He's the only active made guy left. There's like 4-5 other made guys still alive but they are all retired. He's about 80 years old.

Sonny Ciancutti was found guilty of running a large scale gambling operation back in 2000, which was the last prosecution of a Pittsburgh mobster and a result of Chucky Porter and Lenny Strollo's cooperation. Ciancutti's two key bookies are John "Johnnie A" Adams and Ralph "Big Head" Masselli. I have no reason to believe that he isn't making book. Westmoreland County, Harmarville and Turtle Creek are three areas where illegal gambling is still lucrative. He also spends a lot of time at Mountaineer Race Track.

Ciancutti is the "only" made guy left in Pittsburgh unless you count Porter and Strollo, who both defected. Sonny Amato, John Bazzano Jr and Wango Capizzi are the most recent deaths of the remaining members and high ranking associate (Capizzi). Pittsburgh had a strong run for a long time and is basically defunct

wow! what parts of westmoreland county? i hate westmoreland county....its nothing but rednecks and farm land and little small towns....my daughter lives there. i think New Ken is the only area that isn;t like that. and new ken is a shit hole lol!

I'm not sure if New Kensington is a big gambling territory anymore, due to economic times and the current demographics. Sonny still has his hands in operations run by Maselli and Johnnie A. McKeesport is also an area with gambling operations. At this day in age, Sonny is putting some cash in his pocket and has his name behind operations, which still carries some weight. Other than that, Pittsburgh is defunct. My question is: Why wouldn't Genovese have made more than 4 guys when he was boss? Since Pittsburgh was represented by NY, you would think NY would have seen the attrition and advanced age of the members and would have authorized Pittsburgh to initiate new members to carry the family. Same with Cleveland, NE Pennsylvania, Buffalo etc. Even though these families were smaller, they still have big enough territories to generate quite a bit of illegal gambling revenue. In Genovese's reign, he made Ciancutti and Porter in 1986 and Strollo and Naples in 1987. All of them were in their 50's or 60's when they were made. Why not send some trusted made guys from NY to oversee the gambling in all of the smaller cities that are now defunct?

Uniontown, Pleasant Hills, Washington TWP, Bridgeville, Peters TWP (Bazzano's old territory) and East Pittsburgh are still pretty viable gambling areas. Plum, Moon and Penn Hills are still viable as well with smaller operations going. Also look into Jeff Risha, who ran operations for Sonny as well

Which of the five families has a large presence in South Florida these days?

all five families have extensive operations in south florida , but it seems that the gambino and the genovese families have the most going on.

The Gambinos I believe.

Some other names I saw listed a few years ago connected to Pittsburgh were Eugene Chiarelli, Robbert "Bobby I" Ianelli, Anthony Imburgia, Mario Matone, and Nicholas DeLucia. Not sure all of them were made. And most of them were in their 60's and 70's. Any news on them?

Chiarelli Was nothing more than a burglar and small time drug dealer, name got big because he was on trial with Chucky Porter. Bobby Ianelli was an "independent" numbers operator, he took over parts of Tony Grosso's numbers racket with the Willams brothers. Never made, but did pay tribute to Genovese for operating. Mauro Matone was nothing more than a mid level drug dealer, with convictions in New York. Anthony Imburgia was an associate and the nephew of Charlie Imburgia, former high ranking made guy and Delucia was a small time bookie. Ciancutti is the only made guy left besides Porter and Strollo who are both out of prison but are considered rats.

Thanks.

how you know it? from porter declarations or what?

Bobby I" Ianelli is very well known in the burgh.

According to the FBI and the now defunct Pennsylvania Crime Commission, he is the last of the mohicans in Pittsburgh.

Robert "Bobby I" Ianelli is very well known. However, he always operated independently from La Cosa Nostra, as he took over Tony Grosso's number racket with Adolfo and Salvatore Williams. All 3 of these guys split up Grosso's number racket and operated on their own, as they had quite a few public officials on the payroll.

Well I thought it was common knowledge but apparently I was wrong; those "4-5 other made guys" I mentioned according to JCB are either dead or were never made to begin with. Sorry about the bad info.



See I thought these guys were all made but retired - that's who I was referring to in my earlier post. I didn't know that they had never been made to begin with.

Why are so many Pittsburgh guys mistakenly listed as made members, even in the media and by law enforcement? And why is Strollo usually described as a capo even though he was just a soldier?

Remember, Pittsburgh was one of the "smaller families," so their hierarchy is a bit different and much smaller. Strollo was a made member and the local media in Youngstown would refer to him as a "mob boss" because he was the most powerful mob figure in Youngstown since none of the other guys were made. He was also referred to as a Capo, and technically, he was a capo since he ran the entire Youngstown crew.

The same for Henry "Zebo" Zottola, who has been listed by certain media outlets as a made guy, when in fact he was a very trusted, high ranking associate and close to Genovese and Porter. Families like Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Northeast Pennsylvania and Buffalo had to have made members approved by one of the New York families, mostly the Genovese Family in New York, which didn't really open the books very often for the smaller families. Hence, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and the rest of the smaller families are now defunct because of death, prison sentences, and defections.

Salvatore Williams, the Williams brothers. Was there father not Italian?

Another Pittsburgh associate that has been busted a few times over the past decade is John "Duffy" Conley.

As for Williams, here is a good article -

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_147857.html

Has anyone heard how Chucky Porter from Pittsburgh's health is?

HES DEAD

Where did you get that information from? My source at the Post Gazette said that he is still living in Penn Hills.

dicknose just says random shit...he doesn't know what hes talking about

Ah he's alright. He's a ball breaker.

BTW, congrats on the 1000 post count Phat.

yeah hes alright i just meant about chucky porter being dead because hes not lol thanks mickey!

LA family getting back up, putting the pieces back together. Alot of money to made there .

Not sure where you got that. There is no real family left there. Not even a cohesive crew at this point. Pete Milano is more or less a boss in name only. Jimmy Caci recently died. Louie Caruso lives in Arizona. Not sure what Tommy Gambino is up to. A few other guys are in prison or basically retired. Los Angeles has always been too far away from the mob's traditional power bases. Even in the old days, the LA family was small potatoes. So it isn't so much a matter of money to be made there as there is nobody to take advantage of it.

Here are some good articles on Anthony "Tony" Grosso, one of Pittsburgh's most well known gambling bosses who was not a member of La Cosa Nostra but operated independently and paid tribute to Pittsburgh's organized crime family:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1955&dat=19940812&id=a1UxAAAAIBAJ&sjid=SaIFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1171,5508125

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19521215&id=0EgbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=rE0EAAAAIBAJ&pg=1771,6624546

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19850811&id=xdMbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=UmIEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6014,4838574

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19861029&id=57sqAAAAIBAJ&sjid=BmMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3993,8818818

FTFY.