Los Angeles odds & ends

[B.]

It's the same one. His earlier telecommunications company was owned in partnership with Colombo leader Donnie Shacks Montemarano, confirmed in a Congressional hearing and via Kenji Gallo. Curious if that company and the partnership are still in place. Last we heard Montemarano was helping run the Colombo family again.

Craig's is one of the big "see and be seen" celebrity hangouts in LA. From photos we know Gambino rubs elbows with some B-level celebrities.

[Pogo The Clown]

Did Frattiano really misrepresent himself or that just the excuse Brooklier used to nail him? Frattiano describes Louis Dragna calling him to a meeting and saying he (Dragna) was offered the spot of running the family but would only take it if Frattiano come and help him run things.


From the book.


Frattiano: You mean we'll be acting bosses, share the responsibility?
Dragna: Exactly, but you'll be carrying most of the load, I'm so busy now I don't know if I'm coming or going.


Frattiano could be lying of course but is there anything that confirms it one way or the other?


Pogo

[IrishDave]

I'd think that it would have been reported by Bompensero as to the new change in leadership. Although they were friends, it doesn't seem like Frank was protecting Jimmy at all when it came to the Fed's. It was Frank who brought the Forex extortion to Jimmy.

[JoeCamel]

Surprised at LinkedIn’s profiles I’m seeing LA related Definitely travelled down the rabbit hole: Joe isgro for sure..gambino, how many Donnie montemaranos around? New meaning to connected.

Not LA related but cant help myself...Alite has the best one. Spelling mistakes, poor grammar...motivational speaking and “sports betting consaltunt”

[B.]

Did Frattiano really misrepresent himself or that just the excuse Brooklier used to nail him? Frattiano describes Louis Dragna calling him to a meeting and saying he (Dragna) was offered the spot of running the family but would only take it if Frattiano come and help him run things.


From the book.


Frattiano: You mean we'll be acting bosses, share the responsibility?
Dragna: Exactly, but you'll be carrying most of the load, I'm so busy now I don't know if I'm coming or going.


Frattiano could be lying of course but is there anything that confirms it one way or the other?


Pogo

Hard to say if Dragna was responsible for the confusion or if it was Fratianno trying to push his status.

Fratianno says the leadership named Frank Bompensiero consigliere in order to set him up for murder, so you'd think they could have done something more direct like that to Fratianno instead of a pseudo-Machiavellian plot where Louis Dragna invites Fratianno to "run things" with him on the off chance that Fratianno accidentally tells people he's the acting boss. It's normal for the underboss to be more hands-on than the boss running things, so even in what he remembers Dragna telling him, I don't see anything that 100% translates to acting boss.

Fratianno's earlier attempts to take over the LA family with Bompensiero and Roselli (reported by Piscopo and Bompensiero) make it seem like more than an innocent mistake, though it's his word against theirs.

Fratianno referred to himself as boss / acting boss in 1984 Congressional testimony:

A: Well, in 1952, I became a capo, which you call a captain, and in 1975, I became the acting boss with Louie Dragna.

A: When I was boss they didn't have anything and was more or less starting to create something and --
Q: In 1975, were you just creating something?
A: Yes, because all the New York family had all the pornography in Los Angeles.You see, the bosses, guess never tried to get anything. They didn't believe in this pornography, but they made a lot of money so, more or less persuaded that part of the -- in fact, that is one of the reasons I was in New York. See, the Gambino family had all the pornography in California.
Q: For the year you were boss there, what was the approximate estimate of the income from your organized crime operation?
A: We didn't have too much of an income as far as illegal activities. We were creating something. See, I was only acting boss until these fellows got out of jail, which was like nineteen months and at that time --
Q: Until who got out of jail?
A: The boss and underboss went to prison and that is how I became acting boss until they got out of prison. Louie Dragna and I, we both shared the responsibility.


In an article covering his 1980 federal testimony, it describes Fratianno as the "acting underboss". This seems to come from Fratianno's own account at the trial:



If he testified that he was acting underboss at the trial, but later said he was acting boss four years later at the hearing that's interesting and lends itself to him deliberately misrepresenting his position.

--

Unrelated, but Fratianno also testified at the 1984 hearing that Frank Desimone stopped inducting new members because of Apalachin.

