John LaRocca was the boss of the Pittsburgh Crime Family who oversaw a borgata that was one of the most successful in the entire United States.

Check out the video which features some exclusive photos!

FOH, and all you other guys from Pittsburgh, you're gonna really enjoy this one!

Well done (as usual). It's always nice seeing the "Home Team" acknowledged for their place in Mob history.

I don't think a lot of people are familiar with the influence and business interests the Pgh guys had outside of the confines of the City, so thanks again for your great work.

Our pleasure Lou. Glad you enjoyed the video. (also, Lisa threw in some exclusive "private" photographs of LaRocca and some of his key men). We thought you guys "in the know" would appreciate that little tidbit as well. lol

Fantastic video guys! Very well done, I love the old photos that I have never seen before, especially with Volpe. And the news video if them all going into the court house, I wonder what happened there that none of them were convicted for those charges? hmmm

The opening video going across the downtown Pittsburgh view, I kept thinking a few years earlier just to the left were the Rosa Villa lounge and LaRocca's Allegheny Car Wash. So I was glad to see the Rosa Villa make an appearance, I have been inside there myself.

Great info on LaRocca's early years and his mistress he gave the wedding gift to, I love that story but its all true.

I will disagree with just one part and you can prove me wrong if you would like. Sam Mannarino was not at Appalachian. Yes LaRocca and Amato were both there and they each took a small plane back top Pittsburgh 2 days later. They were identified from photographs by airport employees, they gave fake names of course. (*In released FBI Files)
It was LaRocca, Amato, Kelly Mannarino, and Michael Genovese there representing Pittsburgh. You did not mention Genovese.
I am pretty sure that when Sam had his conversations with the FBI that are documented, he even said he was not at Appalachian, but I would have to go back and re-read that to be sure.

I am not sure "Zebo" Zottola was mentioned, and he was very important back in the day and very trusted by LaRocca, but you can't mention them all I suppose.

Great work everyone! Keep up the good work!

I love anytime Pittsburgh gets some love on here. Well done!

I believe you are correct Millspgh. Sam Mannarino did not attend Apalachin in November, 1957. At least not that we know of anyway. That was a miscue of wording on our part. Good catch pal. lol

I am not sure "Zebo" Zottola was mentioned, and he was very important back in the day and very trusted by LaRocca, but you can't mention them all I suppose.

Keep in mind that Henry refused to be made for decades. Only after Michael insisted when he sent him to Youngstown to keep tabs on Lenny, did he take his button.
It was no surprise that Charlie was about done putting up with Lenny's shit, so who better than Henry? I almost forgot to mention that Michael paid him well for his time :-)

You're very welcome Lou. Glad you enjoyed it.

If you haven't yet checked out the "La Rocca Family Leadership Chart" I researched and designed thats something you should do. We posted it up about a month or so ago. I think you'll really enjoy reviewing it, and I think you'll also be amazed at just how large the Pittsburgh borgata really was. They were deceptively influential and much bigger than most people think. (It may be behind our paywall but go check ok).

Wait till you Pittsburgh guys see what's coming next about Pittsburgh. You're gonna have plenty more to enjoy down the pike a bit. ok? lol

Great video. I spent a lot of time in the Rosa Villa. Also the Pleasure Bar and the Embers, if they ring a bell for any other Pittsburgers.

Thank you craigs48. glad you enjoyed it

Pleasure Bar in Bloomfield (Pittsburgh’s Little Italy) I’ve also been in many times, and in Rosa Villa in the early 90s, but I have to admit Embers does not ring a bell, where was that at Craig48? Is it still around?

The Embers was on a side street off of the circle in East Liberty. It's probably been closed for many years. It was the mid 1970's when I hung around there. I probably couldn't find it now. Been a long time. I bartended at The Pleasure Bar around the same time. It was a different era. Good times.

The Hollywood Social Club :-)

Hollywood Social Club, Raspberry Rhinoceros, and the Beacon Club

Interesting stuff

The Aloysius Club, The Greater Pittsburgh Hunting and Fishing Club (I think), the ill-fated Fantastic Plastic.

I shared this with NYM and FOH and thought a few others here might enjoy this, maybe Lou_Para and Craig48.


The Hollywood Social Club and Raspberry Rhinoceros I mentioned above were 2 bars that Chucky Porter assaulted multiple people in one night in 1977 with John “Three Fingers“ Leone.

