Los Angeles crime family
The Los Angeles crime family, also known as the Dragna crime family, the Southern California crime family or the L.A. Mafia, and dubbed "the Mickey Mouse Mafia" by former Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates, is an Italian American Mafia crime family based in Los Angeles, California, as part of the larger American Mafia. Since its inception in the early 20th century, the family has spread throughout Southern California.
Like most Mafia families in the United States, the Los Angeles crime family gained wealth and power through bootlegging alcohol during the Prohibition era. The L.A. family reached its peak strength in the 1940s and early 1950s under Jack Dragna, although the family was never larger than the New York or Chicago families. The Los Angeles crime family itself has been on a gradual decline, with the Chicago Outfit representing them on The Commission since the death of boss Jack Dragna in 1956.
The sources for much of the current information on the history of the Los Angeles Cosa Nostra family is the courtroom testimony and the published biographies of Aladena "Jimmy the Weasel" Fratianno, who in the late 1970s became the second member – and the first acting boss – in American Mafia history to testify against Mafia members, and The Last Mafioso, a biography of Fratianno by Ovid Demaris. Since the 1980s, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act has been effective in convicting mobsters and shrinking the American Mafia; like all families in the United States, the L.A. Mafia now only holds a fraction of its former power. Not having a strong concentration of Italian Americans in the region leaves the family to contend with the many street gangs of other ethnicities in the city. The Los Angeles crime family is the last Mafia family left in the state of California.
Origins and predecessors
The early years of organized crime in California were marked by the division of various Italian street gangs such as the Black Hand organizations in the early 20th century. The most prominent of these was the Matranga family, which was a family of Arbereshe origin from an Albanian noble family which settled in south Italy hundreds of years ago. Their legitimate business was fruit vending; otherwise they used threats, violence, arson, and extortion to control the Plaza area, which was the heart of the Italian American community of Los Angeles at the time. Its first leader was Rosario "Sam" Matranga, who started leading the family around 1905. Sam's relatives Salvatore Matranga, Pietro "Peter" Matranga, and Antonio "Tony" Matranga were other members of the gang.When prominent Black Hand leader Joseph Ardizzone was involved in a dispute with George Maisano, a member of the Matranga gang, they both went to Joseph Cuccia to mediate the dispute. Cuccia was a well-respected criminal amongst the underworld, as well as a translator in court for Italians who did not speak English. This made him a well-liked man in the Italian community.
Cuccia was a relative of Ardizzone's and ruled in Ardizzone's favor, causing the Matrangas to threaten Cuccia. In response, Ardizzone shot and killed Maisano on July 2, 1906. Ardizzone then became a wanted fugitive.
With Ardizzone gone, the Matrangas fulfilled their promise of revenge. On September 25, 1906, Cuccia was shot and killed, allegedly by Tony Matranga. With both Ardizzone and Cuccia gone, the Matrangas became the dominant criminal force in the Italian Plaza community. To expand their power they began cooperating with the police. Giving up information on their enemies and receiving immunity for most of their crimes, the Matrangas were able to expand their power and influence.
Ardizzone returned to Los Angeles in 1914 and resumed his feud with the Matranga family. Sam and his successor, Pietro "Peter" Matranga, were both murdered within 33 days of each other in 1917. Mike Marino, an Ardizzone ally, was responsible for the murders. While their next leader, cousin Tony Buccola, was able to get revenge and kill Marino in 1919, many years of violence ruined the Matranga family. It was becoming clear that Ardizzone's faction was winning the war. With the rise of bootleggers in the 1920s, the Matranga's power declined and was eliminated with Buccola's disappearance in 1930.
Vito Di Giorgio, a Black Hander and grocery store owner, moved to the United States from Palermo, Sicily in 1904, and to Los Angeles from New Orleans in 1920. With the continuing Ardizzone-Matranga feud, Di Giorgio was able to bring some order to the Los Angeles underworld. Di Giorgio was known as an intimidating and forceful man who was in conflict with several local underworld factions. Di Giorgio maintained strong connections with mobsters in New Orleans, Colorado, and Chicago, and was a cousin, close friend, and mob associate of New York City mobster Giuseppe Morello, the first boss of the Morello crime family. Di Giorgio survived two attempts on his life before he was murdered in Chicago in 1922 while having a haircut.
His underboss Rosario DeSimone, who moved from Pueblo, Colorado to Los Angeles around the same time as Di Giorgio, was another longtime power figure who stayed out of the city and operated bootlegging rackets quietly in Los Angeles County. DeSimone officially stepped down from the top position in the 1920s, but was still a power within the Los Angeles underworld.
Albert Marco seized control of Los Angeles in the 1920s not by working with the local Mafia, but with the "City Hall Gang", a political machine in Los Angeles run by Kent Kane Parrot and Charles H. Crawford. This transformed Marco into the Vice Lord of Los Angeles, earning $500,000 from bordello prostitution alone. With Crawford and Parrot controlling city hall and the local press, the City Hall Gang was able to operate bootlegging, prostitution, and illegal gambling rackets in the shadows with little law enforcement scrutiny. This all changed when Marco was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon in 1928, and the City Hall Gang broke down after a reform movement swept L.A. in the late 1920s.
