Born in Italy in 1900, Onofrio Minaudo arrived in Detroit in 1924 after illegally jumping ship in New Orleans. Minaudo's Americain journey was hastened by the need to escape a pending murder charge in Italy. Brought before the Kefauver committee in 1950 and questioned extensively about the circumstances surrounding his flight from justice in his home land, Minaudo passed off the life sentence he received "in absentia," on December 28,1925 as well as two other sentences on charges that the committee described as being heinous in nature, as mistakes in information. The Kefauver investigation also revealed Minaudo had been arrested numourous times in Detroit under such fictious names as Tony Palaria and Giuseppe Mangiopani, but were unable to find out what the outcome of the charges had been for the Minaudo files had been removed from the police archives by a court order. Known to his underworld confederates as Nono, Onofrio Minaudo was a known gambler who was apart of the partners coin and vending machine rackets, and actively involved imself in vice and prostitution before his run in with the Kefauver committee, all while taking on an active role in labor issues on behalf of Angelo Meli and Papa John Priziola. Minaudo had been and early associate of Frank "Fingers" Coppola's Partinico faction and maintained close ties to the deported kingpin well into the late 50's. As a result of the Kefauver investigation, Onofrio became a priority target of the Immigration and Naturalization Service who fought for more than a decade to have the troublesome gangster deported. Minaudo would become a key figure a decade later when he was highlighted as one of the number two man in the Windsor faction of the Detroit Outfit. Senator Joseph McClellan ran a recap of Nono's criminal activities and placed him in charge of gambling, prostitution and labor racketeering in Windsor, while charging him once more with extortion related to his involvement in the vending machine industry. By the early '60s, Minaudo had moved across the Detriot river and frequently teased the Americain authorities by openly crossing the border for meetings with his business and criminal associates such as Angelo and Vincent Meli, Joe Bommarito and one of the Priziola's.
