Los Angeles odds & ends

[B.]

According to Fratianno, Bomp was already the capo in charge of San Diego when he was made in 1947. After the ceremony everyone went to Dago Louie's house to celebrate, and that's when Rosselli explained that Bomp was the capo of San Diego.

Here is Bompensiero's own info:



Earlier on the same page he says he began these visits to Tijuana around 1950 and this encounter with Colonel White occurred sometime after that. Says Colonel White commented on Bomp's promotion only a few days after it happened which led to the Moretti suspicion.

So it looks like the promotion happened in either late 1950 or 1951 given he says it happened immediately before the Moretti conspiracy unfolded. I lean toward Bomp's story given it was his own promotion and he was recalling it a little over 15 years later opposed to 30 years in Fratianno's story.

Here is another FBI interview where he tells the same story:



Note that he is referring to Scozzari not as the former underboss circa 1951, but the former underboss at the time of this FBI report in the late 1960s. Roselli and Scozzari attending the meeting is interesting given they were not on the admin at the time.

You can see they blocked out the word "caporegime" but it's obvious what it's referring to when it says he was "appointed" to a position a few days earlier and White could have only known from an informant. You can see it was even placed in quotes, which is common when they use organizational terms in FBI reports. Guessing they blocked it out to make the informant more difficult to identify given it was well-known Bompensiero had been a captain then.

[Antiliar]

You're guessing that the redacted words might be something like "caporegime" (or a longer equivalent) and "promotion," correct? That's possible. I'm more hesitant since in The Last Mafioso it's clear that Bomp already has the position. According to Vengeance Is Mine, Ovid Demaris recorded everything Fratianno told him, so he would seem to be very reliable about what he was told. So I'm not as certain as you are about the redacted words.

[desertdog]

Good info on S. California mob. I first got interested in these guys when I found out "Bomp" was wacked a block from my house after using the phone at a store that I frequented.

[sdeitche]

. Bomp thought they might use Santo Trafficante Jr. for this.

Very prescient of Bomp.

[Pogo The Clown]

Are there any references to LA having captains before the 1950s?

In the the Mafia Inc documentary he mentions capos being present at his ceremony. Going from memory the exact quote was "the Boss, the UnderBoss, the Consgliere and the Capos all on one side" (refering to the big table where they seated for the ceremony).


Pogo

[PolackTony]

Very interesting info on SD T-1. I’m assuming, of course, that he was originally from Detroit. Just to be clear, the Detroit/San Diego Matrangas were from Piana dei Greci/degli Albanesi? Has it actually been established that former Chicago capodecina Gaspare Matranga was not related to these Matrangas? He was from PDG, like the NOLA Matrangas.

Very interesting that SD T-1 was close to Lorenzo Mangano. Did he provide any further info on Dago Larry (we remain unsure if he was ever actually a capodecina, so any info on him would be great). Given that this informant was related to the Detroit Matrangas, it’s worth noting that Mangano was part of the same faction in the internal Chicago war in the 1940s as Gaspare Matranga. While Mangano was killed, Matranga exiled himself to LA. If this informant was connected to both the Detroit Matrangas and Mangano, it helps to further connect some of these dots between the Midwest families and LA. I wonder also if his links to Mangano were Midwest-based or if Mangano was also making moves out West before he was killed.

[sdeitche]

According to Fratianno, Bomp was already the capo in charge of San Diego when he was made in 1947. After the ceremony everyone went to Dago Louie's house to celebrate, and that's when Rosselli explained that Bomp was the capo of San Diego.

Here is Bompensiero's own info:



Earlier on the same page he says he began these visits to Tijuana around 1950 and this encounter with Colonel White occurred sometime after that. Says Colonel White commented on Bomp's promotion only a few days after it happened which led to the Moretti suspicion.

So it looks like the promotion happened in either late 1950 or 1951 given he says it happened immediately before the Moretti conspiracy unfolded. I lean toward Bomp's story given it was his own promotion and he was recalling it a little over 15 years later opposed to 30 years in Fratianno's story.

