Their was a time in Western Pa. you mentioned the name John Larocca peoples faces would turn to shear Panic.
Because his father John S. Larocca was a notorious head of the Western Pa. Lacostra Nostra the Mafia.
But I knew the other John Sebastion Larocca II His son
Who became a good friend and mentor to me on running my business. he passed this past December 23rd at age of 77
John was adopted by his father and mother when he was very young he never knew his birth parents
He had a tough but loving upbringing being sent to Valley Forge Military Academy as a young man where he learned to be a leader and he was a compassionate and caring man who fought for the little guy. .I'm not sure if he went all way out to valley forge boarding school or attended the Saint Joseph Jr Military Academy in East Liberty on Lincoln ave. which closed in late 60s because he talked about walking home in his school uniform and his parents at time lived in East Liberty and I believe they where an affiliate of Valley Forge . If he did go to St Josephs then he may be in the class picture below.
Many a East Liberty Kid was threatened to be sent there if they misbehaved including my younger brother.
His father told him that if he was going to follow in his shoe steps he had to pay the price if he got caught by the law and pay the penalty
He chose not to be a gangster . He would go onto become Vice President of Laborers Local 1058 . and because of his last name would be subjected to intense scrutiny by the FBI and justice dept. and when they did investigate him they found nothing and every penny of the unions pension fund to be accounted for.
John like his father was a very low key and quiet man Sadly I do not even have a picture of him .But that's what he wanted .
But like his father he was a brilliant Business Man who took excellent care of his employees and customers.
I first meet John thru a friend and he hired me to put a Burglar alarm at his modest home in Franklin Twp. it was shortly after his father had passed. Where I meet his first wife Fran a very nice woman who he had a son and daughter to.
While doing the alarm I also put in cable TV wiring for him and accidentally put my foot in wrong place in attic came down immediately told him what I did and had a drywall contractor there the next day and had it fixed. something john appreciated which was honesty and integrity. Because of my Honesty he refered me to many family friends to do work for
I did not know till I mentioned to my father who I was working for that my dad worked for his father when he was young and going to trade school and wired up door bells to alert bookie joints when they where being raided. We always joked my son would work for his son someday . But I never was able to have children .
Ha honored his father by having a small picture of his dad sitting at a bar in NYC with Joe Gambino
in his hallway.
He inherited his fathers Allegheny Gas n Car Wash on Sandusky Street in Pittsburgh's North side
and If a car came thru the wash and was not right it was made right .
He knew I was an electrician and asked if I could do repairs which I did, for several years .Every Christmas he would handout Bottles of Top Shelf Whiskey and Box of expensive Chocolates to his best customers .
I was able to de lite him the one day by being able to get an old spray scent dispenser working his dad had installed in 60s which had these big phony lighted bubblers where the scent was supposedly coming from when in realty it was little bottle in back. they sold a lot of these scents believe it or not
He always told the story about the time his dad had the scent dispenser installed and the attendants over sprayed the scent in his Cadillac when he was getting his car washed and he was furious but also a Humorous Guy .
Saying he did not like his car smelling like some Whore House.
One day while hooking up a new Paging and music system for john I was working in his office at the car wash and I see this funny looking antenna right above his desk I ask him about it and he tells me its for a old no longer used Radar burglar Alarm in back. Really I had seen ultrasonic alarms but never an antenna like that .
Well turns out he was being spied on by who ever and that night wouldn't you know it the burglar alarm goes off and when i look in ceiling the antenna was gone.
John always suspected the Government was spying on his dad but he was always smart enough to never discuss mob business in the car wash.
One day John was horrified a Customers brand new Mercedes Benz was coming down the line sideways after the belt malfunctioned. I felt so bad for him but he made it right with the customer.
One time John asked me if there was a way to determine how many cars where coming down the line he suspected despite the fact how well he took care of his employees one of his managers was ripping him off. He was right. I hooked up a pressure pad on the line which clicked a counter and told how many cars had been thru wash that day. Needless to say john fired the manager and should have prosecuted him but he did not.
