Danny Greene: Celtic Warrior

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | RSS | More

Retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins brings you the best in mob history with his unique perception of the mafia. Learn about the shadowy world of crime from the life of Danny Greene, also known as the Celtic warrior. If you haven’t seen it, watch “To Kill the Irishman,” a film featuring Christopher Walken and Paul Sorvino. Danny Greene was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1933, orphaned three days after birth, and raised by paternal grandfather and aunt in Collinwood. Danny’s rebellious spirit and tumultuous relationship with his father and stepmother led to a challenging adolescence. Military Service and Union Involvement: After being expelled from high school, Danny Greene enlisted in the Marine Corps, where he excelled as a boxer and earned the rank of corporal. After military service, he became a longshoreman and quickly rose to become the president of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA). Double Life as an Informant: Danny Green became a top informant for the FBI, navigating the worlds of labor racketeering and organized crime. Criminal Activity and Conflicts: Formed the Celtic Club and allied with figures like John Nardi and Alexander Burns, leading to conflicts with the Cleveland Mafia. He was involved in bombings, violent clashes, and assassination attempts, solidifying his reputation as a formidable force. Downfall and Legacy: Despite his cunning intellect and adaptability, Danny Green’s luck ran out when he was killed by a car bomb in 1977. His death exposed a criminal conspiracy involving mafia families from Cleveland, New York City, and Southern California.
Support the Podcast
Subscribe to get new gangster stories every week.

Hit me up on Venmo for a cup of coffee or a shot and a beer @ganglandwire
Click here to “buy me a cup of coffee”

To go to the store or make a donation or rent Ballot Theft: Burglary, Murder, Coverup, click here

To rent Brothers against Brothers, the documentary, click here. 

To rent Gangland Wire, the documentary, click here

To buy my Kindle book, Leaving Vegas: The True Story of How FBI Wiretaps Ended Mob Domination of Las Vegas Casinos.

To subscribe on iTunes click here. Please give me a review and help others find the podcast.
Donate to the podcast. Click here!

