On  August 19th, 1991, Joseph N. “Little Joey” Naples was gunned down while inspecting the house he was having built in Beaver Township (Canfield, OH)

“It looks like someone was waiting for him in the cornfield,” said Michael Waldner, then resident agent in charge of the FBI’s Youngstown office. “We’re still trying to piece everything together.”

Joey Naples was a capo in the Pittsburgh organized crime family and considered to be part of the Youngstown, Ohio faction.

“We have no theories other than what we have been able to develop so far,” said then Beaver Township Police Chief David Thoresen.

Naples, a leading figure in the long and violent history of the Mafia in the Mahoning Valley, was assassinated on the evening of Aug. 19. He was found shortly after 8 p.m. lying next to a late model Ford Mustang parked in the driveway of his new home. The car doors were locked. He was shot from behind.

The gunman or gunmen appeared to have been standing in a cornfield across the street from the 3240 Lynn Road address.

It has long been whispered that the late John “Dapper Don” Gotti, the once real-life Godfather of the Gambino crime family in New York City, approved the hit that was requested by Mahoning Valley mob boss Lenine Strollo.

According to a confidential informant for the feds, Strollo feared Naples would seize control of the rackets while he was in prison. Within a year of Strollo being imprisoned, Naples was dead.

This post uses quotes and words directly from this excellent article by Bertram de Souza. This post is about Joey Naples but the article goes into much more depth on the background of the hit and other Mahoning County Mafia bosses.

https://vindyarchives.com/news/2019/jul/07/unsolved-mystery-mob-hit-on-joey/

ps – Joey Naples’s brother Sandy was also murdered in a mafia hit and that location is on Sir Storia here.

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