Visiting Los Angeles 1963

[PolackTony]

Bompensiero said the guy made in Sicily from Detroit named Jack Pace/Pollina may have been from Trapani. Alcamo is a good guess given how many of the Detroit/San Diego guys were Alcamese.

Was Bompensiero close to Jack Dragna and his relatives? This article https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/199 ... ied-tight/ is about Frank's ties to the dragna family such as being in business with Louis Tom Dragna.

I'm reading "Niputi" by Frank Bompensiero's nephew at the moment. He says that when Frank was a young man, he got in trouble in Milwaukee and went to his uncle for help. His uncle was close to Jack Dragna from back in Sicily and told Frank to go to California and get help from Dragna. That's about as far as I've got in the book but it looks like Dragna took Bompensiero under his wing from then on.

Interesting, thanks for sharing this. The mafia in Corleone seemed to have had links to the mafia in the Bagheria area, as both were documented as calling themselves “fratuzzi” in the 19th century, so there may have indeed been a context for familial links to Dragna from back in Sicily. Did the book give the uncle’s name?

[MightyDR]

Bompensiero said the guy made in Sicily from Detroit named Jack Pace/Pollina may have been from Trapani. Alcamo is a good guess given how many of the Detroit/San Diego guys were Alcamese.

Was Bompensiero close to Jack Dragna and his relatives? This article https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/199 ... ied-tight/ is about Frank's ties to the dragna family such as being in business with Louis Tom Dragna.

I'm reading "Niputi" by Frank Bompensiero's nephew at the moment. He says that when Frank was a young man, he got in trouble in Milwaukee and went to his uncle for help. His uncle was close to Jack Dragna from back in Sicily and told Frank to go to California and get help from Dragna. That's about as far as I've got in the book but it looks like Dragna took Bompensiero under his wing from then on.

Interesting, thanks for sharing this. The mafia in Corleone seemed to have had links to the mafia in the Bagheria area, as both were documented as calling themselves “fratuzzi” in the 19th century, so there may have indeed been a context for familial links to Dragna from back in Sicily. Did the book give the uncle’s name?

Giovanni Bompensiero. Although he changed his name to John Bonpenser in the USA. Originally from Porticello, Sicily.

[B.]

Very interesting info, DR. If Bomp's uncle did know Dragna already that would indicate Frank's family had existing mafia ties which wouldn't be too surprising based on where they're from in Sicily. There is/was a longstanding relationship between Corleone and Bagheria. I've never seen him make reference to it in his cooperation, though.

[PolackTony]

Very interesting info, DR. If Bomp's uncle did know Dragna already that would indicate Frank's family had existing mafia ties which wouldn't be too surprising based on where they're from in Sicily. There is/was a longstanding relationship between Corleone and Bagheria. I've never seen him make reference to it in his cooperation, though.

We’ve discussed before the possibility that Bompensiero may have purposely avoided talking about his familial background to protect relatives.

San Diego’s Little Italy had a prominent colony from Porticello, Santa Flavia (many of whom had worked as fishermen in Santa Flavia, and continued in that line of work in San Diego), so it would be unsurprising, though obviously very nice to know, that Bomp may have had a familial connection to the mafia there.

[B.]

Domenico Pecoraro and other Bagheresi were close to Piddu Morello in early NYC but also close to Lupo, though I've always been curious where the Bagheresi formally fit into NYC. They were close associates of the Corleonesi either way and Dragna was apparently made into Morello's Family in 1914 so he may have known some of them. You also have important guys from Prizzi (very close to Corleone) in the Milwaukee Family which was otherwise dominated by paesans from Bagheria area.

There was a younger Giovanni Bompensiero born ~1899 who arrived to an uncle named Lorenzo SanFilippo in San Diego in 1921 but he came from Santa Flavia and doesn't appear to be the uncle. Looks like Frank's uncle was another one born ~1868 who arrived in 1928 to his own son named Francesco living in Milwaukee at the time.

[PolackTony]

Domenico Pecoraro and other Bagheresi were close to Piddu Morello in early NYC but also close to Lupo, though I've always been curious where the Bagheresi formally fit into NYC. They were close associates of the Corleonesi either way and Dragna was apparently made into Morello's Family in 1914 so he may have known some of them. You also have important guys from Prizzi (very close to Corleone) in the Milwaukee Family which was otherwise dominated by paesans from Bagheria area.

There was a younger Giovanni Bompensiero born ~1899 who arrived to an uncle named Lorenzo SanFilippo in San Diego in 1921 but he came from Santa Flavia and doesn't appear to be the uncle. Looks like Frank's uncle was another one born ~1868 who arrived in 1928 to his own son named Francesco living in Milwaukee at the time.

I think it was probably the guy born ~1899 (Porticello is a frazione of Santa Flavia, so people from Porticello will often use the name of the comune on their documents), as he is the only Giovanni/John Bompensiero that I see in the SD records. He arrived to SD in 1921 and thus he was already living there when Bomp would’ve arrived in the mid-20s (Giovanni worked as a fisherman in SD, as Frank did as a young man). His eldest son was named Peter, and I have Frank’s father’s (Giuseppe Bompensiero, born ~1875 in Porticello) father as Pietro Bompensiero. Giovanni Bompensiero died in SD in 1975.

Another likely link is SanFilippo, as Frank’s wife was Thelma SanFilippo, born in Milwaukee to parents from Porticello.

Correction: I checked out the Nipitu book, and it looks like after killing a guy in 1923, Frank’s uncle Giovanni in Milwaukee told Frank to call Jack Dragna for protection. Frank told Dragna that he had cousins in SD, Giovanni and Matteo, who were fishermen and that he would go there and live with them.

So it looks like the older guy was the uncle and the younger one in SD was a first cousin. The info that I had found from a family tree on Frank’s genealogy was also erroneous; his grandfather was actually named Francesco (hence both Giuseppe and Giovanni naming their first sons Francesco, of course). Pietro, the father of Giovanni and Matteo Bompensiero in SD, was another of Frank’s uncles. Interestingly, the book also states that Bompensiero was not their original surname, but that the brothers had adopted it from a visiting wealthy man named Bernardo Bompensiero (probably Buonpensiero originally) from Brindisi, Puglia who moved to Porticello and married their mother after their father Francesco died.