{"id":1764,"date":"2013-05-22T10:01:35","date_gmt":"2013-05-22T10:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/?p=1764"},"modified":"2014-12-24T17:13:02","modified_gmt":"2014-12-24T17:13:02","slug":"mourning-the-bloody-end-of-a-racketeer-husband","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2013\/05\/22\/mourning-the-bloody-end-of-a-racketeer-husband\/","title":{"rendered":"Mourning the bloody end of a racketeer husband"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"John <\/a>
John Bazzano, second from left, in an undated photo. (Photo credit: Unknown) <\/div> <\/div>
\"A <\/a>
A $5,000 casket containing Bazzano is carried from his Mt. Lebanon home. (Pittsburgh Press photograph) <\/div> <\/div>
\"Flowers <\/a>
Flowers for the slain mobster filled seven autos. (Pittsburgh Press photograph) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Newspaper <\/a>
Newspaper coverage of the Bazzano murder. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

All Rose Bazzano knew was that her husband John was on a business trip to New York. It wasn\u2019t John\u2019s habit to tell his wife about his business. So it naturally came as a shock to Rose when her husband\u2019s body, wrapped in a burlap bag, was found near a refuse pile called Tin Can Mountain in the infamous Red Hook section of Brooklyn. John Bazzano had been stabbed 20 times with an ice pick. A rope used to strangle him was still tightly twisted around his neck. His tongue had been cut out and his lips sealed with tape.<\/p>\n

John Bazzano dead? Rose couldn\u2019t believe it.<\/p>\n

\u201cJohn, come home,\u201d she pleaded while sitting in the darkened drawing room of the luxurious Bazzano home at 1287 Washington Road in Mt. Lebanon. She wept so fiercely, newspapers reported, that no physician\u2019s prescription would calm her.<\/p>\n

John Bazzano was listed in the 1930 census as a retail merchant and confectioner. Newspapers identified him as a member of an underworld outfit run by the eight Volpe brothers. The Volpes were racketeers from the Turtle Creek Valley. They were swaggering, arrogant men who lived in cheap apartments and flashed wads of money in nightclubs.<\/p>\n

At the time, racketeers were doing a booming business in the Pittsburgh area. They\u2019d stepped in to supply alcohol after Prohibition became the law of the land. By the early 1930s, mobs had become thoroughly entrenched in many parts of Allegheny County. Bazzano was considered by the newspapers to be an underworld \u201cczar\u201d who controlled the county\u2019s yeast racket, which took in an estimated one million dollars each year.<\/p>\n

The Volpe brothers were in the process of expanding their affairs into East Liberty and the North Side. This didn\u2019t set well with Bazzano. He wanted the Volpes out of the picture.<\/p>\n

The hit took place at a dingy coffee shop that Bazzano owned on Wylie Avenue in the Hill District. On the morning of July 29, 1932, gunmen opened fire while the Volpes were inside. Three of the brothers died, one while eating a bowl of corn flakes.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for Bazzano, the hit was unsanctioned by New York\u2019s mob bosses. Within days, the bosses summoned Bazzano to a meeting. Bazzano had to know this wasn\u2019t good news. Refusing the invitation, however, wasn\u2019t an option.<\/p>\n

Bazzano checked into New York\u2019s Pennsylvanian Hotel and, on Aug. 6, attended a gathering of underworld big shots at an empty building in the city\u2019s Red Hook district. For Bazzano, the meeting didn\u2019t go so well.<\/p>\n

His mutilated body was returned to his palatial Mt. Lebanon home and placed in a $5,000 casket. After a quiet service at the home, Bazzano\u2019s body was blessed by a priest. A procession of 75 cars followed the hearse to a cemetery in Arnold. Seven autos were loaded with flowers.<\/p>\n

A few days later, police in New York arrested 14 mob members, but couldn\u2019t find enough evidence to charge them with killing Bazzano. Instead, they were charged with loitering.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All Rose Bazzano knew was that her husband John was on a business trip to New York.<\/p>\n

Look at the picturesMourning the bloody end of a racketeer husband<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1767,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[947],"tags":[959,979,1173,1169,1048],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/tumblr_mn5vg18pGO1rr5swxo1_1280.jpg?fit=1080%2C723&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1157,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2013\/12\/06\/whatever-happened-to-santo-bazzano\/","url_meta":{"origin":1764,"position":0},"title":"Whatever happened to Santo Bazzano?","date":"December 6, 2013","format":"gallery","excerpt":"Santo Bazzano disappeared from the news until 1935.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Screen-Shot-2014-12-17-at-12.02.01-AM.png?fit=1052%2C532&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2185,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2012\/12\/24\/christmas-parades-in-mt-lebanon\/","url_meta":{"origin":1764,"position":1},"title":"Christmas parades in Mt. 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