A corner lot n Verona Pa. with an interesting Pittsburgh Mob Past

For many years it served as a Atlantic? gas station at Allegheny River blvd & Southern St.
But when the gas shortage crisis hit the station closed in the late 70's  and became a used car lot  LA Motors and its notorious reputation started.
Because it served as the headquarters for Pittsburgh Mob Leader Michael Genovese  .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsburgh_crime_family

http://gangsterreport.com/infamous-pittsburgh-mobster-nick-the-blade-dies-down-in-florida-steel-town-gangster-supplied-goodfellas-crew-with-drugs/

No one including my self ever suspected a thing going on at this car dealership till one day it was shown in a news article during the famous Pittsburgh mob trails.

The FBI Claimed it was the mobs headquarters and had several very garbled tapes it released.

http://triblive.com/x/archive/1372974-74/archive-story

Needless to say the community was shocked that the mob would be operating its headquarters almost directly across from the community  offices and police station. and right next to a US post Office

many people even to this day do not believe the mob was holding meetings right there in the dealership.

But that was the Pittsburgh Mob always operated very quietly  and why it was so successful until it decided to get involved with drugs which brought massive federal agency's down on them. 

Since L.A. motors closed there has been a long list of business who tried to make it successful there including a couple Pizza Shops a coffee shop  a Dunkin Donuts and latest business to close a greek gyro place. which by the way had great food.

But apparently there is not enough patronage and in case of the dunkin donuts was poorly managed. 

maybe all these business could have taken a few pointers from the Pittsburgh Mob after all they where very successful for many years and ran many legitimate business as well as a hugely successful gambling operation.

A small home that sits all by itself in Penn Hills along an long abandoned Trolley line . Why was it built there?

If you look way up on the hill side behind where Hippos bar once sat and is now a car lot at Verona and Coal Hollow road  you will see a yellow wood framed house it sits there all by itself. But at one time the Pittsburgh Railways trolley route which followed Verona road out of Wilkinsburg and went across the Coal hollow Valley via large steel bridge on its way to Oakmont  ran right in front of it. Now owned by a Dr. no one seems to know its history. But I suspect it was built by the people who built and maintained the right of way the trolley used. makes sense who would want a house right on a trolley line. in virtually middle of no where and nothing else around it.

Now it would  not be that unusual because several road houses and hotels where built right beside the railroad tracks when Pa. railroad was built thru this area and since there was a massive bridge and over 1 mile of right of way to be built into a steep hill you had to house workers some where
of course its all speculation but it makes the most logical explanation and anybody knowing the truth are long gone the line was put thru in early 1900's  and abandoned in late 50's but there are also rumors it was a speak easy in the 20s makes sense sitting up there all alone

Unfortunately the house is in very poor shape and falling in on itself  so if it did play any kind of significance with the trolley line many clues are probably lost now.
Remember this is private property so be advised you are trespassing if you would try to go up and explore it . and signs have been pasted and maintained over the years.

A Ghost Train In Penn Hills Some people claim to have seen the old Plum Creek Railroad late at night still running .

The Penn Hills ,Plum, Oakmont and Verona are has had a long relationship with trains  and various spurs which go thru the area including the former Pennsylvania railroad now the Allegheny Valley Railroad AVR  Union Railroad UR and Bessemer &Lake Erie Railroad B&LE which runs on the hill side behind where the one time Plum Creek railroad a subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Railroad once ran . A small couple hundred foot track thats still remains of it in Verona is used by daily's juice plant.  A small spur which went several miles out to plum boro and picked up coal from  Renton Coal Mine which has a sad history of an explosion that killed 9

http://patheoldminer.rootsweb.ancestry.com/allrenton.html

 The plumcreek railroad

closed and was abandoned and tracks ripped out in 1972
By time we moved here in 81 the  tracks where all gone .

https://coalandcoke.blogspot.com/2013/12/plum-creek-branch-of-pennsylvania.html

  However I have heard more than one story from people of them seeing this abandoned plum line still operating. I think it is more people are confusing it with a working line  after getting lost in Plum or Penn hills which is really easy to do at night and it can be very scary lost in the wooded areas out here  and not realizing where they really are yet one story in particular a friend of mine came to visit one night late coming in from Erie and claims to have seen a train operating at the bottom of hunter road which is impossible the tracks where torn out many years ago. Yet she claims she saw an older single engine pulling a couple coal cars and caboose.

Thinking she saw the AVR operating down at dailys I took her down in day lite and she swears she saw it going across hunter.
Is there anything to it. from all that I researched there was no major accident  involving the railroad at that crossing  how ever there have been many horrendous car accidents along the road and in that area with its sharp curve .Which when ghost trains are seen they often are where train accidents happened I did however find there was a murder nearby

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1129&dat=19661108&id=Y9haAAAAIBAJ&sjid=dmwDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7350,1335910

Now behind  where these tracks are located is known as dark hollow due to all the thick woods and it can be spooky at timesas well

Railroad went thru where car is parked

So is it peoples imaginations running wild at night after getting lost or is there something more to it?

Shame it was not kept for use as a tourist railroad. 

Killer Clowns Terrorizing People in W.Pa. is nothing new its been going on for years some times a prank gone bad many times nothing more than urban legend. like in Oakmont.

Yes even where I live in the community next to  mine Oakmont Pa. there is an urban legend of a Killer Clown living in the woods of Dark Hollow who will chase and kill you and your remains will never be found.
Of course with a name like Dark hollow do you want to explore the area in the first place.The name possibly comes  from Indian tribes who resided in the area and noted the thick heavy woods and dark areas which see little daylite . However its also a beutiful place to explore with several marked trails.

Nothing more than an urban legend like the wood chopper killer in Pnn hills it probably started by a father to scare his kids so they would not go exploring in the dark hollow  area.By them selves which is never a good idea anyways . The whole Killer Clown thing of late thou  has gotten out of hand. the latest children being chased by individuals dressed in clown masks

http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2017/03/04/armed-men-dressed-as-clowns-scare-children-in-west-mifflin/

In most cases it is just teenagers fooling around trying to scare friends and neighbors and ocassional storys pop up in the news around here over the years .
However criminals have been known to put on clown masks or even dress as clowns to deliberately terrorize individuals or when committing crimes so no one knows who they are .

Of course one of the scariest cases of a real serial killer clown was that of John Wayne Gacy who dressed as a clown for children's party's and is responsible for over a dozen young mens deaths.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wayne_Gacy

Either way its not funny when your the recipient of some ones prank and some ones liable to get killed by some one they scare who is a legal permit holder . So have fun but do so wisely.
http://www.seattletimes.com/life/whats-up-with-these-creepy-clowns/