AGENCY : FBI RECORD NUMBER: _124-90104-10206 RECORD SERIES: HQ AGENCY FILENUMBER: _92-2940-56 Document Information ORIGINATOR: FBI FROM: PG TO: HQ TITLE: DATE: 05/24/1960 ‘PAGES: 15 SUBJECTS : SEBASTIAN JOHN LAROCCA DOCUMENT TYPE: PAPER, TEXTUAL DOCUMENT CLASSIFICATION: — Unclassified RESTRICTIONS: 4 CURRENT STATUS:  Redact DATE OF LASTREVIEW: 07/31/1998 OPENING CRITERIA: INDEFINITE COMMENTS: RPT —_e_— ee —- OO0Ooeqoqq v9.1 NW 45836 Docid:32332908 JFK Assassination System Identification Form “Agency Information Page i
Revort Fo 1 FD-263 (5-12-55) FELcnmi BUREAU OF INVEs:uAl ION | Reporting Office «| «ilico of Origin | Date teenies Ree PITTSBURGH | PITTSBURGH | 5/24/60 3/29-5/19/60. = TITLE OF CASE . Report made by . ___ | Typed By: ROBERT A. VOEGE | 0 at . A } SEBASTIAN JOHN LA ROCCaA; aka OF CASE ANTI-RACKETEERING REFERENCE Report of SA ROBERT A. VOEGE, Pittsburgh, 4/8/60. @P. LEADS JACKSONVILLE AND MIAMI - INFORMATION _ Jacksonville and Maami are being furnished a copy of this report for information purposes in the light of allegations i made. by the wife of LA ROCCA and Pittsburgh informants concerning the: travel of La ROCCA to Florida and Cuba during his disappearance from.Pittsburgh: following the Apalachin, N. Y. conference of hoodlums during November, 1957. Withé.the background supplied it is felt that these offices Ca can intelligently handle the coverage of any future leads “ requested in the vicinity. —_- een Approved ts Yo Pt74°O in Charse In Ch. . Do not write in spaces below - Ps Rasa azoeves47™  |F21 APY) | Ss Gree x 1 - Miami (92-163) (Info - 1 - Philadelphia (98-4974 (Info) 2 - Pittsburgh (92-226) Property eu by the FBI, and neither it nor its contents are to be distributed outside the agency to which loaned. 1 NW 45836 DocId:32332908 Page 2 - ---~---.- wns eee noe
PG 92-226 6. Will continue to endeavor to develop a confidential informant at the North Star Cement Block Co., 12 McCandless St., inasmuch as LA ROCCA is presently spending most of the time that he is away from his residence at this location. 7. Will maintain contact with the Chief of Police of the McCandless Township Police Department and those officers cover- ing the neighborhood in which LA ROCCA resides so that immediate notification by them may be made of any unusual activity observed in the vicinity of LA ROCCA's home, . 8. Will check the list of toll calls made from Forest 4-5296, the home telephone of LA ROCCA, for the names of racket associates and personal business contacts of the subject not now known to the Pittsburgh Office and will further identify and obtain appropriate background information of subscribers to telephone | - mumbers called, CRIMINAL INFORMANT COVERAGE The following individuals are presently being utilized by the Pittsburgh Office in the SEBASTIAN JOHN LA ROCCA. investigation: PG 573-C, who is extremely friendly with the GENOVESE brothers and particularly FIORE GENOVESE, younger brother of MIKE GENOVESE, and who is presently being utilized for the general coverage of the Red Eagle Club and its visitors. PG 585-C, who is well acquainted with most of Pittsburgh's Top Hoodlums and who was formerly employed as a waitress in the Red Eagle Club, once known as the Genovese Cocktail Lounge, 412 Larimer Avenue, Pittsburgh. Informant still visits this establishment and comes in constant contact with MIKE GENOVESE and other members of Pittsburgh's racketeering element in her role as a medium-priced prostitute. Informant is presently traveling with Mrs. JULIA MINTZ, widow of JAKE MINTZ, co-owner of EZZARD CHARLES, former world's heavyweight boxing champion. | She is presently being utilized for the coverage of the Genovese- 'LaRocca-Nelson interests. . Ce . { COVER PAGE | NW 45836 DociId:32332908 Page 3
PG 92-226 a PCI who is presently very active in Pittsburgh numbers operations and who was arrested during the month of August, 1958, in connection with his operation. He is intimately acquainted with many Pittsburgh Top Hoodlums and racketeers through association with them when they began their racket careers. He is presently being utilized for coverage of the Genovese-Nelson interests and is also contributing ‘information regarding the VOLPE brothers who are close associates. of GENOVESE and LA ROCCA. a PCI of the Pittsburgh Office presently ‘engaged in racket activity in the City of Pittsburgh who is being utilized for general coverage of lottery and numbers operations in the Pittsburgh area, ee oc: of the Pittsburgh Office who is part owner lo) € notorious gambling establishment at Chester, W. Va., ; known as Club 30, who is being utilized for information concerning the club and the interest in it of Pittsburgh hooddums associated with both LA ROCCA and GENOVESE. | a 2 of the Pittsburgh Office who is being