Sadly John was forced to sell the Car wash to Urban Renewal Project and that hurt him financially because he would always make good money on Sundays selling parking spots for steelers games.
During this time he also had a small game Room in Pine Plaza I did electrical work at and had Video Game machines at some friends stores which I occasionally did repairs on. Unfortunately the Video Game rooms and game themselves would fade and john closed it down he never offered or had the illegal Poker machines like other vendors had. and got into trouble for..
He took the money from the sale and invested it into North Way Golf Driving Range in N. Strabane on McDowell lane. Where i did all the electrical work . He held a dinner at the now defunct Danny's Restaurant named after Steelers owner on North Side where all the contractors including myself had dinner and we discussed all the aspects of what had to be done. That was john a man who just cared about everyone. He was also a big tipper he knew how hard they worked.
Of course when we went and built the place John had to get over hurdle after hurdle with zoning and crabby pain in the ass neighbors he dubbed the Lilly pad People for the little shacks they lived in beside Cannonsburg Lake. and neighbors on hill claimed lights where to bright even thou I went up and made sure they where not . They sued him and lost.
I will never forget first day some of the guys came out from the union hall to help on a Saturday with the concrete work and they where sitting down and getting out their lunch buckets and John goes What the hell is this .You think im Ming The Merciless put those buckets away and he sent someone to bring lunch from Mcdonalds for everyone.
But again that was John.
Unfortunately one of the supply houses I was dealing with Service Electric Supply on Washington Boulevard at the time and now out of business had a salesman named Jerry who promised to help us with getting the correct and best lighting for at night for the driving range . This after john spent $30,000 on lights alone there.
Of course Jerry was all talk and never helped with getting the lights properly aimed so John paid me to rent a lift and get it done.
I was so pissed at Service Electric Supply after that and another stunt their sales people pulled I never bought from them again. Sadly several other supply houses I have dealt with also have been a total disappointment and total rip off as well. Nature of the business unfortunately promise the world and not deliver it. But there are a couple supply houses I deal with are excellent including Stanton Industrial Electric who always got the bubs John needed for his Lights and Liberty Lighting who got John several different designer lights he wanted for his homes.
One Saturday this yellow Mercedes with a I love 84 Lumber sticker on it came thru to see what was going on John was not there at time and guys Jokingly told the cars owner Joe Hardy who owns 84 Lumber and has big influence in Washington County only thing his wood was good for for was burning when he offered to open an account to purchase wood we needed. Joe got all mad and left and after he realized who owned North way he came back that afternoon all was forgiven and John did a lot of purchases from Joe who became a friend. Joe even bought us all lunch one time .
John poured his life into the driving range wanting everything right he hired a landscaper he did a very nice job but ripped him off on the cost. Seems too many people john hired did this to him and of course he never used them again and they lost all possible new customers John would have brought them like he got for me.
Hard to believe John was there for over 30 years and every spring he would hire me to look the electric over to make sure it was working correctly .If there was ever a problem when he was open I would always get there that day for him and take care of it.
I did not realize it at the time but as we where finishing up the driving range that John was Interested in and had gone to NYC to arrange the financing too purchase the old Treesdale Farm property in Marshal Twp. that had come up for sale and was going to develop it into High End Homes .
he had everything ready and at last minute he was rebuffed and they sold it to Daniel Soso who went bankrupt during the build out.
Had John been given that opportunity you would have seen a community like no other. Because John had the financial backing and the skilled workforce to make it happen. But again he got screwed because of his last name .He like me said he always wanted to change his last name but did not want to dishonor his father
Every Spring also when it came time to change the light bulbs on the night time lights at the range John would give a nice donation to Peters Twp Fire Dept who would bring their ladder truck down and change lights and it was an excellent training opportunity for the firefighters to get truck out and use it.
But the IAFF fire fighters union got in the way and said no more since Peters twp is a quasi paid /volunteer service and career firefighters are union members .
