He stabilized the Cleveland crime family after a period of revenge killings, and was one of the most influential mobsters in the United States.

[8] In the summer of 1917, Polizzi worked as a lifeguard at Luna Park, where he met future mobster Fred Angersola.

[18] In his late teens, Polizzi became a member of the Mayfield Road Mob,[21][19] an Italian American gang that had formed in Cleveland's Little Italy neighborhood.

Weisenberg ran a racket that controlled all the legal slot machines in the area, forcing customers to lease them at high prices and skimming part of the profits.

The Mayfield Road Mob attempted to take over the business, and Polizzi and Colletti were believed to have placed the explosives at Weisenberg's home in September 1928.

[28][29] The Cleveland Syndicate preferred to give a cut of its profits to mobsters in other criminal organizations, who then did the actual work of bootlegging or running illegal gambling operations.

[30] The Polizzi-run bootlegging operation moved large amounts of high-quality liquor into northeast Ohio and northwest Pennsylvania, generating substantial profits for Polizzi and the others involved.

[49] He spent many years attempting bribe officials into paroling Toledo, Ohio, gangster Thomas "Yonnie" Licavoli,[50] who was convicted of murder in 1934.

[53][e] Buckeye Enterprises invested in a wide range of legal and illegal businesses, including the Thomas Club (a luxury casino in the Cleveland suburb of Maple Heights),[55][56] the Continental Supper Club (a casino and restaurant located at 8591 Carnegie Avenue in Cleveland), Shaw-Clair Catering, Superior Catering, Eastern Service Company (a company which laundered income from Buckeye Enterprises so as not to draw attention from the Internal Revenue Service), and Buckeye Catering (which acted as a front for a slot machine leasing and profit-skimming business).

[68][69] As Milano could not run the Cleveland crime family from across the border, he stepped down as boss and was succeeded by Alfred Polizzi.

[70] Although most sources say Polizzi was officially named boss in 1935,[67] former Cleveland FBI chief Joe Griffin says power did not transfer until 1942.

[74][j] Polizzi partnered with Dalitz in various illegal enterprises while head of the Cleveland crime family, which allegedly made both men wealthy.

[4] In addition to his partnerships with Moe Dalitz, Polizzi continued to engage in a wide range of lucrative criminal activities on his own.

[74] Mobster James Ragen and U.S. Senate investigators believed that Polizzi controlled the wire service in Cleveland, bringing him extensive income from betting shops and parlors.

[77][78] During Polizzi's tenure as boss in Cleveland, he relinquished control of mafia activities in Youngstown, Ohio, to another family.

)[79] The Cleveland crime family continued to receive 25 percent of the profits from the Youngstown rackets (primarily gambling and vending machines), which averaged about $5,000 to $6,000 ($84,621 to $101,545 in 2023 dollars) a month in the 1970s.

[83] The establishment of the Detroit crime family in 1931 under William "Black Bill" Tocco[85][86] left the Licavolis with no room to operate.

To protect Lonardo (who was not then a "made man" and member of any mafia) from assassination, Alfred Polizzi was forced to defend the killing before a meeting of the Commission.

[91] The scheme worked so long as the state of Ohio and the federal government believed the imported liquor remained in warehouses and was not sold.

[98][99] Polizzi was released in prison in late 1945 (having served a total of two years),[71][92] and moved to Coral Gables, Florida.

[109] When Cleveland mobster Thomas J. McGinty settled in Palm Beach, Florida, in the early 1950s, Polizzi staked him the cash he needed to form his own real estate company.

[74] McGinty was one of a large group of gangsters who rapidly built up Palm Beach,[101] and ending up owning extensive real estate north and south of the city as well.

[114][115] When Wilbur Clark built the Desert Inn casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 1947, he sought and received capital from a group of mobsters that included Moe Dalitz, Maurice Kleinman, Thomas J. McGinty, Louis Rothkopf, and Sammy Tucker.

Polizzi turned down the deal, afraid that gambling licenses wouldn't be issued and the family would lose their investment.

[117] A few years later, this group sold a piece of their investment to John Angersola,[p] Frank Milano, and Alfred Polizzi.

[116][118] Profits skimmed from the casino continued to flow to the Polizzi and the Cleveland crime family until Howard Hughes purchased the Desert Inn in 1967.

[122] The United States Senate Special Committee to Investigate Crime in Interstate Commerce held hearings in Cleveland, Ohio, in January 1951.

Among area organized crime figures testifying where Alvin Giesey, Thomas J. McGinty, Arthur McBride, and Anthony Milano.

[125] In testimony before the committee on February 19, 1951, Polizzi admitted to bootlegging during Prohibition and to having had a substantial ownership interest in Buckeye Catering, which at one time controlled 25 percent of the illegal slot machine business in northeast Ohio.

Polizzi also told the committee that he had invested his earnings in real estate development, which included the Sands Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida.