Rochester Family Tidbits Circa 1970s

[Pogo The Clown]

B. was interested in some of the member informants from Rochester so I dug into my files and here are some tidbits from the testimony of member informant Joseph "Spike" LaNovara. I only have a few pages of the transcript but there is some good stuff here. I also found the indictment from 1984 that I didn't even remember that I had. I'll be posting tidbits form that later. Enjoy.


-Says he was proposed by Frank Valenti and inducted in 1972.


-The ceremony took place in the cellar of Valentis house. "It was a huge room with a long table in it. There were around 35 guys in the room".


-He stood next to Valebti who was sitting down. "Let's see your trigger finger. Which is your trigger finger?" Valenti asked him. Then Valenti took a pin and pricked his finger. He mopped up the blood with toilet tissue and burned it while delivering the oath in Italian. LaNovara repeated the oath. It was the typical oath. Then he kissed Valenti on both cheeks and went around the room and kissed every member present. Then he sat next to Valenti.


-Angelo Monachino and Jimmy Massaro then went through the same ceremony. Monachino ended up defecting as well. Massaro is the Jimmy Hammer who was killed in 1973. His murder and the resulting indictment was of course the catalyst for the A-B War a few years later.


-After all three went through the ceremony Valenti went over the rules. They were the usual rules we all know.


-At the time of his ceremony he said the Boss was Frank Valenti, the UnderBoss was Rene Piccaretto and the Consigliere was Sam Russotti. He went through the function of all three. Usual stuff. "There were 3 Captains in the organization at the time that I knew of."


-He IDs the 3 Capos as Stanley Valenti, Mr. LaCorto and Richard Marino. Some of the Internet lists have LaCortos first name as Leonsrd but I don't know how accurate that is. Anyone have anything on this guy? Marino of course would later become the UnderBoss. Stanley was Frank's brother.


-Says that Gene DiFrancesco was a Captain during Valentis reign. He also describes Sam Gingello as a Captain. It is unclear if they the were a 4th and 5th Captain or if they replaced some of the three.


-Says Valenti was deposed before he (Valenti) went to jail "I'm pretty sure it was in 1973. It might have been the late part of 1972."


-After Valenti was deposed Russoti became the Boss, Piccarretto the Consigliere and Gigngello the UnderBoss. DeFrancesco was demoted to Soldier.


-He names Tom Marotta as a Soldier at this time. Says Marotta was promoted to Capo after Valenti was deposed. Marotta went down in the 1984 indictment. Got out in 1996 and became Bosso of the remnants of the family before being imprisoned in 2000 for trafficking drugs.


-Asked how many members of the organization there are in total he replied "Around, 40, 42-45, 43."


Pogo

[Pogo The Clown]

In another piece he describes one of the members present at his ceremony as a professor from a local college.


Pogo

[Cheech]

Nice post. Good info

[Pogo The Clown]

Some tidbits on those indicted in 1984. From the indictment


Boss Samuel “Red” Russotti – Was the Consigliere from sometime prior to February 1, 1971 until June/July 1972 when he became Boss


UnderBoss Richard Marino – Promoted to Capo in June/July 1972. Promoted to UnderBoss in approximately April 1978


Consigliere Rene Piccarretto - Was the UnderBoss from sometime prior to February 1, 1971 until June/July 1972 when he became Consigliere


Capo Joseph Rossi – Was made sometime prior to February 1, 1971. Promoted to Capo in approximately April 1978


Capo Thomas Marotta – Promoted to Capo in June/July 1972


Soldier Anthony Colombo – “Employed” by the family in April 1978. Was made in approximately December 1978


Soldier Donald Paone – Was made sometime prior to June 1975


Soldier Joseph Trieste - Was made sometime prior to June 1975


Soldier Joseph LoDolce- Employed” by the family in September 1977. Was made in approximately December 1978


Associate John “Flap” Trivingo - Employed” by the family in September 1977


Pogo

[Tony Monte]

Anyone ever come across this website

http://www.therochestermobwars.com/who-s-who.html

[JCB1977]

B. was interested in some of the member informants from Rochester so I dug into my files and here are some tidbits from the testimony of member informant Joseph "Spike" LaNovara. I only have a few pages of the transcript but there is some good stuff here. I also found the indictment from 1984 that I didn't even remember that I had. I'll be posting tidbits form that later. Enjoy.


-Says he was proposed by Frank Valenti and inducted in 1972.


-The ceremony took place in the cellar of Valentis house. "It was a huge room with a long table in it. There were around 35 guys in the room".


