Bay Area (San Francisco, San Jose, Emeryville) Deep Dive

[Antiliar]

B, I think by context that Fratianno and Bomp were trying to take over Northern California for or with Bonanno, but all the nuances make an accurate reading difficult. Maybe they left out Bonanno's name in their conversations with Brooklier. Maybe only Bomp knew the Bonanno connection since he knew that the Bonannos were officially off-limits.

[lennert]

On Francesco Lanza's real surname, he was definitely not a foundling. On his birth record, his mother is named as Grazia Prisinzano (Jimmy Lanza had an uncle named Mario Prisinzano who was a frequent visitor at his Washington Street business address) and I think his father's name is listed as Mariano, although it is hard to decipher the handwriting... But, James Lanza's real name was Mariano Vincenzo Lanza, so it would match the Italian custom of naming the first son to the paternal grandfather. So his true name really appears to have been Proetto/Proietto...

[motorfab]

B, I think by context that Fratianno and Bomp were trying to take over Northern California for or with Bonanno, but all the nuances make an accurate reading difficult. Maybe they left out Bonanno's name in their conversations with Brooklier. Maybe only Bomp knew the Bonanno connection since he knew that the Bonannos were officially off-limits.

Interesting if that's the case. Especially that Frattiano in "The Last Mafioso" claims that he never met Bonanno. That would be a lie?

[IrishDave]

A file where literally everything is redacted.

I wonder why they were so redacted? I can't see Bompensiero having extensive and useful info outside of San Diego. Then again, I'm only basing that opinion on Fratianno's book.

[Antiliar]

Francesco Lanza may not have been a foundling himself, but his father could have been. Italian genealogists I consulted all agree that Proetto and its various forms originated as foundlings. Esposito is another.

[Antiliar]

B, I think by context that Fratianno and Bomp were trying to take over Northern California for or with Bonanno, but all the nuances make an accurate reading difficult. Maybe they left out Bonanno's name in their conversations with Brooklier. Maybe only Bomp knew the Bonanno connection since he knew that the Bonannos were officially off-limits.

Interesting if that's the case. Especially that Frattiano in "The Last Mafioso" claims that he never met Bonanno. That would be a lie?

I'm not sure if Fratianno knew about the Bonanno connection, but Bomp certainly did. These guys lied to each other as often as they did to law enforcement.

And Bompensiero had information that went all over the country. Officially the FBI protects the names of informants forever, but they made a lot of exceptions. I think a lot of it depends on who the agent is doing the redacting.

[lennert]

That is possible, of course, I have not looked that far back... But it still leaves the question why Francesco, or his brother for that matter, changed the surname... of course it is possible this brother was ashamed or something of being the decendant of a foundling, who knows...

[Antiliar]

That is possible, of course, I have not looked that far back... But it still leaves the question why Francesco, or his brother for that matter, changed the surname... of course it is possible this brother was ashamed or something of being the decendant of a foundling, who knows...

I think I read that they were close to the Horace Lanza family, and the Lanza name had a certain prestige.

Jack Dragna's father was also a foundling. He was adopted by a Dragna family.

[Pogo The Clown]

- Lima describes Brooklier as having been a "recruit" of Fratianno, which in his lexicon indicates Fratianno sponsored Brooklier for membership.

Fratianno couldn't have sponsored him since they were both made in the same ceremony in 1946.

Dominic Brooklier, underboss of LA circa 1972 (and boss by April 1975),

I thought Joe Dippolito was UnderBoss until he died in 1974?


Great write up by the way. Fills in a lot of gaps in the SF and SJ families history.


Pogo

[Grouchy Sinatra]

- His uncle Sam Lima was consigliere of the San Francisco family in 1929 when he moved there. The family's underboss was Joseph Piazza and Anthony Lima learned that Piazza had a plan to murder consigliere Sam Lima over a disagreement over an extortion attempt, and boss Francesco Lanza had approved of the murder. However, Anthony Lima confronted Lanza and Lanza "begged for mercy".

- Shortly after this, around 1929 or 1930, Lanza held a family meeting where he assigned a murder contract for Lima to carry out. Lima became very angry with Lanza for assigning the murder contract in front of other members at a family meeting, as it should be done privately, and told them he would commit the murder in three days, which he did. Lanza was scared because other bosses were being killed around the country during this period and stepped down in favor of Lima becoming the new boss.

