Bonanno's attempted LA takeover / John Roselli

[Pogo The Clown]

The Tony Cornero Mob got into a war with the August Palumbo mob after the death of city leader Marco Albori. You had Dominic DiCiolla, Sam Matranga (direct descendants of N'Orleans), Rosario DiGiorgio, Cuccia, Tony Bucola and the City Hall Gang. All goes back to Don Bartolo Ballerino and what he set up in 1860's LA when it was still Mexico, the Milano Family predates California statehood.

I remember reading this back in the day and taking it seriously. Was it all bullshit? If so where the Bosses of LA pre-Dragna and Ardizonne? Thanks.


Pogo

[Antiliar]

The only bosses that we can VERIFY before Ardizzone were Vito Di Giorgio (not Rosario) and Rosario Desimone (father of Frank). There may have been bosses before Di Giorgio, but they are pure speculation. Or Di Giorgio could have been the first.

[Stroccos]

How many made guys were In la say 1960?

[Pogo The Clown]

How many made guys were In la say 1960?

Here is a chart of the family Circa 1967.


Administration:
Boss; Frank DeSimone
UnderBoss: Nicolo ‘Nick” Licata
Consiglieri: Tommy Palermo


Capos:
Joseph Adamo (San Diego)
Joseph “Joe Dip” Dippolito
Angelo Polizzi


Soldiers:
Giuseppe Aleccia
Julian Antista
Frank Balistrieri (San Diego)
John “Johnny Bats” Battaglia
Frank "The Bomp" Bompensiero (San Diego)
John Cascio
Phillipo Damiano (San Diego)
Leo Dia (San Diego)
Arthur DiMaria (Las Vegas)
Louis Tom Dragna
Thomas F. Dragna
Joseph Giammona
Frank Gruttaduria
Marco LiMandri (San Diego)
Joseph LiMandri (San Diego)
Giacomo “Jack” LoCicero
Anthony Mangione
Nicolo Marchese
Gaspar J. Matragna (Mexico) (Former San Diego)
Charles Migliore
Luigi "Dago Louie" Piscopo
Bernie Pizzotto
Salvatore Pizzo
Jimmy "Dominick Brooklier" Regace
Dominick “Mimi” Tripoli


Others:
Charles “Charlie Bats” Battaglia (Transferred to the Bonanno Family)
Carlo Licata (Transferred to the Detroit Family)
Aladenna “Jimmy the Weasel” Frattiano (Transferred to the Chicago Outfit)
Anthony “Tony Boy” Pinelli (Transferred to the Chicago Outfit)
John "Johnny" Roselli (Transferred to the Chicago Outfit)


-They would have been larger in 1960 since LAs books were closed from 1956-1968 (DeSimones reign).


And thanks to Antiliar for the info on LAs early Bosses.


Pogo

[Snakes]

Keep all talks about Bonanno/AZ and LA in this thread. If you wish to continue discussing Rosselli, Pinelli, etc., I split the appropriate topics and made a new thread here: viewtopic.php?f=29&t=3400.

[Angelo Santino]

Fratianno's 2nd Book, Vengeance is Mine with Michael J Zuckerman (who he also sued!)

We heard from informants that Bomp was traveling around the country, talking to the bosses, plotting to get Bonanno reinstated so they could take over.
Fratianno: "There may have been rumors, but there was no fuckin plot. Look, Bomp wasn't interested in taking over LA. You have to be elected boss by the members and Bomp didn't have the juice for that. And Bonanno knows there's no way he's going back into action. I don't even know the guy, never spoke to him. But he knows New York would clip him in a hot fuckin minute if he tried to get back into this thing.

To be honest with you, I know Bomp used to talk like that. I mean, he'd say things like 'I'm taking over this Family' and 'Those guys don't tell me what to do in San Diego, this is my town.' But the only guy who ever thought about taking over was me. I had the juice to get elected boss if Sciortino and Brooklier weren't in my way. And I had a really good crew, guys who weren't afraid to do a little work."