-He stood next to Valebti who was sitting down. "Let's see your trigger finger. Which is your trigger finger?" Valenti asked him. Then Valenti took a pin and pricked his finger. He mopped up the blood with toilet tissue and burned it while delivering the oath in Italian. LaNovara repeated the oath. It was the typical oath. Then he kissed Valenti on both cheeks and went around the room and kissed every member present. Then he sat next to Valenti.


-Angelo Monachino and Jimmy Massaro then went through the same ceremony. Monachino ended up defecting as well. Massaro is the Jimmy Hammer who was killed in 1973. His murder and the resulting indictment was of course the catalyst for the A-B War a few years later.


-After all three went through the ceremony Valenti went over the rules. They were the usual rules we all know.


-At the time of his ceremony he said the Boss was Frank Valenti, the UnderBoss was Rene Piccaretto and the Consigliere was Sam Russotti. He went through the function of all three. Usual stuff. "There were 3 Captains in the organization at the time that I knew of."


-He IDs the 3 Capos as Stanley Valenti, Mr. LaCorto and Richard Marino. Some of the Internet lists have LaCortos first name as Leonsrd but I don't know how accurate that is. Anyone have anything on this guy? Marino of course would later become the UnderBoss. Stanley was Frank's brother.


-Says that Gene DiFrancesco was a Captain during Valentis reign. He also describes Sam Gingello as a Captain. It is unclear if they the were a 4th and 5th Captain or if they replaced some of the three.


-Says Valenti was deposed before he (Valenti) went to jail "I'm pretty sure it was in 1973. It might have been the late part of 1972."


-After Valenti was deposed Russoti became the Boss, Piccarretto the Consigliere and Gigngello the UnderBoss. DeFrancesco was demoted to Soldier.


-He names Tom Marotta as a Soldier at this time. Says Marotta was promoted to Capo after Valenti was deposed. Marotta went down in the 1984 indictment. Got out in 1996 and became Bosso of the remnants of the family before being imprisoned in 2000 for trafficking drugs.


-Asked how many members of the organization there are in total he replied "Around, 40, 42-45, 43."


Pogo

Pogo: Do we know exactly what year Frank Valenti and his brother began running Rochester? Both Costenze and Frank were made in Pittsburgh, Costenze aka Stan married Pittsburgh Capo Antonio Ripepi's daughter and Ripepi was credited with helping the Valenti's with Buffalo break off on their own.

[Pogo The Clown]

In 1964 after they whacked Jake Russo. They broke off from Buffalo in 1968 in I'm not mistaken.


Pogo

[Angelo Santino]

Anyone ever come across this website

http://www.therochestermobwars.com/who-s-who.html

Yes, I spoke to him before and he's a nice enough guy. Very approachable. I invited him here but I don't think he ever joined up. It'd be worth trying to get him on here.

[B.]

Excellent info -- thanks for posting. Most of this is new to me, as I've mainly looked at them while they were still under Buffalo.

Valachi identified a young Frank Valenti as having been close to Stefano Magaddino early on, accompanying him to NYC with a group of other Buffalo members in the late 1920s or early 1930s, though the info seems a little muddy. Did Valenti live in the Buffalo or Rochester area before Pittsburgh or otherwise have ties that would have brought him into Magaddino's orbit pre-Pittsburgh? Buffalo and Pittsburgh each had a significant amount of members who transferred around the US, seemingly more than other families.

There is a Magaddino transcript from, I believe, 1964 where he seems to say that only Frank Valenti was made at the time of the recording and not the brother. Could be a mistaken interpetation but maybe someone else knows more. I'd have to check the exact wording but maybe he was referring to membership in the Buffalo family and at this time Valenti was under Buffalo while his brother wasn't.

I'd be curious how many of the Rochester members were previously made with Buffalo before the break-off. Utica looks to have been a large crew in its day and may have been its own small family originally. I'd assume the Rochester crew was similarly large if they became their own family later on. I've looked into Russolesi a decent bit and have a good idea of who his top associates were, but haven't seen much concrete info on who all was made while he was alive.

[JCB1977]

Excellent info -- thanks for posting. Most of this is new to me, as I've mainly looked at them while they were still under Buffalo.

Valachi identified a young Frank Valenti as having been close to Stefano Magaddino early on, accompanying him to NYC with a group of other Buffalo members in the late 1920s or early 1930s, though the info seems a little muddy. Did Valenti live in the Buffalo or Rochester area before Pittsburgh or otherwise have ties that would have brought him into Magaddino's orbit pre-Pittsburgh? Buffalo and Pittsburgh each had a significant amount of members who transferred around the US, seemingly more than other families.

There is a Magaddino transcript from, I believe, 1964 where he seems to say that only Frank Valenti was made at the time of the recording and not the brother. Could be a mistaken interpetation but maybe someone else knows more. I'd have to check the exact wording but maybe he was referring to membership in the Buffalo family and at this time Valenti was under Buffalo while his brother wasn't.

