Mobster - Jimmy The Weasel" Fratianno

Aladena "Jimmy the Weasel" Fratianno (November 14, 1913 – June 30, 1993) was an Italian-born American mobster originally from Cleveland, Ohio, and later acting head of the Los Angeles crime family before becoming a US government witness. Fratianno was the most powerful mobster to become a federal witness until Sammy "the Bull" Gravano agreed to testify against the Gambino crime family in 1991.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onL6LtR9B-E

good researched, a few facts i've noticed missing:

- once was in an argument with deSimone, while he was his lawyer, this was the mainreason he wanted to transfer. He also insulted nick licata, the now underboss, beforehand

- frank bompensiero was not the only guy fratianno trusted, that would be at first roselli

- bompensiero badmouthed the LA administration, had the same feelings about them as jimmy, but he didnt hold back with it. this was the reason brooklier wanted him clipped

- at the beginning you qoute nash with "jimmy would kill even his good friends" - later you contradict it yourself with bompensiero not clipped for years - he stalled it

- to be fair, fratianno plotted to remove brooklier from the top, he wanted a vote after brookliers release

The way I understood it, Jimmy wanted to start his own family in the San Fransisco/San Jose area, which pisses off Brooklier.

last mafisoo is one of the best books on jimmys life

jimmy and louie dragna were made acting bosses but jimmy flew all over the country meeting bosses (buflanio, tieri, gigante carlo gambino etc) trying to convice them to be made offical boss but that was a dumb and desperate move because no way would they back jimmy over brooklier not only that chicago were beefing with jimmy because of roselli etc

Bompensiero was probably clipped because he was an informant.

The LA family originally wanted him dead for being disrespectful. They just never made a move because he was a very cautious mobster. Once they found out he was an informant they killed him a week later. A little motivation goes a long way I guess. Tommy Ricciardi (no relation to the NJ Lucchese mobster of the same name) shot him in a phone booth in Pacific Beach, San Diego. Jack LoCiero was the driver and replaced Bomp as consigliere. Fratianno claimed that Brooklier was on the other line when Bomp was hit, but I think that's BS. Fratianno himself was probably the one on the other end.

Fratianno's book was good I thought as well but it's always hard to tell what is b.s. and what isn't.

Brooklier went by some other name before he went in the can or whatever and by then he wanted Jimmy dead for sure. Did we ever find out if it was (or seemed) to be bullshit that Brooklier wanted him dead for?

son was on howard stern a few years back it was an awesome interview, talked about I believe living in Kansas or something and the JFK assassination

@merlino, Are you sure that's not Johnny Fratto you're thinking of?

Fratianno wanted to take over the Los Angeles family, it is evident with a couple trips to New York, but his big problem was with Chicago which in my honest opinion he was not so forthcoming with that information to the FBI. Brooklier wanted Jimmy killed along time ago before all that went down. He was badmouthing the Los Angeles administration before he transferred to the Chicago family, evening after that he was still badmouthing LA. Frank Bompenseiro was always badmouthing the administration. What led to Fratianno transfer was how Frank DeSimone was handling Jimmys court strategy. Brooklier has always disliked Bompenseiro and Fratianno after the foul up on the Mickey Cohen hit, that made Jack Dragna think less of DeSimone, but to be fair the fault was really Bompenseiro. I heard that when the Bompenseiro hit went down, that he was on the phone with Mike Riz, who Frank had set up. Tommy Ricciardi was with Mike and they both came from the Gallo crew in the Colombo family in New York. Mike came back to Los Angeles after Joey Gallo was killed and Tommy was sent out to California to help the Colombos interests but later on hooked up with Mike and became an associate of the Los Angeles family. Why it took so long to kill Frank is because Fratianno was stalling, and he didn't like taking orders from Brooklier, but that all changed when it turned out that Bompenseiro was an informant, and Frank was history, while Tommy got his button but he would die soon after that due to natural causes. The Last Mafioso holds up to scrutiny more then other books as Fratianno told it like it was and the writer did his research well.

