No. There only like 6 members left. Most don't live in California anymore and or are inactive.
Pogo
Moderator: Capos
It depends. From the perspective of the Cosa Nostra, a borgata continues to exist until there's no more members. From a law enforcement point of view, no. It has between 1 and 0 active members and is not a threat.
The East coast mobsters dismissed the west coast crime family as the Mickey Mouse Mafia according to these articles below.sisterray wrote: ↑Tue Mar 15, 2022 12:21 pm Another odd and end concerning the origin of the "Mickey Mouse Mafia" nickname for the LA Mob. Found it on a blog dedicated to the wonderland murders, but this article also touches upon the killing of Jimmy Casino, partner of William Carroll who Mike Rizzi attempted to kill around the same time.
https://wonderland1981.wordpress.com/20 ... ee-casino/
Here's an excerpt
" As reporter Nick Schou observes in his well researched article, the attempted murder of Carroll and murders of Avila and Mustang owner Jimmy Casino (real name James Lee Stockwell) were part of a string of assassinations, professional and otherwise, that occurred over a short period in the ’80s, “spotlighting the city’s status as a playground (and killing field) for shady businessmen, drug kingpins and organized crime figures affiliated with what cops dubbed the ‘Mickey Mouse Mafia,’ who reveled in Newport Beach’s glamorous lifestyle and coke-fueled nightlife scene.” "
Now, Casino and Avila were killed by 1987 and Daryl Gates used the Mickey Mouse nickname in 1984. I couldn't find the date of Mustang's establishment, but curiously it used to be located on the same avenue in Anaheim as Disney World. Gates could've lifted the term from the LA county cops, or the cops investigating the activity in the club picked it up from him. It's a chicken or egg kind of question.
davidf1989 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 20, 2022 8:32 pmThe East coast mobsters dismissed the west coast crime family as the Mickey Mouse Mafia according to these articles below.sisterray wrote: ↑Tue Mar 15, 2022 12:21 pm Another odd and end concerning the origin of the "Mickey Mouse Mafia" nickname for the LA Mob. Found it on a blog dedicated to the wonderland murders, but this article also touches upon the killing of Jimmy Casino, partner of William Carroll who Mike Rizzi attempted to kill around the same time.
https://wonderland1981.wordpress.com/20 ... ee-casino/
Here's an excerpt
" As reporter Nick Schou observes in his well researched article, the attempted murder of Carroll and murders of Avila and Mustang owner Jimmy Casino (real name James Lee Stockwell) were part of a string of assassinations, professional and otherwise, that occurred over a short period in the ’80s, “spotlighting the city’s status as a playground (and killing field) for shady businessmen, drug kingpins and organized crime figures affiliated with what cops dubbed the ‘Mickey Mouse Mafia,’ who reveled in Newport Beach’s glamorous lifestyle and coke-fueled nightlife scene.” "
Now, Casino and Avila were killed by 1987 and Daryl Gates used the Mickey Mouse nickname in 1984. I couldn't find the date of Mustang's establishment, but curiously it used to be located on the same avenue in Anaheim as Disney World. Gates could've lifted the term from the LA county cops, or the cops investigating the activity in the club picked it up from him. It's a chicken or egg kind of question.
https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/gett ... -1.1059150
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm ... story.html
Same as you I was always interested in Los Angeles crime family because they are so different than other American LCN families. Michael Rizzitello is the most fascinating guy to me. He was a straight up gangster.sisterray wrote: ↑Tue Mar 29, 2022 12:15 pmdavidf1989 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 20, 2022 8:32 pmThe East coast mobsters dismissed the west coast crime family as the Mickey Mouse Mafia according to these articles below.sisterray wrote: ↑Tue Mar 15, 2022 12:21 pm Another odd and end concerning the origin of the "Mickey Mouse Mafia" nickname for the LA Mob. Found it on a blog dedicated to the wonderland murders, but this article also touches upon the killing of Jimmy Casino, partner of William Carroll who Mike Rizzi attempted to kill around the same time.
https://wonderland1981.wordpress.com/20 ... ee-casino/
Here's an excerpt
" As reporter Nick Schou observes in his well researched article, the attempted murder of Carroll and murders of Avila and Mustang owner Jimmy Casino (real name James Lee Stockwell) were part of a string of assassinations, professional and otherwise, that occurred over a short period in the ’80s, “spotlighting the city’s status as a playground (and killing field) for shady businessmen, drug kingpins and organized crime figures affiliated with what cops dubbed the ‘Mickey Mouse Mafia,’ who reveled in Newport Beach’s glamorous lifestyle and coke-fueled nightlife scene.” "
Now, Casino and Avila were killed by 1987 and Daryl Gates used the Mickey Mouse nickname in 1984. I couldn't find the date of Mustang's establishment, but curiously it used to be located on the same avenue in Anaheim as Disney World. Gates could've lifted the term from the LA county cops, or the cops investigating the activity in the club picked it up from him. It's a chicken or egg kind of question.
https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/gett ... -1.1059150
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm ... story.html
What I was getting at, is that there's no actual record of any NY/Chicago mobsters referring to the LA mob as the Mickey Mouse Mafia, LA police chief Daryl Gates apparently coined that nickname during the 1984 bust; I came across a blog article refering to criminals hanging around the Mustang as such and wondered if the term actually originated earlier among local cops, since the club appeared to be located in close proximity to Disneyland. Just to clear that up.
