Johnny Dio

Infobox Person
name=Johnny Dio

thumb
image_size=108
caption=
birth_date=birth date|1914|4|28|mf=y
birth_place=East Harlem, New York, U.S.
death_date=death date and age|1979|1|12|1914|4|28|mf=y
death_place=Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, U.S.

Johnny Dio (born John Dioguardi) (April 28, 1914 – January 12 1979) was a mafioso and union boss in the Lucchese crime family.

Childhood & Family Life

Giovanni (John) Ignazio Dioguardi was born on April 28 in 1913 or 1914 (birth dates conflict depending on the source) in the East Harlem section of Manhattan, the same neighborhood that produced future Lucchese crime family mob boss Anthony Corallo. He was of Arbëreshë-descent on his mother's side, from the ethnic Albanian community living in southern Sicily. Unlike Henry Hill who was of Irish-Sicilian descent, Giovanni's ethnic background did not affect his position in the Lucchese crime family, and he was successfully promoted to the prestigious rank of capo and assigned his own criminal crew. He ran the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union and Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees and Amalgamated Clothing Workers of AmericaHis father and mother were from Palermo, Sicily. He had three brothers, Tommaso Dio (October 29, 1915 - January 1985) and two lesser known brothers named Frank Dio (March 12, 1900 - December 15, 1988), Vincent Dio (August 15, 1917 - September 28, 1992) and at least one biological sister who can be identified only as "Mrs. Dioguardi-Priziola"." Tommaso would later become a capo in the Lucchese crime family until he was arrested for armed robbery and sent to jail for twenty-five years. He is of no relation to Joseph J. DioGuardi or Ronnie James Dio, although they do share the same last name. Joseph DioGuardi does share the same family ancestry as the notorious Johnny Dio. In his younger years Giovanni looked like a cross between actors Keifer Sutherland and Rudolph Valentino. He was enrolled in Stuyvesant High School for a year and a half, but dropped out in his sophomore year. Johnny Dio and his siblings were brought up on Forsyth Street in Little Italy. By the age of fifteen, he was already being groomed and refined to become a consummate mobster. Johnny Dio is known to have had at least twos sons, Phillip Dioguardi a.k.a. "No-Name Phil", who was an associate of the Colombo crime family, Lucchese crime family mob associate Dominick Dioguardi and Hollywood actor and writer Richard Dioguardi who would later portray City Detective #2 in Martin Scorsese's film Goodfellas. His son Phillip was involved in extortion, loan-sharking, fraud, gambling and union racketeering with Anthony Colombo, a son of Colombo crime family mob family patriarch founder Joseph Colombo. He died of natural causes when dodging a RICO indictment in March of 2004.

Family Heritage

Johnny Dio's maternal uncle, Giacomo Plumeri who was the Lucchese crime family underboss who served under Thomas Gagliano, introduced Dio and his brothers Frank and Tommaso, including their cousin Tommaso Plumeri, into a life of organized crime and garment district union racketeering. Johnny Dio also became involved with the infamous Murder, Inc. as one of the few non-Jewish gangsters working for his uncle Plumeri's business associates Louis "Lepke" Buchalter and Jacob Shapiro. John worked under union leader and mob associate Paul Dorfman, the stepfather of Chicago Outfit mob associate Allen Dorfman and later James R. Hoffa. Johnny Dio became a close associate of Jimmy Burke, Donald Frankos, Paul Vario, Henry Hill and mobster Frank Livorsi who was the son-in-law of Angelo Meli. Detroit Partnership consigliere Giovanni Priziola married the sister of Johnny Dio making Priziola a brother-in-law to John, Frank and Thomas. The best man at the "Dioguardi-Priziola" wedding was mobster Peter Licavoli. Giovanni Priziola was the uncle of mobster Peter Tocco's and relative of cousins Angelo Meli and Vincent Meli who is the "acting underboss" of the Detroit crime family. He is a cousin to Lucchese crime family mobster Thomas Plumeri. Giovanni was also the brother-in-law of fellow Lucchese crime family capo Giovanni Oremento and Raffaele Quasarano.

