The Rise & Fall of Utica's Organized Crime with Rocco DaLuca

Utica was once called the “Sin City of the East.” What did the city do to deserve this notorious nickname? From bootlegging booze and backroom gambling to loansharking and thuggish extortions, all shadowed by a generation of unsolved murders, how much did the Utica Mob and political corruption call the shots in this bustling city until it could no longer escape the arm of the law and the media’s spotlight? Find out what the city once only whispered about in this presentation by Rocco LaDuca.

Rocco LaDuca has been a journalist in the Mohawk Valley for 20 years, and currently co-hosts the morning radio show “Talk of the Town” on 100.7 FM. During his years covering crime for the Utica Observer-Dispatch newspaper from 2004 to 2015, Rocco wrote a popular 7-part series called “The Mob Files” to celebrate the OD’s 50th anniversary of winning the Pulitzer Prize for exposing Utica’s criminal underworld.

Host or Publisher Oneida County History Center