sisterray wrote: ↑Sun Jun 19, 2022 2:25 pm
Any caucasian crime ring in LA would be a Mickey Mouse operation
In the early 1980s, Chicago attempted to rebuild traditional LCN rackets — gambling and juice loans — in LA using Chicago associate Vito Spillone, who was answering to Tony Spilotro. Spillone was running a major juice loan operation out of a wholesale food distribution warehouse in South El Monte, where he was recorded threatening delinquent clients with death and broken limbs. One of Spillone’s primary enforcers was John Clyde Abel, a bank robber and high-ranking member in the Aryan Brotherhood (who presumably cliqued up with the Chicago mob while incarcerated in the MDC in Chicago). There was nothing “Mickey Mouse” about Chicago’s operations in the Western US.
JerryB wrote: ↑Mon Jun 20, 2022 3:32 pm
I don't want to start an argument nor do I want to antagonize or call into question all the "researchers" here, but my opinion is that the phrase "Mickey Mouse" to describe the LA Family was widely used by many others [.]
FWIW, when the Chicago Sun-Times reported on Chicago’s activities in LA in 1985, they stated that Chicago had grown frustrated with the LA Outfit under Brooklier for running a “Mickey Mouse operation”, and thus had Spilotro send Spillone from Vegas to straighten things out. It’s unclear to me if there was any evidence that Chicago guys actually used this term to describe LA, but the article was worded to make it seem as if they did.
"Hey, hey, hey — this is America, baby! Survival of the fittest.”
The following analogy may help: a city alderman/councilman's political position is "Mickey Mouse" compared to a State Senator.
I don't want to start an argument nor do I want to antagonize or call into question all the "researchers" here, but my opinion is that the phrase "Mickey Mouse" to describe the LA Family was widely used by many others and coined long before Gates was the COP. In fact, I believe that COP Wm. Parker first used the expression (not necessarily to describe the LA Family), as did COP Ed Davis. Inre Parker, it should be mentioned that COP Gates was Parker's driver, in the day.
In 1947, Alex Cammarata, Pete Misuraca, John Misuraca and John’s daughter Madeline Greco went to Los Angeles to pick up a FNU Fontana who had killed a clothing factory owner named Francioni (PH) in Newark or New York. This Fontana was a member and was to be contacted through a Giamona who owned a restaurant.
On Bill Feather’s LA chart it says that he was from Palermo but there was a Peter Giammona who was from Giardinello. This was where the Misuraca brothers were from.
I don’t know anything about him other than that he was a captain who didn’t have any soldiers because he was old/sick.
A year or two ago, I saw it stated somewhere that Jimmy Caci ran a small bookmaking operation all the way up until his death in 2011. Does anyone know how true this is?
In 1947, Alex Cammarata, Pete Misuraca, John Misuraca and John’s daughter Madeline Greco went to Los Angeles to pick up a FNU Fontana who had killed a clothing factory owner named Francioni (PH) in Newark or New York. This Fontana was a member and was to be contacted through a Giamona who owned a restaurant.
On Bill Feather’s LA chart it says that he was from Palermo but there was a Peter Giammona who was from Giardinello. This was where the Misuraca brothers were from.
I don’t know anything about him other than that he was a captain who didn’t have any soldiers because he was old/sick.
Joe Giammona was a Los Angeles caporegime. I've written on him before in this forum.
What do people make of this article about L.A mob associate John Battaglia? http://mafiahistory.us/rattrap/infbattaglia.html it seemed that he was an informant for the feds who gave up his brother Charles being a made member of the Dragna crime family and later information about Joe Bonanno and his plans.
davidf1989 wrote: ↑Fri Nov 18, 2022 2:46 am
What do people make of this article about L.A mob associate John Battaglia? http://mafiahistory.us/rattrap/infbattaglia.html it seemed that he was an informant for the feds who gave up his brother Charles being a made member of the Dragna crime family and later information about Joe Bonanno and his plans.
You can take anything Ed writes to the bank. His pieces are well thought out and fully documented.
davidf1989 wrote: ↑Fri Nov 18, 2022 2:46 am
What do people make of this article about L.A mob associate John Battaglia? http://mafiahistory.us/rattrap/infbattaglia.html it seemed that he was an informant for the feds who gave up his brother Charles being a made member of the Dragna crime family and later information about Joe Bonanno and his plans.
