JOE GRIFFIN, 1939-2005

Joe Griffin, the retired Cleveland FBI chief whose dogged investigation of organized crime led to the Cleveland Mafia's downfall, died Saturday in Chicago.

The 65-year-old crime fighter died at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. Friends said Griffin had been ill.

As special agent in charge of the FBI in northern Ohio in the 1980s, Griffin targeted organized crime as mob factions fought each other for control. He expanded the agency, adding squads that specialized in drug busts and racketeering.

Retired FBI agent John Sommer said Griffin's work led to Cleveland becoming the first major U.S. city to dismantle its Mafia family.

"He was the most aggressive supervisor for organized crime that I ever worked for," Sommer said Monday.

Upon retiring from the FBI in 1988, Griffin noted that every major mob figure in Cleveland had been arrested and convicted.

The most significant prize was Angelo "Big Ange" Lonardo, a Cleveland crime-family boss. Facing life in prison for narcotics violations, Lonardo became an informant whose testimony not only destroyed the mob in Cleveland but also fractured other crime families across the country.

In the 1970s and '80s, Eugene "The Animal" Ciasullo was a muscleman for the mobsters whom Griffin brought down. He was sorry to hear of Griffin's death.

"He wasn't a bad guy. He was a right guy," said Ciasullo, who now lives in Pittsburgh.

"I don't care what anyone says. He had a job to do, and he did it."

Griffin was born in Weston, W.Va. He began working as a fingerprint technician in the FBI office in Washington, D.C., in 1957, while studying at Georgetown University.

He continued working for the FBI in Chicago as a clerk in the teletype radio room after transferring to DePaul University.

He became an FBI agent after graduating from DePaul in 1963.

He investigated race-related crimes in the South during the civil rights movement. He chased Mafioso in Buffalo and worked at headquarters in Washington before coming to Cleveland as second-in-command in the late 1970s.

Griffin was promoted to inspector and assigned to FBI headquarters in Washington in 1979.

He was in charge of the FBI office in Louisville, Ky., before assuming the top post in Cleveland in 1981.

A recipient of the FBI Medal of Valor, Griffin gave a firsthand account of his crime-fighting career in the book "Mob Nemesis: How the FBI Crippled Organized Crime."

After retiring, he moved to the Chicago area, where he headed security for a pharmaceutical company, co-founded Quest Consultants International with other former FBI agents and had his own consulting business.

Survivors include his wife, Sandy; sons, Shawn of Westlake, Christopher of Olmsted Township, Joseph Jr. of Cincinnati and Kevin of Miami; daughter, Jennifer Might of Pittsburgh; five grandchildren; and two brothers.

Services will be at 10 a.m. Monday at Mary Seat of Wisdom Catholic Church, 920 Granville Ave., Park Ridge, Ill.

Wake Sunday 3pm-9pm. Arrangements are by Nelson Funeral Home of Park Ridge. 820 Talcott Road Park Ridge, IL Directions

 

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jcaniglia@plaind.com, 216-999-4128

© 2005 The Plain Dealer. Used with permission.