Pittsburgh Illegal Gambling Bust

[FriendofHenry]

I believe you're correct. After Charlie got popped for having his machines out after the state told them to have them removed, he just couldn't resist the everyday cash flow. The latest adventure is that he's encouraging his better customers get into the VFW business as the state still permits games in VFWs. He's just like his Grandfather and there's nothing better than "dead Presidents"

[JCB1977]

Nice article , I wonder if they got the machines from nannicola lol

The Western PA Poker Machine Baron was John "Duffy" Conley...who got all of his machines from Pat Ferruccio...but it is a good question on where the machines came from...Conley has done 3 prison sentences over the machines and has been under the radar for a while now...

My bet is that Anthony Murgie is doing business with his grand nephew, Charlie Nannicola, and is the machine man. Any takers

Logically, yes. But Anthony is 76 years old at this stage of the game so I am not sure how active he is or if he is even active at all any longer.

[FriendofHenry]

Nice article , I wonder if they got the machines from nannicola lol

The Western PA Poker Machine Baron was John "Duffy" Conley...who got all of his machines from Pat Ferruccio...but it is a good question on where the machines came from...Conley has done 3 prison sentences over the machines and has been under the radar for a while now...

My bet is that Anthony Murgie is doing business with his grand nephew, Charlie Nannicola, and is the machine man. Any takers

Logically, yes. But Anthony is 76 years old at this stage of the game so I am not sure how active he is or if he is even active at all any longer.

I met Anthony at camp when he came home from "college". If you think Charlie was hard-core, you never met his brother. As long as Anthony gets out of bed in the morning, you can bet on him being in action!

[JCB1977]

Nice article , I wonder if they got the machines from nannicola lol

The Western PA Poker Machine Baron was John "Duffy" Conley...who got all of his machines from Pat Ferruccio...but it is a good question on where the machines came from...Conley has done 3 prison sentences over the machines and has been under the radar for a while now...

My bet is that Anthony Murgie is doing business with his grand nephew, Charlie Nannicola, and is the machine man. Any takers

Logically, yes. But Anthony is 76 years old at this stage of the game so I am not sure how active he is or if he is even active at all any longer.

I met Anthony at camp when he came home from "college". If you think Charlie was hard-core, you never met his brother. As long as Anthony gets out of bed in the morning, you can bet on him being in action!

I believe you are talking about Ben or Mike Imburgia from "camp" who would have been Charlie's brother. The Anthony I am referring to is Charlie's nephew, he never did a "college" tour. Anthony Murgie owned L.A. Motors where Michael "worked."

[FriendofHenry]

Nice article , I wonder if they got the machines from nannicola lol

The Western PA Poker Machine Baron was John "Duffy" Conley...who got all of his machines from Pat Ferruccio...but it is a good question on where the machines came from...Conley has done 3 prison sentences over the machines and has been under the radar for a while now...

My bet is that Anthony Murgie is doing business with his grand nephew, Charlie Nannicola, and is the machine man. Any takers

Logically, yes. But Anthony is 76 years old at this stage of the game so I am not sure how active he is or if he is even active at all any longer.

I met Anthony at camp when he came home from "college". If you think Charlie was hard-core, you never met his brother. As long as Anthony gets out of bed in the morning, you can bet on him being in action!

I believe you are talking about Ben or Mike Imburgia from "camp" who would have been Charlie's brother. The Anthony I am referring to is Charlie's nephew, he never did a "college" tour. Anthony Murgie owned L.A. Motors where Michael "worked."

Da, I believe you're correct. I'm sure we looked at the picture of one of Charlie's brothers taken at camp. I'll see if I can did it up and maybe I can fugure out which one it would be. I know I also met Anthony for whatever reasons I thought he was a "college" graduate. Regardless, my money is still on him to be involved with the VFWs and poker machines.

[JCB1977]

Nice article , I wonder if they got the machines from nannicola lol

The Western PA Poker Machine Baron was John "Duffy" Conley...who got all of his machines from Pat Ferruccio...but it is a good question on where the machines came from...Conley has done 3 prison sentences over the machines and has been under the radar for a while now...

My bet is that Anthony Murgie is doing business with his grand nephew, Charlie Nannicola, and is the machine man. Any takers

Logically, yes. But Anthony is 76 years old at this stage of the game so I am not sure how active he is or if he is even active at all any longer.

I met Anthony at camp when he came home from "college". If you think Charlie was hard-core, you never met his brother. As long as Anthony gets out of bed in the morning, you can bet on him being in action!