Transcript
[00:00:00] Well, hey, all you wiretappers out there. Welcome to gangland wire. This is Gary Jenkins, retired intelligence detective, and this is your portal into the shadowy world of crime. Today we’re going to take a deep dive into the tumultuous life of Daniel John Patrick Green, a.
k. a. Danny Green, the Celtic warrior. You may know him from To Kill the Irishman. Well, no movie, Christopher Walken was in it. I think, , Paul Cervino maybe was in it.
My friend, Rick Perrello from Cleveland wrote the book and did a documentary and was involved in making the movie. Anyhow, Danny Green, he was a figure whose legacy is etched into the annals of organized crime, especially in Cleveland and the Midwest. Really? Now, so join me and we’re going to unravel the intricate details of Danny Green’s journey through power, betrayal, and the criminal underworld of Cleveland, Ohio.
Danny Green was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1933. His early life was a saga of [00:01:00] hardship, aren’t they all? Don’t they all these organized crime guys grew up in some kind of hardship? He was orphaned three days after he was born, and he got the nickname Baby Green until his mother’s burial and his paternal grandfather and aunt took him in and raised him and named him His gave him his name and they were in the blue collar neighborhood of Collinwood in Cleveland.
Danny’s tumultuous relationship with his father and stepmother later on in life set the stage for a really challenging adolescence if you can imagine that. Growing up in Collinwood, Danny developed a rebellious spirit and was always running away from home and you know he hit the streets and you know what happens when these young guys hit the streets.
What is there out there? There’s crime and there’s stuff, bad stuff to get into. His grandfather, who was living with for a part of this time, had a evening work schedule. And of course, this gave Danny free reign to go out and explore the streets at night. Did any of [00:02:00] your parents work at night? And when you were a teenager, you know, you’re out at night all the time.
Got expelled from St. Ignatius High School, and then he went to public school, Collingwood High School. Danny was a really good athlete and liked sports, and even especially basketball. He was a good basketball player, and that gave him a place on the team, but you know, he couldn’t stay in school.
Got expelled from high school in 1951. Danny then what a young man do back in those days, especially he enlisted in the Marine Corps. Marine Corps is the toughest section of the service. And that’s where Danny Green’s going to go.
During his time in the Marine Corps, he was a boxer and he obtained a sharpshooter’s badge and even obtained the rank of corporal, which is not always easy to do. And the Marines got an honorable discharge in 1953 and went back to, he went back to civilian life. But He had this rebellious streak. He did not like to give in to any kind of authority over it.
Got in the union. He’s longshoreman. And, by the 1960s, Danny found [00:03:00] employment as a longshoreman at the Cleveland docks, his rise to the international longshoreman’s association, or the ILA was swift. And he ends up being as a young guy. Elected president, you know, he must’ve really been charismatic.
You know, those young guys, I worked with them and they went right on up.
Now, Danny’s life will take a turn during this time. He’s trying to play both ends against the middle, which many people do. You know, the smart ones will play both ends against the middle. He became a top echelon informant for the FBI. They even had a code name, Mr. Patrick. This double life will allow him to navigate these treacherous waters of the union and.
illegal activities and organized crime because organized crime is all involved in labor racketeering as you might well imagine. his ability to straddle both these worlds or all these worlds, three worlds really, showed that he had a really cunning intellect and he was adaptable. He could adapt to anything.
Now his entry into the criminal underworld intensified, [00:04:00] and he formed a crew, and they had a club, they called it the Celtic Club, and this was like his crew. And he had allies like Cleveland Mafia member John Nardi, and then there was a Jewish guy who was a really high level of Cleveland. Associate that made a lot of money for the mob named Alexander Burns.
This will propel him into some conflicts with the Cleveland Mafia family. There’s going to be a series of bombings and violent clashes during this time. This is the 1970s. And Danny Green’s reputation as a formidable force is going to be solidified. This guy was one tough dude. If you saw the movie, Kill the Irishman.
Now Danny Green saw the film on the waterfront. You know, I once knew a guy, he was a policeman, and he saw Superfly, and after that he wanted to become a pimp, and he did. He ended up quitting. He became a pimp, , after he saw on the waterfront, he saw himself as this tough doc boss. I think it was, George C.
Scott maybe was in the [00:05:00] movie and, , who was the one that Marlon Brando was the boxer, who was the guy that played the Charlie. I could have been somebody. I can’t think of his name now. Anyhow, go and see on the waterfront. There’s a pretty good mafia movie.
It’s not really. Bill does a mafia movie. He’d use his workers that are his and his Celtic club to beat up under union, other union members who didn’t come in line with what he wanted, but he had a gift of gab or the Blarney, as they say, and his members idolized him. This guy was, he was one of these, union bosses, reps that would.
