 Welcome to the OG Pod, the original gangsters podcast. I am Scott Bernstein, your host, another quick hitter edition. Today we're going to talk about Youngstown, Ohio, and some bombshell news. It looks like the murder, the most infamous gangland murder in Youngstown in that area in the Mahoning Valley of the last 45 years at least, little Joey Naples was murdered via Sniper's Rifle at his property in Beaver County, had been a longtime member of the Youngstown underworld, a main member of the Pittsburgh mafia, and he was murdered in 1991. Nobody's ever been arrested for that murder. And there's been dozens of theories. A lot of it tied to Lenny Strollo, the former mafia skipper there. Some of it tied to John Gotti, the Dapper Don. But this new theory has come out being presented in a new book written by former Northeast Pennsylvania mafia Don Big Bill DeAlea, and Big Bill had done business with little Joey or was doing a lot of business with little Joey. And he's coming out with a new theory. He says that according to what he believes and what he knows, Ernie B, Ernie Biondillo, another major Youngstown crime world figure who had always been viewed as an ally of Joey Naples. According to this new book, The Life We've Chosen written by Matt Burbeck and the story of the life and times of Big Bill DeAlea, the protege of Russell Bufalino, the Irishman, Joe Pesci playing Russell Bufalino, yada, yada, yada. He says that or he eludes and infers and says that Ernie B was the person behind little Joey Naples assassination and that it revolved around a woman. That little Joey Naples was romancing Ernie B's wife. It's pretty salacious. That theory has never been out there before. Ernie B would meet a similar faith. Five years later, he was gunned down in a beef with Lenny Strowlow. And even though Bill DeAlea does not name Ernie Biondillo in his book, he says that Joey Naples was killed by another Youngstown wise guy who was killed himself five years later in a highway ambush and that's how Ernie B met his end in June of 1996, was boxed in on a small, I think it was a one lane highway and some of Lenny Strowlow's guys who are an African American crew that Lenny had recruited late in his reign and they killed Ernie B. So Bill DeAlea right now is saying don't look at Lenny Strowlow, don't look at John Gotti, don't look at some other names we've heard. There was rumors that a couple brothers had done it. There was rumors that there was a guy that did it for Lenny Strowlow, without Lenny Strowlow knowing, wanting to curry favor with Strowlow without actually having to be given the contract but would somehow retroactively, you know, it would be okay and that that person would become a main member or whatnot. John Gotti has been rumored involved in Joey Naples murder. They had some business related to fireworks and rumors of a fireworks deal going bad but the Gotti regime made a ton of money selling fireworks on the black market and he was being supplied in that endeavor by little Joey Naples. Naples family goes all the way back, you know, to the mid 20th century and the start of this big war that broke out between Cleveland and Pittsburgh for control over Youngstown. Little Joey lost two of his brothers to that war but it looked like, you know, he was the chosen one. Lenny Strowlow who, him and Lenny Strowlow were jockeying for power in Youngstown. Lenny had to go to prison for about 15 months in 1990. The most prominent theories that came out after Naples murder that had been kind of thought of as the most likely scenario up until maybe now or maybe it still is but this definitely gives us pause was that Lenny Strowlow worried that he was going to lose a grip on the crime family when he was off the streets and that little Joey Naples was going to come and unseat him and take over his rackets and bump him out of the way because he wasn't there to fight back that his response to that was just to basically kill little Joey Naples while he was behind bars. Now Lenny Strowlow flipped and became a government witness, never copped to the Naples hit. We're still here 32 years later and and again it's never been solved. Nobody's ever been arrested. If I bet if you ask people in the Mahoney Valley, it is the most notorious mob murder there probably since the 50s or 60s when when little Joey's brothers were really at the forefront of all that Cadillac Charlie Cavallaro getting blown up in the 60s was another, you know, major major headline grabbing assassination. But after that, nothing was bigger than than the little Joey Naples hit in 1991. He was building a mansion or a big piece of a big house on a big piece of property out in Beaver County and he was out there. He hadn't moved in yet and he was out there kind of examining how the how the construction was going and authorities believe that someone sitting or standing in a cornfield that was behind the property killed him via sniper's rifle. So I'm not sure if Big Bill D'Alia is alleging that Ernie B. was a sniper or if Ernie B. just ordered it, but he's saying it came from a romance and a love triangle and had nothing to do with Lenny Strowlow or Beef with John Gotti. I know this is going to, you know, when this news starts to filter out in Youngstown, you know, it's going to ruffle some feathers because it just this is this is very, very the soap opera aspect of this is enhanced, you know, this for so many years it just looked like it was a, you know, a typical gangster kills another gangster and we just didn't know why or who, but this, you know, from a 30,000 foot view now 32 years later, getting a new perspective. And I'm sure a lot of family members, the beyond the beyond Delos and the the Naples. I don't know how this is going to play. I got a feeling it's not going to play great. I know that Ernie B's kids are around. So we should see. But I definitely had to come and report about it because this is something we've never heard before. So my gut tells me that this was probably still a Lenny Strowlow thing. But it's coming from Big Bill DeAlia. You know, it's a pretty good source on it. I don't know how much he would have known or not known, being that he wasn't a part of that family. But it's definitely something that should be put out there and left for, you know, people to debate. So Scott Burns, another episode of the OG pod, original gangster's pod. Check back later this week for another long form episode with Jimmy, the doctor. Thanks, Ben, behind the glass. I'll see you next time for the OG pod. Scott Bernstein out.