Licata had been a suspect in the 1951 assassinations of two Kansas City mobsters (Tony Brancato and Tony Trombino) on a Hollywood street. In the mid-1920s, Ardizzone and Ignatius "Jack" Dragna formed a curious organization known as the Italian Protection League. Ardizzone teamed up with Jack Dragna and they worked closely together for over 10 years. Milano served four years for both indictments. He was accepted as a member of the L.A. family and became close to Dragna's brother, consigliere Tom Dragna. The Los Angeles crime family, also known as the L.A. Mafia or the Southern California crime family,[5] is an Italian-American organized crime syndicate based in Los Angeles as part of the larger Italian-American Mafia. The organization was desperate to fend off regional incursions by mobsters from New York and Chicago and to extract protection payments from bookmakers and narcotics peddlers. He set up the Italian Protective League, with Dragna as its president, Ardizzone as its vice president, and California State Senator Joseph Pedrotti as its chairman. L.A. gunman Thomas Ricciardi was believed to have performed the hit. His father was underboss of the Cleveland crime family from the 1930s until his retirement in 1976. Joseph "Joe Iron Man" Ardizzone (born Giuseppe Ernesto Ardizzone; Italian pronunciation:[duzppe ernsto ardittsone]; November 19, 1884 disappeared October 15, 1931, declared dead 1938) was an Italian-born early Los Angeles mobster, who became the first Boss of the Los Angeles crime family. He suffered gunshot wounds in an attempt on his life in July 1921. [23] Although there was not as big a pool of Italians to recruit on the West Coast like there was back East, the L.A. family worked around this by accepting members from across the country, such as Johnny Roselli from Chicago, Nick Licata from Detroit, and Aladena "Jimmy the Weasel" Fratianno and Dominic Brooklier from Cleveland. In what he later called an act of self-defense, Joseph shot and killed a Matranga ally named George Maisano in 1906. His legitimate businesses were in real estate properties and a vending company called "Rome Vending Company".[3]. 1977 - Frank Bompensiero (1905-1977), the Milwaukee-born mobster who led Mafia rackets in San Diego, California, while also secretly providing information to federal agents, was murdered on Feb. 10, 1977. Both James Ragen and Earl Warren dubbed Dragna the "Capone of Los Angeles". (Chicago colonization in California may be the foundation of Bonanno's story of Masseria negotiating with Joe Aiello of Chicago around 1928, and offering Aiello control of all territory west of Chicago.) Some members, like Rocco Zangari and Russell Massetia, moved out of the state and left the family altogether. Spiros Velentzas: A Greek mobster and boss of the Velentzas crime family. [18] The organization had some political and social motives, but mostly served as a strong-arm muscle for the crime family. Tiernan. - Third-person & first-person view. A second attempt was made on his life in the hospital, so his family came to act as bodyguards. [7] Soon after, several Los Angeles family members were arrested for the bombing of Mickey Cohen's home. That turned out to be a costly move, as "Bomp" became a federal informant. Until his death, Peter Milano was still believed to be the official Boss of the Los Angeles crime family. [5], As boss, Dragna often had to do business with representatives from the more powerful Cosa Nostra families in New York. - LAN support. [7] On October 6, 1977, Danny Greene was killed by a car bomb in Ohio, and Ray Ferritto was arrested for the murder. Since its inception in the early 20th century, it has spread throughout Southern California. Since its inception in the early 1900s, it has spread throughout Southern California.Like most Mafia families in the United States, the L.A. family gained power bootlegging during the Prohibition Era.The L.A. family reached its peak in the 1940s and . Given the timing and the speed of his ascension to boss status on the West Coast, his move may have been ordered by reigning Mafia boss of bosses Salvatore "Toto" D'Aquila. (After his move west, he retained his home and perhaps his underworld stature in his hometown of New Orleans.) Johnny Roselli was seen as the most logical choice, but lawyer-turned-gangster Frank DeSimone was victorious. As DiCiolla was buried, Ardizzone was targeted by assassins. MafiaGenealogy article by Justin Cascio: Los Angeles, 1915: Jack Dragna and Sam Streva. When his wife Frances died in 1953, Dragna lost interest in running the Los Angeles family and instead focused on meeting new women. Federal charges followed in spring of 1987. It was rumored that Dragna was involved in Ardizzone's disappearance and presumed murder. DeSimone was the son of early southern California Mafioso Rosario DeSimone, who had been a lieutenant to Vito DiGiorgio. [38] Frank Bompensiero and Jimmy Fratianno started serving prison sentences in 1953 and 1954, respectively. In 1915, Dragna was arrested for Black Hand extortion of a Long Beach man and served three years in prison. The boss and underboss of New York City 's infamous Colombo crime family were among more than a dozen people arrested Tuesday morning in connection with allegations of corruption and healthcare . After the killing, Dragna fled to California. [52] In March 1973, seven men were arrested for running a rigged gambling operation in Los Angeles that brought in up to $250,000 a month. On February 23, 1956, Dragna died of a heart attack in Los Angeles. Los Zetas, Gulf, Juarez, Tijuana and Beltran-Leyva). Accessed September 22,2018, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joseph_Ardizzone&oldid=1123679921. (Mafia chronicler Nick Gentile visited with DiGiorgio shortly after this shooting.) When prominent Black Hand leader Joseph Ardizzone was involved in a dispute with George Maisano, a member of the Matranga gang, they both went to Joseph Cuccia to mediate the dispute. Although his murder officially remains unsolved, one theory is that Dragna's men were given the order to kill him. Dragna fled the state and was wanted for questioning. The L.A. family became the dominant loan shark operators in the area. It was also during this time that a faction developed that opposed Ardizzone. He later surrendered, and was questioned in the Kefauver hearings along with Roselli