serrano, originally from ecuador, had been a middleman who sold the garment conveyer systems that erie made to big customers. eventually, he bought into the company and was welcomed as a full partner of phil dosso and his long-time friend and co-founder of erie, george gonsalves. with serrano s flair for sales, and the original partner s knowledge of the nuts and bolts of manufacturing, the company grew into a multimillion dollar family operation by the middle of the 90s. so times were good? yeah, they were good. reporter: they got better and better. they were making way for the children to take over for frank. there was something about serrano that spelled trouble for his wife. he always thought he was better than everyone else. reporter: and she wasn t the only one that felt that way. by the summer of 1997, a long-simmering dispute among the partners had boiled over into an all out wa- out warout war.