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If there was a technique to make an unlawful buck, Johnny” Dio” Dioguardi, known as by Bobby Kennedy the “grasp labor racketeer,” had his sticky fingers within the pot. Dio was such a treacherous thug at a younger age, in 1936, U.S. Lawyer Thomas E. Dewey claimed Dio was, “A younger gorilla who started his profession on the age of 15.”
Johnny Dio was born Giovanni (John) Ignazio Dioguardi on April 28, 1914, on Forsyth Avenue in downtown Manhattan. Dio had three brothers: Frank and Vincent, who had been reliable guys, and Tommaso, or Thomas, who grew to become, as did Johnny Dio, a capo within the Luchesse crime household. Dio additionally had an unnamed sister who might be recognized solely as “Mrs. Dioguardi-Priziola.”
Dio’s father Giovanni B. Dioguardi, who owned a bicycle store, was murdered in August 1930 on a road in Coney Island, in what police known as a “mob-related execution.” It appeared that the elder Dioguardi and one other enterprising gentleman had robbed a wealthy girl of her jewellery, and the 2 males had had been arguing over tips on how to cut up the proceeds. The elder Dioguardi, who had been arrested twice for homicide however by no means convicted, took six pictures to varied components of his physique, and it’s presumed the opposite gentleman stored all the jewellery.
Johnny Dio graduated grammar college, however after lower than two years at Stuyvesant Excessive College, Dio dropped out and went to work for his uncle on his mom facet: gangster James “Jimmy Doyle” Plumeri. By this time, the good-looking Dio (who was stated to have seemed like silent film star Rudolph Valentino) had already gotten a status on the Decrease East Aspect as a troublesome youth, who terrorized road distributors into giving him an excellent portion of their wares totally free. Uncle Jimmy Doyle (no person known as him by his actual title Plumeri), recognizing Dio’s skills for thuggery, instantly put Dio to work as a schlammer (leg-breaker) within the Garment Middle for Doyle’s Jewish associates Louie “Lepke” Buchalter and Lepke’s companion Jacob “Gurrah” Shapiro, who had been affectionately generally known as “The Gorilla Boys.” Lepke, together with Albert “The Lord Excessive Executioner” Anastasia, was the pinnacle of Homicide Integrated, a bunch of stone killers who murdered whomever the mob bosses in New York Metropolis and across the nation stated wanted to be murdered. Nevertheless, there isn’t any proof that Dio ever joined that august group. Dio’s specialty was union-related extortion, and in that, he was tops in his subject.
Dio and Doyle began a garment staff trucking affiliation, whereby the truckers working within the Garment Middle had been compelled to affix the trucker’s union, headed, in fact, by Dio and Doyle. If a poor sap trucker determined he did not wish to be part of the union, a visit to the hospital was inevitable, if not a visit to the morgue. The union dues was hefty, however at no matter value they had been compelled to pay, it was a small value certainly to make sure the trucker’s continued good well being. After all, the “union dues” by no means made it into the union’s coffers (it went straight into Dio’s and Doyle’s pockets as an alternative), and phony books had been established to fulfill whomever determined to investigate concerning the trucker’s union’s monetary solvency.
Members of the trucker’s union had been even advised the place to spend their cash and the way a lot to spend on particular objects. Dio and Doyle had been buddies with an area barber, they usually ordered their truckers to patronized this particular barber to the nifty tune of $2.50 a month. The truckers had been additionally advised the place to purchase their wine, the place to purchase their meats, and the place to purchase their clothes, and the way a lot to spend on every merchandise, which was actually not at cut price costs.
For a number of years within the Thirties, Dio and Doyle, with no person to cease them, had a candy deal going for themselves within the Garment Middle. Apart from extorting the truckers, the dynamic duo of Dio and Doyle profited from the opposite finish of the totem pole too. They compelled the Garment Middle’s clothes producers (bosses) to make use of solely union truckers. Then they used the clout of their trucker’s union to bulldoze the clothes producers into paying hefty off-the-books charges with the intention to maintain their enterprise up-and-running, and worthwhile.
