Originator: FBI
From: PG
To: HQ
Document date: 1960-05-24 00:00:00
Document type: PAPER, TEXTUAL DOCUMENT

# DOCID-32332908

## Page 1

JFK Assassination System

Identification Form

Agency Information

Date:

5/11/201

AGENCY:

FBI

RECORD NUMBER :

124-90104-10206

RECORD SERIES: HQ

AGENCY FILE NUMBER:

92-2940-56

Released under the John F. Kennedy

Assassination Records Collection act of

1992 (44 USC 2107 Notel. Case#:Nw

54578 Date: 10.28-2021

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:

CURRENT STATUS :

Redact

DATE OF LAST REVIEW: 07/31/1998

OPENING CRITERIA: INDEFINITE

COMMENTS :

RPT

v9.1

NW 64578 Docld:32332908 Page 1

3

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## Page 2

Revort Fo

FD-263 (5-12-55)

FELERAL BUREAU OF INVES UALIUN

Reporting Offico

PITTSBURGH

TITLE OF CASE

Offico of Origin

PITTSBURGH

SEBASTIAN JOHN LA ROCCA, aka

Dato

5/24/60

Investigative Period

3/29-5/19/60

Report made by

ROBERT A. VOEGE

CHARACTER OF CASE

ANTI-RACKETEERING

Typed By:

mz

Report of SA ROBERT A. VOEGE, Pittsburgh, 4/8/60.

REFERENCE

-P-

LEADS

JACKSONVILLE AND MIAMI - INFORMATION

Jacksonville and Miami are being furnished a copy of this

report for information purposes in the light of allegations

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.

Withe the background supplied it is felt that these offices

can Intelligently handle the coverage of any future leads

requested in the vicinity.

Approved

Copies 1

Special Agent

Bureau (92-2940) ICC 4712

1

1

Jacksonville

- Miami (92-163) Info

• Philadelphia

(92-497)

2 - Pittsburgh (92-226)

PARM

...Do not write in spaces below

92-2940 56186-20

17 MAY 2'7 1960

ILOI

Fist

Property of 2 74M iport is joal flyou by the FBI, and either it nor its contents are to be distributed outside the agency to which locked.

NW 64578 Docld:32332908 Page 2

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## Page 3

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.

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

numbers 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 fittsburgh'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.

- C;-

COVER PAGE

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## Page 4

PG 92-226

GEORGE "MOON" MESSER, 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

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.

GEORGE "ZIP" ZAPPA, 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.

HENRY J. BARBER, aPCI of the Pittsburgh Office who is part owner

of the 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.

Miss MARIAN FOGEL, a PCI of the Pittsburgh Office who is being

utilized for information concerning Pittsburgh prostitution

activities and as a check on the activities of PG 585-0.

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.

HERMAN ISRAEL, 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

Pittsburgh.

the GENOVESE organization in

WILLIAM A. DOBKIN, a confidential source of the Pittsburgh Office

who was extremely 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

dolte."

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## Page 5

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

DIPPOLD on 5/12/60 and who has requested that his identity be

concealed.

PG T=2 iS. GEORGE "MOON" MESSER, a Potential Criminal Informant

of the Pittsburgh Office, who was

contacted by SA ROBERT A.

VOEGE on 4/4,15; 5/13/60.

-E*-

COVER PAGE

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## Page 6

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.

He recalled that SPINELLI

was a

non-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 engaged SPINELLI that he vowed he would kill

all three.

He recalled that SPINELLI 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 eating 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 avoid detection.

-6-

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