Police officer's book examines notorious Cleveland mobster
By Charles Cassady
Insights
Published Aug. 29, 2007

Rick Porello

Rick Porello is a Cuyahoga County police officer who has a second career as a writer. What would you guess he writes about? Romance? Thrillers with ancient secret societies and anagram clues hidden in great works of art? Boy wizards and dragons at witchcraft school?

No, Porello walks the true-crime beat. Hailing from a family that had ties to the Cleveland mob of yesteryear, his books have included “To Kill the Irishman,” the definitive account of the life and 1977 car-bomb slaying of the notorious Danny Greene, and “Superthief,” about the biggest bank heist in U.S. history. Porrello is featured on AmericanMafia.com, the TMZ of organized crime. And when MSNBC wanted a commentator to critique the controversial final episode of TV’s “The Sopranos” this year, they called on the Lyndhurst lieutenant for his opinion.

Porello speaks on the Cleveland underworld at 7 p.m. Thursday night at the Fairview Park Public Library. The North Coast’s heritage of crime syndicates — such as the Mayfield Road Mob of yesteryear — was, in fact, the topic of his first book, “Corn Sugar and Blood: The Rise and Fall of the Cleveland Mafia.” There will be copies of his books for sale and autographing. This presentation is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Call (440) 333-4700.

Earlier in Porrello’s life he delved into the Western Reserve Association’s archives for background about his grandfather, Raymond Porrello, who had been a murder victim in 1932. To the grandson’s surprise, Raymond Porrello and other male relatives from Sicily had prominent rap sheets and were embroiled in (sometimes killed by) the “Sugar Wars,” a 1927-1932 war between  the Porrello and Lombardo crime dynasties over the corn sugar used to make bootleg liquor during Prohibition. Raymond Porrello died along with his nephew in a mob hit on the family tobacco shop at East 111 St. and Woodland Avenue. After years of research, Porrello published “Corn Sugar and Blood” in 1995.

Porrello’s presentation will be backed up by rare photos and archival material. “Always have to hide behind my PowerPoint slideshow,” he said. “If I don’t have my drums to hide behind, I have my slideshow to hide behind.”

Yes, drums. Before Rick Porrello went into law enforcement, he was a professional percussionist to legendary characters in show business, as was his brother Raymond Jr., and his late father, Ray. In fact, the music circuit was the topic that originally inspired his literary ventures. “I want to write a book about my days touring with Sammy Davis Jr. as a young musician, going on the road for two-and-a-half years,” he said. That was my education. I have a two-year degree in criminal justice, but I think I learned more from my two years on the road.”

But the entertainment memoir remains “on the back burner” for the time being. Porrello’s recent output — besides writing up police reports for the fine city of Lyndhurst — includes his 1999 Danny Greene biography, which has long been a hot topic as a possible film project in Hollywood. 

A few years ago Porrello authored “Superthief: A Master Burglar, the Mafia and the United California Case,” about the largest bank heist in history — the March 1972 burglary of a California bank that netted anywhere between $20 and $30 million worth of loot. Porrello has written a potential film treatment for that one as well.

“I’m working on my fourth book, and I’m very proud to be working with Meyer Lansky’s daughter on a biography of that very powerful gangster.” Porrello said he was contacted a year and a half ago about collaborating on the project, intended to be an insider account of the national mob chieftain (who maintained ties to Cleveland through the notorious Moe Dalitz), who died peacefully at 83 in 1980, having escaped the bloodshed that claimed so many compatriots (and Porrellos).

“He was one of the co-founders of modern organized crime,” said Porrello. “He looked at it as a business.”

Porrello said his efforts in prose have helped him as an officer in writing up local lawbreakers at the precinct, even if they aren’t on the level of a Meyer Lansky, or even a Tony Soprano. “They’re bad guys, but they’re also multidimensional figures…Mobsters just weren’t killers and criminals. They were husbands. They were brothers. They were fathers…I try to think that way when I’m interviewing criminals; they’re somebody’s daughter, somebody’s son. It makes it more palatable to elicit respect. Not every time, but sometimes.”

The Fairview Park Pubic Library is at 21255 Lorain Road in Fairview Park. More information on Rick Porrello is available on his Web site www.rickporrello.com.