Jack, I thought Fratiano got along with the Dragna's? Or am I thinking of someone else? I'm wanting to say he said good things about the boss before Brooklier took over and of course you could tell he hated him then.

As for the Bomp hit I agree he definitely stalled and I do think Rizzi was on the other line as well as I think that hit was might have got him his button? It's been a while since I read the book, I need to read it again now that I kind of know everyone.

As for the Gallo crew it's crazy how many heavy guys there were in that crew. I don't see how the Colombo's held them off, but that's a topic for another day.

Dix, Fratianno got along real well with the Dragnas, after Jack Dragna died, DeSimone became boss, and Nick Licata was bumped up to Capo, who Jimmy insulted when Nick was only a soldier. When DeSimone became boss he demoted Bompenseiro and Fratianno from capos to soldiers. DeSimone wanted to demote Adamo but that would have signed his death warrent.
Mike Rizzitello was made before the hit in the presence of Fratianno, Louis Dragna, and another guy in a car outside a restaurant that was closed. Brooklier granted Dragna to induct members into the family after all capos and administration members gave that person the ok. Rizzitello name was not put forth, but most members in thought highly of him. This was one of the reasons Brooklier told the other bosses around the country that Fratianno had misrepresented himself, after he realized that his plan to kill Jimmy had backfired, and Fratianno was planning on calling a vote for the boss position. Jimmy had strong supporters around the country by how he carried himself and thanks in big parts to Frank Bompenseiro, Louis Dragna, and an old time soldier who's name I forget. While Brooklier had supporters too he made a smart play and brought the matter to the Commission, though it would take a second time to do so when he found that the Genovese and Lucchese families supported Jimmys right to become boss if a vote was called in the family. The Commission voted that Fratianno was to be killed, and that was when he became a government witness. A boss can kill anyone in his family, but there are exceptions. Jimmy had good relations with other families across the countries, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee, and two families in New York City, Gambino died and Paul was the one to back up Brooklier as boss.
It was Tommy Ricciardi who got his button after the Bompenseiro hit, and yeah the Gallos had a lot of heavy guys with them, but half of them left when Larry passed on, and others went to jail during the war and meet other made members from other family or crews who they liked so they went with them or a few transferred their records with a different family.
Milwaukee Rob, The Weasel was trying to muscle in on the bay area, which pissed off Jimmy Lanza in San Francisco, and Joe Cerrito in San Jose who always sent Angelo Marino as a messenger to talk with Jimmy. Jimmy always thought that Marino was Lanza Underboss.

His Book is a good read

Jimmy liked Jack Dragna, but he wasn't very fond of his brother Tom, according to his own words. And while he liked Dragna, all that changed after he was released from prison, as he says Dragna, like many of his capos failed to monetarily support his family while he was in the can, all of those except for Louis Tom Dragna, Tom's son, and he says even that was $100,000 dollars for only six months. And according to Fratianno, Brooklier was called Jimmy Regace early on his LA Mob career.

After his release from prison, Jimmy transferred to Chicago with help from John Rosseli from what I understand. Who was he under? LaPorte? Also, Frank Velotta, nicknamed Skinny, was an associate of Jimmy's. Anyone know what happened to him? I don't think he was gone for long after Jimmy ratted him out.

