Italian-American Immigration History · Small Business Heritage · Newton Falls Commercial History
Sam Giuliano arrived at Ellis Island in 1948 at age 20, immigrating from the Sicilian town of Gioiosa Marea. He settled in Newton Falls, Ohio, where family members were already established, and met Katie Riccardi, whom he married in 1957. The following year, in 1958, the couple opened Sam's Pizza Shop at 2228 S Canal Street.
The building the pizza shop occupies has a longer history. Before Giuliano's tenure, the structure housed a bar and gambling hall operated by Italian immigrant relatives — the specific family connection is described in accounts as 'relatives' of Sam Giuliano, though the precise relationship is not detailed in available sources. The gambling hall's reputation was such that, according to a Youngstown Vindicator account from 2003, those who failed to pay debts were said to 'never leave the basement.'
Sam and Katie Giuliano raised all six of their children working in the restaurant alongside their parents and grandmother. The shop has remained in continuous, family-run operation since 1958. Younger generations of the Giuliano family continue the business, maintaining its character as a neighborhood institution.
Sources
- https://www.samspizza44444.com/about/
- https://vindyarchives.com/news/2003/nov/01/ghost-boasts/
- https://www.panicd.com/sams-pizza-newton-falls.html
Phantom soundsPhantom voicesObject movement
The haunting account at Sam's Pizza has two distinct threads.
The primary account concerns a 13-year-old boy said to haunt the upper floors and attic of the building. Employees have reported voices and unexplained movement in the upper attic section during hours when no one is present, and describe a persistent reluctance to enter a sub-basement area of the building. The phone rings without a caller on the line. Who the boy is and how he is connected to the site has not been established in available sources; a Vindicator account from 2003 notes that a cousin of the Giuliano family died of leukemia at age 13 in the house next door — also family-owned — rather than in the pizza shop itself.
The second thread involves an aunt of the Giulianos who died more recently. Her musical jewelry box was kept on a counter in the restaurant. It began playing without being wound. After the phenomenon unsettled workers, the box was removed to the upstairs attic. The unsettling effect did not end with the relocation.
The sub-basement, specifically, is a place employees decline to enter — a detail that appears in multiple accounts independently over decades of the restaurant's operation.
Notable Entities
13-year-old boy