If the clothes producers refused to pay the extortion charges, Dio and Doyle would order their union truckers to go on strike, placing a lifeless cease to the clothes producer’s money movement. On events, if the bosses did not play ball, union thugs (schlammers) would break the bosses’ fingers, their legs and arms; and generally all three physique components on the identical go to. In excessive circumstances, like if a boss threatened to speak to the Feds, Lepke’s Homicide Integrated boys would enter the scene, and seconds later, the chatty boss would exit the face of the earth, toes up.
In 1932 and 1933, Dio and Plumeri had been indicted twice for extortion, however they beat the rap each occasions, as a result of their victims refused to speak to the Feds. In 1934, Dio was fortunate sufficient to be elected govt secretary of the Allied Truckmen’s Mutual Affiliation, an affiliation of employers. Though Dio was boss of the trucker’s union, he represented their employers throughout a strike by 1,150 Teamsters in September 1934.
Good work if you may get it.
Nevertheless, in 1937, each Dio and Doyle ran out of luck. The nephew and uncle duo had been indicted for extortion and “atrocious assault.” In the course of the trial it was alleged that Dio and Doyle, and several other different of their gangster underlings, had been extorting as a lot as $500 from every trucker. Plus, it was alleged they’d compelled the clothes producers so as to add a hefty “tariff” to each go well with, coat, and pair of pants manufactured within the Garment Middle. This tariff went straight within the pockets of Dio and Doyle, and that elevated the price of good for most of the people.
Candy deal certainly.
In keeping with an article within the New York Day by day Mirror, “On the trial, frightened witnesses testified how recalcitrant employers and staff had been overwhelmed once they refused to pay. One man stated he was confined to mattress for 2 weeks after an assault. One other stated the hoodlums had threatened to chop off his ears.”
Realizing they had been lifeless within the water, through the center of the trial, each Dio and Doyle pled responsible as charged. In return they obtained free room and board in upstate Sing Sing Jail for a interval of three-five years.
After he was launched from jail, Dio determined New York Metropolis was too sizzling for him, so he moved to Allentown, Pennsylvania, the place he took up roots lengthy sufficient to open his personal gown manufacturing plant; non-union, in fact. He later bought the plant, and to ensure the brand new house owners would don’t have any bother, Dio took $11,200 underneath the desk to make sure that his erstwhile plant would stay non-union.
Dio sped again to New York Metropolis, and utilizing the identical ways he had employed in Allentown, he arrange a gown wholesaler. Utilizing his income from the enterprise, Dio was sensible sufficient to purchase reliable companies, which included actual property and trucking. He additionally dabbled within the inventory market, making him appear to the IRS as simply one other tax-paying citizen. However the New York Metropolis police knew higher. They only could not pin something unlawful on Dio, though they continued attempting.
Again in his outdated Forsyth Avenue neighborhood, Dio determined to start out a household. He married the previous Anne Chrostek (a non-Italian). She bore Dio two sons (Philip and Dominick) and one daughter (Rosemary) who sadly handed away from an unknown sickness. It was throughout this time that Dio, earlier than the age of forty, was formally inducted into the Luchesse Crime Household, making him all of the extra untouchable on the streets of New York Metropolis. Though they had been solely Italian on their father’s facet, each of Dio’s sons finally adopted of their father’s footsteps into a lifetime of crime. Philip Dio, who was known as “Fats Philly,” was later inducted into the Colombo Crime Household, whereas Dominick, like his father, grew to become a made man within the Luchesse Crime Household.
(Editor’s be aware: The Mafia guidelines modified round this time to permit extra members to be inducted into the “Honored Society,” to fill the gaps of those that both had been killed or despatched to the can; “faculty” because the mob likes to name it. At this level, solely your father (not each dad and mom) needed to be Italian so that you can get “your button.” In case your mom was Italian and your father a non-Italian — you had been spit out of luck. Them’s the breaks.)
