Rocco (Rocky the Rug) Lauria – aka “Rocky the Shoemaker” – was born in 1931 in Brooklyn, NY. He resided for many years at 567 Preston Road in the East Meadow section and Prospect Street in the Levittown section of Long Island.
Lauria earned his nickname of Rocky the Rug because he wore a cheap, ill-fitting hairpiece that looked like it cost about $1.12 to purchase. It was such a low-quality toupee that he oftentimes had to use several pieces of scotch tape to help it adhere to the top of his head and the back of his neck.
Even after his best efforts, Rocky looked like he was walking around with a dead squirrel atop his bald head. Widely known as a cheapskate, Rocky’s toupee was very much in keeping with his general look.
Rocky wouldn’t pay a quarter to see the Statue of Liberty do a dance!
Gambling and Loansharking
He is reputed to have been active in bookmaking and loansharking and was a reputed associate of both the Colombo and Genovese families.
In 1965, the Nassau DA described Lauria as, “the coordinator of loanshark activity in Nassau for Franzese.”
He operated a shoe repair store for many years that doubled as his gambling base.
Lauria’s associates included Joseph (Joe Shep) Schipani, John (Sonny) Franzese, Jesse Smith (a DeCavalcante Family associate), Frederick (Fat Freddy) Di Gregorio, Dominick Santoro, and Vincent Carvelli.
He had arrests for bookmaking (three times), possession of bookmaking records (twice), being absent without leave, contempt, extortion, usury, conspiracy, and grand larceny. He was convicted on bookmaking (twice), going AWOL (5 years), contempt of court (30 days), and extortion (5 years).
Lauria was also a KG on Long Island for many years for which he had several arrests.
In 1971, he was indicted on loanshark and extortion charges for terrorizing a Centereach, Long Island couple in a loanshark transaction.
It was a vicious extortion with Lauria and two associates (Smith and Carvelli) making threats and strong-arming their victims. The couple ran to the FBI, who subsequently indicted the hoodlum trio.
From late 1970 into mid-1971, Lauria operated a home improvement company called The Lucor Construction Company located on Hempstead Turnpike in East Meadow.
He was picked up by Nassau County detectives after four separate potential home improvement customers complained to Nassau County authorities that Laura had taken down payments towards future construction projects and never started or completed projects, ignoring their complaints.
He was subsequently arrested on multiple counts of grand larceny related to this home improvement scam.
He is believed to have lived well into his early 80s. No exact dod is available.