Q: Mr. Joseph Bonanno, Sr., is a friend of yours, is he not?
A: I don't even know him, sir; never met him in my life.
Q: And you know his sons, do you not?
A: No, I don't, sir.
Q: Joe Bonanno, Sr.?
A: No, sir.
Q: Joe Bonanno, Jr.?
A: No, sir.
Q: Bill Bonanno?
A: No, sir.
Q: You told Mr. Demaris that when you went back to New York- and this is before the killing of Mr. Bompensiero- that Funzi Tieri told you that he had heard that you were going to Tucsan to see Mr. Bonanno?
A: That's correct. That's what he told me that he had heard.
Q: You were angry at Mr. Bompensiero because he was telling people that you were seeing Mr. Bonanno; isn't that correct?
A: Well, I wouldn't say I was happy. But I wasn't angry with him. I didn't know for sure if it was him telling it. I had an idea- that was my opinion.
Q: This telephone number that you say you used to call Mr. Bompensiero... is the same number that, in fact, Mr. Bonanno had to call; isn't that correct?
A: I don't know that, sir.
Q: And in fact, the day before Mr. Bompensiero was killed, at that meting in San Francisco with Mr. Bompensiero and Jimmy Styles, you told Mr. Bompensiero in the presence of Mr. Styles and Mr. Petti that you were going to call Mr. Bompensiero the next night, didn't you?
A: No, I did not, Sir.
Q: And, in fact, you did call mr Bompensiero the next night; isn't that correct?
A: That is not correct, sir.
Q: And you got him to the phone booth so that, in fact, you and Mr. Bonanno and his sons could execute Mr. Bompensiero as he walked from the telephone booth?
A: That is a lie, sir.

[Angelo Santino]

Re. The Last Mafioso with Demaris.

Great book. One of my top ten. But as for using it as a bible, beware the warning:

"In the interest of clarity, I had made a few minor deviations in the time sequence, and, for the purpose of exposition, it was necessary in rare instances to combine in some scenes several conversations into one or vice versa. But at no time were there any departures from the real verifiable events... In all, I tape recorded nearly two million words in my conversations with Jimmy, his friends, relatives, and others. "

[Villain]

Re. The Last Mafioso with Demaris.

Great book. One of my top ten. But as for using it as a bible, beware the warning:

"In the interest of clarity, I had made a few minor deviations in the time sequence, and, for the purpose of exposition, it was necessary in rare instances to combine in some scenes several conversations into one or vice versa. But at no time were there any departures from the real verifiable events... In all, I tape recorded nearly two million words in my conversations with Jimmy, his friends, relatives, and others. "

Even though Antiliar already explained this but still...nice

[Stroccos]

Fratianno's 2nd Book, Vengeance is Mine with Michael J Zuckerman (who he also sued!)

We heard from informants that Bomp was traveling around the country, talking to the bosses, plotting to get Bonanno reinstated so they could take over.
Fratianno: "There may have been rumors, but there was no fuckin plot. Look, Bomp wasn't interested in taking over LA. You have to be elected boss by the members and Bomp didn't have the juice for that. And Bonanno knows there's no way he's going back into action. I don't even know the guy, never spoke to him. But he knows New York would clip him in a hot fuckin minute if he tried to get back into this thing.

To be honest with you, I know Bomp used to talk like that. I mean, he'd say things like 'I'm taking over this Family' and 'Those guys don't tell me what to do in San Diego, this is my town.' But the only guy who ever thought about taking over was me. I had the juice to get elected boss if Sciortino and Brooklier weren't in my way. And I had a really good crew, guys who weren't afraid to do a little work."

Q: Mr. Joseph Bonanno, Sr., is a friend of yours, is he not?
A: I don't even know him, sir; never met him in my life.
Q: And you know his sons, do you not?
A: No, I don't, sir.
Q: Joe Bonanno, Sr.?
A: No, sir.
Q: Joe Bonanno, Jr.?
A: No, sir.
Q: Bill Bonanno?
A: No, sir.
Q: You told Mr. Demaris that when you went back to New York- and this is before the killing of Mr. Bompensiero- that Funzi Tieri told you that he had heard that you were going to Tucsan to see Mr. Bonanno?
A: That's correct. That's what he told me that he had heard.
Q: You were angry at Mr. Bompensiero because he was telling people that you were seeing Mr. Bonanno; isn't that correct?
A: Well, I wouldn't say I was happy. But I wasn't angry with him. I didn't know for sure if it was him telling it. I had an idea- that was my opinion.
Q: This telephone number that you say you used to call Mr. Bompensiero... is the same number that, in fact, Mr. Bonanno had to call; isn't that correct?
A: I don't know that, sir.
Q: And in fact, the day before Mr. Bompensiero was killed, at that meting in San Francisco with Mr. Bompensiero and Jimmy Styles, you told Mr. Bompensiero in the presence of Mr. Styles and Mr. Petti that you were going to call Mr. Bompensiero the next night, didn't you?
A: No, I did not, Sir.
Q: And, in fact, you did call mr Bompensiero the next night; isn't that correct?
A: That is not correct, sir.
Q: And you got him to the phone booth so that, in fact, you and Mr. Bonanno and his sons could execute Mr. Bompensiero as he walked from the telephone booth?
A: That is a lie, sir.

Didn’t even know he had another book , Is it any good ?

[Angelo Santino]

Re. The Last Mafioso with Demaris.

