Alfred Polizzi

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Alfred "The Owl" Polizzi (1900-1994) was a Cleveland mobster and helped establish criminal syndicate operations in Northeast Ohio.

Born in Sicily, Polizzi immigrated as a child to the United States with his family in 1900. During the 1920s and 30s, Polizzi worked with Antonio Milano, Moe Dalitz and his brother Joseph Polizzi and, in 1935, ruled over the Cleveland rackets until moving to Coral Gables, Florida following his conviction of tax evasion in 1944. Described by Senate investigators as "...one of the most influential members of the underworld of the United States, his influence reportedly extended from Ohio to central Florida and southern California during Peter Milano's leadership of the Los Angeles crime family during the 1970s.

[edit] Further reading

Capeci, Jerry. The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Mafia. Indianapolis: Alpha Books, 2002. ISBN 0-02-864225-2
Fried, Albert. The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Gangster in America. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1980. ISBN 0-23109683-6
Jacobs, James B., Coleen Friel and Robert Radick. Gotham Unbound: How New York City Was Liberated from the Grip of Organized Crime. New York: NYU Press, 2001. ISBN 0-8147-4247-5
Jacobs, James B., Christopher Panarella and Jay Worthington. Busting the Mob: The United States Vs. Cosa Nostra. New York: NYU Press, 1994. ISBN 0-8147-4230-0
Johnson, Curt and R. Craig Sautter. The Wicked City: Chicago from Kenna to Capone. New York: Da Capo Press, 1998. ISBN 0-306-80821-8
Reppetto, Thomas A. American Mafia: A History of Its Rise to Power. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 2004. ISBN 0-8050-7798-7
Porrello, Rick. To Kill the Irishman: The War That Crippled the Mafia. Novelty, Ohio: Next Hat Press, 2004. ISBN 0-9662508-9-3
Schatzberg, Rufus, Robert J.Kelly and Ko-lin Chin, ed. Handbook of Organized Crime in the United States. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1994. ISBN 0-313-28366-4