By the 1950’s, Dio had change into a robust captain (capo) within the Luchesse Crime Household, and with cash pouring into his coffers in bundles (he allegedly earned $100,000 every week), he began residing the lifetime of a colonial baron. Within the early Nineteen Sixties, Dio moved his household right into a spacious property out on Freeport, Lengthy Island, which price Dio $75,000 in money (Dio did not like banks or financial institution loans). In the course of the week, Dio ate along with his cronies in the very best New York Metropolis eateries (his favourite being the fashionable Black Angus Steakhouse). However, as is the Italian customized, Sundays had been strictly for the household (famiglia). Inviting member of the family and shut pals, Dio was happy with the actual fact he was an skilled cook dinner and was personally capable of conjure up the very best Italian delicacies to please his company. Dio was particularly gracious to his spouse, whom he liked dearly (not like most mob males, Dio was devoted to his spouse). As a substitute of personally shopping for his spouse Christmas presents, Dio would give her a shoe field full of money, with just a little be aware saying, “Purchase your self some good garments, honey.”
In the course of the 1950’s, by way of his connections with New York Metropolis Teamster leaders Martin Lacey and John O’Rourke, Dio grew to become tight buddies with Teamster big-wig Jimmy Hoffa. Dio and Hoffa first met in a secret assembly in a New York Metropolis lodge room, and Hoffa, who had hoped to unseat Teamster President Dave Beck, figured Dio, along with his union background, could be the proper individual to change into pals with. In late 1955, Dio was capable of get hold of charters from the Teamsters to arrange seven Teamster locals, known as “paper locals,” as a result of they didn’t have precise teamsters as members. The roles had been stuffed with Dio’s kinfolk and buddies, and their vote for teamster president was in Hoffa’s again pocket.
Dio’s modus operandi for greater than 30 years was this: management the unions, then use the unions as a sledgehammer over the heads of the bosses. Dio would inform the bosses, “Pay or my boys will strike.” The bosses all the time paid, the employees all the time acquired screwed, and Dio made out like a bandit each time.
Throughout his illustrious felony profession, Dio managed the unions to the detriment of its members to such an extent, that through the 1950’s McClellan Committee hearings into organized crime, the committee issued the assertion, “It can’t be stated, utilizing the widest attainable latitude, that Johnny Dioguardi was ever thinking about bettering the lot of the workingman.”
Well-known Mafia turncoat Joe Valachi owned a gown manufacturing unit on Prospect Avenue within the Bronx for 12 years. Valachi as soon as stated, “I by no means belonged to any union. If I acquired into any bother, any union organizer got here round, all I needed to do was name Johnny Dio and all my troubles had been straightened out.”
Nevertheless, in 1956, because the Teamsters elections neared they usually had been scheming for management, each Hoffa and Dio had a stone of their shoe, and his title was syndicated newspaper columnist Victor Riesel.
Victor Riesel was born on March 16, 1913 on the Decrease East Aspect to Jewish dad and mom in a blended Italian/Jewish neighborhood, not removed from the place Dio grew up. Victor’s father, Nathan Riesel, was very proactive in union actions and was instrumental in creating the Bonnaz, Singer, and the Onerous Embroiderers Unions. In 1913, he additionally helped organized Native 66 of the Worldwide Women Garment Staff Union, and shortly he was elected secretary-treasurer of that union, then lastly president.
When Victor Riesel was a younger little one, his father taught him tips on how to make union speeches, which the younger Victor fiercely gave at union conferences and at outside union rallies. Nathan Riesel was hard-line anti-communist, and he was strident in stopping the communists from infiltrating his locals. Victor noticed his father return house many occasions, overwhelmed and bloodied from fights he had with communists activists, or the mobsters (schlammers) who had been employed by the manufacturing unit house owners to interrupt up union strikes that Nathan Riesel had participated in. This fashioned the notion in Victor Riesel’s younger thoughts that gangsters had been the bane of reliable unions.