Great book. One of my top ten. But as for using it as a bible, beware the warning:

"In the interest of clarity, I had made a few minor deviations in the time sequence, and, for the purpose of exposition, it was necessary in rare instances to combine in some scenes several conversations into one or vice versa. But at no time were there any departures from the real verifiable events... In all, I tape recorded nearly two million words in my conversations with Jimmy, his friends, relatives, and others. "

Even though Antiliar already explained this but still...nice

Yes but Antiliar's accuracy is being called into question so I'm just posting a direct quote from the author. I truly believe Demaris had the best intentions to be as accurate as possible, but sometimes simplifying things causes details to get lost. Take for instance these two pages, I wonder if Giancana's murder and the Commission reduction was discussed at the same time or was a Demaris edit for simplification? Either way I love the book, it's one of my "airplane" books along with Blood & Honor and Last Gangster.

[Angelo Santino]

Didn’t even know he had another book , Is it any good ?

Yes, it's a solid sequel to TLM dealing with his life after the mob: his relocations, allowance, court cases, testifying against Funzi etc. Good source of information, I highly recommend.

Side note: I believe it was The Enforcer by Roemer who described Fratianno as a Chicago soldier who never rose beyond that rank who died bitter. He didn't connect him to LA at all.

[JeremyTheJew]

Didn’t even know he had another book , Is it any good ?

Yes, it's a solid sequel to TLM dealing with his life after the mob: his relocations, allowance, court cases, testifying against Funzi etc. Good source of information, I highly recommend.

Side note: I believe it was The Enforcer by Roemer who described Fratianno as a Chicago soldier who never rose beyond that rank who died bitter. He didn't connect him to LA at all.

thats incorrect tho right? idk if Fratiano was a CHICAGO member but he did talk about answering to them as well as him being a self proclaimed boss of LA at one point if i remmember correctly....

I kind of remmember him saying he also had a crew in San Jose also...

What do we know about Fratianno basically being the communicater with outside Families?

its interesting that Cleveland basically according to him answered to both Chicago and Genovese for NYC.

[Angelo Santino]

1 Roemer was incorrect. Fratianno was born in 1913 and grew up in Cleveland associating w Tony Del Santer, Jack Licavoli etc, in 1940 he moved out to LA and in 1946 he was made by Dragna in the LA Family. In 1952 he was made Capo. In 1954 he got locked up for 6 years. In 1960 he's released and the Family leadership he changed. In 1962 he and Roselli transfer their mafia affiliation to Chicago where Jimmy remains acting as a semi-independant under their flag. In 1975 he receives an offer from the next batch of LA leadership to help run the Family in Boss Brooklier's absence. Fratianno receives permission to transfer from Chicago back to LA, he becomes acting underboss and meets with leaders around the country and misrepresents himself as Acting Boss which was Louis Tom Dragna. In 1977 Brooklier comes home and Fratianno is demoted. Virtually all of his comrades- Bomp, Roselli etc are dead and NY has turned their back on him due to his misrepresentation as AB and LA wanted to kill him. So he flipped and had been providing info for some time.
2 I'm not familiar with that, perhaps he didn't say that in the book which is where most of my knowledge of him stems.
3 I'm not familiar with that either, in his book he details meetings with bosses in Chicago, Cleveland and New York while he was acting (under) boss.
4 Not officially but essentially they were more influential organizations and the Gen represented CL on the commission.

[Angelo Santino]

Like I said I tremendously enjoy the book. One thing that's never been asked is why LA asked Fratianno to transfer back to LA as Acting Underboss? You have to consider just how much of a shit-talker Fratianno was. He trashed LA and just about every member throughout the 1960's. Everyone was a "dead-head" and largely incompetent in his eyes. He wasn't a well trusted individual and despite what he says about how he got his nickname, I think "The Weasel" had more to do with his personality than his ability to run fast as a youth. So given his background and propensity for grudge-holding, he's the last person you'd choose, let alone ask to be transferred back. Unless... and this is what I suspect, I wonder if Brooklier and Sciortino were setting Fratianno up to bury himself, which he inevitably did by going to New York and introducing himself as acting boss and not acting underboss.

[Costigan]

CC, if I remember the book correctly when Brooklier & Sciortino went in, they tapped LT Dragna for acting boss. He told them he would only do it if Fratianno could come in and help him. He was so busy with his his clothing company, etc...of course he went for it. They may have been setting him up all along, LA & Chicago both, and he fell for it, hook line & sinker.
On his book "Vengeance is Mine", I didn't like it near as much as Last Mafioso. One thing I remember about it, when Jimmy was relocated to a different part of the country through witsec he eventually got to know his neighbors & told them who he was. That's funny.