Joe Profaci, Vincent Mangano and the Cleveland Mafia Summit

Retired Kansas City Police Intelligence Unit detective Gary Jenkins sits down with author Don Billy to uncover one of the lesser-known but potentially important gatherings in American Mafia history—the 1928 Cleveland Mafia Summit. Get the book Cleveland Mafia Summit: Siezed at the Statler

On December 5, 1928, during the height of Prohibition, mob figures from around the country gathered at Cleveland's Hotel Statler. A Cleveland patrolman noticed several carloads of suspicious men arriving at the hotel. Before long, dozens of police officers descended on the Statler and rounded up 23 men.

Among those caught were men who would become major figures in American organized crime, including Joe Profaci, future boss of the family that became the Colombo crime family, and Vincent Mangano, future boss of the organization that became the Gambino family. Other attendees had connections to Chicago and Al Capone.

But Don's research suggests the 23 men arrested may have represented only part of the gathering. Newspaper accounts indicated other mobsters escaped from the Statler and nearby hotels. Local Cleveland figures—as well as visitors who could stay with relatives or associates—may never have been identified by police.

So what brought all these gangsters to Cleveland?

Gary and Don examine several possibilities: the continuing violence and leadership struggles in New York and Chicago, the possibility that Joe “The Boss” Masseria was consolidating his power, disputes involving Prohibition rackets, and efforts to bring greater organization to an underworld still plagued by assassinations and territorial wars.

They also discuss what happened after the arrests. The mobsters were charged under Cleveland's broad “suspicious person” ordinance, but once lawyers got involved, the cases quickly began to fall apart. Some men pleaded guilty only to have their sentences effectively waived if they left town, while the remaining cases were dismissed.

Don explains how he used old newspaper accounts, police records, National Archives material and other primary sources to reconstruct the meeting and identify many of the mysterious men appearing in the famous police photographs.

Was Cleveland an important step toward the more organized national Mafia structure that emerged in the years that followed? This episode explores a forgotten gathering that brought some of America's future Mafia leaders together in one Cleveland hotel.

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