I'd be curious how many of the Rochester members were previously made with Buffalo before the break-off. Utica looks to have been a large crew in its day and may have been its own small family originally. I'd assume the Rochester crew was similarly large if they became their own family later on. I've looked into Russolesi a decent bit and have a good idea of who his top associates were, but haven't seen much concrete info on who all was made while he was alive.

Valenti lived in Western NY and then went to live with relatives in Pittsburgh when he was around 12 years old.

[Pogo The Clown]

If Capeci's assertion that Rochester did not have Commission approval to split off and form their own family is accurate than it is quite possible that it was not just the Rochester Crew itself that split off. It is probable that a number of disaffected members from Buffalo proper and the upstate area also split off from Magaddino and went with the Rochester group. Could explain why the Rochester family was as large as it was by the early 1970s.


Pogo

[B.]

If Capeci's assertion that Rochester did not have Commission approval to split off and form their own family is accurate than it is quite possible that it was not just the Rochester Crew itself that split off. It is probable that a number of disaffected members from Buffalo proper and the upstate area also split off from Magaddino and went with the Rochester group. Could explain why the Rochester family was as large as it was by the early 1970s.


Pogo

How does Rochester not having Commission approval make it probable that other Magaddino members joined Rochester? Were there members from other Buffalo territories who were identified as being under the Rochester "family"?

If you were to say that Buffalo leaders/members approved of the Rochester family even though the Commission didn't, then that would make some sense, especially if Buffalo didn't make an effort to reel them back in, but not sure I understand the belief that other disaffected Buffalo members outside of Rochester joined with Rochester unless I'm misunderstanding you, or you have more information.

[B.]

A lot of the Agueci / Papalia / Valachi controversy centered around Russolesi and Rochester, where all of these men had stayed. Agueci was found murdered outside of Rochester and supposedly Papalia was supposed to be killed at or around the same time. Magaddino showed concern on his office bug that Russolesi may cooperate, leading him to send a message through Russolesi's brother. As we know they killed Russolesi and from the transcripts it seems like all of this unrest in the early 1960s laid the groundwork for the disconnect between Buffalo and Rochester. Valenti looks to have had an ongoing relationship with Magaddino for many years and became the capodecina. Rochester becoming independent in the years after this seems to coincide with Magaddino losing influence and the Pieri faction gaining control. Could just be a coincidence.

I'm with you though that Rochester trying to split off (officially or not) would seem to have more to do with circumstances and politics in Buffalo than it would Rochester deciding they deserve a family out of nowhere so late in the game.

[Pogo The Clown]

If they didn't have the OK from the Commission to split off than it most likely means they did it against the wishes of the Buffalo leadership as well (hard to see them willingly letting such a large and potentially profitable crew just split off like that). So if the Buffalo leadership was powerless to stop the Rochester Crew from splitting off than they would have been equally powerless to stop other members from joining them. I can see other members taking advantage of the turmoil to break away, either disaffected by Maggadino's greed and faltering leadership, the growing factionalism in Buffalo, the increasing LE pressure in Buffalo, or just the opportunity to start fresh with new group. I'm sure that is how the Genovese/Lucchese and Gambino/Colombo splits occurred as well.


Pogo

[B.]

If they didn't have the OK from the Commission to split off than it most likely means they did it against the wishes of the Buffalo leadership as well (hard to see them willingly letting such a large and potentially profitable crew just split off like that). So if the Buffalo leadership was powerless to stop the Rochester Crew from splitting off than they would have been equally powerless to stop other members from joining them. I can see other members taking advantage of the turmoil to break away, either disaffected by Maggadino's greed and faltering leadership, the growing factionalism in Buffalo, the increasing LE pressure in Buffalo, or just the opportunity to start fresh with new group. I'm sure that is how the Genovese/Lucchese and Gambino/Colombo splits occurred as well.


Pogo

The Buffalo family was experiencing factionalism between Pieri and Magaddino groups around the time that Rochester was gaining independence, like you said, but I've never seen anything to suggest other Buffalo members joined the Rochester group. If anything the fact that Rochester was not sanctioned by the Commission would make it less likely that Buffalo members would jump ship. Utica, further away from Buffalo than Rochester, appears to have stayed under the Buffalo banner.

I agree that Rochester not having Commission approval likely translates to not having Buffalo's approval either, but without some kind of evidence there is no way I can make a jump in logic that the unsanctioned Rochester group stole away Buffalo members.

Do you have any info that would back this theory up or is it just based on the idea that Buffalo was weak and Rochester, who couldn't get Commission approval, was stronger? Not sure I follow that either.