Cleveland's Killer Celebrities, Part 1

Bullets Can't Kill Danny

One of the waste haulers, Mike Frato, had been a friend of Greene's. Until, that is, he organized a legitimate trade group, the Cuyahoga County Waste Haulers Association.

Nearly all the others joined him. The Solid Waste Guild fell apart.

In 1971, Frato's Cadillac was destroyed by a bomb. There was a body inside, but it was that of Art Sneperger, one of Greene's men. Sneperger had been careless with the bomb he was trying to plant. Either that or Greene had pushed the detonator early because he suspected Sneperger of being a police informant.

A month later, Frato was shot and killed in his car. Police immediately picked up Greene.

He admitted he had killed Frato, but said it was self-defense. He had been jogging in a park when a car pulled up, he said. A man leaned out the window and fired at Greene. It was Frato.

Greene dropped to the ground, pulled a pistol from his sweat pants and fired two quick shots. One of them hit Frato in the temple, killing him.

Police quickly arrested Greene, but the evidence backed his story that he was acting in self-defense. He was released.

Not long after, somebody else shot at Greene in the park. Porrello describes what happened:

But instead of ducking to the ground, Danny pulled out his revolver and started shooting, while running toward his would-be assassin, in complete disregard for his own safety. The tactic worked. The sniper fled and was never positively identified.

Next: The Cop and the Killer

• Print version
• Email this
• Share

1. "Shondor" & "Danny"
2. Going Out
   with a Bang
3. Such a Nice Guy
4. Shondor the Apprentice Hood
5. Shondor the Brutal Killer
6. Shondor the Genial Host
7. Above the Law
8. The King & Shondor
9. Sonny Changes His Story
10. Bonds and Bullets
11. The Pretty Brunette
12. Meeting His Maker
13. Danny Greene, Champion of Labor
14. On the Waterfront
15. "The Luck
    of the Irish"
16. Bullets Can't
    Kill Danny
17. The Cop &
    the Killer
18. Bombs Away
19. Revenge from the Grave?
20. Mob War
21. "The Animal" & "The Weasel"
22. Bomb City, U.S.A.
23. "I'm Not
    Hard to Find"
24. Who Lives
    by the Bomb...
25. "The Cop &
    the Kid"
26. Coincidences
27. One Tough Prosecutor
28. "Look at That
    Weasel!"
29. The Weasel Sings
30. In "The Valachi Suite"
31. The Dominoes Topple
32. "Big Ange"
33. Telling All
34. Drugs Doom
    the Mafia
35. Bibliography