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02-21-2009, 04:13 AM
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Member
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Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Pittsburgh, Pa
73 posts, read 47,048 times
Reputation: 34
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Mafia activity in Pittsburgh
I've been told that Pittsburgh use to have a lot of Mafia activity in the 60's and 70's...
But I've also been told that there is currently a lot of Mafia activity still going on today thats related to Chicago? And included people in the local Pittsburgh gov't and even part of the Rooney family?
Is there any truth to this? Has anybody else ever heard this before?
Mafia history is one of my favorite subjects...
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02-21-2009, 04:17 AM
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I am not politically correct
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Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Hell with the lid off, baby!
2,099 posts, read 1,232,529 times
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There's already another(older) thread concerning this topic in Pittsburgh.
Yes, it still exists here. Is it what it used to be? No. As far as the rest of your post, I have no clue, and have not heard that before.
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02-21-2009, 05:46 AM
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Senior Member
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Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Pittsburgh, USA
1,609 posts, read 1,117,371 times
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I think the major mafia influence around here was out of New Kensington. That town rocked when they were here, it was prosperous, not like today. I know they had dealings in the city of Pgh. so that's why I think they were the biggest faction. They left during the earlier part of the 1970s.
McKeesport is another town where they were said to be. I don't know for sure. There is at least minor organized illegal activities but I don't know that it's mafia and the last I knew of it was the early 1990s.
The rest of what you mentioned I don't know anything about. I think if the Rooneys were involved they wouldn't have been searching around for someone to buy a part of the Steelers.
What do you think about this North Versailles restaurant?
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02-22-2009, 10:15 AM
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Senior Member
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Join Date: Dec 2008
142 posts, read 259,345 times
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It's all over the city and counties surrounding the city. Everyone knows it.
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02-22-2009, 10:29 AM
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Senior Member
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Join Date: Sep 2008
352 posts, read 178,706 times
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Sharon Pa use to have a pretty good size mafia ring. Not sure what its like now.
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02-23-2009, 10:25 AM
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I am not politically correct
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Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Hell with the lid off, baby!
2,099 posts, read 1,232,529 times
Reputation: 273
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Quote:
Originally Posted by floridaorbust
Sharon Pa use to have a pretty good size mafia ring. Not sure what its like now.
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Yep, that's about the general area I live in now. Sharon, Sharpsville and Farrell, PA used to be hotbeds of mafia activity, along with nearby Youngstown and Warren, OH. It's all but gone in this area now though. |
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02-23-2009, 12:51 PM
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Not a member
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Join Date: Feb 2009
91 posts, read 14,947 times
Reputation: 31
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TheReason
I've been told that Pittsburgh use to have a lot of Mafia activity in the 60's and 70's...
But I've also been told that there is currently a lot of Mafia activity still going on today thats related to Chicago? And included people in the local Pittsburgh gov't and even part of the Rooney family?
Is there any truth to this? Has anybody else ever heard this before?
Mafia history is one of my favorite subjects...
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Then you'll love it here! We have lots of Italian neighborhoods and people here! Probably one reason why our food is so good!  |
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02-23-2009, 01:08 PM
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Senior Member
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Join Date: May 2008
2,753 posts, read 1,045,073 times
Reputation: 1500
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TheReason
I've been told that Pittsburgh use to have a lot of Mafia activity in the 60's and 70's...
But I've also been told that there is currently a lot of Mafia activity still going on today thats related to Chicago? And included people in the local Pittsburgh gov't and even part of the Rooney family?
Is there any truth to this? Has anybody else ever heard this before?
Mafia history is one of my favorite subjects...
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I don't know how much you know but Pgh's mafia history is rich. If you'll forgive my lack of details, as far as exact years and such, I might be able to share a story...
Back in the 30's there were two regimes vying for control over the Pgh mob, the Volpes from New Kensington and the Bassanos from the Hill. Exactly what businesses were most in contention, can't say for sure, but if we assume gambling, prostitution and what was left of the black market liquor business we might be on pretty safe ground.
Anyway, at the height of this, Bassano sets a meet at his Wyile Avenue eatery, (Roma Hotel)? with two of the Volpe Brothers. During which course, antipasti or primo, or wheter it was over plates of veal scallopini or pasta fagiole, I just don't know, but both Volpes were gunned down and killed. This was without the ok from New York and Charlie "Lucky" Luciano, who was in the middle of trying to orgnaize the five families in New York, and whose motivation was to minimize "loose cannon" violence.
Luciano, after hearing of the Volpe hit, summons Bassano to New York and summarily evens the score, in the form of, I'm forgetting the exact number of ice pick wounds, but dozens, and the body thrown out a moving car on a Brooklyn street.
In later years, East Liberty and the North Side were mafia central in Pgh. proper, the Rosa Villa Hotel on the North Side headquarters for "peaceful" capo di tutti capi, John LaRocca.
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02-23-2009, 02:33 PM
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Finally graduated!
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Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Cortland, Ohio
1,783 posts, read 1,500,863 times
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Also the Pittsburgh and Cleveland mobs were always fighting for control of nearby Youngstown.
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02-23-2009, 05:35 PM
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Senior Member
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Join Date: Sep 2008
142 posts, read 82,724 times
Reputation: 84
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Im not sure how strong it is today, but it was def. here in the past. Youngstown had a lot of mob back in its day too.
I think its not just Italian in Pitt, but Irish as well.
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