Two Plots to Take Over & Unify California (Bompensiero)

[B.]

Frank Bompensiero gave the FBI information about two different plots in the 1960s to depose and/or eliminate the Los Angeles mafia leadership and in both cases consolidate the entire state of California into one family.

The Plot to Depose Nick Licata and Install John Roselli as Boss of Unified California Family

- In early 1968, Bompensiero gave information about John Roselli, who was facing a deportation case and other legal issues at the time. Roselli believed he would be convicted in an ongoing criminal case and then deported after going to prison. Bompensiero claimed Roselli had become "more amenable to" Bompensiero and Jimmy Fratianno's "urgings to take over LCN membership in California," as Roselli needed money and wanted to build up a fortune if he were to be deported at his old age. He had been meeting with Chicago leaders and Santo Trafficante in connection with this.

- Another meeting was held a little over a month later between Bompensiero, Roselli, and Fratianno in the office of two private investigators connected to Fratianno, which then moved to a nearby cafe. At the cafe, the three continued to discuss their plans to take over "LCN family leadership in California." Bompensiero told the FBI that by this time Roselli was all for it and had invited Santo Trafficante to Los Angeles to meet with them concerning this but that Trafficante was currently too busy, though he was planning to visit. The plan was if Trafficante didn't visit by the following month, Bompensiero would travel to Florida to meet with Trafficante.

- Bompensiero explained to the FBI that the plan was for Roselli to use his influence with Chicago family leaders and New York families, while Fratianno would use his own unspecified connections, and Bompensiero would talk with Trafficante, with the overall plan to convince the majority of the Commission to approve Roselli as the boss of the entire state of California. Bompensiero felt, however, that they would face strong opposition from the Detroit family leaders due to their close ties to LA family leaders. During this period, Bompensiero identified Roselli as a member of the Chicago family and issues had developed between Chicago and Detroit concerning Las Vegas, which we can assume was another factor in the concern over Detroit not supporting the plan to elevate Roselli. St. Louis boss Tony Giardano, who had shared interests with Detroit in Vegas, had previously tried to smooth out Roselli's issues with Detroit concerning Vegas to no avail.

- During this time Bompensiero was deliberately getting closer to LA underboss Joe Dippolito and told Roselli of this, seemingly with the intent of gaining Dippolito's support in the plot or at least to smooth out the aftermath. In the coming month, Roselli was planning to visit Washington DC for legal reasons and visit Chicago and New York but it's unclear if he was going to drum up support at this time or if the plan ever went anywhere beyond these planning stages. It appears that Santo Trafficante was aware of and supportive of the plan, though it's not clear to what extent.

- We know from another source in St. Louis that in 1967, the year prior to this, Tony Giardano, Santo Trafficante, and John Roselli were already planning to convince the Commission to depose Nick Licata in Los Angeles and put new leadership in place; it seems at that point Roselli wasn't trying to take the position himself, but it shows that the overall plan to depose Licata was in the works for some time.

- During this period Bompensiero told the FBI that he has "no use" for Nick Licata and considered him a leader who "grabs everything for himself" and hides his sources of income, which he speculates includes bookmaking/loansharking from Happy Meltzer and Louis Tom Dragna as well as money from Vegas.

- By this time the San Francisco and San Jose families were very small, on their way out, and riddled with informants (read Ed Valin's great articles on Rat Trap for more info on this), so they appear to have been a non-factor. Los Angeles had also suffered greatly and its strength was diminished by this time. All of this likely factored into the idea to join the groups together and gave the plotters confidence that they could pull it off.

- What might be most impressive in all of this is that Bompensiero was filling the FBI in on this plot as the plot was developing. There is reason to believe Fratianno may have been informing as well by this point, in which case two of the three lead conspirators were informants.


Joe Bonanno's Earlier Plot(s) to Take Over the State of California

- Bompensiero told the FBI in 1968 that when he was released from prison around 1960-1961, he and Jimmy Fratianno, along with San Diego-based member Biagio Bonventre (deceased by this time), held several meetings with Joe Bonanno to discuss Joe Bonanno's plans to take over "LCN west coast activities." Later Bompensiero was contacted by west coast Bonanno member Antonio Bello who had interests in San Diego. Bello told Bompensiero that LA boss Frank Desimone saw him (Bompensiero) as a threat to his leadership and had placed a murder contract on him. However, Bompensiero saw no signs that this was true. Later, Bello told Bompensiero that "they" (Desimone / Los Angeles) were planning to kill him (Bompensiero) via car bomb, which upset Bompensiero as he shared his car with his daughter who used the car to drive her children.