In 1926, Nathan Riesel moved his household to the Bronx, the place Victor attended and graduated with honors from Morris Excessive College. Whereas in highschool, Riesel started working as an “stringer” for a number of newspapers all through America. His writings had been principally concerning the labor motion in the USA, and the way they had been hampered by a “gangster factor,” who sought to play each ends of the spectrum by infiltrating the unions, then working for the boss producers to bodily quell any union strikes or demonstrations. In 1928, Riesel enrolled in night time courses within the Metropolis Faculty of New York Metropolis (CCNY), the place he took programs in human useful resource administration and industrial relations. To assist himself whereas attending night time college, Riesel labored at strenuous jobs, each in a metal mill and in a noticed mill. Whereas in faculty, Riesel additionally labored as a columnist, then as an editor on the coed newspaper. Apart from writing columns on the labor motion, Riesel additionally wrote columns on assorted topics like literature, and the theater.
Whereas in faculty, to get wanted expertise within the outdoors newspaper world, Riesel took a job as a normal workplace boy at The New Chief, a political and cultural weekly journal that was each liberal and anti-communist. Riesel cuts his tooth within the enterprise by doing something his bosses on the newspaper advised him to do, together with sweeping the flooring, and writing columns for the newspaper. In 1940, after 12 lengthy years of laborious work, each out and in of college, Riesel lastly earned his Bachelor of Enterprise Administration from CCNY. He was supplied the job because the managing editor at The New Chief, and he took the job with the dedication of ridding the unions of “gangsterism.”
Riesel caught his first massive break, when in 1941, he was employed as a columnist for The New York Publish. Within the 1948, when the Publish modified administration, Riesel switched to the New York Day by day Mirror, owned by newspaper magnate William Randolph Hurst. By 1956, Riesel’s column was syndicated in 193 newspapers all through the USA. In that very same yr, Riesel started working along side United States Lawyer Paul Williams, with the expressed function of taking up the gangsters who ran the New York Metropolis garment and trucking unions.
This was a double whammy for Johnny Dio, who was closely concerned in each unions, and for Jimmy Hoffa, who was attempting to unseat Dave Beck as head of the Teamsters.
On April 5, 1956, Riesel was requested to be a visitor host on Barry Grey’s WMCA in a single day radio speak present. Riesel had just lately been on a rant in his columns in regards to the Worldwide Union of Working Engineers and its President William DeKoning Jr., who Riesel claimed was conspiring with recognized labor gangster Joseph Fay to reinstall DeKoning’s father William DeKoning Sr. because the president of the union. DeKoning Sr. had simply exited the can after being imprisoned for extortion, and Riesel felt that having the senior DeKoning again as president of the union could be a downright catastrophe.
On account of his columns on each DeKonings and Fay, Riesel obtained quite a few demise threats. Nevertheless, Riesel shrugged them off, figuring out solely a idiot would harm an esteemed member of the press. Doing so would definitely end result within the legislation coming down laborious on all union racketeers, and their rackets.
On this specific radio present, Riesel invited two members of the Worldwide Union of Working Engineers, who had been difficult the DeKonings for management of the union. This didn’t sit too properly with Johnny Dio, or with Jimmy Hoffa, who each figured Riesel would go gunning for them subsequent.
Grey’s present originated at Hutton’s Restaurant on Lexington Avenue and forty seventh Avenue. After the present, which ended at 2 a.m., Riesel and his secretary moseyed over to Lindy’s restaurant, on Broadway between forty ninth and fiftieth Avenue, to seize a chew to eat and drown the meals down with sizzling steaming espresso. (Sarcastically, this was the identical Lindy’s Restaurant in entrance of which small-time gambler Herman Rosenthal was shot to demise in 1912.)
