LA Gangsters

First time poster from Los Angeles. Despite not being a "mafia city," LA has a pretty good mob history.

While the L.A. Crime Family is largely defunct, there is a supposedly a large East Coast/Chicago presence in Los Angeles. In the 1990s, Joe Dente from the Genovese was out here and Frank Buccieri from Chicago to run things.

There was also a crew from New England at one point too, that went to prison for years for robbing a family in Woodland Hills and kidnapping the father.

Does anyone have a list of made guys/associates who operate here on the West Coast and their affiliation?

Here are a few:

Ronnie Lorenzo (Bonnano)
Tommy Gambino (LA/Gambino)
Donnie Shacks (Colombo)

There's also mob royalty like Johnny Fratto who is on Howard Stern.

Former mobsters who live in LA include Anthony Fiato, Kenny Gallo and Michael Franzese.

You can also add Gambino soldier Joseph Isgro.

Living LA members include Louie Caruso, Steve Cino, Mike Esposito, Russell Massetta, John Vaccaro, and possibly James Testa; though a couple of them don't live in California anymore.

There's also Teddy Matranga, who's with the Detroit family.

Vito Spillone is a Chicago Outfit guy out in East LA County as well. There was another Gambino guy other than Isgro who works in the porn business...Tommy something.

I know Isgro has been in the movie and music business. Was he involved in the porn industry also? I'm not sure of the Tommy guy you're talking about.

Tommy something, he's a Gambino as well. I'm sure there are plenty more out West, especially with Donnie Shacks being the #1 on the street in the Colombo's now.

Donnie Shacks had to basically be brought out of semi-retirement. There really isn't that much of an LCN presence in the west anymore. Their bookmaking operations still extend out to Nevada, Arizona, and California but there's no mob crews based there anymore.

Salvatore "Sammy the Baker" Pisello? But I don´t think he was involved with porn but with the music business.

"At the end of 1987, when Justice Department officials ended the probe of MCA, they knew the following:

* Pisello is an active participant in the world of organized crime. His name appears on numerous federal reports, where he is identified as a high-ranking soldier of the Carlo Gambino crime family in New York (which is currently headed by mobster John Gotti) and as an alleged narcotics trafficker with links to drug dealers in Mexico, Italy, and Panama.

* Pisello had close business ties with several hoods more powerful than he; some of them had recently been indicted for trying to infiltrate the record industry.

* MCA started to work with Pisello in 1983, although he had no previous experience in the record business.

* MCA lost money on every deal it made through Pisello. The company appears to have lost as much as $ 3 million on these deals, while Pisello made at least $ 600,000.

* MCA executives may have made false and misleading statements to federal officials who were investigating the Pisello case.

* At least six executives of MCA Records were subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury in Los Angeles. Five of them refused to cooperate unless they were granted immunity from prosecution.

* An argument erupted over the relationship between MCA Records and Pisello at an MCA board meeting in 1985. Howard Baker, who was then a board member, demanded that the executives who were involved with Pisello either cooperate with federal officials or be fired. Several of these officials subsequently received raises and promotions.

* MCA continued to deal with Pisello after his underworld ties were made public and he was convicted of tax evasion in 1985."

http://www.moldea.com/MCAMusic.html