Interesting. Most accounts claim Lima took over from "Francesco" Lanza (not his son James "Jimmy", important to note) upon Francesco's death. Never heard before that the elder Lanza cowered to a Lima overthrow. This account of the elder Lanza cowering to pressure seems more like the younger Jimmy Lanza than elder Francesco, who according to most accounts always seemed apathetic in regard to advancing the family's enterprise. Would love to read more about SF in the 1920's and 30s.

[B.]

Interesting. Most accounts claim Lima took over from "Francesco" Lanza (not his son James "Jimmy", important to note) upon Francesco's death. Never heard before that the elder Lanza cowered to a Lima overthrow. This account of the elder Lanza cowering to pressure seems more like the younger Jimmy Lanza than elder Francesco, who according to most accounts always seemed apathetic in regard to advancing the family's enterprise. Would love to read more about SF in the 1920's and 30s.

Yeah, you have to keep in mind informants/witnesses always make themselves out to be tougher, more righteous, etc. than everyone else. I would guess there is some truth to Lima's account of intimidating F.Lanza, but he also may have been exaggerating his influence on the situation.

More questionable to me is where he claimed someone told him about the murder plot against his uncle the consigliere and, as a new soldier in the area, Lima confronted the boss Lanza for approving the murder and intimidated him into backing off. I can't imagine a soldier confronting a boss about a murder contract he approved and living to tell about it but again maybe there is an element of truth in it.

- Lima describes Brooklier as having been a "recruit" of Fratianno, which in his lexicon indicates Fratianno sponsored Brooklier for membership.

Fratianno couldn't have sponsored him since they were both made in the same ceremony in 1946.

Dominic Brooklier, underboss of LA circa 1972 (and boss by April 1975),

I thought Joe Dippolito was UnderBoss until he died in 1974?


Great write up by the way. Fills in a lot of gaps in the SF and SJ families history.


Pogo

Thanks for those notes -- I was just carrying over what was in the reports, which are bound to have mistakes and inconsistencies. A big one is that J.Lanza is carried as the "former boss" of San Fran for most of the 1970s, then in 1978 they suddenly re-opened his file and stated he was still the boss.

At one point James Lanza was visited in San Fran by John Profaci, son of Joseph, and Manny Figlia. John has never been carried as a made member of any group, but Manny Figlia was a captain of the San Jose family and most likely was involved with the Profaci family in NYC before moving to California. Figlia was from Villabate like his brother-in-law San Jose boss Joe Cerrito and of course the Profacis.

Joe's other son Sal Profaci, an NYC member since the 1950s, lived in the Bay Area for a short period in the 1960s working for his father-in-law's bakery. His father-in-law was Frank Buffa, San Jose soldier and brother of former Profaci consigliere Joe Buffa (thanks to LCNBios for clarifying the relationship between the Buffas for me a while back). Then there was the influence of Profaci captain/underboss John Misuraca whose brother and son-in-law were made in San Jose, with Misuraca acting as something of a national rep for San Jose.

What stands out to me is that despite the Profaci family having a heavy influence in San Jose, they don't typically get mentioned as instigators or manipulators in the area like Joe Bonanno, Fratianno, etc. One source claimed Joe Profaci had been the SJ commission rep, so it appears their influence of San Jose was all "above board", like the Lucchese representation/influence in LA.

[B.]

Re: Sam Lima being San Fran consigliere in 1929. This is a good piece of info not just for the trivia of it, but because we have few confirmed examples of the consigliere position pre-1931 and some of the Castellammarese War and Luciano mythologies claim that Luciano created the consigliere position after the war, which is not true. This adds another example showing that it predated Luciano and the war.

[Pogo The Clown]

Thanks for those notes -- I was just carrying over what was in the reports, which are bound to have mistakes and inconsistencies.

Let me clarify that I don't know it to be a mistake about Dippolito. Brookline may very well have replaced him earlier than I thought. If it is in the report it was probably correct. I believe Brooklier was indicted as the UnderBoss in 1974 if I'm not mistaken? It was in Frattianos book.


Pogo

[B.]

Let me clarify that I don't know it to be a mistake about Dippolito. Brookline may very well have replaced him earlier than I thought. If it is in the report it was probably correct. I believe Brooklier was indicted as the UnderBoss in 1974 if I'm not mistaken? It was in Frattianos book.

I was actually hoping you'd weigh in since I don't remember many of those details from Fratianno's book. Didn't he say something about how he first brought Brooklier around the organization, though they were both associates? Maybe that's what Lima meant when he said Brooklier was Fratianno's "recruit".

Have the Bompensiero files been made public? It would be interesting to find out information on the opposition side of the Fratianno conflict.

