Rocco Donato Mattia

Bridget Mattia probably said her son was a good boy, but he did make some bad decisions. Rocco was the second child born when his parents were in Italy and came with them as an infant to America just before the turn of the century. Six more children were born at home, near 8th and Bainbridge Streets in the Italian neighborhood of Bella Vista.

As Rocco learned, peer pressure in the adolescent years can have a lasting impact. He was 12 when his name was first mentioned in the newspapers, making an appearance in juvenile court. At age 19 he was arrested for possession of narcotics. He gave his last name as Matteo, as if he wanted to avoid bringing shame to his family.

That was the same year the Selective Service Act of 1917 required the registration of all men ages 21-30 by the middle of the year. When the age range was expanded to 18-45 in 1918, those men had to register by September 12, 1918, and that’s what Rocco did. His date of birth (contrary to the date on his gravestone) was confirmed as February 18, 1898, and he said his job was a junk dealer. This time he used the correct spelling of his name.

Had he actually been drafted, the direction of his life might have changed. The following year his father died and another baby was born. Rocco’s name is missing from the 1920 census but he remained at his mother’s address for most of the “Roaring Twenties.” 

That same census listed his brother as having the breadwinner’s job, polishing wooden cabinets for “talking machines” (aka phonographs or in later years, record players). Also listed was a teenage sister and three children under the age of 8.

Rocco’s occupation that decade is unknown, other than trying to stay out of trouble, and using the Matteo name. He was arrested in the summer of 1922 on drug charges and held in Moyamensing Prison, awaiting trial in October. 

That led to bigger things in 1927. He was arrested for being one of six men who held up three delivery employees (known as messengers) of a grocery store at 7th and Tasker Streets. Two of the victims were wounded and $500 was taken. Rocco had a fully loaded pistol in his pocket similar to those found at the scene.

The next incident occurred in Camden, New Jersey in the spring of 1930. He was the last of six to be rounded up in connection with the robbery of a $12,000 truckload of silk. The theft occurred over a year earlier in Yeadon, not far from Mount Moriah. None of the newspaper stories ever reported on the outcome of his arrests.

Rocco had apparently moved to Camden to “escape the heat” of the law. He was apparently a free man sometime after that arrest. One night in July he was sitting in his car outside his apartment when machine gun bullets ended his life after what must have been a drive-by shooting. Police attempted to question him on the way to Cooper Hospital. Even though he knew he was dying he refused to say anything about the shooting. 

After interviewing 12 material witnesses and numerous tips, detectives theorized that he was encroaching on someone else’s illegal activities, but he had no record of any gang dealings. His Catholic family buried their other members at Holy Cross Cemetery but, as he was single in life, Rocco Mattia occupies a single grave here.