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Speaking of Italians. Good ole' Keneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono, a couple of Rochesters finest come to mind. Since we are on the subject of crimes and Rochester, I thought this would be appropriate. Although the crimes were not committed in Rochester, California can help thank Rochester people for the "hillside murders. Both Keneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono are a couple of Rochester cousins. Both coincidentally Italian.
If you can recall, good ole' Keneth Bianchi wanted to be a police officer but was never accepted by the Rochester Police Dept. They must have sensed something disturbing about the freak. . Before him and his cousin raped, tortured and killed ten females between 1977 and 1978 in California. You might remember them as "the hillside stranglers".
What follows is in no way, shape, or form condoning what those guys did, way back then. I know some of the folks whose families were affected by this stuff, and some of them went through a lot of pain (and continue to). I find folks in Rochester who have an almost perverse fascination with what the mob did there to be both delusional and weird, but, to each their own. I know about this stuff having known people who were around back then, as well as folks who were family members of those involved. Some of these folks (family members) are friggin' nuts, and some of the folks within the mob, and who worked with the mob, back then were certifiably nuts. They thrive off drama and whatnot. That said, I still find some of this stuff fascinating, to some extent, since it happened in my hometown. Some of what I wrote here jives with this site:
The Rochester mob originally was tied with the Maggadino's of Buffalo. They split with them and got tight with the Pittsburgh mob around 1970, I think (could be wrong), around the time Salvatore Gingello became boss of the Rochester mob. There was a Vaccaro who was involved in the early days, and he might have been a relative of the guy who got hit in 2000.
As Rochester boomed, the mafia did well right along with the city. People there were pulling down great wages in the 60's and 70's, and many weren't shy about spending it.
It was wild in the 70's, from what I gather. I was too young to know what was going on, but by the 80's I was old enough to kinda understand what the adults were talking about, plus there were kids in school and friends of mine who were related to some of the folks who were convicted under the RICO laws and other charges in the early to mid-80's. I think the last mob guy went away in like '89. Most went to trial between '81 and '85. I'm friends with one of Gingello's bodyguards' sons, and we've known each other since his dad went on trial in '85 for hiring Joseph "Mad Dog" Sullivan to murder a guy. My parents were a little nervous when we met in school and became quick friends (he's one of the most intelligent people I've ever met, in fact his dad's (the former mob guy) smart, too). Sullivan was a contract hit man from NYC's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood. He has the distinction of being the only inmate to ever escape from Attica.
For years the mob controlled gambling rackets all over town (Rochester still is a big gambling town). Their "base of operations", if you will, was in the upper end of Lyell Ave, between Dewey and Lake. It's the old Italian section on the west side, which included Lyell-Otis, an area called the fruit basket (Orchard, Grape, etc.) by Jay and Brown streets, and Dutchtown, so named because the first inhabitants of that part of the city were Dutch and German. When the Italians came to town like a generation or two later, many of the Dutch rented/sold out to the Italians (The other big Italian neighborhood was over by Bay, Goodman, and Norton Streets. There were Italians in the area of Clarissa St, too.).
Most of the clubs, eateries, bars, etc., along there (Lyell) were either owned by the mob, or business owners paid tribute to them. It was pretty intense, from what I've heard. There was no asking by the mob, they told people what to do. Yet that area thrived up until about 1980, then the demographics there changed, and the mob got smacked down by the FBI. One good (older) friend of mine was a bartender in one of the clubs along that stretch of Lyell, and he's got tons of first-hand accounts of what went down in the late-70's. His birth father was a member of the Rochester mob, too.
The mob had a firm grip on at least one local union, in fact some of the guys in the union had "no show" jobs, and thus worked for the mob. The city workers' union was also heavily affected by the mob, although I don't think anything ever came out of it. Rochester still is a corrupt town, and people don't often talk about that stuff. One of Gingello's family members is still head of the city workers' union, in fact it might be a brother. These are people you rarely hear about in that town. Not the kind of people I'd want to mess with, either.
