General Chicago Outfit Info Dumping Ground

[Cosmik_Debris]

Sorry probably a dumb question, but is this in the Mary Ferrell files?

Not a dumb question at all. Offhand, I don't recall that this report was in one of the files on the MF site, but may rather have instead been in a file released under FOIA. B should remember, as he was the one who initially found the report in question.

On the subject of Alderisio, in an earlier FBI report filed in June of 1968 (this one is on MF), Bompensiero had also previously claimed at that time that he understood Alderisio to hold the rank of soldier. Bomp further reported back from a meeting that he had with LaPorte, who had raised the issue of Fratianno's abortive membership transfer to Chicago to Accardo and Ricca. It's evident that the 1969 meeting meeting between Alderisio, Bompensiero, and Fratianno was consequent to this, as the Chicago Consiglio clearly sent Alderisio out to LA to follow up and resolve the matter. It should be noted also that while Fratianno had been personally acquainted with Alderisio for some time, per Bompensiero, the two had never been formally introduced as amici nostri, necessitating Bomp's presence as the third party to make those introductions, as Bomp already knew Alderisio as an LCN member.

This is interesting. So are we led to believe here that Fratianno never was actually a member of the Chicago family and his transfer request was denied?

In The Last Mafiaso, he makes it pretty clear he thought he was a member of the Outfit. Seems like that actually isn't true, no?

[PolackTony]

The ‘Consignu’ memorandum is available on the Mary Ferrell Foundation. Looking for it using the Advanced Search function is useless because the text is so faded, but it can be found using RIF Search under Record Number 124-10290-10497.

Document ID 92055 (https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=92055) contains the full memorandum, though there are a couple of redactions and unfortunately some pages are so faded as to be unreadable.

Document ID 172714 (https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=172714) contains the unredacted first page, which confirms that Bompensiero (SD 1064-C-TE) was the informant.

The memorandum also details discussion within Chicago about making Alderisio the boss:

Alderisio told them that the Chicago Family was discussing appointing a new Boss and had talked to Alderisio about taking the position. Alderisio is reluctant because it might adversely effect the pending appeal of his felony conviction. He believed he could stall on this appeal for another year or two.

There is a lot of other information within the document, including references to Detroit serving as the buffer between Los Angeles and the commission, Nick Licata planning to induct Peter Milano, how Frank Gruttadauria transferred his membership from Cleveland to LA, the identification of some St Louis members, a dispute over the election of John Scalish as boss of Cleveland, Leo Moceri wanting to transfer to LA, and Joe Zerilli staying on as boss of Detroit because he feared his son would lose an election to succeed him.

Thanks for following up on this. IMO an important document.

[PolackTony]

Sorry probably a dumb question, but is this in the Mary Ferrell files?

Not a dumb question at all. Offhand, I don't recall that this report was in one of the files on the MF site, but may rather have instead been in a file released under FOIA. B should remember, as he was the one who initially found the report in question.

On the subject of Alderisio, in an earlier FBI report filed in June of 1968 (this one is on MF), Bompensiero had also previously claimed at that time that he understood Alderisio to hold the rank of soldier. Bomp further reported back from a meeting that he had with LaPorte, who had raised the issue of Fratianno's abortive membership transfer to Chicago to Accardo and Ricca. It's evident that the 1969 meeting meeting between Alderisio, Bompensiero, and Fratianno was consequent to this, as the Chicago Consiglio clearly sent Alderisio out to LA to follow up and resolve the matter. It should be noted also that while Fratianno had been personally acquainted with Alderisio for some time, per Bompensiero, the two had never been formally introduced as amici nostri, necessitating Bomp's presence as the third party to make those introductions, as Bomp already knew Alderisio as an LCN member.

This is interesting. So are we led to believe here that Fratianno never was actually a member of the Chicago family and his transfer request was denied?

In The Last Mafiaso, he makes it pretty clear he thought he was a member of the Outfit. Seems like that actually isn't true, no?

We’ve discussed this before but the search function here leaves much to be desired, so it may not be easy for you to locate.

