Los Angeles odds & ends

[Adam]

Luigi Gelfuso was charged with, but not convicted of, the murder of of bookie named William Amato in 1968.

[Costigan]

Rocco Zangari was, I believe, another Buffalo native who went west. At least by all reports he went back to Buffalo where he died a few years ago. He was the manager of a card room at an Indian Casino in SoCal in the early 1980s until he came under investigation and was fired. His partners in the card room scheme were Irving "Slick" Shapiro and Tommy Marson, two old friends of Jimmy Fratianno's.
The following paragraph is from a Palm Springs newspaper article about the mobs presence their...

Melvyn's owner Mel Haber didn't have such nice things to say about Zangari.

"Rocky was a wannabe gangster," Haber says. "He walks in here one day and says to me, 'You Jewish (expletive), I'll turn this place into a garage.' And he walks out. What kind of talk is that? Irv Shapiro comes in the next day with a wise guy from Vegas he hung around with. I say, 'Irv, Rocky comes in here, says he's going to turn the place into a garage. Two days later, Rocky Zangari walks in and says, 'I apologize. I will never get out of line again.' "

[Costigan]

Luigi Gelfuso was charged with, but not convicted of, the murder of of bookie named William Amato in 1968.

Luigi was a Providence RI native, so I've read. 1968, wow. I wonder when he went to California?

[Pogo The Clown]

Here is a chart I put together from the information Ed discovered in his write up of LA.


Los Angeles Family Circa 1963


Total Membership: About 25 made members (many were old and inactive)


Administration:
Boss: Frank DeSimone
UnderBoss: Nicolo "Nick" Licata
Consigliere: Thomas “Tommy” Palermo


Capos and Crews:


1. Joseph Adamo – San Diego
-Frank "Bomp" Bompensiero (IP)
-Biaggio Bonventre
-Phillipo Damiano (Transferred from the Rockford family)
-Liborio "Leo" Dia
-Joseph LiMandri
-Marco LiMandri


2. Joseph “Joe Dip” Dippolito
-Dominic “Jimmy Regace” Brooklier
-Louis Tom “Louie” Dragna


3. Giuseppe “Joe” Giammona
-No Soldiers assigned to him due to old age and poor health


4. Angelo Polizzi
-James “Danny Wilson” Iannone
-Anthony Mangione
-Salvatore “Dago Louie” Piscopo
-Dominic “Mimi” Tripoli


Soldiers: (Unknown Crew)
John Cascio
Arthur “Army” DiMaria (Las Vegas)
Thomas “Tom” Drgana (Las Vegas)
Giacomo “Jack” LoCicero
Gaspare "Jasper" Matranga (Mexico)


Former Members:
Charles “Charlie Bats” Battaglia (transferred to the Bonanno family)
-William "Willie the Rat" Cammisano (transferred from the Kansas City family and then back to the Kansas City family)
Aladena “Jimmy the Weasel” Fratianno (transferred to the Chicago Outfit)
Carlo Licata (transferred to the Detroit family)
John "Johnny" Roselli (transferred to the Chicago Outfit)


Deceased Members:
Girolamo "Momo" Adamo (1956) (Suicide)
Frank Borgia (1951) (Killed)
Salvatore “Charlie Dip” Dippolito (1960)
Jack Dragna (1956)
Calogero Finocchio (1940s)
Peter Gregorio
Victor Pepitone (San Diego)
Antonio “Tony” Mirabile (1958) (Killed)
"Phil Unstada" (ph)

[Costigan]

That's a nice list Pogo. So Tommy Palermo was consigliere in 1963. This guy had a long career with the LA family. In 1974 in a conversation about the LA mob with Johnny Roselli, Jimmy Fratianno mentions that Tommy Palermo is the consigliere, and says "but I never met the guy."
Later that year Jimmy had the opportunity to meet him, along with Louis Tom Dragna, where they discussed setting up Frank Bompensiero. They decided to give Bomp the consigliere position to put him at ease.
By the Milano years in the early 80s Jack LoCicero was consigliere.

[Angelo Santino]

Here is a chart I put together from the information Ed discovered in his write up of LA.


Los Angeles Family Circa 1963


Total Membership: About 25 made members (many were old and inactive)


Administration:
Boss: Frank DeSimone
UnderBoss: Nicolo "Nick" Licata
Consigliere: Thomas “Tommy” Palermo


Capos and Crews:


1. Joseph Adamo – San Diego
-Frank "Bomp" Bompensiero (IP)
-Biaggio Bonventre
-Phillipo Damiano (Transferred from the Rockford family)
-Liborio "Leo" Dia
-Joseph LiMandri
-Marco LiMandri


2. Joseph “Joe Dip” Dippolito
-Dominic “Jimmy Regace” Brooklier
-Louis Tom “Louie” Dragna


3. Giuseppe “Joe” Giammona
-No Soldiers assigned to him due to old age and poor health


4. Angelo Polizzi
-James “Danny Wilson” Iannone
-Anthony Mangione
-Salvatore “Dago Louie” Piscopo
-Dominic “Mimi” Tripoli


Soldiers: (Unknown Crew)
John Cascio
Arthur “Army” DiMaria (Las Vegas)
Thomas “Tom” Drgana (Las Vegas)
Giacomo “Jack” LoCicero
Gaspare "Jasper" Matranga (Mexico)


Former Members:
Charles “Charlie Bats” Battaglia (transferred to the Bonanno family)
-William "Willie the Rat" Cammisano (transferred from the Kansas City family and then back to the Kansas City family)
Aladena “Jimmy the Weasel” Fratianno (transferred to the Chicago Outfit)
Carlo Licata (transferred to the Detroit family)
John "Johnny" Roselli (transferred to the Chicago Outfit)


Deceased Members:
Girolamo "Momo" Adamo (1956) (Suicide)
Frank Borgia (1951) (Killed)
Salvatore “Charlie Dip” Dippolito (1960)
Jack Dragna (1956)
Calogero Finocchio (1940s)
Peter Gregorio
Victor Pepitone (San Diego)
Antonio “Tony” Mirabile (1958) (Killed)
"Phil Unstada" (ph)

Terrific work, buddy.

