by Angelo Santino » Fri Apr 15, 2016 8:29 pm
In Fratianno's book, the Last Mafioso, Jimmy recollected- in 1975- Roselli up in arms and bitching about the state of affairs and he said something along the lines of: "Plus, did you hear that they reduced the commission? They dropped some of the old timers like Bruno and Zerilli. It's down to NY and Chicago which gives that prick Joe Batters more power now." This conversation occurred in LA in 1975 allegedly. Interestingly in both books he claims he is a LA member/captain who transfers to Chicago direct with Giancana and later transfers back to LA after being offered Acting Underboss. Bill Roemer discussed Fratianno and labeled him a Chicago soldier who never rose beyond that rank.
I do recommend both The Last Mafioso and Vengeance is Mine, both Fratianno books co-authored with guys he later ended up suing. Required reading. JB read TLM and mentioned it in his book and was taken aback at how a Napoletan' could consider himself a Mafioso when he and others like Valachi were at the ground level. It's interesting because other Sicilians, specifically it's Sicilians with mafia lineage, lamented the same decay. Whereas you had American-Sicilians like Gravano non-connected to the "tradition" and instead seen it rather seen it as the Godfather-esque LCN and his approach at traditionalism was being less flashy than John Gotti. And that's overrated in itself, other bosses like Amuso and Gigante were all jammed up by 1990 and I don't GAF whether or not Gigante was able to avoid prison until 97. Anyone who's ever been under indictment would rather not be, so that's a moot argument.
In Fratianno's book, the Last Mafioso, Jimmy recollected- in 1975- Roselli up in arms and bitching about the state of affairs and he said something along the lines of: "Plus, did you hear that they reduced the commission? They dropped some of the old timers like Bruno and Zerilli. It's down to NY and Chicago which gives that prick Joe Batters more power now." This conversation occurred in LA in 1975 allegedly. Interestingly in both books he claims he is a LA member/captain who transfers to Chicago direct with Giancana and later transfers back to LA after being offered Acting Underboss. Bill Roemer discussed Fratianno and labeled him a Chicago soldier who never rose beyond that rank.
I do recommend both The Last Mafioso and Vengeance is Mine, both Fratianno books co-authored with guys he later ended up suing. Required reading. JB read TLM and mentioned it in his book and was taken aback at how a Napoletan' could consider himself a Mafioso when he and others like Valachi were at the ground level. It's interesting because other Sicilians, specifically it's Sicilians with mafia lineage, lamented the same decay. Whereas you had American-Sicilians like Gravano non-connected to the "tradition" and instead seen it rather seen it as the Godfather-esque LCN and his approach at traditionalism was being less flashy than John Gotti. And that's overrated in itself, other bosses like Amuso and Gigante were all jammed up by 1990 and I don't GAF whether or not Gigante was able to avoid prison until 97. Anyone who's ever been under indictment would rather not be, so that's a moot argument.