They did this knowing at the time john was VP for 1058.
John was furious a fellow union would do this and he never again supported them or their causes which he would always donate to.
John always employed local people during the summer and while some where excellent like Bill who was the night watchman and handy guy others ripped him off as well and damaged the golf carts and machinery
I will never forget the time John called me after a Lightning strike hit the driving range it actually blew the covers off the light poles electrical outlets and he lost 2 cash registers but the surge protection i put on the electrical service did its job and saved the building and lights.
Shortly after this happened his now widowed mother who lived at the family home in Ingomar was having surge damage issues at her home and he asked me to come over and install surge suppressors on the home service.
His mom was a fantastic host and offered me lunch and was asking about my family and upon hearing I was of Ukrainian background like her we hit it off just great any time I came over to do handy man things for her she always had a big lunch ready and she was one hell of a cook .John said she even raised and butchered her own chickens at one time.
When I was there the one day I saw the Game Room had this very fancy top hat design with playing cards in the center of the room when we had to move the pool table and I asked John about it as I had seen it 2 other times at homes in Squirrel Hill . he explained how his father had the tile special made and his father paid a tile contractor to put the tile floors into several friends homes. ends up one was his dads former attorney I had worked on who had previously owned the house.
Sadly all the floors no longer exist to my knowledge having all been torn up or covered over.
During the time John was running the driving range he was able to locate his old 409 Oldsmobile which he had driven during his youth and had sold.
He was able to buy it and did a ground up restore on it and for many years displayed it at the Brandt Oldsmobile Dealership in Westview. It was his ride and joy .
John told me one time when he was young and in good shape and of course had his 409 and all the girls a man named Eugene Sproul a convicted murder doing a life sentence got into his Face about his small stature while he was working out in the YMCA in E. Liberty and then confronted John outside as he was getting in his car . Well john might have been short but he smashed Eugene with a big right hand and pummeled his ass. No one ever made comment of John being short again.
John did good financially during his years as VP of 1058 and running the Golf range He was finally able to build his dream home in the North Hills on Granduer Dr. which looked like a French Chateau with all the finery one would expect one of his proudest moments in his life. He was sure his dad would approve.
We often joked with John on who owned the house he was taking care of . But we all knew who owned it. While he was building it he helped me run the wire for alarm system and I brought several 500 foot boxes of wire with me and after runing the wire thru the house the box was emty it was so largeI bought double what i would normally run for a big huse and still was not enough John got the biggest kick out of it .Saying he could not belive we used so much.
John would marry again in later life and sadly it did not work out and he was in middle of divorce when he passed .
I never knew it till many years later I heard from a close friend of his that after I called and told John I had Stage 4 Colon Cancer while he was out at the range that he actually cried over it.
and told the friend if he had to raise a million dollars to get me treated and free of cancer he would do it. Now that's a Friend.
In 2019 John would close and sell the property the golf range sat on. Developers where constantly after him to buy it since day he built it. and finally some one offered him a fair amount and he decided to close because that spring he would not be able to open because they where replacing the bridge over Cannonsburg Lake and patrons would have a very long detour to even get there.
This really hurt John even after he sold the property he would stop out and spend time just watching things it was his life for over 30 years. Hated seeing him go thru this .
He gave me some of the old stuff left behind when he closed and I will be donating to local historical society.I talked to John a couple times after he closed when he would have a question about something electrical or technology related and was shocked when I got word he was seeking Hospice care at home for his failing heart.
After John Sold the Golf Range he said he wanted to travel to Sicily and spend some time where his dad grew up and enjoy the shops and sea. Possibly sit and have a coffee at a restaurant where his father had dined as a boy. Unfortunately his health prevented it.
John would not let Dr.s treat it he always had a bad feeling for them after the way they treated his father who he believed allowed him to die instead of properly caring for him.
So John left this life like he came into it on his own terms his own way and he will be greatly missed by all who knew him. If anyone has ever gotten a chance to talk to the big guy upstairs its John and I know it was a good one God speed John.