- Bompensiero was so upset that he visited Los Angeles with Fratianno and Bonventre to surveil the Los Angeles family leadership for multiple nights but did not see anything unusual that would indicate they were planning to kill Bompensiero. Bompensiero ended up kidnapping Los Angeles capodecina Angelo Polizzi at gunpoint and forced him to lay on floor of the backseat of his car. Bompensiero and Bonventre took Polizzi to an apartment they rented in San Diego, where Polizzi claimed there was no contract on Bompensiero. They then brought Antonio Bello to the apartment where he admitted that the contract was a hoax and Joe Bonanno had forced Bello to tell Bompensiero of the "contract" in order to get Bompensiero to kill the Los Angeles family leadership, which would pave the way for Bonanno to take over. Bello was allowed to leave the apartment and told to return that night to New York City and never return to San Diego. He apparently died in New York around 1967 according to the report.

- The Commission was then informed of Joe Bonanno's plot. The Commission criticized Bompensiero's own actions, but also sympathized with him. Antonio Bello was called before the Commission and admitted he was forced into the plot "under threat" from Bonanno. Bompensiero says this is "one of the reasons" the Commission ordered Bonanno's death, which resulted in his fake kidnapping.

- From other info from Bompensiero, we know that Joe Bonanno maintained contact in Southern California following these problems through Nicolo Marchese, former Bonanno member from Castellammare Del Golfo who transferred to the Los Angeles family in the 1950s and lived in Long Beach.

- Interesting that LA soldier Biagio Bonventre fits into this story and attended the initial meetings with Bonanno, though he may have simply been an accomplice of Bompensiero and Fratianno (who he had known for decades and committed murders with early on). He has the mark of being the only Bonventre in the US mafia not connected to the Bonanno family and possibly not even being from Castellammare Del Golfo, though he appears to be from nearby San Vito Lo Capo and his brother may have been born in CDG.

- This is from an old post, but it appears Bonanno approached California from multiple angles around the same time:
An informant claimed that in 1961, Bonanno had approached John Roselli and Joe Giammona (Los Angeles soldier in Angelo Polizzi decina), asking them to join the coup, which they agreed to do. However, they went to LA boss Frank Desimone, who took the matter to the Commission, and it sounds like the men went to NYC to discuss this with someone in NYC, believed by the informant to be Carlo Gambino. The informant says Joe Bonanno was ordered to "give up his plan" and from this point on, and Bonanno held a grudge against Roselli. In addition, Roselli lost "some respect" from the Chicago family.

[Ozgoz]

Unbelievable. Bonanno, even in that world, really seems to be a piece of work.

One thing that has always had me wondering, where exactly did Roselli get his power from? Here’s a guy that is forever meeting with top level bosses nationwide but never seems to have had a crew or base of support. Was it just connections?

Then of course when they killed him there was no issue. Apart from that little scene with Fratianno and Joey Auippa.

[Ed]

Great stuff B.

I think the original source about the Bonanno take-over plot was LA associate John Battaglia. Battaglia was the brother of Charles Battaglia of the Bonanno's. I believe John Battaglia passed on details he learned from his brother about the plot, the Banana War and LCN goings on in Arizona and Southern California for much of the 1960s.

An interesting aspect about mobsters "working" with the federal government is that they sometimes get emboldened and start doing things that they might not otherwise do. In the case of Bompensiero, would he have schemed to take out Licata if he didn't have, in his mind, the backing of the FBI? Bompensiero was an aggressive guy so maybe he would but who knows. I wouldn't be surprised to learn many contacting agents, consciously and unconsciously, encourage sources to be aggressive and "move up the ladder". I believe Villano did that with Scarpa.

[cavita]

When did Bompensiero start giving info to the FBI and what were the reasons for this?

[Adam]

This is kind of a side topic, but since I research the Detroit mob I'm always interested in their role/influence in California and Vegas. Issues involving Detroit and Chicago in Vegas I assume would revolve around the Frontier in the 60s. In Last Mafioso Roselli is mentioned as being connected to that and helping Detroit slightly with the Frontier and Bompensiero being bitter about it. It then relates Bomp telling a story of killing someone for Detroit with the promise of getting a piece of the Frontier and him never getting it. I've really tried to figure out who that would have been if the story is true. But I've never been able to identify who the victim(who would have disappeared) might have been. Paul Cimino disappears around that time, but the description makes it feel like it was someone from California. It sounds like Salvatore Vitale who also disappeared and was in California and would have known Bompensiero, but he disappeared too early for that. Sorry side topic.