Just to show the company and the men like this, as long as they didn’t lose too much work, he would declare work stoppages. Just, you know, he declared as many as 25 in a day, just to show the company owners that he had the, he was the authority on the docks. He knew how to play a hard ball. Like on one occasion, even threatened to murder the children of one owner, to the FBI and he put them.
Officers on the man’s house and put the family under protection. [00:06:00] There’s a Cleveland investigative reporter during this time. He’s creating a lot of stir. So people know there’s something going on. And he collected a bunch of affidavits, which supported charges of extortion. And, , you know, the national, like they were after him at that time.
And the government goes after him and he’s convicted of embezzlement from the union. This conviction is later overturned on appeal and rather than have a second trial, Danny Green pleads guilty to a lesser charge and gets fined 10, 000 and got a suspended sentence. So he went right back into the union and he never did pay the fine and he didn’t do any time.
Once he returned to the rackets, a met and befriended teamsters boss, Cleveland teamsters, boss, Louie Trescaro, who introduced green to Jimmy Hoffa at one time when it kind of, Hoffa, he had this sixth sense, I guess, cause he, it was a friendly meeting, but Hoffa later on reportedly told Trescaro, stay away from this guy.
There’s, there’s something wrong. There’s something wrong with this guy. Stay away from him.
Well, in the 70s, again, Cleveland’s [00:07:00] mafia boss dies and a war breaks out between the successor, John Scalise appointed James Licavoli as his successor, and John Nardi, who was Danny Green’s associate, wanted that job, felt like he should have the job, and now we’ve got a war breaking out. And Danny Green’s Celtic club, his crew is, are right deep in the middle of this and with the Lickavole faction and their bombings assassinations, there was like six, I think there’s five or six, assassination attempts on Danny Green himself.
And he even got in a gun battle with a guy who was out jogging and some guy shows up and tries to shoot him. Danny’s carrying a gun, ended up in a shootout and he shoots a guy and he, you know, he gets off for self defense. There was a bomb that went off and he wasn’t quite in his, Celtic club and, and he poses for the cameras in front of the exploded Celtic club, the damaged Celtic club.
And, you know, I said, Hey, he said, you know, I got the luck of the [00:08:00] Irish. You can’t get me he had some strategic alliances. But you know, this bloody and chaotic underworld landscape that he’s going through, you know, it’s just really hard to survive that because the mafia, particularly, they can look outside of their own people and Danny Green did not have that national network and Lickavole did.
Danny Green’s luck of the Irish finally ran out October 6, 1977, gone to the dentist, and this was after several attempts, somebody planted a bomb right next to his car in another car. And when he got in his car, they set that one off and took him out. And they could sit and watch it so that, you know, they didn’t have any, collateral damage there, which is a good mark of a good mob bomber is not to have any collateral damage.
That’s the mark of a good mob bomber to not have any collateral damage when the bomb goes off and gets his target too. This explosion will mark the end of a turbulent journey that left a really an [00:09:00] indelible mark on Cleveland’s criminal history.
I mean, this guy cut a wide swath through Cleveland during these years. And even in death, the aftermath of Danny Green’s death exposed a criminal conspiracy involving mafia families from Cleveland, New York City, and Southern California even. The government will learn that the bomber was assisted by a Los Angeles Mafia member named Jimmy the Weasel Fraudiano.
Jimmy the Weasel, you know, he learns about this and he says, okay, he’s already been informing a little bit. He says, I’ll come in. He goes into witness protection program and dominoes from Jimmy Fraudiano start falling all over the United States. He testifies in front of Congress. After that other defections back, you know, turning state’s evidence, federal prosecutions, the unraveling of a mafia intricate network followed that from Jimmy Fraudiano on this really is all come.
From this attempt to get Danny green. It left a lasting impact [00:10:00] as Jimmy Friday, I know. And what he talked about was a lasting impact on the organized crime in the whole United States. So there you have it, an overview of the gripping saga of Danny green, the Celtic warrior. He was a guy who’s man. He was a guy whose life embodied the complex interplay of power, loyalty, and betrayal.
So. Come back again and see so don’t forget like and subscribe and give me a review if you’re on the on the app and tell your friends about us and don’t forget I like to ride motorcycles so watch out for motorcycles when you’re out there and if you have a problem with PTSD and you’ve been in the service be sure and go to the VA website and hand in hand with PTSD usually comes drug and alcohol dependents.
, if you’ve not been in the service, we have our friend Anthony Ruggiano down there in Florida, who has a hotline on his website, anthonyruggiano. com or his YouTube page.
So guys, there you have it. [00:11:00] Another little short bio. I’m going to continue to do these little short bios of Bob guys. You know, a lot of times we talk about people, unless you have some contacts to put it in a little bit about their history and everybody can’t know everything.
I’m going to keep putting out these mob bios in order to help people get more grounded and have a base knowledge of these different significant characters, whether it be members of mafia or important associates like Danny green. So thanks a lot, guys.