MappingTheMess: Tommy Sinito, another heart attack case

Lately, I've been sensitized to the occurrence of sudden and unexpected heart attacks in relation to Cleveland communities and mythologies, and now here comes another one, my southeast-suburb homeboy Tommy Sinito's in 1997. Read the whole excerpt in MapTheMess; for me, it's a new perspective, perhaps a rewrite of actual events, but with oral histories, it's all up for grabs anyway. Enjoy, and make sure to go for your heart screening every year. There might be something in the water around here.

Tommy "The Chinaman" Sinito, a made man in the Cleveland Mafia Family, remains an enigma. The Full extent of his criminal career and influence is shrouded in mystery. He played a large part in the Cleveland Mafia. Tommy Sinito rose from being an errand boy to the rank of made man under Mafia Boss Big Ange Lonardo.

Tommy Sinito caught Big Ange Lonardo’s attention when he tended bar in the early 1970s at the Highlander Restaurant and Lounge on Northfield Road..

Sinito remained a major influence in the Cleveland Mafia until his death from a heart attack in the exercise yard at the Belmont Correctional Institute in 1997. His rapid raise in Mafia ranks from errand boy to made man has created a plethora of stories about him. Most of these are nothing more than fantastic tales.

Click on the Blogger label "heartbreak" below to view my growing collection of those who may have cared too much or felt too strongly.

Archive: AmricanMafia.com: Carmen Zagaria and Tommy Sinito [Map the Mess]

officer z had the freedom to do as he pleased

Authorities detail drug case against Patrolman Zvonko Sarlog - cleveland.com -- Here's a story, at the link, about a young guy who only wanted to be known as "z" and who ran his own game, in our back yards and our alleys over here in the second police district, with impunity, perhaps with immunity. The only other parallel would be the banks and the mortgage lenders, and their TPAs. They all do as they please, unsupervised and unchallenged, and get away with stripping the equity and the value from our communities. It's time for a financial payback, on top of the usual incarceration.

This z character was actually sort of mock-comical. I remember his showing up driving his police cruiser down our narrow driveway to check on the health and welfare of a well-known neighborhood sociopath, a lady who's been dodging laws and decorum since her husband died in 1990; he tried to deputize me as one of his little helpers in keeping an eye on "suspicious activity;" he assumed I was a simpleton who wanted to cozy up to police saviors. He was actually probably keeping an eye on competing, low-grade criminal enterprise.

He should have realized that the most suspicious activity I had seen lately was a police car driving down that driveway to visit Miss Judy. The rest of them parked on the street and usually advanced in pairs, tactically. He was like a visiting relative.