Battle with the law

Dio got into trouble with the law on more than one occasion. U.S. Attorney Thomas Dewey considered Dio to be one of most dangerous mobsters in New York City before he reached age twenty-one. In 1937, Dio was sentenced to three to five years in prison at Sing Sing in Ossining, New York for assault and extortion. Dio was charging truckers $5000 in taxes in the garment district, plus demanding a premium on every suit and coat made in the area. In 1944, Dio was indicted for operating an illegal alcohol still. He later received a 60 day jail sentence for failure to pay state income tax on his illegal earnings. In November 1957, Dio received two years in prison for extorting money from stationery store owners. In 1969 film footage of John was placed in the documentary "Due Kennedy, I" by Gianni Bisiach.

Rise in power

A made man by the time he was forty, Dio soon became a capo in the family. Known as a "ferocious earner", he generated over $100,000 in income each week. Dio's usual Christmas present to his wife was a shoe box stuffed with $50,000 in currency and a note such as "buy yourself some nice clothes, honey". Dio lived the lifestyle of a celebrity, dining at the best restaurants and hotels. He kept Sundays for his family and friends and prepared lunch or dinner. He loved to cook and entertain at his house on Freeport Avenue in Point Lookout, Long Island, which he purchased for $75,000 in the early 1960’s. Dio's legitimate businesses included many highly profitable clothing factories and Jard Products in Manhattan, which sold promotional items to commercial establishments. The retail chain, Waldbaums was one of Jard's biggest customers. Johnny Dio is the basis for the Lee J. Cobb character "Johnny Friendly". Dio's legendary skill as a union manipulator came in handy many times. On one occasion, Thomas Lucchese asked Dio to aid an old friend, Jack Dragna, the boss of the Los Angeles crime family. Dragna's scheme of hiring non-union, cheap Mexican labor for his factories was being questioned by the ILGWU. Dioguardi’s expertise made sure that waivers occurred on every important project set up and foiled the union’s attempt. Senate investigations in the early 1950s showed Dio as a big player in the unions operating out of Idlewilde airport, later renamed JFK airport.

Hoffa involvement

As notorious Teamsters boss, Jimmy Hoffa was preparing to take his throne as president of the teamsters in 1957, Hoffa remembered someone, Johnny Dio. Whether or not New York locals actually liked Hoffa is unknown. Their vote would matter if Midwest locals would vote for him or not. For help with that, the Chicago Outfit could persuade a "couple" voters. Creating more locals was the answer, enough to swing the election to his favor. Dio constructed seven teamster unions which would be used to support Hoffa. The members of the unions weren't even workers; they were relatives and friends of Dioguardi. The winner of the nomination was, of course Hoffa. Hoffa was later finished by his war with Attorney General Robert Kennedy, his arrest, trial and presumed death.

The man who blinded Victor Riesel

On April 5 1956, the mob attacked Victor Riesel, a news columnist who exposed corruption and mob influence in labor unions and was published in 93 newspapers, including the New York Daily Mirror. Riesel had just finished a late interview and was planning to have supper with his secretary. As they approached the secretary's car, a man walked up to Riesel, threw sulfuric acid in his face, and then vanished. Riesel was rushed to the hospital, but doctors were unable to save his eyesight.

A federal investigation identified the attacker as twenty-two-year-old longshoreman Abraham Telvi. Dio had allegedly paid Telvi $1,175 to blind Riesel. As the media and law enforcement started focusing on Telvi, he tried to extort $50,000 more from Dio. On July 28 1956, Telvi's body was found on Mulberry Street in Little Italy, Manhattan with two bullets in the head. Dio was charged, but never convicted for the Riesel assault; the only two witnesses refused to testify and the charges were dropped in May 1957. But the crime backfired on Dio; he was permanently branded as "The man who blinded Victor Riesel".

Merkel meat incident

On November 14 1964 Dio engaged in a telephone conversation with Norman LoKietz, the president of Merkel Meat Company. Unknown to Dio, the conversation was being recorded through a bug planted by two NYPD detectives. The conversation revealed that Dio and the Lucchese family were selling substandard and sometimes even rotten meat in the retail marketplace. Dio and his associates were not only making large profits from such sales, but also endangering the public health. The tape of this conversation provided enough evidence to build a case against Dio.