They used a bat in the first bar to try and collect a debt but 2 guys walking in tried to be good samaritans and one lost an eye for his trouble, they used a broken bottle to gouge one guys eye out.

The attached article is more PG rated than some others. I have a few of them.

In court the guy sat there with a bandage on his eye and said he could not identify them sitting there lol,
the newspaper said Chuckie was smirking as he walked out of court.

There's some public FBI photos of Porter and Nick the Blade Gesuale and "Three Fingers" outside the Beacon Club in Squirrel Hill also, I attached one here.

Good stuff Millspgh.I love these old articles.
Gesuale was once described by FBI agent Roger Greenbank as the only mobster he knew that had "absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever"
Considering the circles the Blade ran in,that's really saying something.
Make no mistake,none of these guys were people that you wanted to f*ck with.
I'm sure you've seen the oft quoted account about the time Gesuale was under surveillance,and was observed snorting coke with one while urinating off his balcony with the other.
Total class act !
Anyway,thanks again for your always much appreciated posts.

Yes Lou, the balcony story is a classic. Gesuale was a real gangster for sure, his criminal career goes way back. Him, Porter, Leone, and many others grew up together so no surprise they all made big money together being in the life, they trusted each of.

You’ve probably read the stories about Gesuale hiding in Jamaica when he was on the lam for 18 months and how they caught him, because they knew he loved sports betting and there were only 2 hotels on the island that had satellite dishes to get all the games, so they just waited for him to show up lol

He has tons of charges over the years but nobody would ever testify so he was never convicted until the big drug case in the 80s.

And another pretty commonly know fact, he was “The Pittsburgh Connection “ in Goodfellas. In fact the other part of that, who was represented in the movie, Paul Mazzei did testify against Gesuale, Chucky Porter, and of course - Henry Hill

There’s a great story about Gesuale and Billy Porter attacking a rival numbers guy (this guy and his brothers were from Carnegie and were refusing to pay tribute to the Family)in the middle of the day in a downtown parking lot, during the fight the lot attendant came to break it up and was shot, but lived. But there were more than just Porter and Gesuale fighting, but they were the only 2 caught because they ran away, ran right through down town buildings and out the other sides, got to their Cadillac, tried to get away but were blocked in by a delivery driver truck lol so they were stuck, everyone else involved got away and of course they didn’t talk.
As someone who has worked at many downtown buildings years ago during my union days, I can picture this whole scene playing out in my head, and hearing how violent Billy Porter was and of course Gesuale, how furious they must have been win their car. I have those articles also.

Am I mistaken,or did the brothers from Carnegie actually own the parking lot where the beating occurred.?
If so,how beautifully ironic would that be?

Speaking of sneaky surveillance techniques,one of the standard methods when looking for a guy on the lam is to stake out cemeteries where family members are buried on significant anniversaries. For example,if a guy was really close to his Dad,they might check on the Dad's Birthday,or Father's day. It's actually resulted in guys getting nabbed. Pretty clever,eh?

Lou you are exactly right- the Martorella Family owned the lot and controlled number rackets in Carnegie.
Check out this article and see how the Martorella brother who was attacked said he was injured in a fall. LOL

Here is just 1 of the articles about it, I can only post certain size files so hopefully you can read this, I had to shrink it down.

Its actually very smart work trying this to catch the fugitives.
And what's the old saying, the feds have all the time, man power, and resources in the world, they will most likely catch you eventually.

If you can find a copy, check out "Little Chicago: A History of Organized Crime in New Kensington, Pennsylvania" by Dennis Marsili. A good read about Pittsburgh's neighbor New Kensington. Also "Smalltime: A Story of My Family and the Mob" by Russell Shorto, Johnstown's story.

New Kensington was a hotbed of underworld activity for many decades. The Mannarino brothers ruled the roost over there

The New Kensington crew still lives through some of the best chocolate candies in the country especially their dark chocolate turtles :-)

They're addictive.

I have been trying to find a copy of that, and even reached out to the author. he said they published that themselves and distributed themselves and have been out of copies for years now.
Others said I can find a copy at a few libraries.

In the book "I heard you paint houses" Frank Sheeran talks about driving Russ Bufalino to New Ken occasionally to visit with Kelly.
They were great friends and did a lot of business together.

The two of them would engage in all day red sauce cooking sessions. He also mentions how Russ was so upset when he saw Kelly after he got cancer and went down to 100 pounds that he cried.

Sheeran raved about the giant chocolate Easter eggs that Catoris made,and how he would send them to his lawyers wives when he was in jail.