Here is another FBI interview where he tells the same story:



Note that he is referring to Scozzari not as the former underboss circa 1951, but the former underboss at the time of this FBI report in the late 1960s. Roselli and Scozzari attending the meeting is interesting given they were not on the admin at the time.

You can see they blocked out the word "caporegime" but it's obvious what it's referring to when it says he was "appointed" to a position a few days earlier and White could have only known from an informant. You can see it was even placed in quotes, which is common when they use organizational terms in FBI reports. Guessing they blocked it out to make the informant more difficult to identify given it was well-known Bompensiero had been a captain then.

Interesting. Around that same time period, George White met with Santo Trafficante Sr and Jr in Tampa.

[B.]

You're guessing that the redacted words might be something like "caporegime" (or a longer equivalent) and "promotion," correct? That's possible. I'm more hesitant since in The Last Mafioso it's clear that Bomp already has the position. According to Vengeance Is Mine, Ovid Demaris recorded everything Fratianno told him, so he would seem to be very reliable about what he was told. So I'm not as certain as you are about the redacted words.

In the first excerpt Bompensiero specifically says he was recently "appointed a ________" and that only an underworld informant could have known this info. The word is in quotes which is fairly common when the FBI refers to Cosa Nostra terminology/ranks. So it's not speculation that Bompensiero was referring to being "appointed" to a position, as that much is clear, but it's informed speculation that he was referring to capodecina.

What other position could Bompensiero been appointed to in 1950/1951 that would have been known only among mafia insiders and caused such controversy when the agent brought it up? Bomp wasn't on the admin and he told the FBI he was the captain until 1955, so that narrows it down.

Fratianno was recalling someone else's rank in 1947 over 30 years later, while Bompensiero was referring to his own "appointment" to a position a little over 15 years after the fact. I don't think Fratianno or DeMaris made a deliberate mistake or had any agenda, just misremembered Bomp's date of promotion. In Bomp's account the "appointment" is also tied to a much more specific event (Moretti's murder) in the timeline, which is our best way of correcting the (many) mistaken times/dates given by various informants/witnesses.

If we're going to take every designation Fratianno referred to in the book as our main authority, he also said John Roselli told him Tony Accardo was the Chicago consigliere. My opinion as usual is that anything a member source says should be part of the conversation but if there is other info or context that challenges it, that is part of the conversation too. I know you take the same approach.

-

Another reason I suspect Fratianno was assigned directly to Dragna before his promotion is his explanation of the "Two Tony" murders. He was given this order directly by Dragna and says nothing about any captain or chain of command being part of it. He met Dragna at Nick Licata's club to receive the order for these murders and we know from Fratianno that Nick Licata was a soldier assigned directly to Dragna also.

[Antiliar]

Willie Moretti was under suspicion for years. In 1943 Frank Costello sent him to California and told him not to talk. Moretti called Costello about 150 times, including when Costello was vacationing in Hot Springs, Arkansas. One of the calls in June 1943 was intercepted and in it Moretti referred to Costello as "chief." https://archive.org/details/investigati ... moretti%22

It turns out that I had this document and totally forgot about it. So yes, apparently Fratianno didn't recall his conversation after his induction ceremony correctly:

FBI file - Bompensiero Moretti White.jpg

According to Col. White, immediately after Moretti's testimony to the Kefauver Committee (December 13, 1950) they met in the corridor and then had lunch together in the cafe of the Hotel Washington. They chatted and Moretti admitted to the existence of the Commission (he called it the Grand Council) after White told him about Nick Gentile's information. White doesn't mention Bompensiero in a letter he wrote about it, but that must have been the meeting in which his name came up.

Col. White - Moretti meeting.jpg

This comes from a different informant, but provides additional info:

FBI file Moretti Rosselli.jpg

[B.]

Awesome, my friend. Thanks for sharing. The unredacted version confirms the promotion Bomp was referring to.

Have to wonder if there was other circumstantial reasoning that led them to suspect Moretti gave White the info about Bompensiero's recent (apparently VERY recent) promotion. Did the LA family send word to Costello/Moretti to inform them of Bomp's promotion, or was Moretti visiting California around this time?