[Pogo The Clown]

Little Joe Shots is that you? In all seriousness great info B. Great to see some details on Bonannos plots in the California. Though one has to wonder why he went to all tht trouble. As you said SF and SJ were pretty non-existent by this time and LA was weak and had no control of the rackets in its city. If he wanted to plant a flag in California he could have just sent in a crew to scoop up some of the rackets. No doubt some of the remaining active California members would have done business with him. It is not like any of those families could have done anything about it. Instead he got himself in hot water by plotting the murder of a Boss from a different family when he didn't need to.


Pogo

[Antiliar]

Unbelievable. Bonanno, even in that world, really seems to be a piece of work.

One thing that has always had me wondering, where exactly did Roselli get his power from? Here’s a guy that is forever meeting with top level bosses nationwide but never seems to have had a crew or base of support. Was it just connections?

Then of course when they killed him there was no issue. Apart from that little scene with Fratianno and Joey Auippa.

When Rosselli was with Los Angeles he got his power from Jack Dragna. After Dragna died in 1956 he transferred to Chicago, probably directly under Sam Giancana. Rosselli was also close to Frank LaPorte, the capo of Chicago Heights. After Giancana moved to Mexico in 1966 Rosselli still had the support of Chicago until 1970 when LaPorte flew in to meet with Rosselli, and Rosselli hid out, avoiding the meeting. After that, Rosselli was basically on his own. By the time Frank the German came to chop him up, nobody cared.

[B.]

This is kind of a side topic, but since I research the Detroit mob I'm always interested in their role/influence in California and Vegas. Issues involving Detroit and Chicago in Vegas I assume would revolve around the Frontier in the 60s. In Last Mafioso Roselli is mentioned as being connected to that and helping Detroit slightly with the Frontier and Bompensiero being bitter about it. It then relates Bomp telling a story of killing someone for Detroit with the promise of getting a piece of the Frontier and him never getting it. I've really tried to figure out who that would have been if the story is true. But I've never been able to identify who the victim(who would have disappeared) might have been. Paul Cimino disappears around that time, but the description makes it feel like it was someone from California. It sounds like Salvatore Vitale who also disappeared and was in California and would have known Bompensiero, but he disappeared too early for that. Sorry side topic.

I can't answer the main question for you, but Bompensiero identified Salvatore Vitale as the underboss of a family in Sicily who spent time in San Diego as he had relatives there, and claimed Vitale was murdered over a drug deal on the orders of the Detroit family leadership. Bompensiero claims that Vitale had first sent sugar instead of narcotics and owed money as a result of the rip-off that he didn't pay, as he blamed his French suppliers. Then the Detroit leadership staged a robbery where their associates pretended to be police officers who raided Vitale's stash and stole a load of narcotics. After Vitale brought another load of drugs into the country, the Detroit leaders Jimmy Quasarano and John Priziola refused to pay for the load. Vitale continued to press for the money and that was ultimately the reason for his murder according to Bompensiero, who believed the money totaled $36,000. John Ormento and the Lucchese family may have been involved as well, as they had all attended a meeting in California with the Detroit leaders and Vitale leading up to the murder. Vitale was allegedly murdered in Detroit.

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Pogo -- no idea, but ego would have been a large part of it. He had Montreal, Arizona, and already had a growing presence in California, so the Commission members rightfully felt he was trying to "plant his flag" everywhere he could. Don't forget at this time he was pushing Magliocco as boss after Profaci's death which would have given him influence in that family, then he pulled Magliocco into the plot to kill Gambino and Lucchese. So he was trying to take over New York to some degree also. Magaddino talked on his office bug about how Magliocco admitted to the plot against Gambino/Lucchese at a meeting with the Commission, so in both the California and New York plots you had Bonannos co-conspirators spilling the beans.

I'd be curious if Bonanno had anyone in mind from the Gambino and Lucchese families who he wanted to install as boss. Usually those kinds of plots involve someone from inside of the family. Bompensiero didn't say anything about Joe Bonanno wanting to install Bill Bonanno as boss of California or the "40 men" he had ready to help take over. Can't imagine Bompensiero and company would have been receptive to the idea of Bill coming in and taking over and it sounds like Bonanno was trying to manipulate those three into doing his dirty work, not necessarily bringing them into his full plan.