During the same 1984 Congressional hearing where Fratianno testified, an FBI agent testified that Rizzitello was Brooklier's underboss:



Has Rizzitello been identified as an underboss anywhere else?

[Villain]

Did Frattiano really misrepresent himself or that just the excuse Brooklier used to nail him? Frattiano describes Louis Dragna calling him to a meeting and saying he (Dragna) was offered the spot of running the family but would only take it if Frattiano come and help him run things.


From the book.


Frattiano: You mean we'll be acting bosses, share the responsibility?
Dragna: Exactly, but you'll be carrying most of the load, I'm so busy now I don't know if I'm coming or going.


Frattiano could be lying of course but is there anything that confirms it one way or the other?


Pogo

This is what the Chi boys thought of Frattiano....the guy lied a lot and wasnt trusted...all of his claimings should be taken with few grains of salt



On top of that, in 1952 Frattiano managed set up one Jewish Outfit associate from the Yaras/Patrick crew, who in turn was completely innocent but still, in the end he was killed

[Costigan]

Did Frattiano really misrepresent himself or that just the excuse Brooklier used to nail him? Frattiano describes Louis Dragna calling him to a meeting and saying he (Dragna) was offered the spot of running the family but would only take it if Frattiano come and help him run things.


From the book.


Frattiano: You mean we'll be acting bosses, share the responsibility?
Dragna: Exactly, but you'll be carrying most of the load, I'm so busy now I don't know if I'm coming or going.


Frattiano could be lying of course but is there anything that confirms it one way or the other?


Pogo

Well, one thing's for sure, when LT Dragna asked for Jimmy's help in running things in LA, Jimmy took off running like a racehorse. He visited Cleveland, Chicago, and most importantly New York, as the skipper of California. I'll have to read over that part of his book again on how he introduced himself, but he didn't waste any time meeting with other families as the boss of LA. His name was in all the papers, Time Magazine, etc. as a major mobster, a boss in California. Hell, the press didn't know who Dominic Brooklier or Sam Sciortino was, but they knew the name Jimmy the Weasel Fratianno. Later when the hammer fell, Jimmy thought his name in the press was what really pissed off Brooklier.
In retrospect, it's easy to see how Brooklier got the impression that Fratianno was trying to replace him, or start his own family.

[Angelo Santino]

Brooklier made Louis Tom Dragna AB and Fratianno AU. Fratianno went around the contry including to NY and introduced himself as the Acting Boss of LA. That's a violation that Brooklier later on addressed, stating "Fratianno had misrepresented himself."

"I was more or less running the family" is an opinion, not a formal fact. LTDragna saying: "I'm busy in my store so you'll be doing most of the legwork" doesn't organically make Fratianno anything beyond what Brooklier made him- Acting Under.

But this goes back to my wondering why? I wonder if Brooklier put him in that position knowing he'd hang himself. There was about 25 years of bad blood and if Fratianno's book is true, he was openly vocal in his disdain.

[B.]

Good piece of info.

It gives LA boss Licata more claim in not recognizing Fratianno's transfer and shows other Chicago leaders didn't know (or claimed to not know) about the transfer.

However, in 1968 CI Frank Bompensiero told the FBI that Fratianno had allegedly arranged to transfer to Chicago through Roselli and Giancana earlier in the 1960s, which is what Fratianno would say himself when he turned witness a decade later. Bompensiero was only repeating what Fratianno told him, but Fratianno's story was consistent for twenty years and repeated by two member sources, so if the transfer did take place it simply wasn't communicated properly beyond Desimone and Giancana.

Fratianno's relationships to other mafia groups were real and his national organizational knowledge is generally reliable, but he lived up to his nickname with constant manipulation, scheming, and spinning. His info should always be looked at in context.

But this goes back to my wondering why? I wonder if Brooklier put him in that position knowing he'd hang himself. There was about 25 years of bad blood and if Fratianno's book is true, he was openly vocal in his disdain.

I have a difficult time buying the idea that Brooklier told Louis Tom Dragna to promote Fratianno in vague terms on the off chance that Fratianno would use the wrong formal term for his position. They didn't tell Bompensiero, "You're going to be kind of like a mediator or advisor to the family" so that he would call himself the consigliere and they could justify killing him. They promoted him straight up to consigliere so that he would drop his guard.