Fratianno seems to have sincerely believed that he was a Chicago member for a period, later claiming to Alderisio that Giancana had personally told him that he was being transferred and was to report directly to Giancana. The issue was that this transfer, evidently, was not handled properly by Giancana with respect to both the Chicago and LA Families. When Nick Licata became boss in LA, he refused to recognize the transfer on the grounds that he had been unaware of it (Roselli and Fratianno having claimed that it was approved by prior LA boss Frank DeSimone, but if that were the case, then DeSimone seemingly hadn’t informed anyone else in the LA outfit), while it’s clear that the Chicago Consiglio had never been informed at all about the matter. If all that Fratianno had was Giancana’s word, that meant nothing once Giancana was off the scene. From a July 1968 report, where Bomp was reporting to the FBI immediately on the heels of the report that I cited above:

[Cosmik_Debris]

"The Weasel" was the the perfect nickname for him.

Thanks Tony!

[funkster]

Such an odd situation. Is there any indication why Giancana would go to any such length to have Fratianno transferred? Just buddies?

[PolackTony]

Such an odd situation. Is there any indication why Giancana would go to any such length to have Fratianno transferred? Just buddies?

I’m not at home so I can’t check right now, and don’t recall offhand what Fratianno said about it in his book exactly. But my understanding is that Fratianno wanted the transfer due to problems he was having with the LA admin in the early 60s and had Roselli arrange the meeting with Giancana. Fratianno was a slick guy and I’d assume would’ve persuaded Giancana that the transfer would have brought some lucrative business interests under Giancana’s control. That this wasn’t handled properly is further demonstrated by the fact that several years later, Frank LaPorte claimed to have had been totally unaware of this when it was happening. LaPorte was Roselli’s capodecina and himself spent much of his time in California (hence his close relationship to Bompensiero). Obviously, Roselli should not have been going around engaging in such matters directly with the boss behind LaPorte’s back. I’d suspect that this was one of several marks against Roselli that eventually tallied up to him getting hit, as I can’t imagine that LaPorte, Accardo, or Ricca were happy to have found out that Roselli was involved in secret dealings that the rest of Chicago’s admin were kept in the dark about.

[funkster]

That would make sense, I always got a slimy used car salesman vibe from Fratianno in his interviews. I think Sammy also claimed he got an introduction to him in NY in the 70s and he was acting like he was a boss? Though one never knows what’s true with Gravano either.

[JoePuzzles234]

That would make sense, I always got a slimy used car salesman vibe from Fratianno in his interviews. I think Sammy also claimed he got an introduction to him in NY in the 70s and he was acting like he was a boss? Though one never knows what’s true with Gravano either.

Gravano is probably lying about this

Fratianno had been demoted from acting underboss by February 1977 and in his story, Sammy is introduced to Fratianno by Gregory DePalma who only became a Gambino member in June 1977 - though in my view, he probably never even met him and was just throwing out a name to build up to a fabricated story about Roy DeMeo for clicks/views

[funkster]

I would imagine so too.

[Camo]

That would make sense, I always got a slimy used car salesman vibe from Fratianno in his interviews. I think Sammy also claimed he got an introduction to him in NY in the 70s and he was acting like he was a boss? Though one never knows what’s true with Gravano either.

Gravano is probably lying about this

Fratianno had been demoted from acting underboss by February 1977 and in his story, Sammy is introduced to Fratianno by Gregory DePalma who only became a Gambino member in June 1977 - though in my view, he probably never even met him and was just throwing out a name to build up to a fabricated story about Roy DeMeo for clicks/views

Frattiano is in the Sinatra picture in 1976 so DePalma definitely knew him by 1977. He wasn't made at that time and was around Carlo Gambino and Paul Castellano.

[PolackTony]

“Introduced” as, like, just a person is not the same as *introduced* as amici nostri, of course. Possible that DePalma introduced Fratianno to Gravano in ‘77 in the first, general, sense (similar to how Fratianno had been acquainted with Alderisio for years before they were formally introduced as Cosa Nostra members), and that Gravano subsequently exaggerated this, but also possible that the entire story was fabricated. Hard to tell what’s what with some of Gravano’s stories.

[B.]

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.