Remember too that Joe Bonanno was originally a suspected conspirator in the Frank Bompensiero murder in the late 1970s, though he likely wasn't involved. There were some notes found in his trash about "Turi" (believed to be Bill Bonanno, who Joe called "Turi") obtaining a gun around that period and maybe some other vague information that led the FBI to suspect him. This information from Bompensiero sheds more light on that, as no doubt the FBI was aware of this earlier conspiracy involving Bompensiero and it seems Bompensiero's testimony before the Commission was a major factor in Bonanno's downfall.

The "Bill Bonanno and the 40 Thieves" info probably comes from the other informant(s), one of whom Ed mentioned is probably John Battaglia. I've asked this before, but who were those "40 men"? Existing members/associates of the Bonanno members on the west coast? From the way he approached Bompensiero/Fratianno/Bonventre and Roselli/Giammona, it doesn't sound like many of the "40" would have been existing members in Los Angeles. Seems possible some of them may have come from the Bay Area where he had more influence but there wasn't exactly much muscle up there.

I can't help but feel this example gives us insight into the way that earlier "tyrannical" national leaders like D'Aquila, Masseria, Morello, Maranzano etc. hatched plots around the country, set up spies in different families, influenced murders in other cities, installed their own people, etc. Joe Bonanno didn't succeed, but given he was a Maranzano protege I have a hunch he was following the model set up by those old timers. The Commission was said to have been set up to prevent that kind of behavior, so it seems Bonanno tried pulling it off in the wrong era. It's amazing he ended up dying of old age with that in mind. One thing that always stands out to me is Joe Zicarelli on the DeCav tapes talking about how Lilo Galante learned to operate the way he does from Joe Bonanno, and that was long before Galante took over the Bonannos in the 1970s.

--

What gets me about the later plot to put Roselli in charge is that it comes right on the heels of the Bonanno problem. Right after the Commission had been in an uproar over Joe Bonanno trying to take over and consolidate California into one family under his control, you have Roselli, Bompensiero, and Fratianno trying to do the exact same thing. Maybe they felt they had a decent chance of getting Commission support since they were California guys and not a big national figure like Bonanno, but it was still a ballsy if not insane plan given the timing. I also wonder what Trafficante's motivation would have been aside from the fact that he didn't like Nick Licata.

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Cavita -- so far it looks to me like he began informing in 1967 or very early 1968. If I come across anything earlier no doubt I will post it.

[Ed]

If anyone is interested, here is one of the documents, there are others, that point to Battaglia as an informant (see first paragraph).

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=165257

As an aside, Battaglia claimed Sicily originally controlled LCN in the United States up until the 1930s when the "United States branch was granted self-governing rights".

Interestingly, after the American Commission tried to depose Joseph Bonanno as a result of his shenanigans, he allegedly appealed to the Sicilian Mafia to hold onto his power.

[B.]

Thanks for sharing that.

Was John Battaglia ever made? According to Bompensiero he wasn't made as of 1968, when he finished serving a prison sentence. Along with his own legal troubles and his brother's problems as a member of the Bonanno faction, Magaddino implied on one tape that John Battaglia had an affair with his brother's wife. Magaddino enjoyed disparaging people (sometimes unfairly) and throwing around the word "cuckold", but it did sound like there was a story there. All of this could have factored into his informing..

We're missing so much info, but the Sicilian "control" bit probably has some amount of truth. Obviously Sicily couldn't have immediate, hands-on control of everything pre-1930s, but we know of members traveling there to appeal to Sicilian leaders and settle issues, i.e. Morello + Lupo's death sentence, high-level members traveling back and forth before/during "key" events, etc.. Whether this was because of some absolute authority in Sicily or simply the usual mafia alliances and networking (like Gentile talks about, members/leaders from one city helping prevent murders in another city, only on a bigger scale) would be a good question, but either way we know it was much more of a singular organization on both sides of the water. The unmade (but knoweldgeable) Philly informant from Calabria was of the opinion that there was still an absolute authority in Sicily that weighed in on US matters through the 1950s, though that's hardly a solid source on something like that.

As for Bonanno and Sicily, didn't he claim in his book that he was invited to move to Sicily in the 1950s and take some kind of position of authority? He had acted as some kind of arbitrator and who knows how much truth there is given the book is self-congratulating, but I wouldn't doubt that he had influence and alliances over there through the 1960s. We know from bugs in the 1960s that other US bosses were positively terrified of Bonanno even after he began to lose his grip on the Bonanno family and I don't doubt that along with his national connections, his international connections played a role in the Commission's fear.