At roughly 3 a.m., Riesel and his secretary emerged from Lindy’s and began strolling towards the secretary’s parked automotive on 51st Avenue. Riesel wore his eyeglasses to work, however when he was out in public, for appearances sake, he usually eliminated his eyeglasses. Simply as Riesel and his secretary neared the secretary’s automotive, Riesel took off his eyeglasses, put them in an eyeglass case, and inserted the case into the breast pocket of his overcoat. Abruptly, a tall, skinny man, carrying a blue and white jacket, sprung from the shadows of the Mark Hellinger Theater and flung a vial include sulfuric acid into Riesel’s eyes, rendering Riesel blind for the remainder of his life. Then the assailant calmly walked away and disappeared into the night time. Thereafter, Riesel wore sun shades to protect the general public from the sight of his severely disfigured eyes.
The day after the assault, the Day by day Mirror supplied a $10,000 reward for data that led to the seize and conviction of Riesel’s assailant. The Newspaper Guild of America, the New York Press Photographers, the New York Reporters Affiliation, and the Abroad Press Membership chipped in with one other 5 grand. In lower than every week, donations from assorted teams, together with the labor unions and radio station WMCA, had raised the reward whole to $41,000.
With suggestions coming in in droves, some dependable, some not so dependable, in August of 1956, the FBI ascertained that Riesel’s assailant had been small-time hood Abraham Telvi. The one drawback was, Telvi was now deceased; apparently murdered on July 28 as a result of he had demanded one other $50,000 on prime of the paltry $500 he had already been paid for throwing the acid in Riesel’s face.
On August 29, Dio was arrested for conspiracy within the Riesel assault. Dio pled not responsible and was launched on $100,000 bond.
On October 22, Dio’s pal Joseph Carlino pled responsible to hiring Telvi to assault Riesel. Carlino implicated two different males, Gandolfo Maranti and Dominick Bando, as accomplices in hiring Telvi. Carlino additionally stated that Dio had in the end given the order for the assault. Dio lawyered up with a prime New York Metropolis mob legal professional, and his legal professional was capable of get Dio’s trial severed from the trial of Maranti and Bando.
At their trial, each Maranti and Bando verified Carlino’s assertion that Dio had engineered the assault towards Riesel. Maranti and Bando had been each discovered responsible of conspiracy. However their sentencing was delayed till after the Dio trial.
Dio’s legal professional was capable of delay his trial for nearly six months, and through this time Maranti and Bando started to have bouts of reminiscence loss. When Dio’s trial lastly commenced, each Maranti and Bando recanted their testimony, and with no corroboration of Carlino’s declare that Dio ordered the Riesel assault, all prices towards Dio had been dropped. Maranti was given 8-16 years in jail, and Bando 2-5 years in jail, and one other 5 years for contempt of court docket. Amazingly, Carlino obtained a suspended sentence for aiding the legislation within the convictions of Maranti and Bando. Nevertheless, irrespective of how the state of affairs was cleared or not cleared up in court docket, Dio has without end been remembered as the person who “blinded Victor Riesel.”
In October of 1956, Dio was indicted, together with a number of Teamster officers, on extortion and conspiracy prices. The indictment stated that Dio had extorted cash from New York Metropolis Garment Middle truck drivers, and had additionally extorted cash from Garment Middle manufacturing bosses to not have the identical truck drivers exit on strike. Additionally included within the indictment was the alleged extortion of New York Metropolis stationery retailer house owners, whose shops Dio’s males had picketed. The shop house owners had been allegedly advised that in the event that they needed the picketing stopped, they must pressure their staff to affix Teamster Native 295, and rent Johnny Dio’s “labor consulting” agency, Equitable (not) Analysis Associates, for a $3,500 retainer, and $200 a month wage.
As a result of Dio’s attorneys had been so adept at stalling ways, and the truth that key authorities witnesses had recanting their testimony, Dio’s trial didn’t happen till November of 1957.
