Roselli, Fratianno, and Bompensiero all requested transfers to Chicago at various points after Desimone became boss because they had been Dragna's inner circle and detested the idea of reporting to Desimone. Fratianno and Bompensiero were particularly upset because they had been captains under Dragna and lost their titles in prison but Desimone wouldn't promote them back. Roselli's transfer went smoothly but Bompensiero's transfer was vetoed by Tommy Lucchese, the one-time avugad of the LA Family, as Bomp still had a murder contract he had to fulfill (this might have been an excuse just to keep him with LA).
Both Fratianno and Bompensiero told fairly consistent stories about Fratianno's failed transfer, that Roselli brokered an informal transfer between Giancana and Desimone that was apparently kept quiet. Even Bompensiero believed Fratianno was a Chicago member until Licata pursued it, found out protocol wasn't followed, and nixed it. Not even Jimmy Fratianno would have the balls to claim he was a Chicago member if he didn't truly believe it, much less a member direct with Giancana. He told Alderisio this while Giancana was alive too, knowing they could at some point reach out to Giancana to verify.
I wouldn't be surprised if Frank LaPorte did know about the Fratianno transfer and later denied it. LaPorte was initially high on Fratianno because the trucking deal they had going looked promising and LaPorte invested heavily in it. When it failed and brought a ton of heat, LaPorte greatly soured on Fratianno and basically life in general. From that point on Bompensiero said LaPorte was constantly drinking and depressed. By the late 1960s when he was asked about the transfer I'm sure he wanted nothing to do with Fratianno even if he did have knowledge of it.
--
Here is an old post I did about Gravano's Fratianno story:
Not sure it's been mentioned elsewhere, but Gravano says he attended one of the events at the Westchester Theater and DePalma asked him if he wanted to be formally introduced to Jimmy Fratianno, described by DePalma as the boss of California.
Gravano turned it down. He says he didn't even think there was a California family, thinking it was open territory, and was focused on being there with his wife.
He says Fratianno walked directly up to him and introduced himself as the boss of California, which as Gravano says was a violation of the rules. Gravano was upset and the two exchanged words. Gravano was also upset with DePalma, as he felt DePalma egged Fratianno on to go talk to Gravano. Gravano met with Paul Castellano later where he aired his grievances about DePalma and Fratianno. DePalma was apparently chastised for his conduct and he and Gravano were never close after that.
Later Paul Castellano told Gravano that Fratianno lied about being boss and that Fratianno was also a confidential informant. Interesting if true, as it means the mob knew Fratianno had been a CI before becoming a witness (unless Gravano mixed the two up, though we are fairly sure Fratianno was also a CI).
Fratianno attended multiple events at the theater between 1976 and 1977 and met a bunch of NYC members so it's in the realm of possibility that he met Gravano but personally I don't believe Fratianno became obsessively fixated on introducing himself to a random young Gambino soldier to the point of ignoring the third party rule and accosting him with "I'm the boss of California! You hear me? Boss of California!" Just ridiculous.
Seems like the sort of thing he would have included in his book if it actually happened. If I remember right, he told this story around the same time as the even more absurd Bonanno story:
- Says when he moved to Arizona after he flipped in the 1990s a made member was an FBI CI and recorded Joe Bonanno telling Bill Bonanno he wanted to to arrange a meeting w/ Gravano. Bill said he didn't want to meet because Sammy was a rat, but Joe insisted as Sammy was "dangerous" and might put them in a trunk.
- Sammy said Bonanno sent the member CI to talk to Gravano to arrange a meeting and Sammy was willing to meet with Bonanno but assured him everything would be fine as long as Bonanno didn't mess with his family, otherwise he'd go "on the warpath". Gravano says he sent word back to tell Joe Bonanno that he (Gravano) had no interest in "taking over" Arizona. He says Bonanno sent word back that he "appreciates the message" and if anyone bothers Gravano that they'd have his back as "he's in our circle".
- Says the FBI got in touch with him about it and told him if he meets with Joe Bonanno he'd violate his parole.
My take on Sammy is he exaggerates and spins things, but this is Ralph Natale level bullshit. Might as well have said Bonanno made him underboss of the Tucson Family.
Sammy was always teetering on the edge but there was a period there where he completely jumped the shark. It used to be "Yeah yeah, Sammy's the best, Sammy is the real stand up guy" but the basic stories were believable, then it became "I punked the fake rat boss of California" and "Joe Bonanno had my back." This is a guy with an Aryan Brotherhood tattoo who put Mexican guys through a mafia induction ceremony in prison.
