Cosa Nostra in Sacramento, CA

Anyone know if there was ever any Cosa Nostra activity in Sacramento, or if anyone from a family controlled anything out here? I know there can't be much. But I did read an article about the San Francisco family that said one of the members had a gambling operation in Sacramento. My father, who's in his 60's and studies Sacramento history, insists there was, and that they owned a lot of legitimate businesses in the mid 1900s. Would appreciate any information on this, or if anyone knows of a source that may have some.

I've never heard of any activity in Sac. It maybe possible that some made guys came up from San Francisco or San Jose to make a quick buck, but that was a probably a long, long time ago. SF and SJ were always pretty small and weak families (if you could call the Cerritos in SJ a "family").

Yeah, I knew if there was any, it would be small time stuff, especially compared to Chicago or the Northeast. There is a noticeable Italian population in Sacramento, though. A lot of Italian owned businesses that go back generations. Sacramento, the actual city, has a very old downtown with a waterfront, a lot of old buildings. The port of Sacramento had to have been active in the early to mid 1900s as there wasn't as much freight transported by truck then. There was a little bit of business and some unions, so I'm sure there was a connected guy or two out here.

Regarding San Francisco, should be noted that Frank Lanza, the SF boss in the 1930s, co-founded Fisherman's Wharf. The San Francisco family is sanctioned by the commission. In the mob's heyday they must have had some pull. In 1957, SF underboss and Frank Lanza's son, Jimmy Lanza, was one of the unlucky fellas caught at Appalachian.

According to wikipedia, the SF family was low key, business oriented. LA's Jimmy "The Weasel" Fratianno moved to the SF bay area when getting out of prison, and Lanza wanted him out, because he was bringing too much heat to the region.

I don´t think there ever was a LCN Family based in Sacramento. But some members of the three California Families resided there. One of them was Vincenzo Infusino, a captain in the San Francisco Family. But no LCN activity was going on there. Fratianno´s brother Warren, I´ve read, once was involved with a brothel located in West Sacramento and run by his former wife Carla. But Warren was not a LCN member.

There was no LCN family in Sac. People wish there was a mafia family in their own turfs. Makes me wonder! The Sacramento area had one guy from the San Fran Mob by the name of Steve Trifiro, who was into illegal gambling, but he was actually in Carmichael, CA. He's dead. Larry Bracco of the San Jose Family owns three houses there and rents out the rooms to two out of the three.

Vincenzo Infusino lived in Modesto, not near Sacramento. Warren Fratianno lived there, but he wasn't hooked up or was an associate of the mob, but his brother Jimmy an L.A. hood lived in Sac for a short time as well. L.A. Capo Mike Rizzitello had an apartment there when he owned a business there, that he would only stay at once in awhile. Those are all the wiseguys that lived there.

HairyKnuckles,

Interesting. There's rumors that there were several brothels in West Sacramento in the 1950s and 60s, one rumor that a popular restaurant once was.

Just picked up The Last Mafioso, about LA's Fratianno, at the library. First page I flipped to mentions Sacramento. Of course it's only about a court appearance. Thought I'd hit pay dirt. lol.

Mike Rizzitello ran a wireroom in Sacramento

Oak, let us know what you thought about the book.

Sacramento could have had a few guys running illegal gambling...I mean, even Des Moines, IA had a guy from Chicago named Louis Fratto who ran a HUGE illegal gambling operation. Same with Wheeling, WV, Paul Hankish was a kingpin who operated out of West Virginia for the LaRocca Crime Family. Almost every city in America had some form of illegal gambling at some point.

It has been rumored that Joseph Vicari San Jose Underboss had the most pull in the city until his death in 1957. He operated a counterfeit ring that included Sacramento in the late 1920's till he was arrested with Salvatore Messino in 1934, put money on the streets during the 1940's and ran illegal gambling in the 1950's. When he pasted on I believe the gambling went to the Trifiro's of San Francisco to the dismay of the associates that ran the gambling, this was due most likely to Abati and Sciortino agreeing that Oakland(which SJ allegedly had some gambling, prostitution, and Narcotics in the city) would belong to San Francisco as Abati having finale say in the Sacramento area, while SJ would control Redwood City and Hayward, and have access to William Remmer associate in Reno.

Mario Filippi a SF mobster was alleged to run a brothel in Sacramento before he was killed in the late 1920's. Vinzenco Infusino had money on the street in the city and allegedly ran a wire room which later on, Los Angeles member Mike Rizzitello took over. Anthony Vicari, brother to Joseph Vicari, was seen in 1949 going into a West Sacramento brothel for a couple of minutes before leaving with an envelope, the only way they identified him was through the license plate of his car. The officers were following a couple of burglars when they noticed Vicari and the envelope.

Mario Balistreri and his son Gaetano allegedly were running heroin and marijuana in the city. Narcotics was pretty big in the city's underground during the 40's and 50's

Jimmy Fratianno lived there but did nothing illegally. He met with Murray Riley in SF, which pissed of Lanza as it was around that time reporters were looking into Carlo Gambino ties to California, most notably the bay area.

Most of the activities in Sacramento were run by associates of the California families, rarely did a made man move into the city and started running something, they had associates who lived in the area for that. After Abati was deported, it pretty much became an open city for anyone. but in the later years, many of the street gangs took over the Rackets.

what's doin vicari? This thing about sac it's pretty obvious they run thing's of there's different. Let's leave bosses and underbosses' to rest, along with many soldiers from the east. CAPISCE?!
Yours truly,
Lamster.

Just wondering...did you finish the book?

Yes they were probably there or probably still there-as they are hypothetically everywhere, yet nowhere at the same time.

Yes, I think you are right in letting the Mannina crime family rest in peace.

https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/ice-sa...eged-mafia-ties

Thanks for posting this.
There was a guy blabbing about Italian mobs in California...I guess that it missed this biggie.

Hello everybody, I'm new here, so forgive me for resurrecting an old thread. I've been researching the mob in California's bay area the last couple years, collecting as much info as I can, but when I come across new information I can't corroborate, I can't help but to question its source...

Where did all of this information on Giuseppe/Joseph Vicari come from? I haven't found most of this info anywhere else, aside from counterfeiting in 1934. It's quite interesting, so I'm reaching out with the hope that you can help me confirm, or provide some kind of proof, of the above. I have many more questions in my queue, as I've been lurking for years, but figured I'd start with this. Thanks in advance.