Cleveland's Killer Celebrities, Part 1

Going Out with a Bang

It can truly be said of Shondor Birns that nothing in his life so befitted him as his leaving of it.

The blast that broke the Holy Saturday silence in 1975 could be heard for blocks. It brought people running to the parking lot behind Christy's Lounge, a go-go bar across the Cuyahoga River from downtown Cleveland.

They found the wreckage of a light blue Lincoln Continental Mark IV. Next to the open driver's door lay the upper body of the 68-year-old man the newspapers called Alex "Shondor" Birns. It had been blown through what was now a gaping hole in the roof.

Other parts of Birns came down nearby. Parts of the car landed on the steps of St. Malachi Catholic Church 1,000 feet away. Parishioners arriving for the 8 p.m. Easter Vigil Mass could see patches of Birns' clothing in the churchyard trees.

St. Malachi Catholic Church

Police said the blast was among the most powerful they had ever investigated.

Next: Such a Nice Guy

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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