Roselli, Fratianno, and Bompensiero all requested transfers to Chicago at various points after Desimone became boss because they had been Dragna's inner circle and detested the idea of reporting to Desimone. Fratianno and Bompensiero were particularly upset because they had been captains under Dragna and lost their titles in prison but Desimone wouldn't promote them back. Roselli's transfer went smoothly but Bompensiero's transfer was vetoed by Tommy Lucchese, the one-time avugad of the LA Family, as Bomp still had a murder contract he had to fulfill (this might have been an excuse just to keep him with LA).
Both Fratianno and Bompensiero told fairly consistent stories about Fratianno's failed transfer, that Roselli brokered an informal transfer between Giancana and Desimone that was apparently kept quiet. Even Bompensiero believed Fratianno was a Chicago member until Licata pursued it, found out protocol wasn't followed, and nixed it. Not even Jimmy Fratianno would have the balls to claim he was a Chicago member if he didn't truly believe it, much less a member direct with Giancana. He told Alderisio this while Giancana was alive too, knowing they could at some point reach out to Giancana to verify.
I wouldn't be surprised if Frank LaPorte did know about the Fratianno transfer and later denied it. LaPorte was initially high on Fratianno because the trucking deal they had going looked promising and LaPorte invested heavily in it. When it failed and brought a ton of heat, LaPorte greatly soured on Fratianno and basically life in general. From that point on Bompensiero said LaPorte was constantly drinking and depressed. By the late 1960s when he was asked about the transfer I'm sure he wanted nothing to do with Fratianno even if he did have knowledge of it.
--
Here is an old post I did about Gravano's Fratianno story:
[quote]Not sure it's been mentioned elsewhere, but Gravano says he attended one of the events at the Westchester Theater and DePalma asked him if he wanted to be formally introduced to Jimmy Fratianno, described by DePalma as the boss of California.
Gravano turned it down. He says he didn't even think there was a California family, thinking it was open territory, and was focused on being there with his wife.
He says Fratianno walked directly up to him and introduced himself as the boss of California, which as Gravano says was a violation of the rules. Gravano was upset and the two exchanged words. Gravano was also upset with DePalma, as he felt DePalma egged Fratianno on to go talk to Gravano. Gravano met with Paul Castellano later where he aired his grievances about DePalma and Fratianno. DePalma was apparently chastised for his conduct and he and Gravano were never close after that.
Later Paul Castellano told Gravano that Fratianno lied about being boss and that Fratianno was also a confidential informant. Interesting if true, as it means the mob knew Fratianno had been a CI before becoming a witness (unless Gravano mixed the two up, though we are fairly sure Fratianno was also a CI).[/quote]
Fratianno attended multiple events at the theater between 1976 and 1977 and met a bunch of NYC members so it's in the realm of possibility that he met Gravano but personally I don't believe Fratianno became obsessively fixated on introducing himself to a random young Gambino soldier to the point of ignoring the third party rule and accosting him with "I'm the boss of California! You hear me? Boss of California!" Just ridiculous.
Seems like the sort of thing he would have included in his book if it actually happened. If I remember right, he told this story around the same time as the even more absurd Bonanno story:
[quote]- Says when he moved to Arizona after he flipped in the 1990s a made member was an FBI CI and recorded Joe Bonanno telling Bill Bonanno he wanted to to arrange a meeting w/ Gravano. Bill said he didn't want to meet because Sammy was a rat, but Joe insisted as Sammy was "dangerous" and might put them in a trunk.
- Sammy said Bonanno sent the member CI to talk to Gravano to arrange a meeting and Sammy was willing to meet with Bonanno but assured him everything would be fine as long as Bonanno didn't mess with his family, otherwise he'd go "on the warpath". Gravano says he sent word back to tell Joe Bonanno that he (Gravano) had no interest in "taking over" Arizona. He says Bonanno sent word back that he "appreciates the message" and if anyone bothers Gravano that they'd have his back as "he's in our circle".
- Says the FBI got in touch with him about it and told him if he meets with Joe Bonanno he'd violate his parole.
My take on Sammy is he exaggerates and spins things, but this is Ralph Natale level bullshit. Might as well have said Bonanno made him underboss of the Tucson Family.[/quote]
Sammy was always teetering on the edge but there was a period there where he completely jumped the shark. It used to be "Yeah yeah, Sammy's the best, Sammy is the real stand up guy" but the basic stories were believable, then it became "I punked the fake rat boss of California" and "Joe Bonanno had my back." This is a guy with an Aryan Brotherhood tattoo who put Mexican guys through a mafia induction ceremony in prison.