Johnny Dio

Giovanni Ignazio Dioguardi (April 29, 1914 – January 12, 1979), known as John "Johnny Dio" Dioguardi, was an Italian-American organized crime figure and a labor racketeer.

He is known for being involved in the acid attack which led to the blinding of newspaper columnist Victor Riesel, and for his role in creating fake labor union locals to help Jimmy Hoffa become General President of the Teamsters.

John Dioguardi was born on April 29, 1914, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City, and brought up on Forsyth Street in Little Italy, to Giovanni B. Dioguardi and Rose Plumeri.

He was the eldest of three brothers, including Thomas (Tommy Dio) and Frank J. (Frankie Dio) Dioguardi.

He was arrested several times between 1926 and 1937, but never brought to trial.

His father was murdered in August 1930 in what police called a mob-related execution.

Dioguardi's uncle, James "Jimmy Doyle" Plumeri, was a member of the gang run by Albert Marinelli and his patron, Charles "Lucky" Luciano, head of the rapidly forming Genovese crime family.

Dioguardi was introduced to organized crime at the age of 15 by his uncle.

At the time, labor racketeering in the garment district was controlled by Luciano and Tommaso "Tommy" Gagliano, head of the Lucchese crime family.

Plumeri, John Dioguardi, and brother Tommy were working for both gangs.

He also associated with hitmen and labor racketeers Louis "Lepke" Buchalter and Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro.

With Plumeri and another gangster, Dominick Didato, Dioguardi established and ran a protection racket in New York City's garment district.

The American Federation of Labor (AFL) began organizing workers in the automobile manufacturing industry in large numbers into directly affiliated local unions after the passage of the National Industrial Recovery Act in June 1933.

For a time in 1934, Dioguardi was executive secretary of the Allied Truckmen's Mutual Association, an employer association, and represented the employers during a strike by 1,150 Teamsters in September 1934.

In May 1935, the AFL merged these unions and created a new, autonomous international union, the United Auto Workers (UAW).

In November 1935, several AFL unions, including the UAW, formed the Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO).

American Vanguard: The United Auto Workers During the Reuther Years, 1935-1970. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2004.

ISBN 0-8143-2947-0; Lichtenstein, Nelson.

The AFL denounced the CIO as a dual union, and ejected these unions (including the UAW) in September 1936.

The AFL then created the UAW-AFL to compete with the UAW in organizing auto workers.

Most of the UAW-AFL's organizing efforts, however, were in industries unrelated to automobile manufacturing.

In March 1937, Dioguardi was arrested on charges of extortion, conspiracy, and racketeering, He pleaded guilty and received a three-year prison term in Sing Sing.

After his release from prison, Dioguardi moved to Allentown, Pennsylvania, where he established a dress manufacturing plant.

He later sold the plant (taking a $11,200 bribe to ensure that it remained non-union before he sold it), and set up a dress wholesaler operation in New York City.

Dioguardi also dabbled in stock investing, real estate, and trucking.

Dioguardi later returned to New York to live again on Forsyth Street.

He married the former Anne Chrostek, and had two sons, Philip and Dominick, and a daughter, Rosemary, who died.

Philip ("Fat Philly") later was a soldier in the Colombo crime family.

Dominick became a soldier in the Lucchese family.

In 1950, Dioguardi returned to labor racketeering.

He was appointed Regional Director of the United Auto Workers-AFL (UAW-AFL), The United Auto Workers-AFL should not be confused with the United Auto Workers.

When the AFL and CIO merged in 1955, the UAW-AFL changed its name to the Allied Industrial Workers of America.

See: Phelan, Craig.

William Green: Biography of a Labor Leader. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1989.

ISBN 0-88706-870-7; Barnard, John.

The Most Dangerous Man in Detroit: Walter Reuther and the Fate of American Labor. Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1995.

ISBN 0-252-06626-X; Robert H. The CIO, 1935-1955. Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1995.

ISBN 0-8078-2182-9; Franklin, Stephen.

Three Strikes: Labor's Heartland Losses and What They Mean for Working Americans. New York: Guilford Press, 2002.

ISBN 1-57230-797-8.