Later, when Dio was leaving the US Senate Committee hearing room, he punched one of the press photographers. His most notorious photograph was taken at that time and published in newspapers everywhere. It shows Dio with a cigarette dangling out of one corner of his mouth and a snarling expression on his face.

In 1967 the law finally caught up to him. He was sentenced to five years in prison and fined $10,000. In 1969 an employee of Merkel Meat testified that when he delivered the meat, it was "sometimes light green and sweaty and often was an atrocity to perpetrate on our customers." By this time Dio had already been in the Lucchese family for over thirty years. Further charges were brought against him while he was in prison. He was due for parole in 1979, but would die in prison that same year, prior to his release.

In popular culture

*The 1990 film "Goodfellas" features actor Frank Pellegrino as Johnny Dio in prison with Henry Hill and Paul Vario.
*One of his alleged relatives, Richard Dioguardi would later have an uncredited brief role in Goodfellas as "City Detective No. 2" or referred to in the film as "Detective Silvestri" who helps serve a search warrant to Karen Hill, played by Lorraine Bracco. Richard is one of the several reputed mob associates who appeared in the film including John Manca as the fictional mobster at the Copacabana "Nicky Eyes and Tony Sirico as "Tony Stacks".
*Dio was portrayed in the 1994 television movie "Getting Gotti" by actor Rino Romano.
*Heavy metal singer Ronnie James Dio, (born Ronald James Padavona), took up the name "Dio" after Johnny Dio.

Further reading

*Pizzo, Stephen; Fricker, Mary; and Muolo, Paul. "Inside Job: The Looting of America's Savings and Loans". New York: Harpercollins (April 1991) ISBN 006098600X.
*Kwitny, Jonathan. "Vicious Circles: The Mafia's Control of the American Marketplace, Food, Clothing, Transportation, Finance". New York: W.W. Norton, 1979 ISBN 0393011887.
*Moldea, Dan E. "The Hoffa Wars". S.P.I. Books (December 1992) ISBN 1561712000
*Neff, James. "Mobbed Up: Jackie Presser's High-Wire Life in the Teamsters, the Mafia, and the FBI". New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1989 ISBN 087113344X
*Casillo, Robert: "Gangster Priest: The Italian American Cinema of Martin Scorcese"
*Russell, Thaddeus "Out of the Jungle: Jimmy Hoffa and the Remaking of the American Working Class"
*Sloane, Arthur A. "Hoffa"

References

* Edwin Guthman and Kennedy, Robert F. "The Enemy Within: The McClellan Committee's Crusade Against Jimmy Hoffa and Corrupt Labor Unions"
* Hilty, James W. "Robert Kennedy: Brother Protector"
*Kelly, Robert J. Encyclopedia of Organized Crime in the United States. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2000. ISBN 0-313-30653-2
*Devito, Carlo. "The Encyclopedia of International Organized Crime". New York: Facts On File Inc., 2005. ISBN 0-8160-4848-7
*Sifakis, Carl. "The Mafia Encyclopedia". New York: Da Capo Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8160-5694-3
*Sifakis, Carl. "The Encyclopedia of American Crime". New York: Facts on File Inc., 2005 ISBN 0-8160-4040-0.
*Scott, Peter Dale, "Deep Politics and the Death of JFK", University of California Press (June 22, 1996) ISBN 0520205197
*Kwitny, Jonathan, "Vicious Circles: The Mafia in the Marketplace"

External links

* [http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/family_epics/lucchese2/2.html Lucchese Crime Family Epic: Descent into Darkness - Part II, Johnny Dio] at the Crime Library
* [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,809877,00.html Time.com: Pushcart Upsetter] , 16 September 1957
* [http://www.ipsn.org/court_cases/us_vs_dioguardi-1970-04-21.htm United States of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. John Dioguardi]
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6236834 John "Johnny Dio" Dioguardi] at Find-A-Grave
*http://www.ipsn.org/court_cases/us_vs_dioguardi-1970-04-21.htm