Is Pittsburgh alive?

[Moscone65]

Structure should only be there when it has to (like when there are too many guys around and there needs to be a boss to maintain order)

[Wiseguy]

Your like the grinch before Christmas, or scrooge

More like the adult in the room having to tell the children there's no Santa Claus.

Shown to be made huh, do they carry their made-certificates around with them too?

Shown to be made as in identified as such in a news article, press release, indictment, report, etc. Not some Joe Blow on a forum posting some list with only themselves as the source, as if they've magically done some inventory of the family.

[aleksandrored]

Oh this is why!?! So you're the stupid question prevention squad, this forums very own neighborhood watch. I guess you'll have to argue even more strenuously then before because the 'Is this Defunct Family still alive' threads are still coming and clearly you don't want it to go there.

Better to be part of the solution than part of the problem.

The guy has an allergy to gossip, which this site mostly is, i dont get it. Still, from what i interpret, these small cities have loose knit cells mainly doing mainly some gambling, some loansharking, and maybe (only in some cases) backing some big drug shipments. Obviously they are not structured families with a boss, underboss, ect, there doesnt need to be. The guys doing this are guys with ties to the old organisations, but all thats left is small crews of guys doing criminal stuff. Sure they could start "making" new guys and doing all the position stuff but in their case it would just be cheesy and pointless because they are not needed to maintain order in a massive organisation. Simple as that. A traditional hierarchy is only needed when theres several dozen ambitious criminals and 100 or more associates to manage.

I'm allergic to bullshit, which gossip is 99% of the time.

I wish I could find where i read it but supposedly years back maybe in the 90s and early 2000s it was said Genovese members moved in to consolidate and support remaining activity and union rackets including kicking up, Dont quote me on that because i cannot find or remember where i read it

You may be thinking of 1994 article where the head of the FBI in New York said, "If there is a major trend, it is the consolidation of power by the Genovese family." A 1996 article claimed the Genovese family had "maintained sophisticated construction and labor racketeering schemes as others dumbed down to drug dealing and street rackets."

Whatever activity is left outside of NY and Chicago is probably run by guys from NY families, safe to say? With Chicago still holding down whatever they have left on their own turf. I don't think it's much in either case.

Outside of New York, there are a few small, weak families left in New Jersey, New England (mainly Boston at this point), Philadelphia, and Chicago. And the NY families still have a presence in South Florida but that does seem to be on the decline.

Lol...The states and Government literally took the mob to the cleaners and fleeced them of everything ! Sports gambling is legal in 42 states and somewhat legit in 8 others with every type of whacky bet the mob would never go for or think of, lotto , numbers, fish market , garment center etc etc.. All gone , your right, Drugs, Robbery, extortion , and a big one would be Medicaod medicare fraud which if the mob got into on a large scale they could easily make billions, hundreds of billions and on very quick time

It's still way too early to say what the effects will be on illegal sports betting.

In terms of numbers, how many members do these cities have?

Pittsburgh - 1 member

Cleveland - 4 members

Kansas City - 7 members (that can actually be shown to be made, i.e. not somebody on a forum saying they are)

Buffalo - 13 members

I thought it was only about 5 or 6 members, so there must be some small rackets operating there. Buffalo is controversial, but I believe it is in the same situation, with remaining members operating without a family structure, if we are to think of a Buffalo revival, a KC or Detroit revival would not be improbable.

They're all improbable.

Thanks, so in a few years there would be no mafia shadow in those cities, I don't know what Philadelphia will be like, but I think LCN was restricted to New York and New Jersey.

[Wiseguy]

Thanks, so in a few years there would be no mafia shadow in those cities, I don't know what Philadelphia will be like, but I think LCN was restricted to New York and New Jersey.

As I've said before, while I couldn't give a timeframe, I do think the day will come the LCN will only be found in the extended New York metropolitan area, i.e. the five NYC boroughs, Long Island, Westchester and the northern suburbs, Southwest Connecticut, and Northern New Jersey.

[Moscone65]

Your like the grinch before Christmas, or scrooge

More like the adult in the room having to tell the children there's no Santa Claus.

Shown to be made huh, do they carry their made-certificates around with them too?

Shown to be made as in identified as such in a news article, press release, indictment, report, etc. Not some Joe Blow on a forum posting some list with only themselves as the source, as if they've magically done some inventory of the family.

Oh your so grown up you have to tell everyone else your grown up wow

[Moscone65]

Thanks, so in a few years there would be no mafia shadow in those cities, I don't know what Philadelphia will be like, but I think LCN was restricted to New York and New Jersey.