They believed Moretti knew about Bomp's promotion and had time to inform White about it (possibly in as few as three days), which suggests they sent word to Moretti about the promotion or otherwise the underworld gossip reached him. Maybe it was customary for LA to send word to New York when they promoted someone. Bompensiero was a well-traveled figure with national friendships by 1950 so maybe people were talking about it around the US.

I've seen another reference to Rava as Anastasia's underboss (a different report but maybe the same source) but that's a whole other can of worms haha.

[Antiliar]

Awesome, my friend. Thanks for sharing. The unredacted version confirms the promotion Bomp was referring to.

Have to wonder if there was other circumstantial reasoning that led them to suspect Moretti gave White the info about Bompensiero's recent (apparently VERY recent) promotion. Did the LA family send word to Costello/Moretti to inform them of Bomp's promotion, or was Moretti visiting California around this time?

They believed Moretti knew about Bomp's promotion and had time to inform White about it (possibly in as few as three days), which suggests they sent word to Moretti about the promotion or otherwise the underworld gossip reached him. Maybe it was customary for LA to send word to New York when they promoted someone. Bompensiero was a well-traveled figure with national friendships by 1950 so maybe people were talking about it around the US.

I've seen another reference to Rava as Anastasia's underboss (a different report but maybe the same source) but that's a whole other can of worms haha.

I think Col. White gave it away himself. To put it bluntly, he had a big mouth, and his big mouth got his underworld friend killed. Bompensiero was fairly bright and easily deduced from what he said and by process of elimination who the informant was. As to how word got out about the promotion, undoubtedly Dragna told Lucchese and probably Costello and Bonanno about it - possibly before it took place.

Now that you prompted my memory on this, I'll have to recheck to see if someone of importance died in San Diego in 1950. It just seems late in the game for the first caporegime of San Diego to be made in 1950. I would guess that an area that large could have required a supervisor from the 1920s.

[B.]

I agree word probably spread quickly about the promotion. We can see from the various FBI bugs that gossip about promotions, even "just" captains, was a big part of national gossip and bosses were aware of it.

Bill Bonanno believed the mafia was in San Diego before Los Angeles. Curious if that was speculation based on immigration patterns or if he heard that from someone. I could see the San Diego members reporting to underboss Momo Adamo before deciding to name an official captain, as it was around this time that the bosses were facing more exposure and legal pressure which could have led them to name more captains.

[Antiliar]

The only person of significance I could find who died close to 1950 was Calogero Finocchio, who was sent to prison in the 1910s for killing a police officer in Los Angeles. He died in 1949 in Lakeside, San Diego. Tony Mirabile's older brother Pietro lived down in San Diego too, but I can't find a record of him for after 1938. He was thought to have been an early boss in Detroit, so he would have been a good candidate for a leader before Bompensiero.

[PolackTony]

I’m assuming the reference to Willie Moore as a representative for the “Ricca family” reflected the old belief among LE that Chicago and the Genovese were the same organization.

Great info and discussion, guys.

[PolackTony]

Very interesting info on SD T-1. I’m assuming, of course, that he was originally from Detroit. Just to be clear, the Detroit/San Diego Matrangas were from Piana dei Greci/degli Albanesi? Has it actually been established that former Chicago capodecina Gaspare Matranga was not related to these Matrangas? He was from PDG, like the NOLA Matrangas.

Very interesting that SD T-1 was close to Lorenzo Mangano. Did he provide any further info on Dago Larry (we remain unsure if he was ever actually a capodecina, so any info on him would be great). Given that this informant was related to the Detroit Matrangas, it’s worth noting that Mangano was part of the same faction in the internal Chicago war in the 1940s as Gaspare Matranga. While Mangano was killed, Matranga exiled himself to LA. If this informant was connected to both the Detroit Matrangas and Mangano, it helps to further connect some of these dots between the Midwest families and LA. I wonder also if his links to Mangano were Midwest-based or if Mangano was also making moves out West before he was killed.

Has it been confirmed that Gaspare Matranga was actually not related to the Detroit/SD Matrangas?