Tommy Lucchese, Marco Reginelli, Frank Garofalo / John Morales, Fred Randaccio, Bill O. Sciortino... the list goes on. Many (most?) underbosses were traditionally the ones who ran the organization while the boss was involved in other matters. If these underbosses had been around today, people would be having debates on the board about how Lucchese and Reginelli are the "real bosses" of their families like they do with Crea.

The issue relating to Fratianno's position seems to have less to do with Fratianno's actions and more to do with his words. It doesn't matter that Lucchese and Reginelli ran the organization for the bosses, if these underbosses told people they were the boss or even acting boss that would be a major breach in protocol and not be seen as an innocent mistake regardless of their functional duties. Other organizations would need to be informed that these men misrepresented themselves and they would probably be demoted or killed.

Fratianno appears to have testified in 1980 that Dragna was the acting boss and he was the acting underboss at the meeting where they promoted Bompensiero, so the more likely story is that Fratianno claimed a higher title than he had, like he would do in his book and later testimony. Whether giving Fratianno power was an attempt to set him up, I don't know, but they gave him a position and let him help run the family, he just claimed to have a different position than he had.

Brooklier sent emissaries to other families informing them of Fratianno's misrepresentation. No matter what the truth is, that reflects poorly on Brooklier and the LA family and it would be embarrassing to tell other organizations that your already small, struggling west coast family allowed someone to lie about his position to other mafia leaders around the country. Would it be worth national embarrassment so that you would have an excuse to kill a guy who had committed other infractions before this? Like with Bompensiero, they could have found many other justifications to take out Fratianno.

--

Do we know of anyone else who misrepresented his formal position the way Fratianno did?

Chicago soldier Frank Calabrese was recorded talking about an associate who gave members in prison the impression that he was a member when he wasn't. Not sure if the member outright lied, but the associate certainly put himself on Calabrese's radar for it and it was clearly a problem that this associate misrepresented his status.

[Villain]

Fratianno never transferred to Chicago since he was probably manipulated by both Giancana and Roselli or he lied about it as usual....Alderisio was Giancana long time loyalist and also the boss of the west side at the time, LaPorte was the boss of the Chi Heights faction and Rosellis overseer at the time, and Accardo and Ricca were the two top guys. Cerone was the boss and Accardos guy so at least old man Accardo wouldve known something about it. By the late 60s Roselli lost his influence within the Outfit and by 1970 or 71 he was demoted and replaced with Spilotro. By 1965 Giancana was already out of the local game.

Edit: this was Fratiannos "influence" and nobody trusted him...same as Giancana and Roselli

[Adam]

And I really have to remind people that so much of what we know about the LA family and Fratianno is from Frartianno's book. A book that was intended for sales. So that's why there's a Bugsy murder implication and that's why for some reason Cleveland is talking to him about the Hoffa murder. And why every mobster Fratianno worked with was a loser and couldn't make any money? He was a loser. He literally talks about him not having enough money to deal with the "hit" on his life.

[Grouchy Sinatra]

I don't buy for one second that Fratianno confronted and threatened Moe Sedway. That would have been the end of him. Lucky and Frank might have been out at that point but the Genovese and Chicago, who Sedway was mostly affiliated with, were alive and well and he made a lot of money for them.

[Pogo The Clown]

Jack Dragna cleared it with Tommy Lucchese.


Frattiano: Moey, I want to tell you something you motherfucker. You better walk straight around Vegas because next time I'm going to blow your fucking head off.
Frattiano back hands Sedway and Moey starts whimpering.
Sedway: What's the matter with you? Leave me alone.
Frattiano: Remenber you better walk straight you cocksucker.


Classic.


Pogo

[Grouchy Sinatra]

Fantasy. Moe was important. Frattiano wasn't.

[Villain]

I dont know about Sedway, but i know that Chicagos connection was Greenbaum. He previously mightve been associated with Lansky but by the 1940s his bosses were Jake Guzik and Paul Ricca. He controlled a wire service for the Outfit in Phoenix, which was originally established in 1941. Later Kemper Marley and his associates were allegedly instructed by the Chicago mob to move Greenbaum out of Phoenix and to place him in Vegas, allegedly by force. In the end, all sources say that Marshall Caifano allegedly did the gruesome work on Greenbaum and his wife while chewing on a steak, which was classic Chicago style