As I've said before, while I couldn't give a timeframe, I do think the day will come the LCN will only be found in the extended New York metropolitan area, i.e. the five NYC boroughs, Long Island, Westchester and the northern suburbs, Southwest Connecticut, and Northern New Jersey.

I think we will be obliterated by a meteor or something first

[Wiseguy]

Oh your so grown up you have to tell everyone else your grown up wow

It was an analogy, which you yourself started. And continuing along with that, you're the kid who takes the news especially hard and runs off crying. But you'll see, I'm doing you a favor in the long run.

[Grouchy Sinatra]

Maybe a little more context is necessary. Are we talking about actual activity from what's known as the LaRocca or Pittsburgh crime family? Are we talking about surviving members of this family still involved with rackets yet not necessarily working as an organization? Are we talking about members of this family merely being alive still? Are we talking about any kind of traditional organized crime rackets taking place in Pittsburgh, connected to the LaRocca family or not?

I believe someone said there's made guys from NY families operating in Pittsburgh. This I tend to believe. Most of these families started off with people who were there by way of NY or Chicago anyway, or were heavily connected to people from there. All roads lead back to NY and Chicago, do they not?

[Moscone65]

Oh your so grown up you have to tell everyone else your grown up wow

It was an analogy, which you yourself started. And continuing along with that, you're the kid who takes the news especially hard and runs off crying. But you'll see, I'm doing you a favor in the long run.

Alright there little buddy no need to get offended, Seattle down now it’s just an internet forum

[Moscone65]

Settle

[Wiseguy]

Maybe a little more context is necessary. Are we talking about actual activity from what's known as the LaRocca or Pittsburgh crime family? Are we talking about surviving members of this family still involved with rackets yet not necessarily working as an organization? Are we talking about members of this family merely being alive still? Are we talking about any kind of traditional organized crime rackets taking place in Pittsburgh, connected to the LaRocca family or not?

I believe someone said there's made guys from NY families operating in Pittsburgh. This I tend to believe. Most of these families started off with people who were there by way of NY or Chicago anyway, or were heavily connected to people from there. All roads lead back to NY and Chicago, do they not?

First, at this stage, there's no "all roads lead back to New York and..." It's just New York now. Chicago can no longer be spoken of in the sense you are, where they're a twin mob capital.

Second, that doesn't mean there's New York members active in Pittsburgh. There's zero evidence of that. The ongoing trend has been the sphere of activity shrinking, not expanding with New York families moving into other territories.

Third, Pittsburgh is one of the best examples of what I've been talking about. One of the cases the original poster may have been talking about was in 2013 when there waa a big video poker machine bust (354 machines in 70 locations). Sports betting and numbers were also included in the charges.

Among the 16 charged were Ronald "Porky" Melocchi Sr. (ring leader, owner of Back Alley Vending), Jeffrey Risha (a bookmaker who had been involved in a 2001 Pittsburgh LCN gambling case), Kirk Mollica (son of late Pittsburgh LCN associate Primo Mollica), and Rodney Iannelli (son of Pittsburgh LCN associate Robert "Bobby I" Iannelli), Joseph Nistico (nephew of former Philadelphia LCN boss Nicodemo “Little Nicky” Scarfo).

To top it all off, this case had started with an investigation into an increase in McKeesport annual sanitation costs (i.e the garbage business), and found Melocchi has donated thousands of dollars to local politicians.

This is the kind of thing a lot of people on the forum, who don't know any better, would jump on immediately. Guys with mob connections? Gambling? The waste industry? Political corruption? Surely the Pittsburgh family must still be going.

Nope.

It's just remnants now. And Buffalo is essentially no different. There may be more made guys still alive in Buffalo you're also just looking at remnants at this point.

[FriendofHenry]

Maybe a little more context is necessary. Are we talking about actual activity from what's known as the LaRocca or Pittsburgh crime family? Are we talking about surviving members of this family still involved with rackets yet not necessarily working as an organization? Are we talking about members of this family merely being alive still? Are we talking about any kind of traditional organized crime rackets taking place in Pittsburgh, connected to the LaRocca family or not?

I believe someone said there's made guys from NY families operating in Pittsburgh. This I tend to believe. Most of these families started off with people who were there by way of NY or Chicago anyway, or were heavily connected to people from there. All roads lead back to NY and Chicago, do they not?

First, at this stage, there's no "all roads lead back to New York and..." It's just New York now. Chicago can no longer be spoken of in the sense you are, where they're a twin mob capital.

Second, that doesn't mean there's New York members active in Pittsburgh. There's zero evidence of that. The ongoing trend has been the sphere of activity shrinking, not expanding with New York families moving into other territories.