Some of his files are available and are an absolute treasure of mafia information on California, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Chicago, Tampa, etc.

Bompensiero and Fratianno were both treacherous but they were working together the majority of the time. Both of them had been proteges of Jack Dragna and served as captains under him. When both men went to prison they lost their captain positions and when they got out Frank Desimone and Nick Licata tried to place a murder contract on Fratianno that was canceled. Regardless, Bompensiero and Fratianno had deep resentment toward the Desimone/Licata regime and made some sort of pact or agreement, along with John Roselli (who had technically transferred to Chicago), to undermine the new regime and take over. Various plans and strategies to take over the family were entertained by them from 1961 seemingly through the mid-1970s, with both men eventually gaining some level of rank later.

Joe Bonanno met with Frank Bompensiero, Jimmy Fratianno, and Biagio Bonventre in 1961 in an attempt to recruit them as part of Bonanno's plan to take over the entire state of California. He ended up manipulating Bompensiero by having his capodecina Antonio Bello spread a false rumor that Frank Desimone was going to kill Bompensiero, with the hope that Bompensiero would kill Desimone. After conducting his own investigation, Bompensiero determined that the rumor was a lie and turned Bonanno in to the Commission which played into Bonanno's downfall in the 1960s.

Around the same time, Joe Bonanno was also conspiring with LA members John Roselli and Joe Giammona to try and enlist their help in his plot. They initially agreed to help him but also turned him in to the Commission. Given Roselli's close relationship to Fratianno and Bompensiero, it's possible they were all on the same page in their dealings with Bonanno. As someone mentioned, Fratianno later distanced himself saying he never knew Bonanno but Bompensiero himself provided this info that confirms Fratianno met with Bonanno multiple times in the 1960s and some of Lima's info from the 1970s suggests Fratianno had some level of contact with Bonanno or someone close to Bonanno well into the 1970s.

In 1968, Bompensiero, Fratianno, and Roselli put together their own plan to depose Nick Licata plus the Bay Area bosses and take over the entire state of California themselves, with Roselli as boss. They apparently had support from some other US bosses, most significantly Santo Trafficante who was close with Bompensiero. By this time Bompensiero was a full-blown informant giving blow-by-blow info on the plot to the FBI and told them explicitly he wanted to overthrow Licata to take control of the family. It's possible Fratianno was cooperating to some extent by then as well. It seems extremely suspicious that both Bomp and Fratianno would begin conspiring against their fellow mafia members at the same time they were trying to overthrow the family.

What's interesting about the Lima report about Fratianno's plan to take over the Bay Area in the 1970s is that Fratianno says he will basically force Bompensiero to help him with his plans. This implies that Bompensiero was not actively involved with it at the time, but that Bompensiero was under some degree of obligation likely dating back to their earlier conspiracy to take over LA.

These threads cover these attempted takeovers and other info related to Bompensiero, Fratianno, Roselli, Bonanno, and their separate and mutual attempts to take over California groups:
viewtopic.php?f=29&t=4119
viewtopic.php?f=29&t=4119&start=30#p115553

viewtopic.php?f=29&t=3393

I could easily see the FBI (or rogue agents) selecting and guiding the criminal careers of certain well-placed mobsters in the hopes they make it to the top of the crime family. They could do this easily by sidelining/jailing their potential rivals, etc. Wasn't the whole Bulger/Flemmi thing just a version of that?

Not to get too political, but elements in the FBI can get very unorthodox in their methods. I could see someone there think that manipulating the LCN this why was a good idea. Rather than shutting down the LCN, lets make it our own.

In one of the old threads regarding San Jose/San Fran I threw out the speculation that the FBI and the higher-ups in the crime family were working together to basically shut down the San Francisco Family. It wouldn't shock me if Lima was up to no good.

Reading Lima's reports from the 1970s, I got a strong feeling that Lima was operating along similar lines as Bompensiero in that he was cooperating to manipulate the mafia power structure in the area but that there simply wasn't much to manipulate by that time. There is something highly suspicious on every side of these relationships beyond what we already know.

[Antiliar]

To make clear, the Frank Bompensiero files don't have any information due to heavy redactions. Some of Bomp's information, however, is found in other files, especially the set of files titled LCN. Those files don't say that Bomp was the source (that part is redacted), but there are plenty of clues that make it obvious. Those files can be found in the Mary Farrell site but only go up to around 1968. There is additional information in the James Lanza FBI files that go past the 1970s.