There's a lot of misconceptions about LA, mainly because there was just one made informant and the family was pretty much a non-factor as much as criminal activity goes since the 90s. They're still interesting though - mainly because they were made up from guys from all over the country. Imagine all the accents going on during sitdowns. And all the driving, since the crews were spread out from San Fernando to Orange County and Riverside and for a time to San Diego. That's a hour and a half's drive from one suburb to another. How exactly did they operate and how did they factor in the greater Cosa Nostra politics? Since Dragna's death, they seemed to be heavily involved in crime only during the late 70s and 80s, and then that was just picking up whatever was left of the porno in the 70s or extorting bookies in the 80s (who, in my opinion, were just old Cohen associates who just stopped paying tribute over time). Just rambling here. If you check out the Mary Ferrell files concerning LA during Licata's reign, most of the intel supplied by informants concerns legal, or semi legal business (LIcata demanding more tribute from vending machines operated by Leo Dia in SD) or acting as "fixers" (trying to find out who committed the home invasion of casino owner Nick Simponis). They weren't a feared OC organization by any chance, but I'm sceptical as far as the Mickey Mouse Mafia moniker goes.
Don't forget, we don't even know the nicknames that the guys used - Fiato was never called "The Animal", his actual nickname was Tony Rome (probably because he was buddies with "Ronnie Rome" Romanowski as they were both Boston transplants - hardly threatening by any measure), Milano was never called Shakes (that was Kenji's invention), Gelfuso was never "The Couch" etc.
Now, another odd and end, it seems that Mike Esposito was being shaken down by the Jersey Lucchese crew before he was made by Milano. Here's a link to an article.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm ... story.html
Apparently Gates wanted to shift the media's focus towards the black and hispanic gangs that were on the rise at the time, hence the term he used.aleksandrored wrote: ↑Sun Jun 19, 2022 1:41 pm I'm reading Fratianno's book and I found the Los Angeles mafia very interesting, so I researched and had some doubts:
-As I understand it, Chief of Police Daryl Gates was the one who named them "Mickey Mouse Mafia", but what did he mean by that? that they were weak? the exact word he said doesn't make much sense in my language.
-I know that today the family no longer exists, but what was the last case related to the Los Angeles mafia?
Thanks man!!sisterray wrote: ↑Sun Jun 19, 2022 2:25 pmApparently Gates wanted to shift the media's focus towards the black and hispanic gangs that were on the rise at the time, hence the term he used.aleksandrored wrote: ↑Sun Jun 19, 2022 1:41 pm I'm reading Fratianno's book and I found the Los Angeles mafia very interesting, so I researched and had some doubts:
-As I understand it, Chief of Police Daryl Gates was the one who named them "Mickey Mouse Mafia", but what did he mean by that? that they were weak? the exact word he said doesn't make much sense in my language.
-I know that today the family no longer exists, but what was the last case related to the Los Angeles mafia?
In American English, Mickey Mouse means that something's not put well-together enough to be considered a serious entity. Recently, I've heard that monicker used by a corporate lawyer in my country who used to work in the US when he was describing a company that tried to get in business with him, so I guess it's used rather frequently overseas.
In these threads, people will frequently refer to the Mexican Mafia and the African-American gangs as the real force in LA. Now, from what I know, there's two LA's - the whitebread part and the ethnic part. All the vice that was going on in Hollywood, OC and the Valley - the escort services, the celebrity coke dealing and the bookmaking that serviced the privileged classes was riddled with informants who were telling on each other to the LAPD in exchange for immunity. You couldn't really move in on anyone without the cops getting a tip and from what I know, that's what transpired when the Milanos tried to shake down independent bookies in the 80s. I doubt the LAPD had any problem with putting the squeeze on LCN once they got wind of what was going on and putting a mob case together was an easy headline. Any caucasian crime ring in LA would be a Mickey Mouse operation - even Heidi Fleiss got ratted out by her own girls.
The last major LA mob case was the fallout from the Blitzstein murder and it got the Caci crew locked up for extortion.
Ironically, both the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Dodgers won a "Mickey Mouse championship" during the Covid shortened NBA and MLB seasons. In other words, those championships aren't respected because teams didn't play a full season:
Thanks for the infodave wrote: ↑Sun Jun 19, 2022 2:45 pmIronically, both the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Dodgers won a "Mickey Mouse championship" during the Covid shortened NBA and MLB seasons. In other words, those championships aren't respected because teams didn't play a full season:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Mickey_Mouse_ring