Los Angeles

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

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. 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. 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. Cuccia 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. 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. 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 (aka Mike Rizzo), 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. 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 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. 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. 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. 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 (aka Dominick De Soto) 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.

In Their Own Story

Joseph "Iron Man" Ardizzone returned to California in 1914 and was acquitted of murdering Maisano in 1915 due to a 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 (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. 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 (the brother of Mayor Frank 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. Dragna would send in men to threaten businesses, then the owners would pay Dragna for protection (unaware that these were Dragna's own men). 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.

Reader's Guide

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 (1981), a biography of Fratianno by Ovid Demaris. Since the 1980s, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO 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.

Did You Know?

• The Los Angeles crime family was dubbed 'the Mickey Mouse Mafia' by former Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates.
• Aladena 'Jimmy the Weasel' Fratianno became the second member – and the first acting boss – in American Mafia history to testify against Mafia members in the late 1970s.
• Jack Dragna was the only boss west of Chicago to hold a spot on The Commission.
• Albert Marco earned $500,000 from bordello prostitution alone during his control of Los Angeles in the 1920s.
• The Los Angeles crime family is the last Mafia family left in the state of California.