Russo, gangsta in prison cell
He says it could be his Bellini. ibid. Cosmo’s bird
Danny Greene became known as Cleveland’s Celtic warrior in the 1970s when he waged war on the Italians known as the Mayfield Road Mob. Danny Greene: The Rise and Fall of the Irishman, Amazon 2011
In his quest for power he went from union president to FBI informant to leader of the Celtic Club, Cleveland’s Irish Mob. When he was finally killed by a car bomb in 1977, the trial of Danny’s assassins brought Cleveland’s Cosa Nostra to its knees. ibid.
After Danny’s time with the Longshoremen, Frank Brancato, a prominent Cleveland mobster, asked him to organise the various waste haulers in the Cleveland area. ibid.
Danny became involved with a prominent figure in the Cleveland numbers racket named Shondor Birns. ibid.
Birns put up $25,000 with a bookie to Greene to be murdered. ibid.
Danny Greene’s extortion tactics brought downtown construction to a halt. ibid.
‘I was at St Malachi’s when Shondor Birns got blown up.’ ibid. woman
‘Police have issued arrest warrants for the two men they say are responsible for blowing up Danny Greene’s home.’ ibid. TV news
‘An instant blast and … he was killed instantly.’ ibid. rozzer