[B.]

Another detail about the second plot:

- During the period when Roselli had been discussing plans to meet with Chicago family members to request support in his bid to become California boss, the LA FBI was aware that Roselli met at a Palm Springs hotel with Pat Marcy, Anthony Esposito, and Charles Nicosia, all of Chicago. One day later, the Chicago FBI reported a meeting between Santo Trafficante nd Felix Alderisio in Chicago. Alderisio then traveled to NYC. It was believed that Trafficante also went to NYC, with Alderisio and Trafficante going to visit Thomas Eboli. Alderisio returned to Chicago immediately from NYC.

- Bompensiero had no knowledge of the above meetings, but felt that the meetings could have been to discuss Roselli's plan to take over leadership from Licata and Detroit family infuence.

- I should mention, too, that two of the three main conspirators against Licata were former Los Angeles members who had transferred to Chicago (Fratianno and Roselli), so they would have had to transfer back in their statewide takeover if it had happened.

[Frank]

Another detail about the second plot:

- During the period when Roselli had been discussing plans to meet with Chicago family members to request support in his bid to become California boss, the LA FBI was aware that Roselli met at a Palm Springs hotel with Pat Marcy, Anthony Esposito, and Charles Nicosia, all of Chicago. One day later, the Chicago FBI reported a meeting between Santo Trafficante nd Felix Alderisio in Chicago. Alderisio then traveled to NYC. It was believed that Trafficante also went to NYC, with Alderisio and Trafficante going to visit Thomas Eboli. Alderisio returned to Chicago immediately from NYC.

- Bompensiero had no knowledge of the above meetings, but felt that the meetings could have been to discuss Roselli's plan to take over leadership from Licata and Detroit family infuence.

- I should mention, too, that two of the three main conspirators against Licata were former Los Angeles members who had transferred to Chicago (Fratianno and Roselli), so they would have had to transfer back in their statewide takeover if it had happened.

Another interesting thing about that info is Alderisio appears to be boss of Chicago. I know Villain, Snakes and Confederate will find that interesting.

[Antiliar]

Bill Roemer thought that Alderisio was briefly the boss, but it conflicts with the timeline when Jackie Cerone was boss. Alderisio was sent to prison on Sept 29,1969, and Cerone on May 9, 1970. Cerone had been the boss since 1967 and was seen in high-level meetings with Ricca and Accardo. Officially, Alderisio was the acting capo for Sam Battaglia. Documentation later came out that Battaglia continued to hold his official rank while in prison, so was not replaced until his death. Alderisio was already dead by that point, so Joey Lombardo succeeded him.

[Villain]

Unbelievable. Bonanno, even in that world, really seems to be a piece of work.

One thing that has always had me wondering, where exactly did Roselli get his power from? Here’s a guy that is forever meeting with top level bosses nationwide but never seems to have had a crew or base of support. Was it just connections?

Then of course when they killed him there was no issue. Apart from that little scene with Fratianno and Joey Auippa.

When Rosselli was with Los Angeles he got his power from Jack Dragna. After Dragna died in 1956 he transferred to Chicago, probably directly under Sam Giancana. Rosselli was also close to Frank LaPorte, the capo of Chicago Heights. After Giancana moved to Mexico in 1966 Rosselli still had the support of Chicago until 1970 when LaPorte flew in to meet with Rosselli, and Rosselli hid out, avoiding the meeting. After that, Rosselli was basically on his own. By the time Frank the German came to chop him up, nobody cared.

According to this doc, the connection between Roselli and Giancana was Cuba, Vegas and obviously the CIA, but I think that Rosellis real boss was always Ricca. Afterall back in the old days, besides Ricca, he also knew Diamond Joe and in later years he was also close to his son Esposito Jr.

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.htm ... ca_roselli

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.htm ... ca_roselli

Also heres another doc regarding the Roselli/LaPorte/Ricca situation in 1970...

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.htm ... ca_roselli

And in the end another doc which describes LaPorte being Rosellis capo during the last years...

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.htm ... ccardo_los

[B.]

I am way out of my league talking about Alderisio and Chicago, but I didn't necessarily interpret it as him being a boss. He was definitely a representative of the Chicago leadership, though. In the St. Louis thread I also posted some info on his dealings with Tony Giordano, St. Louis boss, where Alderisio was in a similar role during this same time period.