1979 was a deadly year in Altoona PA. A small crew operating under the LaRocka mafia family out of Pittsburgh decided to clamp down on loose ends within their organization. On January 23rd of that year, drug dealer John Henry Clark's body would be found burning in his car in an isolated section of Cambria County. He was killed with an axe. On November 26th, a hunter would see Dennis Hileman's body floating in the Tipton Reservoir. Hileman was bound with chains attached to cinder blocks. He was stabbed several times in the neck and chest. The next day, hunters would find the body of Francis Misitano in Game Lands north west of Altoona with a single gunshot to his head. A month later, approximately 3 miles south of where Misitano's body was found, crew associate, Preston Ryan would shoot a man at the Buckhorn Inn in front of a packed bar watching a band play. Misitano's murder is the only case that was not solved but I have some theories. In this episode, I explore the history of John Verilla’s crew and his predecessor in Altoona, visiting key locations as I explore the rise and fall of the organized crime group that controlled the city from the 1950s through the 1990s. Maybe even still to this day?

In the early 1900s, the hills of Cambria County held more than coal and smoke — they held secrets.

And three doctors, Dr Joseph Glass, Dr. Edward Pardoe and Dr. W. Raymond Hawkins, would find themselves at the center of them all.

Dr Glass establishes a practice in South Fork, an soon finds himself in the middle of one of the deadliest disasters in American history. While this disaster put the Huntingdon County physician on a course to meet Emma Ehrenfeld, he would soon meet a tragic fate in Galitzen.

Dr Pardoe enters the town at the start of the Prohibition Era — a time when America went dry…

and the Italian Mafia grew rich from the flow of illegal whiskey. Dr Pardoe would respond to the brutality of this era in South Fork.

In Pittsburgh, bootleggers ruled the North Side.

Men like Salvatore “Banana King” Catanzaro and Stefano Monastero built their empires on rum, blood, and fear.

Spring of 1921, a mail bomb exploded in South Fork, near the Pennsylvania Railroad Station — a strike by the Black Hand, an early Mafia extortion ring.

The blast tore through the Raneri home, killing 18-year-old Annie Ranieri instantly. Dr Pardoe responded to render first aid to the remaining children.

The town whispered that 30 gallons of stolen whiskey had brought a death sentence…

and someone had warned him —

"For every drop of whiskey, there will be a drop of blood."

Six years later, another tragedy struck nearby — the 1927 Ehrenfeld Mine Explosion.

A five-year-old boy named Charles Buchinsky was there that day — the boy who would one day become Charles Bronson watched to see if his father survived.

Dr. Pardoe was also on scene, tending to the wounded, standing in the choking coal dust of the broken mine.

A year later, another physician arrived — Dr. W. Raymond Hawkins, a young New Englander from Providence, Rhode Island.

He took over Dr. Pardoe’s practice in South Fork, and moved into their new home at 433 Lake Street with his wife, Hiawatha Louder, a local math teacher.

For decades, Hawkins treated miners, victims of car wrecks, and families scarred by the brutal rhythm of life in the coal towns.

But the strangest part of his story didn’t come until long after his death in the 1980s.

After the building that once held his office was donated to the South Fork Historical Society in 2021, something unexpected was discovered.

A sealed third floor — with no stairs leading to it.

They found a small hole in the ceiling.

Crawling through it, they entered a room frozen in time — medical equipment, paperwork, furniture…

untouched since the day Dr. Hawkins died.

A hidden office, preserved like a time capsule from another century.

Three doctors.

One of America's deadliest natural disasters.

Mafia bombings.

A mine disaster that shaped one of Hollywood’s toughest legends.

And a secret room that waited half a century to be found.

Search for the first PRR Engineer through the Gallitzen Tunnels/Horseshoe Curve, and the first Engineer to drive a train from Pittsburgh to Altoona.

#history #pennsylvaniarailroad #altoona #horseshoecurve #gallitzentunnel #alleghenyportagerailroad #harrisburgpa