John Tronolone

John "Peanuts" Tronolone (December 12, 1910 − May 29, 1991) was an American mobster who succeeded crime boss James Licavoli as head of the Cleveland crime family. He was initially affiliated with a faction of the Buffalo crime family which was absorbed by the Cleveland family. After serving as consigliere and acting boss, Tronolone ran the Cleveland family from 1985 until his death in 1991 following the Licavoli-Nardi gang wars.

Criminal career Born in Buffalo, New York, Tronolone was the oldest of nine children of Maria (née Gnozzo) and Vincenzo Tronolone, an immigrant from San Fele in the Basilicata region of southern Italy. He allegedly gained his nickname "Peanuts" by giving peanuts to neighborhood children visiting his father's laundromat. Tronolone was arrested three times before the age of 21. Tronolone, DiCarlo and Buffalo police captain Thomas F. O'Neill were among eleven men indicted on December 30, 1944 by an Erie County grand jury investigating gambling activities in Buffalo. Pospichal was shot dead in an unsolved murder on January 28, 1945. On April 23, 1945, Tronolone and DiCarlo were convicted of conspiracy to violate gambling laws, and aiding and abetting a police officer to neglect his duty, while O'Neill was found guilty of willful neglect and willful omission of duty in failing to suppress gambling.

Following his their release from prison in 1946, Tronolone, DiCarlo and other members of their gang relocated to Youngstown, Ohio, where their faction was absorbed into the Cleveland crime family. He continued gambling and bookmaking racketeering in South Florida in close association with two other Cleveland mobsters, Sam DiCarlo and John "King" Angersola, and Detroit gangster Joseph Massei. Tronolone maintained his family responsibilities from his residence in Florida, where he also operated a travel agency, Peter Pan World Travel Inc., in North Miami.

In 1971, Tronolone was sentenced to two years’ probation and fined $1,000 after he was convicted of operating an illegal gambling business in Dade County. On March 21, 1980, Angelo Bruno, the boss of the Philadelphia family, was killed by rivals within his crime family. The Commission, upset with Bruno's unsanctioned murder, issued a death edict for Philadelphia gangster John "Johnny Keys" Simone. Aware that he was in trouble, Simone traveled to Florida to ask Tronolone to intercede for him with Salerno. Tronolone called Salerno, who told him that Simone's fate was sealed. At Salerno's request, Tronolone assured Simone that everything was now OK and that he should return to New York and talk to Salerno. The reassured Simone returned to New York, where his body was discovered on September 19, 1980 after he was shot execution-style.

Crime boss In October 1983, acting boss Angelo Lonardo became a protected federal witness against Tronolone and other Cleveland family members. He and three others were accused of fixing the election of Teamsters general president Jackie Presser in 1983. Tronolone was also charged with conspiring to murder John Simone as a result of Lonardo's testimony regarding Tronolone's role in the 1980 killing. On May 4, 1988, he was acquitted of all charges in Federal District Court in Manhattan.

Tronolone, a great-grandfather of nine with a pacemaker and cataracts, lived in a two-bedroom apartment in North Miami. Tronolone became the target of a sting operation by the Broward County Sheriff's Office Organized Crime Bureau after William Bale, an informant and convicted bookmaker who was $18,000 in debt to Miami Beach loan shark and newsstand owner Fred Koran, was told by Koran that Tronolone was the financier of his loansharking operation. A funeral mass was held for him at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Miami Beach.