The Los Angeles crime family, also known as the L.A. Mafia or the Southern California crime family,[7] and dubbed "the Mickey Mouse Mafia" by former Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates,[8] is an Italian-American organized crime syndicate based in Los Angeles as part of the larger Italian-American Mafia. Since its inception in the early 20th century, it 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.[9]
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.[13] Which were 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 (often misreported as "Orsario," due to a typo on his death record), 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.
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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, who served as a translator in court for Italians who didn't speak English.[14] 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.[15] Ardizzone then fled authorities and 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 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.[16] Mike Marino (aka Mike Rizzo), an Ardizzone ally, was responsible for the murders.[17][18] 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 Handler and grocery store owner, moved to the United States from Palermo, Sicily in 1904, and to Los Angeles from New Orleans in 1920.[17] With the continuing Ardizzone-Matranga feud, Di Giorgio was able to relocate to Los Angeles and bring some order to the Los Angeles underworld.[17] 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,[17] and was a cousin, close friend, and mob associate of New York City mobster Giuseppe Morello, the first boss of the Morello crime family. He 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.[17] 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.[19] This transformed Marco into the Vice Lord of Los Angeles, earning $500,000 from bordello prostitution alone.[20] 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. Since then a host of mobsters fought to take control of liquor operations that Marco and the City Hall Gang previously dominated.[19] In 1928, August Palumbo was the seventh bootlegger killed in a six-week period.[21] Palumbo was Marco's former lieutenant and was killed for refusing to fall in line with DeSimone. DeSimone's lieutenant Dominic DiCiolla (aka Dominick De Soto) was acquitted of the murder and took control of Palumbo's liquor operations. When he tried to challenge higher powers by moving in on syndicated gambling rackets, he was murdered in 1931.
Joseph "Iron Man" Ardizzone returned to California in 1914 and was acquitted of murdering Maisano in 1915 due to lack of evidence and no witnesses willing to testify.[15] 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.[13] 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.[22] With the deaths of Buccola and DiCiolla in 1930 and 1931, respectively, Ardizzone (who was a suspect in both murders) 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.[21] The organization had some political and social motives, but mostly served as a strong-arm muscle for the crime family.[23] His reign as boss was ended when Ardizzone mysteriously disappeared in 1931 while driving to his cousin's home in Etiwanda.[13]
Jack Dragna took control of the family after Ardizzone's death in 1931, 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 wasn't 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.[24] Dragna and Roselli worked with Joe Shaw (the brother of Mayor Frank Shaw) to muscle out L.A. bookies, many of whom fled to Las Vegas.[25] By 1937, the Los Angeles crime family controlled the illegal gambling in Los Angeles.[22]
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 (protection racket), 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 (unaware that these were Dragna's own men).[26] Dragna wasn't however, able to control 100% of independent gambling rackets. Along with Dragna avoiding the spotlight and public life, he often was given the reputation as a weak ruler.[27] 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.[26] Although there was not as big a pool of Italians to recruit on the West Coast like 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 (who committed over 30 murders on the orders of their superiors), 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,[25] who were more corrupt than the city police (LAPD).[28] 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.[29][30][31] 152ee80cbc
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