OTHER 4 U Z or information concerning Pittsburgh prostitution | activities and as a check on the activities of PG 585-C. . AL BUCK, former Allegheny County Detective and now Vice President of the Fidelity Trust Company, Loan Department, Pittsburgh, who is being utilized for his knowledge of the Bankers Exchange in Pittsburgh from which he can obtain information regarding bank loans made to Pittsburgh Top Hoodlums. BUCK is also familiar with the activities of several of Pittsburgh's Top Hoodlums, particularly those of LA ROCCA, from having worked on criminal matters for many years in the City of Pittsburgh. a confidential source of the Pittsburgh Office who is being utilized for information concerning the MANNARINO organization in New Kensington, Pa., and who is also furnishing information regarding tie-ups with the GENOVESE organization in Pittsburgh, a.confidential source of the Pittsburgh Office fo) y helpful to Pittsburgh Agents during the ; investigation of the RALPH KINER extortion investigation several years ago and whose brother-in-law, NORMAN FARBER, is a member -'* of the MANNARINO organization. -D- COVER PAGE cuate” NW 45836 DociId:32332908 Page 4
PG 92-226 In an effort to increase criminal informant coverage, the PCIs under development are being contacted on a continuing and regular basis so that information obtained from them may be used on a day-to-day basis in connection with spot surveillances of the establishments frequented by the subject when he is in. the Pittsburgh vicinity. INFORMANT COVERAGE RELATING TO THIS REPORT PG T=-1 is WILLIAM MEREDITH, Special Agent, Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania, who was contacted by IC GEORGE C. DIPPOLD on 5/12/60 and who has requested that his identity be concealed, ' . ‘OTHER 4 PG Te2 19 erreurs Potential Criminal Informant of the Pi » who was contacted by SA ROBERT A. VOEGE on 4/h, 155 5/13/60. _-E*¥- COVER. PAGE NW 45836 DociId:32332908 Page 5
PG 92-226 the other racketeers feared and respected him because of his Size and cold blooded attitude. He stated that in those days the moonshine concession in Pittsburgh's 13th Ward was run by a man named JOE GIGILLOTTI and that LA ROCCA was only a whiskey runner from Jamestown, N. Y. He recalled that SPINELLI was a hnon-drinker who was consequently hired as a body guard for the older three VOLPE brothers and that he had been born and raised in Italy where he had left his wife and two children. The informant said he knew that SPINELLI hired out as a professional gun man and that he owned some stills in the Pittsburgh area until he was crossed up in some manner by the VOLPE brothers who insisted that he was simply working for them. The informant stated that this so enraged SPINELLI that he vowed he would kill all three. .He recalled that SPINELEI left the moonshine joint early.one morning without telling the informant where he was going and that he later learned that SPINELLI had encountered the three. VOLPE brothers €atiing breakfast at Bazzanno's Restaurant in — Pittsburgh's Hill District at which time he gunned them to death. He recalled that_.ARTHUR and JIMMY died with their heads in their cereal but that JOHNNY managed to brush by SPINELLI and did not die until he reached the gutter in front of the restaurant. The informant recalled that SPINELLI gathered his things together and immediately fled to New York where he encountered the brother of the BAZZANNO who ran the Pittsburgh restaurant. He stated that SPINELLI killed this individual with an ice pick and that newspaper accounts from New York told how BAZZANNO was discovered with more than 150 ice pick holes and with various sections of his body cut off. He said that SPINELLI.then fled to Italy and had nerve enough to settle with his family in the same town in which the elder VOLPE was an official. He stated that the elder VOLPE was thereafter responsible for having SPINELLI sentenced to 25 years in an Italian prison because he could not be extradited to the U. S. He recalled that in those days numbers operations in the Pittsburgh area were incidental to moonshine operations and that most moonshiners: carried a numbers card plainly visible in their back pockets. He stated that the police became interested in numbers only when moonshine was no. longer profitable for them, The informant further advised that independent bookies in the East Liberty - Homewood area are still being pressured by the Pittsburgh Police Department and that things have gotten so bad that he has been forced to contact his "joint" by telephone only. He added that even the smaller books turning into the Genovese-Nelson combine +* | run a daily risk of being raided and must take meticulous precautions to awid detection. | -6- L NW 45836 DociId:32332908 Page 6