Ray Ferritto
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Raymond W. Ferritto (April 8, 1929 − May 10, 2004) was an
Italian-American Italian Americans ( it, italoamericani or ''italo-americani'', ) are Americans who have full or partial Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeast and industrial Midwestern metropolitan areas, w ...
mobster A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from ''mob'' and the suffix '' -ster''. Gangs provide a level of organization and ...
from
Erie Erie (; ) is a city on the south shore of Lake Erie and the county seat of Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States. Erie is the fifth largest city in Pennsylvania and the largest city in Northwestern Pennsylvania with a population of 94,831 a ...
,
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
. Ferritto is best known for the 1977 assassination of
Irish mob The Irish Mob (also known as the Irish mafia or Irish organized crime) is a collective of organized crime syndicates composed of ethnic Irish members which operate primarily in Ireland, the United States, Canada and Australia, and have been in ...
boss
Danny Greene Daniel John Patrick Greene (November 14, 1933 – October 6, 1977) was an Irish-American organized crime figure based in Cleveland, Ohio. Greene gained power first in the local chapter of the International Longshoremen's Association, where h ...
. He served as
hitman Contract killing is a form of murder or assassination in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or persons. It involves an illegal agreement which includes some form of payment, monetary or otherwise. Either party may be ...
and soldier for the
Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
and
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crime families.


Career

Raymond Ferritto was born April 8, 1929, in
Erie, Pennsylvania Erie (; ) is a city on the south shore of Lake Erie and the county seat of Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States. Erie is the fifth largest city in Pennsylvania and the largest city in Northwestern Pennsylvania with a population of 94,831 a ...
, to Michael and Rose ( Fracassi) Ferritto. He was the fourth of five children, and the second of three sons. Ferritto was arrested, along with four other men, of attempting to rob a gas station in Erie, in August 1957. Ferritto pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to three to six years in state prison. In Warren, Ferritto met Ronald "The Crab" Carabbia and Tony "Tony Dope" Delsanter. Carabbia and his three brothers were all known as "the Crab", which was a play on their last name, and had become prominent in the organized crime scene in
Youngstown Youngstown is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio, and the largest city and county seat of Mahoning County. At the 2020 census, Youngstown had a city population of 60,068. It is a principal city of the Youngstown–Warren metropolitan area, which ...
. Delsanter was a
made man In the American and Sicilian Mafia, a made man is a fully initiated member of the Mafia. To become "made", an associate first must be Italian or of Italian descent and sponsored by another made man. An inductee will be required to take the oat ...
in the
Cleveland crime family The Cleveland crime family or Cleveland Mafia is the collective name given to a succession of Italian-American organized crime gangs based in Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States. A part of the Italian-American Mafia (or ''Cosa Nostra'') phenom ...
. He managed the family's gambling interests in the
Mahoning Valley The Youngstown–Warren–Boardman, OH–PA Metropolitan Statistical Area, typically known as the Mahoning Valley (and historically the Steel Valley), is a metropolitan area in Northeast Ohio and Western Pennsylvania the United States, with t ...
. In 1958, at age twenty-nine, Ferritto was arrested for burglary. He pleaded guilty and served three years of a three- to five-year sentence. Once out, Ferritto spent some time in the
Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
area where he committed several burglaries with his childhood friends, Allie Calabrese and Pasquale "Butchie" Cisternino. By the late 1960s, Ferritto had moved to
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
where he was associated with a group of Cleveland mobsters, including Julius Petro. In the forties, Petro avoided a death sentence on a retrial in a murder case. Ferritto and Petro were associates of
Jimmy Fratianno Aladena James Fratianno (born Aladena Fratianno; November 14, 1913 – June 29, 1993), also known as "Jimmy the Weasel", was an Italian-born American mobster who was acting boss of the Los Angeles crime family. After his arrest in 1977, Fratianno ...
, who was closely associated with the
Los Angeles crime family The Los Angeles crime family, also known as the L.A. Mafia or the Southern California crime family, is an Italian-American organized crime syndicate based in Los Angeles as part of the larger Italian-American Mafia. Since its inception in the earl ...
. Likewise, Ferritto was trying to make a name for himself. In 1969, Ferritto booked a flight from Los Angeles to Erie. He was driven to the airport by another burglar, originally from Cleveland. Accompanying the two to the airport was gangster
Julius Petro The gens Julia (''gēns Iūlia'', ) was one of the most prominent patrician families in ancient Rome. Members of the gens attained the highest dignities of the state in the earliest times of the Republic. The first of the family to obtain the ...
. An accomplice wheeled the car into an airport parking garage spot. Ferritto waited for a plane to take off, put a gun to the back of Julius Petro's head and fired a shot, killing him. The single fatal shot was muffled by the jet engines. The murder resulted from a conflict with a well-known and successful bookmaker in Los Angeles who used Petro as muscle. Ferritto and his accomplice were likely candidates for the contract since they both also disliked Petro. Fratianno confirmed the facts of Petro's murder after Fratianno became a government witness in 1977. Prior to the murder hit at the airport, Ferritto tried to plant a bomb in Petro's car. While assembling the explosive, Ferritto accidentally detonated the
blasting cap A detonator, frequently a blasting cap, is a device used to trigger an explosive device. Detonators can be chemically, mechanically, or electrically initiated, the last two being the most common. The commercial use of explosives uses electri ...
, causing a minor injury to his leg. He opted for the ''"one-way ride"'' method of execution next. Petro's killing went unsolved for years until a dramatic turn of events began to unfold. In 1971, Ferritto was convicted of burglary, this time with explosives. He was sentenced to fifteen years and incarcerated at the
California Institution for Men California Institution for Men (CIM) is a male-only state prison located in the city of Chino, San Bernardino County, California. It is often colloquially referenced as "Chino". In turn, locals call the prison "Chino Men's" or just "Men's" to avo ...
in
Chino, California Chino ( ; Spanish for "Curly") is a city in the western end of San Bernardino County, California, United States, with Los Angeles County to its west and Orange County to its south in the Southern California region. Chino is adjacent to Chino ...
. Fratianno also was doing prison time at Chino and the two became friends. In 1974, Ferritto was released from Chino, and returned to Erie. He started booking again and also worked for a vending company that was owned by a cousin. By that time, Ferritto developed a
peptic ulcer Peptic ulcer disease (PUD) is a break in the inner lining of the stomach, the first part of the small intestine, or sometimes the lower esophagus. An ulcer in the stomach is called a gastric ulcer, while one in the first part of the intestines i ...
serious enough to require partial removal of his stomach. To calm his nerves, he took handfuls of
antacid An antacid is a substance which neutralizes stomach acidity and is used to relieve heartburn, indigestion or an upset stomach. Some antacids have been used in the treatment of constipation and diarrhea. Marketed antacids contain salts of alumi ...
tablets and even smoked
marijuana Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various tra ...
. In the 1970s,
Danny Greene Daniel John Patrick Greene (November 14, 1933 – October 6, 1977) was an Irish-American organized crime figure based in Cleveland, Ohio. Greene gained power first in the local chapter of the International Longshoremen's Association, where h ...
began competing with the
Cleveland crime family The Cleveland crime family or Cleveland Mafia is the collective name given to a succession of Italian-American organized crime gangs based in Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States. A part of the Italian-American Mafia (or ''Cosa Nostra'') phenom ...
for control of
union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...
rackets, resulting in a violent mob war. During this period, there were almost 40 car bombings in Cleveland and eight failed attempts to kill Greene. Finally, Cleveland family bosses Jack "Jack White" Licavoli and Angelo "Big Ange" Lonardo contracted Ferritto to assassinate Greene. On October 6, 1977, Greene was at his dentist's office. Ferritto and Ronald Carabbia parked a car containing a bomb in the side door, next to Greene's car. When Greene started entering his car, Carabbia detonated the bomb and killed Greene instantly. The two witnesses to the murder scene were Greg and Debbie Spoth. Debbie Spoth, the daughter of a suburban policeman, was a sketch artist who drew an amazing likeness of Ray Ferritto for authorities. She took the sketch to her father, who in turn, took it to Cleveland police, who identified Ferritto from a police file. When a
search warrant A search warrant is a court order that a magistrate or judge issues to authorize law enforcement officers to conduct a search of a person, location, or vehicle for evidence of a crime and to confiscate any evidence they find. In most countries, ...
was executed at Ferritto's house in Erie, police found the registration papers for the bomb car and arrested him. The search of Ferritto's house also turned up a copy of ''
Cleveland Magazine ''Cleveland Magazine'' is a monthly magazine focused on Northeastern Ohio, USA. It was founded in 1972. The inaugural April 1972 issue featured a young Dennis Kucinich, a frequent profile subject of the magazine. Published monthly by the Great La ...
'' with a picture of Greene in it. Upon hearing of Ferritto's arrest, Licavoli put out a hit contract on Ferritto. When Ferritto learned that the Cleveland family wanted him dead, he became a government witness and testified against his co-defendants in the 1978 trial. The State of Ohio indicted Licavoli, Lonardo, Ferritto, Carabbia and 15 other members of the Cleveland family for the Greene murder. Ferritto also admitted responsibility for the 1969 killing of Cleveland gangster Julius Anthony Petro. He served less than four years in prison for both murders. Ray Ferritto left the
witness protection Witness protection is security provided to a threatened person providing testimonial evidence to the justice system, including defendants and other clients, before, during, and after a trial, usually by police. While a witness may only require p ...
program after one year and continued to stay in Pennsylvania. In 1992, Ferritto was convicted of criminal conspiracy and bookmaking charges. He was sentenced from six to 23-and-a-half months' imprisonment, three years on probation, and fined $10,500.


