Everybody knows that the old man Rooney won a big hand of poker and bought the Pittsburgh Steelers...allegedly, his sons placed their bets through Paul Hankish, who controlled all illegal gambling in Wheeling, WV but was under the control of John LaRocca/Michael Genovese in Pittsburgh. As far back as the late 1930's when Frank Amato Sr. took over in 1937, the Pittsburgh Crime Family were their own entity. There were some independent operators, the biggest being Anthony "Tony" Grosso, but as far as gambling went, the Pittsburgh Mob controlled 90% of it. Kelly Mannarino was LaRocca's underboss and was very active in the Havana Casinos as he owned a piece of the Sans Socui, the Nacional and the Capri. The actual successor to LaRocca was supposed to be Joseph "Jo Jo" Pecora, who became underboss after Kelly Mannarino died...but Jo Jo was on his way to federal prison on a racketeering conviction which is why the Pittsburgh Family chose Genovese as boss...which proved to be a good move as Mike Genovese was as low key of a boss as one could get. A good friend who was very close to some of the Pittsburgh fellas described Jo Jo Pecora as a "don of the people" meaning that everybody loved him and he always wanted to keep the peace. Mike Genovese was "extremely" arrogant and not as approachable as Pecora or LaRocca. Mike ruled with an iron fist and if you stepped out of line, he would have killed you in a minute. Check out these articles in the Post Gazette on Michael Genovese, gives some great insight.
http://www.post-gazette.com/obituaries/2...es/200611020421http://www.post-gazette.com/Op-Ed/2009/0...es/200904190162http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1990-...maker-mr-rooney (Trial of Paul Hankish describing Art Rooney's gambling habits)
