How did Frank and Costenze Valenti end up starting the Rochester family? They were both with Pittsburgh (Frank was made). Did they have to formally transfer their memberships to Buffalo since Rochester was a Magaddino satellite?
Secondly, most attendance charts for Appalachian include the Valentis and (I assume incorrectly) label Costenze as a capo. He would have been 31 at the time, which seems unlikely.
Thanks guys.
When Larocca was made Boss in Pittsburgh in 1956, Frank Valenti was against it, he was one of a few Capos who voted for someone else (Its in the released FBI files), I believe Al Zeid was vocal against it also. This made hard feelings working under LaRocca, so with LaRocca's blessing, and a $50k nest egg, Frank headed to take over Rochester.
Frank knew he could never be one of the top guys in Pittsburgh after not supporting LaRocca taking over after Amato stepped down.
Pittsburgh, Detroit and Buffalino families had very close ties and both supported Valenti going into to take over Rochester family, that's why no NY families interceded on behalf of the guys already in Rochester. I believe Frank and his brother also had ties to the Bonannos so that's another reason NY and the commission stood down.
The Magaddino Family had been the representative on the Commission for Rochester so when Valenti took over, he continued the tradition of paying tribute to them until the late 60s.
About the time Frank showed up in Rochester to proclaim the City was his, current Boss Jake Russo dissapeared and has never been seen since. Russo had taken over when Stanley Valenti went to prison for refusing to talk to the feds about Appalachian. Stanley was married to Antonio Ripepi's daughter. Ripepi was respected coast to coast out of the Pittsburgh family and carried a lot of weight in Ohio and NY.
Frank drew a lot of unwanted attention to the Rochester Family with his bombings, I am am glad he never became a big player in Pittsburgh.