Post-prison life and death

Ferritto died in
Sarasota, Florida Sarasota () is a city in Sarasota County on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The area is renowned for its cultural and environmental amenities, beaches, resorts, and the Sarasota School of Architecture. The city is located in the sout ...
, on May 10, 2004, at the age 75.


Personal life

Raymond married Wilma Rose Tochluk on August 10, 1947. The couple had three children, and divorced in 1956. He married Bernetta Della Curti in September 1957, and they had one child.


In popular culture

In the 2011 film ''
Kill the Irishman ''Kill the Irishman'' is a 2011 American biographical crime film directed by Jonathan Hensleigh, and starring Ray Stevenson, Vincent D'Onofrio, Christopher Walken, and Val Kilmer. Written by Hensleigh and Jeremy Walters, it is based on the lif ...
'', Ferritto was portrayed onscreen by actor
Robert Davi Robert John Davi (born 1953) is an American actor, singer and filmmaker. Over the course of his acting career, Davi has performed in more than 130 films. Among his most known roles are opera-singing heavy Jake Fratelli in ''The Goonies'' (1985), ...
.


References


References

*Porrello, Rick. ''To Kill the Irishman: The War that Crippled the Mafia''. Novelty, Ohio: Next Hat Press, 2004. *Ferritto, Susan. "Ferritto: An Assassin Scorned" Erie, Pa Ragpaper Press,2012


External links


Danny Greene - Plus 25
by Rick Porrello {{DEFAULTSORT:Ferritto, Ray 1929 births 2004 deaths American people convicted of murder Cleveland crime family American gangsters of Italian descent Los Angeles crime family Mafia hitmen People who entered the United States Federal Witness Protection Program People convicted of murder by Ohio United States Marines