[Pogo The Clown]

I should add that Louie Piscopo was cooperating and the information came from him. Here is a great write up Ed did on hi and the family during this era.


http://mafiahistory.us/rattrap/salvatorepiscopo.html


Pogo

[B.]

That's a nice list Pogo. So Tommy Palermo was consigliere in 1963. This guy had a long career with the LA family. In 1974 in a conversation about the LA mob with Johnny Roselli, Jimmy Fratianno mentions that Tommy Palermo is the consigliere, and says "but I never met the guy."
Later that year Jimmy had the opportunity to meet him, along with Louis Tom Dragna, where they discussed setting up Frank Bompensiero. They decided to give Bomp the consigliere position to put him at ease.
By the Milano years in the early 80s Jack LoCicero was consigliere.

Tommy Palermo was also a cousin of Frank Desimone and Dallas boss Joe Civello. The LA Desimones / Palermos, Dallas Civellos / Mussos, and SF Lanzas were all related either by blood or marriage. Rosario Desimone also married a woman from Lucca Sicula in Pueblo before going to LA... can't connect her surname, but it's likely she was connected to the mafia there given that family was all from Lucca Sicula.

Thanks for adding those charts, Pogo. They appear to have always been small and depended heavily on imported members/associates.

[Grouchy Sinatra]

Was the LA family ever the ultimate authority recognized in LA's underworld? In NY, people knew when they heard the name Luciano, Costello, then later Gambino, Gotti. Did names like Dragna, DeSimone or Brooklier ever carry the same weight in LA? Bugsy Siegel and Mickey Cohen pretty much were those guys, weren't they?

[Pogo The Clown]

I don't think they ever got close to that. The city of LA was just too big and they were always too small to really wield that sort of power on the streets.


Pogo

[Grouchy Sinatra]

I don't think they ever got close to that. The city of LA was just too big and they were always too small to really wield that sort of power on the streets.


Pogo

But Bugsy and Cohen did wield that kind of power, and their crew was never big.

[Wiseguy]

I don't think they ever got close to that. The city of LA was just too big and they were always too small to really wield that sort of power on the streets.


Pogo

But Bugsy and Cohen did wield that kind of power, and their crew was never big.

Look who the weight ultimately was behind Siegel and Cohen - Lansky and his partners in the Genovese family.

[Antiliar]

Here is a chart I put together from the information Ed discovered in his write up of LA.


Los Angeles Family Circa 1963


Total Membership: About 25 made members (many were old and inactive)


Administration:
Boss: Frank DeSimone
UnderBoss: Nicolo "Nick" Licata
Consigliere: Thomas “Tommy” Palermo


Capos and Crews:


1. Joseph Adamo – San Diego
-Frank "Bomp" Bompensiero (IP)
-Biaggio Bonventre
-Phillipo Damiano (Transferred from the Rockford family)
-Liborio "Leo" Dia
-Joseph LiMandri
-Marco LiMandri


2. Joseph “Joe Dip” Dippolito
-Dominic “Jimmy Regace” Brooklier
-Louis Tom “Louie” Dragna


3. Giuseppe “Joe” Giammona
-No Soldiers assigned to him due to old age and poor health


4. Angelo Polizzi
-James “Danny Wilson” Iannone
-Anthony Mangione
-Salvatore “Dago Louie” Piscopo
-Dominic “Mimi” Tripoli


Soldiers: (Unknown Crew)
John Cascio
Arthur “Army” DiMaria (Las Vegas)
Thomas “Tom” Drgana (Las Vegas)
Giacomo “Jack” LoCicero
Gaspare "Jasper" Matranga (Mexico)


Former Members:
Charles “Charlie Bats” Battaglia (transferred to the Bonanno family)
-William "Willie the Rat" Cammisano (transferred from the Kansas City family and then back to the Kansas City family)
Aladena “Jimmy the Weasel” Fratianno (transferred to the Chicago Outfit)
Carlo Licata (transferred to the Detroit family)
John "Johnny" Roselli (transferred to the Chicago Outfit)


Deceased Members:
Girolamo "Momo" Adamo (1956) (Suicide)
Frank Borgia (1951) (Killed)
Salvatore “Charlie Dip” Dippolito (1960)
Jack Dragna (1956)
Calogero Finocchio (1940s)
Peter Gregorio
Victor Pepitone (San Diego)
Antonio “Tony” Mirabile (1958) (Killed)
"Phil Unstada" (ph)

Jasper Matranga was in Adamo's crew, and DiMaria and Dragna were in Joe Dip's crew. Cascio wasn't a member. Locicero wasn't made until later.

[Angelo Santino]

Is there more info on Tommy Palermo? He's another one who Fratianno wasn't impressed with, "where the hell they get this guy from?"

[johnny_scootch]

Borgia was "made" in the late 1940s. Piscopo indicated Borgia had been inducted into the crime family for the financial help he might give rather than for any criminal help he might provide.

Sounds a lot like Dominic Longo, seems like the LA family made some of it’s own Italian extortion victims and even kept extorting them afterwards although it would be considered ‘tribute’ at that point.