and Bompensiero, but denied all accusations against him. [48] Law enforcement also considers East Coast Mafia members moving to California as a threat. and F.B.I. 28 Feb 2023 06:37:45 Licata eventually regained his good standing in Detroit. [57] Fratianno claimed that the Mafia had a $100,000 contract on his life. [10], Jack Dragna took control of the family after Ardizzone's death in 1931, and made peace with the National Mafia Syndicate. He opened membership rolls and moved into new rackets. Back in 1932, Dragna had violated immigration law by illegally entering the United States at the San Ysidro border crossing in San Diego after a three-day stay in Mexico. [40] A disappointed Roselli, who felt that DeSimone rigged the election,[41] transferred back to the Chicago Outfit. Along with Dragna avoiding the spotlight and public life, he often was given the reputation as a weak ruler. [39] This meant the top three men from Dragna's era, the boss, underboss, and consigliere were all inactive in Los Angeles almost immediately after DeSimone took charge. [7] He illegally took them,[7] showing the police's determination to bring down organized crime in California. [7] However, through sheer luck, Cohen survived many attempts on his life (John Roselli compared Cohen to Bugs Moran). He left high school at 17 to join the US Marine Corps, but . He was able to avoid any jail time from the Las Vegas indictments brought on by the murder of Herbert Blitzstein in 1997. [24] According to Mickey Cohen, Dragna was very powerful and very well respected, but did not put things together the way the East Coast bosses preferred. [25] Although not having a big hand in labor union rackets, the Dragna crime family did infiltrate some unions in the laundromat and dress importing business. arrow_forward. 1 week ago. Dragna and his family were frequently arrested. The Los Angeles crime family was the last Mafia family left in the state of California. Giuseppe was one of the last to arrive. On February 14, 1950, the California Commission on Organized Crime singled out Dragna as the head of a crime syndicate that controlled crime in Southern California. "A lawyer with his briefcase can steal more than a hundred men with guns." Vito Corleone[src] Thomas "Tom" Hagen was the consigliere and head lawyer of the Corleone family, as well as being the adoptive son of Vito and Carmela Corleone and the adoptive brother of Sonny, Fredo, Michael, and Connie Corleone. Warner, Richard N. "The First Mafia Boss of Los Angeles? The great-grandson of late Los Angeles crime boss Jack Dragna, Dr. J. Michael Niotta writes and lectures about southern California organized crime history. [59] Brooklier still ran the family from his prison cell until he died of a heart attack in 1984. [2] They stayed in East Harlem, in Manhattan, with his mother's cousin Antonio Rizzotto's family, also from Corleone. Paul Castelanno was the 5th family boss to be killed and John Gotti was probably weeks away from being killed by the commission before he went to . Licata spent his last days at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica. In 1981 the top members of the Los Angeles crime family, including boss Dominic Brooklier, were sentenced to jail time on RICO charges. Dragna would send in men to threaten businesses, then the owners would pay Dragna for protection (unaware that these were Dragna's own men). Siegel was able to get independent bookies to pay tribute to Dragna's already flourishing gambling business. The Mystery of Vito Di Giorgio, 18801922. He opened two pizza restaurants in Los Angeles. [1] [4] Fratianno, Licata, Charles "Charley Bats" Battaglia, Angelo Polizzi, and Leo "Lips" Moceri were all arrested, but none were charged for the crime. In return for his testimony, he pleaded guilty to the murder charges and received a five-year prison sentence, of which he served 21 months. Brooklier was able to make a lot of money in pornography, extortion, and drugs, but wasn't able to take back control of many independent bookmaking rackets in Los Angeles. Armed with top hitman Frank Bompensiero and Jimmy Fratianno (who committed over 30 murders on the orders of their superiors), Dragna muscled his way into controlling territory stretching throughout California and Southern Nevada. Dragna remained the boss of the Los Angeles crime family from 1931 until his death in 1956. Fratianno did the same after his release from prison in 1960.[7]. The most prominent of these was the Matranga family. Ardizzone is widely regarded as the first Mafia "boss" in the Los Angeles area. He has been seen with Several Sicilian Mafiosi in Italy guys like Claudio . While it is uncertain when Ardizzone became a member of the Mafia, or even if his immediate family were members, he was in a leadership position in the early 1920s. He appears to have had a relationship with Gaetano Reina, who eventually led his own crime family in Manhattan and the Bronx. Since its inception in the early 20th century, it has spread throughout Southern California. Compared to neighboring county Clinton and county Cook it's a more dangerous . Attorney DeSimone became the Los Angeles Mafia boss after the 1956 death of Jack Dragna. Once the producers paid, the Mafia backers would secretly split the money with the L.A. family. With both Ardizzone and Cuccia gone, the Matrangas became the dominant criminal force in Italian Plaza community. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens, WallStreetOnParadeThe International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has once again managed to do what federal bank regulators refuse to do in the United States - come clean with the American people about our dirty Wall Street banks.ICIJ dropped a bombshell investigative report yesterday about money laundering for criminals at some of the . He later renounced organized crime and evolved into an author, activist, and motivational speaker. In 1951, Nick Licata provided a tight alibi for Aladena "Jimmy the Weasel" Fratianno the night Fratianno gunned down two LA rogue stick up robbers from Kansas City, Anthony Brancato and Anthony Trombino, known as "The Two Tonys". Ardizzone disappearance discussed in He Never Came Home by M.L. He eventually became a made man in the Detroit crime family. The Los Angeles crime family, also known as the L.A. 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