The A and B teams (there was a C team, at one point, too) were at war for control of all the vice, loansharking, extortion, etc., the mafia controlled. Yes, the Blue Gardenia in Irondequoit was the site of two famous hits by one of the teams (the Blue Gardenia was kinda neutral ground, from what I gather). The first was an attempt on Gingello's life, whereby a remote controlled bomb was put in a snowbank and detonated, yet he escaped serious injury. Gingello was killed when a bomb put underneath his car went off, after he'd left a club in the city (there were 5 attempts on his life).
The Rochester mob was one of the first (if not THE first) local mob factions to use such sophisticated, remote-controlled weapons. Someone told me years ago they took cues from the IRA, as that group started using bombs in the late 60's (hence the phrase "Irish car bomb"). The Columbus Day bombings were used by them as a ruse to get law enforcement off their backs. Other bombings targeted government and religious buildings, to divert attention away from the mob.
The other big hit that sticks out in my mind is the Exit 45 Hotel one in '78. Hotel 45 is the one in Victor, up on the hill (exit 45 on the Thruway). Mob guys with Tommy guns fired off a ridiculous number of rounds at a guy, but only one hit him, in the femural artery or some such. I still say some of these guys were not the sharpest tools in the shed, and that incident proves it.
The other big story in '78 was the Holiday Inn fire in Greece, an arson that was never solved. Killed like 12 people, mostly Canadians in town for shopping. It was a crime scene for like 2 years, as I remember.
If others start chiming in here, I'll continue with my "Rochester FYI". I don't want to hijack the thread or bore anyone to death.
Interesting stories! But as a descendant of Dutchtowners I just have one correction. Dutchtown was originally settled by Germans (and by people like my family, Alsatians, Frenchmen who speak German), but not by the Dutch. The name "Dutchtown" is a corruption of "Deutschtown", i.e., German settlement. There WAS a small Dutch (i.e, Holland) neighborhood on the other side of town, along East Main St.
Interesting stories! But as a descendant of Dutchtowners I just have one correction. Dutchtown was originally settled by Germans (and by people like my family, Alsatians, Frenchmen who speak German), but not by the Dutch. The name "Dutchtown" is a corruption of "Deutschtown", i.e., German settlement. There WAS a small Dutch (i.e, Holland) neighborhood on the other side of town, along East Main St.
Thanks for the clarification. I wasn't 100% sure, myself, only that Rochester has a lot of folks who are descended from Dutch. Kinda like "Dutch Country", they weren't Dutch, they were mostly German.
There was a small area around Lyell/Otis which had some Dutch folks.
Thanks for the clarification. I wasn't 100% sure, myself, only that Rochester has a lot of folks who are descended from Dutch. Kinda like "Dutch Country", they weren't Dutch, they were mostly German.
There was a small area around Lyell/Otis which had some Dutch folks.
Are you sure they were Dutch? Lyell/Otis is where my Mom grew up (we're not Dutch). And you are right, the Pennsylvania "Dutch" are actually "Deutsch" (German). What can ya do?
Thanks for the clarification. I wasn't 100% sure, myself, only that Rochester has a lot of folks who are descended from Dutch. Kinda like "Dutch Country", they weren't Dutch, they were mostly German.
There was a small area around Lyell/Otis which had some Dutch folks.
Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitors sites is not allowed
There are 3 towns in the Rochester region that are among the highest percentages of Dutch Ancestry; Clifton Springs (Ontario County), Sodus (Wayne County) and Arcadia (Wayne County). Looks like most Americans of Dutch ancestry live in areas around the western great lakes and Minnesota/Iowa.
The sheriff's dept. had some major corruption issues during the 70's. Several mob guys were let go after evidence in their trials was proven to have been obtained illegally. Mob guys were not the only folks affected by this. Can't find any links but I'll keep looking.
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