Erie’s Mafia Myth

The myth of a mafia crime family in Erie has existed since...but in recent years the myth has been perpetrated to new heights by the mystifying and glamorization of Erie native Raymond W. Ferritto who was associated with the Licavoli crime family in Cleveland, not Erie. Ferritto at the time was associated with a criminal element in Erie who would love to brag that they were connected to the mafia because of their association with Ferritto, but in reality they were only common criminals, with no real connection to any family within the American Mafia.

Ferritto took a percentage from Erie's criminal activities, but his personal associates in Erie were that, not associates in the Licavoli crime family — An associate is not a member of the Mafia, but works for a crime family nonetheless. Associates can include a wide range of people who work for the family. An associate can have a wide range of duties from virtually carrying out the same duties as a soldier to being a simple errand boy.

Erie was Ferritto's sideline operation. The Licavoli crime family did not recognize any of Ferritto's associates in Erie.

Early in his 20s, Ferrito left Erie for ambitious reasons. He had the connections. He had skills that made him useful to mafia in Cleveland and Los Angeles. From burglary to murder, Ferritto carried out the wishes of made men, the kind of gangsters who provide the cinematic lore and legacy that fascinates so many people. But they were interested in Ferritto, not his small time gambling associates, not Erie. Ferritto’s legend preceded him in Erie; where, when he wasn’t moonlighting for the mafia in Cleveland and Los Angeles, he partnered with local bookmaker Frank "Bolo" Dovishaw.

Frank Dovishaw, an associate of Ferritto, lived in Erie’s Little Italy. From his west side neighborhood, Dovishaw controlled the local gambling book — including sports-betting and numbers — and became one of the most successful bookmakers in northwestern Pennsylvania. Ferritto benefited from the relationship until Caesar Montevecchio — a burglar — hired Robert E. Dorler Sr of Medina, Ohio, in 1983, to murder Dovishaw for the purpose of stealing his keys to a safety deposit box. Both Montevecchio and Dorler were freelancers who had no association with the mafia.

Ferritto got involved in criminal activities in his youth. In 1942, at the relatively young age of 13, he was convicted of burglarizing two gas stations and was sentenced to two years of probation. At the time some of the criminals who worked Erie’s streets after World War II knew people, important people in the LaRocca family in Pittsburgh, and in the Licavoli crime family in Cleveland, as well as the Youngstown faction of the Pittsburgh crew. But none of those families set up shop in Erie. It was this environment with its connections that provided Ferritto with his opportunity to further his ambitions.

During his twenties, Ferritto was a bookmaker and vending machine route man in Erie before moving to Warren, Ohio, where he met Ronald "The Crab" Carabbia and Tony Delsanter. Carabbia and his three brothers were all known as the Crab, which was a play on their last name, and they had become prominent in the organized crime scene in Youngstown. Delsanter was a made man in Cleveland’s Licavoli crime family.

By the late sixties, Ferritto had moved to Los Angeles where he was associated with a group of Cleveland mobsters, including Julius Petro. In the forties, Petro wriggled free from a death sentence on a retrial in a murder case. Ferritto and Petro were associates of Jimmy Fratianno, who was closely associated with the Los Angeles crime family. By the 1970s, Danny Greene, an Irish American associate began competing with Cleveland’s Licavoli crime family for control of union rackets, resulting in a violent mob war. During this period, there were almost 40 car bombings in Cleveland and eight failed attempts to kill Greene. Finally, Cleveland family bosses Jack "Jack White" Licavoli and Angelo "Big Ange" Lonardo contracted Ferritto to assassinate Greene.

This assignment was the beginning of the end for Ferrito’s career and any connection to the mafia that Erie would have. When a search warrant was executed at Ferritto’s house in Erie, police found the registration papers for the bomb car and arrested him. The search of Ferritto's house also turned up a copy of Cleveland Magazine with a picture of Greene in it. Upon hearing of Ferritto’s arrest, Licavoli put out a hit contract on Ferritto. When Ferritto learned that the Cleveland family wanted him dead, he became a government witness and testified against his co-defendants in the 1978 trial. The State of Ohio indicted Licavoli, Lonardo, Ferritto, Carabbia and 15 other members of the Cleveland Family for the Greene murder. With his career ended in the mafia, Ferritto eventually moved to Florida, where he died of congestive heart failure at age 75.

Bookmaking was the primary vehicle for Erie’s local brand of organized – and sometimes disorganized – crime. It was controlled by local members of the community, and just as it was with Prohibition, bookmaking in Erie was largely overlooked, or ignored by the mafia, which suited the bookies, giving them the freedom to run their business without interference from outsiders.

In 1954, Erie’s Mayor, Thomas Flatley, was arrested — alongside several people in his administration, officials at the police station, and several bookmakers — on charges of corruption, abuse of power, and facilitating illegal gambling, to which he pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy and violating his oath of office, leaving him to resign facing jail time and fines. Bookmakers at the time were paying the city for protection, which guaranteed them to operate freely not only from any interference from the city, but the mafia itself.

Erie’s only real connection with the mafia was through Ferritto’s association with the Licavoli crime family in Cleveland.