The trial took 4 weeks, however when it ended, Dio was convicted as charged and sentenced to 2 years in jail. Whereas in jail, Dio was indicted once more on extortion prices. This time, as an alternative of the victims being stationery retailer house owners, they had been the house owners of electroplating retailers. In 1958, Dio was convicted once more, and this time the choose threw the e-book at Dio, sentencing him to 15-30 years. Dio started serving his time in Sing Sing Jail, whereas interesting his sentence. On June 23, 1959, an appeals court docket inexplicable overturned the choice in Dio’s trial, saying that since Dio did not subject the threats personally, he shouldn’t have been convicted of extortion. A cut up court docket dominated, “Extortion can’t be dedicated by one who doesn’t himself induce concern, however who receives cash for the aim of eradicating or allaying pre-existing concern instilled by others.”
Jonathan Kwitney stated in his e-book Vicious Circles, “The choice appeared to legitimize the entire function of the Mafia.”
Nevertheless, the legislation was not completed with Johnny Dio. On June 24, 1959, one hour after he completed his two-year bit on the primary extortion cost, Dio was pinched by the Feds and charged with revenue tax evasion; for non-payment of taxes for 3 gown manufacturing corporations he owned (non-union, in fact), and two labor union locals. Dio went on trial in March of 1960. He was discovered responsible and was sentenced to 4 years on the federal jail in Atlanta, Georgia. Dio was launched in March of 1963, partially on the idea that he had obtained an actual job in a reliable business. Dio claimed he was now a salesman for Shoppers Kosher Provision Firm, one other sham job that supplied Dio the chance to do what he had executed in a number of different industries earlier than. This time it was the kosher meat enterprise that may pay the piper for Dio’s Machiavellian machinations.
At first, the rip-off labored like a appeal. Dio and a bunch a his mobster buddies individually approached two rival kosher meat corporations and satisfied each of them that their enterprise could be ruined if they didn’t rent their group of thugs to struggle again towards the opposite firm’s group of thugs. The 2 competing corporations had been the Shoppers Kosher Provision Firm, run by a dupe named Herman Rose, and the American Kosher Provision Inc., who had employed mobster Max Block (he had simply been compelled to resign as head of the butcher’s union) to verify different mobsters did not attempt to shake down American Kosher. Block’s muscle was supplied by Genovese thug Lorenzo “Chappy” Brescia, who had been extorting the butcher’s union for years. In keeping with Vicious Circles, Block was receiving an annual wage of $50,000 a yr from American Kosher, and Brescia’s reduce was $25,000 a yr.
That is the place Dio started working his magic within the kosher meat enterprise. By means of two intermediaries, Dio approached Herman Rose and satisfied Rose that with the intention to compete with American Kosher, it was crucial Rose rent Johnny Dio to guard his pursuits. Rose figured this was the correct factor to do and he employed Dio on the wage of $250 every week; not an exorbitant sum of money. Nevertheless it gave Dio the looks of an sincere job, and it gave the Mafia the chance to manage the costs within the two prime kosher meat corporations within the space. (This is the reason, in a single day the value of kosher meats skyrocketed.)
After Herman Rose died in 1964, Dio satisfied the Kleinberg household, which owned the vast majority of inventory in Shopper Kosher that it was good enterprise to merge with American Kosher. The Kleinbergs, trembling of their boots, agreed with Dio’s evaluation, and with the mob working each corporations, the “bust-out enterprise” within the kosher meat business started in full throttle.
Quickly, Dio and his buddies, utilizing their traditional ways, started scooping up, and creating from scratch, different small kosher meat corporations. Inventory was transferred backwards and forwards between the businesses, and so had been the belongings, which included the kosher meat itself. First, Shopper Kosher went bankrupt; then did American Kosher. The opposite Dio-controlled corporations began buying the meats (that had not been paid for), and one after the other, they too declared chapter, solely to be acquired by one other sham firm owned by, what the newspapers known as, “The Kosher Nostra.” The suppliers of the meat out west, due to the a number of chapter continuing, had been stiffed of their meat funds. In keeping with New York Publish reporter Marvin Smilon, considered one of these meat suppliers had the temerity to ask considered one of Dio’s meat cronies, “Why do we’ve got to cope with Dio?” He was advised, “Sit down and be quiet. You ask too many questions.”
