Hey Lou,

I never met Bobby or Tony. My great uncle who ran the rackets in Youngstown for a long time was close to Tony at one time, but he never cared for Bobby I that much. My uncle's closest friend in Pittsburgh was Antonio Ripepi. He was very close to Big John, Charlie "Murgie" Imburgia (lived in Warren, OH-Pittsburgh Consigliere) and Kelly Mannarino as well and went into semi retirement by 1982-1983. He definitely still got his envelopes from the numbers business in Youngstown, but he said he wasn't a big fan of Michael Genovese as he supported Jo Jo Pecora to be the next boss because he knew Michael did not share in the profits the way Big John did. He had no problem with Michael, but he said he knew his cut would be less because Michael demanded a bigger percentage as soon as he took over. My uncle died in 1987 and his nephew "Vincenzo "Brier Hill Jimmy" Prato took over, Jimmy told me that if my uncle were alive when Michael promoted Chucky Porter to underboss, he would have had a coronary.

One thing I'll say about Michael is that he allowed his associates to earn and allowed them to use his name. Even though Michael only made 5 guys during his 21 year reign, he allowed "high ranking" associates to run their book with the support of the family. Guys like Primo Mollica, Augusto Ferrone, Frank Unis Sr., Frank Unis Jr. (Aliquippa), Duffy, Paul Hankish, the Williams brothers, the Sabatini brothers and Bobby I...these guys were some of the largest bookmakers in Western PA and operated for years with the support of the LaRocca Family. I look at things today and its amazing how vastly it has changed...almost the entire culture changed in that region.