i have been reading up on the rochester group, family? doesnt matter, lately. not to prove its existence, as it does not exist say in the form it did under russotti in the late 70's early 80's. i think by now its accepted that no family or crew exists in rochester, but yet crimes involving italians continue and really never ceased in monroe cty. some on here have claimed that some of those arrested in ferrari gambling bust are 'connected.' which could be totally true, but again connected to who or which crew or family. really there is but a few choices. historically valenti had support from both buffalo and pittsburgh. well that was over 50 yrs ago and one thing is certain, anyone or group in the rochester area is not connected to and that is the pittsburgh family for the simple reason it no longer exists. buffalo then? possible despite the many wars in rochester none seemed to be backed by any admin out of buffalo. i assume this was because the buffalo crime family around same time was having leadership issues and disputes themselves. the 1984 recording at palma boys involving fat tony, john tronolone and joe pieri concerning who was to become new boss of buffalo is interesting. in it fat tony asks one of the attendees, cant remember who to get the colombo family to let those in buffalo know that joe todaro sr. was now boss. i doubt this is now the case, but it shows maybe for the last time how the commission functioned in cases like this. it shows as well the insular nature of the commission and how certain families were tasked with responsibility for other smaller families or crews. in this case buffalo and cleveland reported to the genovese family through fat tony salerno. i will assume then that the responsibility for rochester fell to buffalo? there is no mention of rochester in the transcript and also i can find no evidence of a similar sitdown happening to resolve the many wars in rochester. that is not to say they didnt happen i just cant find any info...but i digress.

the only other option for a connection to new york is the bonannos. some members of old rochester group were said to switch to the bonannos later in life i.e. thomas marotta, loren piccarreto. the bonannos appear also to have re started an alliance with the buffalo family and its ontario based members. there was also the case of the civitello crew out of schenectady running coke with an associate of the bonannos richard sinde. these arent rock solid but i would put my money on anything or anyone operating out of monroe cty as being with the buffalo-bonanno group.

eating some dinner more on ferrari later...