Daniel "Danny" Greene
Daniel "Danny" John Patrick Greene (November 9, 1929 – October 6, 1977) son of John and Irene Greene, suffered from a difficult childhood. His mother passed away due to medical complications shortly after the boy's birth. His father, devastated by his loss, began to drink away his sorrows, placing his son in the care of Parmadale Children's Home until Danny found a permanent home with his paternal grandfather.
In his youth, Daniel dabbled in delinquency, dropped out of high school, and earned himself a reputation as an alley-fighter. As an adult, he seemed to mellow out. In 1956, he married a local waitress and the following year took employment as a stevedore on the banks of Lake Erie. Here he was quickly elected president of the Local 1317 International Longshoremen's Association.
Sometime during this period Greene began to travel a path of illegal activity. On November 13, 1964, Greene was indicted by the federal grand jury on charges of embezzlement and falsifying records. Accused of stealing $11,542.38 in union funds, Daniel Greene stood trial in spring 1966 alongside the union's vice president Leon J. Ponikvar. It only took the twelve jurors five and a half hours to deliberate Greene's fate. With proof that he had deposited 19 grain boat checks into his personal account at the Rockefeller branch of Central National Bank, Greene was found guilty. The ruling however, was overturned in August 1968 because "the Government's cross-examination of Greene about his high living on his union expense account was prejudicial."
In the years following his indictment, Daniel Greene, forbidden to participate in union activity, formed the Cleveland Trade Solid Waste Guild. Chartered by the state in June 1969, the guild was intended to unify the commercial rubbish business in the city of Cleveland. Membership was solely voluntary, but many collectors reported that they joined for fear of being put out of business. In a membership meeting held on June 25th of the same year Danny is quoted as saying "If others don't join we will follow their trucks and take away their 'stops', offer to pick up for less and take away their business at the cheapest price- and knock them out of the box." In July 1971, Greene once again found himself in a legal hotspot, as police noted a connection between organized crime and the violence amongst private rubbish haulers.
Greene's connections with organized crime went beyond the world of waste. In the early 1970s there was a reported 35 homicides linked to explosives, many of which could be linked to Greene or one of his associates. Over the next few years multiple attempts were made on Danny Greene's life until he met his end in a car blast outside of his dentist's office on October 6, 1977.