Ask Toodoped or Snakes they know there stuff on the outfit

Jimmy Fratianno started out under Johnny Roselli when he transferred to Chicago. John who never lived in Chicago, but before he became direct with the Chicago bosses, mostly likely would be with the Cicero crew. Not long after that Jimmy meet more often with Sam Battaglia the Taylor Ave boss, so it would be safe to say that Fratianno was with the Taylor crew. Once Sam died it seems Jimmy became close with Joe and Louis who were with the Melrose Park crew. Louis father was Tommy Eboli of the Genovese crime family and through them Fratianno was introduced to Tony Salerno, Frank Tieri of the Genovese family, Anthony Scotto and Jimmy the clam of the Gambino family, Joe Lucchese and Stefano Lasalle of the Lucchese family, Joe Colombo and Thomas DiBello of the Colombo family, and Joe Evola of the Bonanno family. Sometime in the early 1970s, Jimmy started to butt heads with Joey Doves in Chicago and for the most part remained only a soldier with no crew living in California. He was not direct with Chicago bosses as is information was coming from Roselli instead and did not meet with Chicago leadership until he transferred from Chicago back to Los Angeles.

do you think jimmy had a good chance at becoming the boss i always think he got a bit unlucky if gambino had lived a little bit longer i think jimmy would have made it the genovese family backed him

i think the biggest problem for jimmy was Chicago at the end did not like him

I think he was right there. I think that was his real name and he changed it to Brooklier later on.

As for Jimmy and Roselli and Chicago not liking Jimmy, I wonder if that started once Roselli started having his issues with the JFK ordeal? It seems he had dealings with Trafficante too and he knew more about the JFK hit (wasn't he close to Momo at one point too?) than he should have.

I'm just spitballing here and enjoy the convo.

Jimmy Regace was also a nickname. His birth name is Domenico Brucceleri. Interesting about Fratianno's falling out with the Outfit. Since the Outfit got rid of Roselli, Fratianno's relationship with them probably soured too. Roselli was Fratianno's link to the Ouftut.

Antilliar actually knows more about this era than I do. He would probably know.

According to the author of Jimmy's book "Last Mafioso" Ovid Demaris, it was the JFK thing that messed up his relationship with Chicago, at least that was part of it. Fratianno claimed that Roselli told him about the whole thing, and how it was all "bullshit". Originally, Roselli was supposed to have had the ambition to have the government "by the balls", and he used the Castro situation to do it. Maheu (I think that was one of the agents last name) would have contact with Roselli, they'd tell Roselli the ideas, and Roselli would follow with ways that he and cohorts could get them done through their contacts in Cuba. Roselli had no contacts in Cuba, seeing as that was now the Castro state, their contacts were out of there, or not doing nothing. Roselli supposedly strung them along the entire time, with stories of himself and his contacts being on boats that were shot down in the water by Castro forces. It was all bullshit. According to the author, Roselli confessed that the poison shoe polish (there was supposedly an idea to have Castro's boots polished with polish that would make his beard hairs fall out. Comical stuff), the liquid they wanted to put in his drink, and the things they were going to use to poison his food was supposed to go back to Trafficante's guys and then on to Cuba to the assassin's, but according to Jimmy & DeMaris, Trafficante sat on it and never made a move. I think Trafficante never wanted to step another foot in Cuba after he was imprisoned there. But the death concoctions always stopped at Trafficante. And they were either, flushed down the toilet, thrown away, and simply forgotten about. Roselli eventually used the scheme as the reason for Castro being behind the JFK assassination as pay back for that Mob/CIA plot & the Bay Of Pigs.



But this was all Roselli's plan to have the government "by the balls", eventually they found out they were being strung along, and the Warren Commission was created. Those involved in the plot had to protect their ass, those who weren't didn't want the heat. They killed Giancana for his involvement. And then they killed Roselli, and along with Johnny went Jimmy's relationship with Chicago really. I guess they may not have really trusted him. All of that is a pretty interesting theory on the JFK hit from a mobster and his co-author.

I am sure Toodoped knows

he was likely similarily like roselli or spilotro NOT directly under a capo, but answered directly to the administration - aiuppa/accardo/cerone.

Technically, Spilotro answered to Lombardo, at least until the latter went to prison in '83.

Most likely Jimmy answered to Roselli & Giancana. And that's it. He took his schemes to Roselli, who would then take them to Giancana to get the okay and assumed backing from the Chicago administration.