In the early summer of 1985, the life of 49-year-old Joseph Bertone took a turn into unending mystery. On the evening of June 17th, he left his home on Diehl Drive in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, with a simple request from his wife to bring home milk and Pepsi. A short time later, at 10:00 p.m., he made a call to her from his car phone, mentioning he was at a truck garage in the nearby town of Duquesne. This would be the last time his wife, or anyone in his immediate family, would ever hear from him. Joseph, a man with black hair and brown eyes, was known to have several scars on his abdomen, chest, left eye, and upper lip, as well as a tattoo on his right forearm. When he vanished, he was wearing a ten and twenty-four-inch gold rope necklace and a distinctive wedding ring with 'JOEY' spelled out in fifteen diamonds.
The circumstances leading up to that night paint a complex picture of Joseph Bertone's life.
He was the former owner of Joey's Restaurant and Lounge, a business that had been the target of bombings in 1978 and was ultimately destroyed by another in 1982. Court testimony that emerged years later in a 1990 racketeering trial alleged that Bertone was involved in the cocaine trade. On the very day he disappeared, it was said he had plans to fly to Florida for a drug-related transaction. He had reportedly arranged to meet his business partner, Joseph F. 'Joey' Rosa, at the truck garage, asking him to bring $1,000 and to hurry. This meeting, however, did not unfold as planned.
When Rosa arrived at the garage between 10:00 and 10:30 p.m., he witnessed something unsettling. He saw Bertone's 1985 Cadillac Seville pulling away, but Joseph was not behind the wheel. Instead, an unknown man with glasses was driving. Rosa attempted to follow the Cadillac, but it sped off, running through stop signs and red lights, and he quickly lost sight of it. Ten days later, Bertone's car was discovered abandoned in the parking lot of a Holiday Inn near Harmar, Pennsylvania. Despite the suspicious circumstances and the connections to organized crime that clouded his life, Joseph Bertone's case remains unsolved. His body has never been located, and no charges have ever been filed in connection with his disappearance, leaving a void of unanswered questions for his family and community. Authorities believe his presumed death is linked to his criminal associations, a somber end to a life lived on the edge.Last Seen: Jun 15, 1985