You can take anything Ed writes to the bank. His pieces are well thought out and fully documented.
+1
"Hey, hey, hey — this is America, baby! Survival of the fittest.”
davidf1989 wrote: ↑Fri Nov 18, 2022 2:46 am
What do people make of this article about L.A mob associate John Battaglia? http://mafiahistory.us/rattrap/infbattaglia.html it seemed that he was an informant for the feds who gave up his brother Charles being a made member of the Dragna crime family and later information about Joe Bonanno and his plans.
You can take anything Ed writes to the bank. His pieces are well thought out and fully documented.
Thanks for your message and would Battaglia have known Bompensiero and Fratianno?
davidf1989 wrote: ↑Fri Nov 18, 2022 2:46 am
What do people make of this article about L.A mob associate John Battaglia? http://mafiahistory.us/rattrap/infbattaglia.html it seemed that he was an informant for the feds who gave up his brother Charles being a made member of the Dragna crime family and later information about Joe Bonanno and his plans.
You can take anything Ed writes to the bank. His pieces are well thought out and fully documented.
Thanks for your message and would Battaglia have known Bompensiero and Fratianno?
They operated in the same circles and his brother was a made member, so I'm pretty sure they knew each other.
He was badmouthing Chicago for the Giancana hit. Aiuppa was a sensitive guy. Seriously, being part of the life means accepting it if your best friend or your brother is ordered to go.
He was badmouthing Chicago for the Giancana hit. Aiuppa was a sensitive guy. Seriously, being part of the life means accepting it if your best friend or your brother is ordered to go.
This is also reflected in Fratianno’s account in the Crime Inc documentary, where he recalls Aiuppa meeting with him to feel him out regarding Fratianno’s feelings about the Roselli hit. The implication obviously being that if Fratianno had responded the wrong way he’d have been flattened too.
Another thing to keep in mind with Roselli is that Bompensiero had previously reported to the FBI that Roselli was in major hot water already for having had his lawyer type up an account of something and give it to Frank LaPorte at a meeting. LaPorte was enraged by this as he felt that Roselli could’ve endangered him if LE found the paper and he reported Roselli to Chicago’s Council. LaPorte was, of course, Roselli’s capodecina and told Bompensiero that Roselli’s fate was in the hands of the Council. Clearly they voted against clipping Roselli at that time but he would’ve been on very thin ice thereafter; in the immortal words of Frank Calabrese Sr: “they don’t tell ya a third time”.
Regarding Aiuppa being a sensitive guy, Frank Culotta stated that you didn’t even want to be in his presence as he’d “have a ham sandwich whacked”. Makes me think also of the story from Frank Calabrese Jr’s book where he recounts that Aiuppa put a hit out on Frank’s maternal uncle and President of the HERE union Ed Hanley, allegedly for loudly badmouthing Italians in public during a drunken rant at a Loop bar. Supposedly Aiuppa was so incensed that he was personally present in a car trailing the hit team who was stalking Hanley so that he could see it go down (per Frank Jr they never got Hanley in a position to kill him and called the hit off). The insult would’ve presumably been very personal to Aiuppa, as Hanley allegedly owed his position as HERE President to Aiuppa.
"Hey, hey, hey — this is America, baby! Survival of the fittest.”
I saw an FBI report where a source believed Roselli was killed for introducing an informant to Tony Zerilli and Mike Polizzi of Detroit. Has that come up before?
B. wrote: ↑Wed Nov 30, 2022 11:09 pm
I saw an FBI report where a source believed Roselli was killed for introducing an informant to Tony Zerilli and Mike Polizzi of Detroit. Has that come up before?
We’ve discussed that before personally, though I’m not sure if it’s been discussed on the forum. I think it’s fully plausible that Chicago would whack Roselli for grumbling about Giancana. If he actually introduced Tony Z and Polizzi to a rat and they reported this to Chicago, they’d have killed Roselli, resurrected him, and killed him again.
"Hey, hey, hey — this is America, baby! Survival of the fittest.”