However all good issues should come to an finish. In 1966, Dio, together with 4 of his associates, had been indicted for “chapter fraud.” In 1967, they had been all discovered responsible, and Dio was sentenced to 5 years in jail. Nevertheless, along with his high-powered attorneys working their magic, Dio was capable of keep out of jail for nearly 4 years. This gave Dio the additional time he wanted to work one other rip-off, known as “The Nice Mafia Bagel Struggle.”
It began with Ben Willner, who had a machine that would make automated bagels, for round 50 cents a bagel, whereas a hand-rolled bagel price about 65 cents to supply. This was not excellent news for the Bakery and Confectioners Staff Union, as a result of it put their member’s jobs in danger. Willner was nice buddies with Moe Steinman, who did not care an excessive amount of how the bagels had been being made, as a result of he had a stranglehold on bagel distribution, not bagel manufacturing. Willner ran to Steinman, and Steinman, hoping to assist his pal out, launched Willner to Johnny Dio, whom Steinman knew was an skilled at “labor-related issues.” Dio helped out Willner, for a chunk of the pie in fact, and shortly Steinman was packing his supermarkets with anyplace from $3,000 to $4,000 price of Willner’s bagels every week.
The one drawback was that Genovese Crime Household capo Thomas “Tommy Ryan” Eboli had his personal bagel maker, who was being short-changed due to the Willner/Dio/automated bagel-making machine trio. This man was named Arthur Goldberg and he ran to Eboli, screaming. Eboli demanded a sit-down with Dio, who had been with the Luchesse Household for greater than 30 years. On the time, within the New York Metropolis Mafia pecking order, the Genovese Household was far more highly effective than the Luchesse Household, and Dio was successfully pushed out of the bagel enterprise for good. Dio broke the dangerous information to Willner, and consequently, in December of 1969, Willner was compelled to shut store. This led to the Eboli/Goldberg crew taking up Willner’s enterprise, and his automated bagel-making machines.
Dio felt dangerous about shedding his bagel scheme, however he felt even worse, when in November of 1970, he ran out of appeals and was compelled to go to jail for a five-year stretch on the federal jail at Lewisburg, P.A. on the chapter fraud prices. (He didn’t Move Go, and he didn’t gather the customary 200 {dollars}.)
In 1972, whereas nonetheless in jail, Dio was indicted once more, this time for inventory fraud, in regards to the At Your Service Leasing Corp., a luxurious automotive leasing agency that did most of its enterprise with organized crime figures. It was alleged that in 1969, earlier than Dio went to jail, Dio, together with Carmine Tramunti, Vincent Aloi, and Michael Hellerman, “floated” $300,000 of false inventory within the automotive leasing firm. Dio’s group then both bribed, or compelled safety sellers to promote the inventory, after which flip over the cash to the Dio funding group. The jury discovered Dio responsible, and he was hit when a knockout blow when he was sentenced to 9 and ten-year jail phrases, to run consecutively. Dio appealed his convictions twice, however he misplaced each appeals.
Johnny “Dio” Dioguardi by no means was a free man once more. Dio died on January 12, 1979, in a Pennsylvania hospital, the place he had been transferred to from federal jail. So as to add insult to harm, Dio was scheduled for parole in just some quick months.
The information of Johnny Dio’s demise didn’t obtain an inch of house in any of the New York Metropolis every day newspapers, although a paid demise discover appeared just a few days after his demise within the New York Day by day Information.
It was as if Johnny Dio, a gangster’s gangster if there ever was one, had by no means existed.