Third, Pittsburgh is one of the best examples of what I've been talking about. One of the cases the original poster may have been talking about was in 2013 when there waa a big video poker machine bust (354 machines in 70 locations). Sports betting and numbers were also included in the charges.

Among the 16 charged were Ronald "Porky" Melocchi Sr. (ring leader, owner of Back Alley Vending), Jeffrey Risha (a bookmaker who had been involved in a 2001 Pittsburgh LCN gambling case), Kirk Mollica (son of late Pittsburgh LCN associate Primo Mollica), and Rodney Iannelli (son of Pittsburgh LCN associate Robert "Bobby I" Iannelli), Joseph Nistico (nephew of former Philadelphia LCN boss Nicodemo “Little Nicky” Scarfo).

To top it all off, this case had started with an investigation into an increase in McKeesport annual sanitation costs (i.e the garbage business), and found Melocchi has donated thousands of dollars to local politicians.

This is the kind of thing a lot of people on the forum, who don't know any better, would jump on immediately. Guys with mob connections? Gambling? The waste industry? Political corruption? Surely the Pittsburgh family must still be going.

Nope.

It's just remnants now. And Buffalo is essentially no different. There may be more made guys still alive in Buffalo you're also just looking at remnants at this point.

I have some knowledge of Pittsburgh and I totally agree with your assessment of what's not going on there.

[Grouchy Sinatra]

Maybe a little more context is necessary. Are we talking about actual activity from what's known as the LaRocca or Pittsburgh crime family? Are we talking about surviving members of this family still involved with rackets yet not necessarily working as an organization? Are we talking about members of this family merely being alive still? Are we talking about any kind of traditional organized crime rackets taking place in Pittsburgh, connected to the LaRocca family or not?

I believe someone said there's made guys from NY families operating in Pittsburgh. This I tend to believe. Most of these families started off with people who were there by way of NY or Chicago anyway, or were heavily connected to people from there. All roads lead back to NY and Chicago, do they not?

First, at this stage, there's no "all roads lead back to New York and..." It's just New York now. Chicago can no longer be spoken of in the sense you are, where they're a twin mob capital.

Second, that doesn't mean there's New York members active in Pittsburgh. There's zero evidence of that. The ongoing trend has been the sphere of activity shrinking, not expanding with New York families moving into other territories.

Third, Pittsburgh is one of the best examples of what I've been talking about. One of the cases the original poster may have been talking about was in 2013 when there waa a big video poker machine bust (354 machines in 70 locations). Sports betting and numbers were also included in the charges.

Among the 16 charged were Ronald "Porky" Melocchi Sr. (ring leader, owner of Back Alley Vending), Jeffrey Risha (a bookmaker who had been involved in a 2001 Pittsburgh LCN gambling case), Kirk Mollica (son of late Pittsburgh LCN associate Primo Mollica), and Rodney Iannelli (son of Pittsburgh LCN associate Robert "Bobby I" Iannelli), Joseph Nistico (nephew of former Philadelphia LCN boss Nicodemo “Little Nicky” Scarfo).

To top it all off, this case had started with an investigation into an increase in McKeesport annual sanitation costs (i.e the garbage business), and found Melocchi has donated thousands of dollars to local politicians.

This is the kind of thing a lot of people on the forum, who don't know any better, would jump on immediately. Guys with mob connections? Gambling? The waste industry? Political corruption? Surely the Pittsburgh family must still be going.

Nope.

It's just remnants now. And Buffalo is essentially no different. There may be more made guys still alive in Buffalo you're also just looking at remnants at this point.

This would answer one my questions as yes. There are still mob rackets taking place in these cities, and they involve connected guys, but whether or not there's an actual cohesive, structural organization isn't known, and it's not likely there is.

[Lou_Para]

As a structure, the Mob no longer exists in Pgh, and hasn't for a while. True Sonny Cianutti is still around, but he's a remnant,not an active force. We still have the gambling, whether it be numbers,sports video or as we've seen lately,private big stakes card games,(mostly Hold-em). Jr
. is gone,Rodney,Porky,and the Rishas still have a nice book going. Dope still brings in some cash,as does the Gentlemen's Club business.The 1%ers still have some dealings with guys in the drug and extortion rackets, but a lot less now that Rooster has been thrown out of the Pag*ns. the Boilermakers local (154) and LIUNA (1085) still have a couple things going, and don't even wind me up about the Zappala/Porter Mob 'Family'.

[JeremyTheJew]

Has there been a Philly satellite person or group similar to Boston ever?