After that, a host of mobsters fought to take control of liquor operations that Marco and the City Hall Gang previously dominated. In 1928, August Palumbo was the seventh bootlegger killed in a six-week period. Palumbo was Marco's former lieutenant and was killed for refusing to fall in line with DeSimone. DeSimone's lieutenant Dominic DiCiolla was acquitted of the murder and took control of Palumbo's liquor operations. When DiCiolla tried to challenge higher powers by moving in on syndicated gambling rackets, he was murdered in 1931.
History
returned to California in 1914 and was acquitted of murdering Maisano in 1915 due to lack of evidence, as no witnesses were willing to testify. He returned to power and quickly started expanding his rackets in Los Angeles. Ardizzone teamed up with Jack Dragna and they worked closely together for over 10 years. During prohibition the two were successful in running bootlegging operations in Southern California as well as gambling and extortion.By the end of the 1920s, he was rapidly expanding his power and influence. Under Ardizzone's tenure, organized crime began consolidating under his banner as he dominated criminal activities in L.A. In the late 1920s, Dragna and Johnny Roselli constantly battled Charlie Crawford for control of the lucrative bootlegging rackets. With the deaths of Buccola and DiCiolla in 1930 and 1931, respectively, Ardizzone was the undisputed leader of crime in L.A. He set up the Italian Protective League, with Dragna as its president, Ardizzone as its vice president, and California State Senator Joseph Pedrotti as its chairman. The organization had some political and social motives, but mostly served as a strong-arm muscle for the crime family.
Dragna era
Ardizzone's reign as boss was ended when he mysteriously disappeared in 1931 while driving to his cousin's home in Etiwanda. Jack Dragna took control of the family and made peace with the National Mafia Syndicate. In addition, his brother Tom Dragna was made his consigliere while his nephew Louis Tom Dragna became a "made man" in 1947.Dragna was the most successful boss the L.A. family ever had. Although he was not able to infiltrate many of the labor unions in the entertainment industry, he involved the Los Angeles family in the entertainment business, and brought the L.A. Mafia onto the national stage. He was honored with a place on The Commission, the only boss west of Chicago to hold a spot on the council.
When prohibition ended in 1933, Dragna operated a massive loan shark and illegal gambling business. Along with close supporter John Roselli, Dragna's Mafia family ended local gang wars by driving older gambling syndicate headed by Guy McAfee and Milton "Farmer" Page out of business. Dragna and Roselli worked with Joe Shaw to muscle out L.A. bookies, many of whom fled to Las Vegas. By 1937, the Los Angeles crime family controlled the illegal gambling in Los Angeles.
For independent bookmakers, Dragna would use extortion to collect money from their operations. While most mobsters simply threatened harm on a business for not paying tribute to their organization, Dragna's family came up with a more sophisticated course of action. Dragna would send in men to threaten businesses, then the owners would pay Dragna for protection.
Dragna was not, however, able to control 100% of independent gambling rackets. Along with Dragna avoiding the spotlight and public life, he acquired the reputation as a weak ruler. According to Mickey Cohen, Dragna was very powerful and very well respected, but did not put things together the way the East Coast bosses preferred. Although there was not as big a pool of Italians to recruit on the West Coast as there was back East, the L.A. family worked around this by accepting members from across the country, such as Johnny Roselli from Chicago, Nick Licata from Detroit, and Aladena "Jimmy the Weasel" Fratianno and Dominic Brooklier from Cleveland. Armed with top hitman Frank Bompensiero and Jimmy Fratianno, Dragna muscled his way into controlling territory stretching throughout California and Southern Nevada. The Dragna family also had connections within the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, who were more corrupt than the city police. Although not having a big hand in labor union rackets, the Dragna crime family did infiltrate some unions in the laundromat and dress importing business.
When Lucky Luciano sent Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel from New York City to Los Angeles to take control of their interests on the West Coast, he formed an uneasy partnership with Dragna. Siegel was able to get independent bookies to pay tribute to Dragna's already flourishing gambling business. Aside from this, however, Dragna resented Siegel's power to infiltrate unions in the movie industry. Siegel made millions extorting movie production companies and only had to pay Dragna a tribute for working on his territory. With New York on Siegel's side, there was little Dragna could do to take control of The Commission's grip on the city.
The main reason Siegel came to California was to organize a horse racing wire service on the West Coast for the National Syndicate, which Siegel and Dragna worked closely together on setting up. Dragna and Siegel tried many methods to take over Continental Press Service. Attempts to buy out the company and to strong-arm its owners did not work, so they set up their own company called Trans-America. The Chicago Outfit eventually took over rival Continental Racing Services and gave the entire percentage of the racing wire on the West Coast to Dragna, enraging Siegel.