I believe you are talking about Ben or Mike Imburgia from "camp" who would have been Charlie's brother. The Anthony I am referring to is Charlie's nephew, he never did a "college" tour. Anthony Murgie owned L.A. Motors where Michael "worked."

Da, I believe you're correct. I'm sure we looked at the picture of one of Charlie's brothers taken at camp. I'll see if I can did it up and maybe I can fugure out which one it would be. I know I also met Anthony for whatever reasons I thought he was a "college" graduate. Regardless, my money is still on him to be involved with the VFWs and poker machines.

Anthony Murgie is actually not the nephew of Charlie...Anthony's Dad was Philip Murgie, he died in 1988. He was involved in bootlegging in the early days and was a truck driver for the Pittsburgh Press from 1970-1985. Philip Murgie was Charlie's first cousin, thus making his son Anthony Charlie's 2nd cousin. Charlie was Sicilian, so it is no surprise that he referred to Anthony as his nephew.

Charlie had 7 brothers. Benny, Mike, Joe, Tom, Frank, Jim & Tony. His sisters were Dominica (Minnie) & Lucy. I know with 100% certainty that Benny & Mike was serving a life sentence in prison for a murder back in the 1926. Ben was paroled in 1940 and his brother Mike was paroled in 1941. Tony and Joseph Murgie were also arrested in connection with that murder back in 1927 but it appears Ben & Mike took the blame to save them.

[FriendofHenry]

Good info as usual JCB. As soon as I figure out how to load scans on the damn iMac I'll show you who I'm referring to.
There's no use in us discussing this here as no one else gives a damn. I'll shoot you an eMail when I get it figured out.

[JCB1977]

Good info as usual JCB. As soon as I figure out how to load scans on the damn iMac I'll show you who I'm referring to.
There's no use in us discussing this here as no one else gives a damn. I'll shoot you an eMail when I get it figured out.

LOL

[baldo]

Speaking for myself I’ve always enjoyed reading your posts (Henry and JCB). Really interesting learning about other cities and the vast connections they had. Better than reading about Gotti all the damn time LOL.

[FriendofHenry]

Thanx Baldo. As I've said in the past: "If it didn't happen in a big city, nobody gives a damn".
Because I personally attached to the major players inPittsburgh I sometimes take it personally.
Maybe most interesting about these smaller families is that someone outside the family can get as close as I did.
FWIW: If anyone has any questions about Pittsburgh/Youngstown, I'll be happy to respond and I'm sure JCB will too.

[baldo]

Since you guys are feeling so charitable (LOL) my impression that the whole hierarchy, ranking, made status didn't matter as much or at least they weren't as focused on it as NYC and other cities. Was this your impression?

[FriendofHenry]

My only experience with any big city family was when I met Michael's cousin Michael from New York.He came to camp one year and brought pasties from Ferrara's. Michael gave me his number when I went to work in New York, just in case

That being said it was quite obvious who was in the upper Escalon just by the way others acted around them. I later found out who soldiers were because they were always introduced to me as "a friend of ours". Keep in mind that other than the numerous times I spent with Henry, it would have been hard to tell that these guys were who they really were. I'm not sure if this answers your question.

[BillyBrizzi]

FWIW: If anyone has any questions about Pittsburgh/Youngstown, I'll be happy to respond and I'm sure JCB will too.

Nice one FoH..

Do you know how Chucky Porter was regarded in the family? Was he respected/well-liked? Did nobody protest his induction because of his non-Italian father/surname?

[FriendofHenry]

I actually learned of his non Italian heritage on this forum. I first met him at camp. For whatever reasons I remember Charlie rolling his eyes at me went Chuckie first walked in. Nickey D kind of pulled me aside to tell me that he might be the next "Man". The next morning Chuckie insisted on taking his new Cadillac convertible in the woods instead of taking one of the camp's jeeps, Needless to say we had to go get him when he got stuck no far after driving into the woods. Charlie busted his balls until he left the next day in his filthy dirty new Caddy

The next time I saw him he was with Jo Jo at my restaurant. He was Joe's driver for a while when Joe came home from "school". I was told he was part of The Toughest Man's Contest and later learned that he actually promoted it. Other than that, he introduced Pittsburgh to the big time drug business.

[FriendofHenry]

I should have included that Chuckie's Caddy was the new front wheel drive Eldorado convertible.
Surely no problem going thru a foot of snow on a logging trail in the woods