This Guy Infiltrated Hollywood for the Mob

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/...-for-the-mob-and-pulled-off-a-major-scam

Thanks Hollander. Even though I have already read a Rosselli biography I am so intrigued by this guy I will probably end up buying this too.

It seems that when he was a youngster, Roselli (Sacco) arrived in Chicago and story goes that he received cash for his travel to the west coast personally from Ricca, who in turn possibly also helped Roselli to establish himself in the Los Angeles family, in which during the years he received an official membership. Also during the same period Roselli had constant collaboration with the Fischettis. So yeah he was somehow Chicago's guy on the west coast or the best connection to the LA crime fam. When Giancana became the boss in 1957, it seems that Roselli also transferred his membership at the same time, from the LA fam to the Chicago Outfit.

Toodoped I read Sacco was born in Lazio, central Italy. But other sources say he was born in Boston.

I also think he was an immigrant

I doubt it's as good as All American Mafioso. Ed Becker, the co-author, actually knew Roselli personally, and also knew a bunch of other Vegas players from those days. I'm guessing this new book has to be second hand material.

I think it was Roselli himself trying to tell the INS he was born in Boston after they found out he was born in Italy. He faced deportation. Can't remember how that all turned out, or if his status was still pending at the time of his death.

I’m gunna check this.

Who whacked him?

Becker? I don't think he was murdered. Presumably died of old age. Became a P.I. in Los Angeles after leaving Vegas. He worked for Gus Greenbuam at the Flamingo and got out of dodge when Greenbaum got it.

Didn't roselli get killed around the sametime as giancana? I think they were trying to purge anybody with loyalty or perceived loyalty to him

True...Becker is in some older documentaries about Vegas...has a nice sense of humor about the old days also.

CC, I believe so, too. A few people here have said that the Outfit wanted to kill Roselli years beforehand, but Giancana was protecting him. As soon as Giancana went, so did Roselli.

Hoodlum, I agree. Saw Becker in one of the Bill Kurtis documentaries from the '90s on youtube a few months ago. He sticks to what he knows and speaks clearly. Interesting person. There isn't much info on him out there. He worked for Gus Greenbaum when Greenbaum was whacked, so I'm sure he laid low for a long time.

I read that Roselli was not a Giancana guy. That they were at odds. Conflicting reports.

Roselli transferred from Chicago to LA possibly the same time when many Chi Mafiosi began migrating to the west coast and midwest out of various reasons. As a matter of fact during one period even the Fischettis were considered as main reps for the LA fam in Florida which in fact was a mistake made by the investigators at the time since its possible that Chicago was the main rep for some of the wc fams during that period. We also have other names such as Canzoneri or Canzioneri for whom we dont know if he was one time Outfit member or from the LA fam. But i think that we have one steady line regarding Rosellis movements since we have almost all the needed infos and files.

In addition, by 1970 Roselli was considered useless by the Mob

It's interesting how the New York guys like Lucky, Meyer, Bugsy, Costello, etc. viewed the Dragnas as pushovers but Chicago worked with the Dragnas and more or less infiltrated them.

Rosselli's birth date and place of birth are sketchy, but by his own admission he moved to LA at around 15 years of age. He has an arrest record in LA dating back to 1924. I know the guys were young themselves at the time, but I don't see Chicago sending a teenager to infiltrate Hollywood.

I think Rosselli moved to LA on his own accord and became a member there first, but was smart enough to keep in contact with Chicago and was happy to do their bidding.

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$b643195;view=1up;seq=410

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc...selli_transfer#relPageId=24&tab=page

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=70682&relPageId=6&search=ROSELLI_RICCA

im surprised chicago let trafficante handle the hit , they usally handled there own. am i wrong roselli was a outfit guy? maybe he was transferd to la family what was his official position capo with no crew?

snow night freaky early november

I believe he was just a high ranking soldier with autonomy. He definitely moved between LA/Vegas/Chicago too much to be tied to one crew. Also after reading this thread it seems like he was the successor to Willie Bioff/George Brown, the hollywood extortion guys. Maybe they put a made guy in charge of that.

did he go to appalachia in 57? i mean he was like the ambassador to hollywood. i read jimmy the weasel self serving book so long ago i cant remeber anything he talked about ,but roselli came up alot. was he useless in 1970? then why was he golfing and having lunches with mafia heavyweights around the usa.

https://www.nytimes.com/1977/02/25/...lli-because-of-his-senate-testimony.html

so he was a bonafide snitch he was giving the feds info no wonder he got whacked but whats weird it seems he still had connections in vegas and hollywood. yaeh he only had a interest in a vegas shop when he died that paid 60k a yr i'll try to do my today money verse 1975 money. yaeh that was like getting paid 200 250k a yr today no to shabby for a 70ty yr old man. and trafficante was still going out to eat with him yrs after he talked to the senate

We have to make some distinctions first like during the late 30s and early 40s Roselli was one of the Mob's guys, not just the Outfit's, in the Hollywood extortion scheme which had nothing to do with Vegas.

Now during the late 40s and early 50s the Outfit's rep in Vegas was Gus Greenbaum who in turn was joined by Marshall Caifano. By 1957 Greenbaum was told to back off and the next year he was brutally murdered possibly by Caifano and some other fella or fellas. Also by the late 50s Caifano had a lot of trouble with the government and so he was replaced by Roselli who as I said previously, possibly transferred his membership to Chicago (https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=112979&relPageId=41&search=roselli_membership). By 1962 i think Caifano entered in Nevadas Black Book and so he returned to Chicago as one f the bosses around Rush St, thus leaving Roselli in a complete control.

In November 1967, Roselli was convicted of an illegal entry in the country but everything was stopped possibly because of his connections in the agency but in 1968 he was again convicted with four other individuals on conspiracy charges. Sources say that in 1970 Roselli still handled some interests in the Frontier Hotel but began developing some health problems and so by 1972 the Outfit's new rep in Vegas became Tony Spilotro

One partner called Johnny "the Henry Kissinger of the mob."

i would imagine tony spilotro chased his ass rite out of there. even thoun i just picturing joe pesci casino in my head. it came out that guy lefty rosenthal was a fbi snitch since the 60tys. denaro in movie. what a classic

can you imagine if this irsihman frank sheenan movie that netflix gave marty 100mill to make is any good as his classics. what if its a steamy pile of shit wow. pesci came out of retirment for it. wonder when will get a trailer. pmacs smashed rite after work

It's easy to picture Joe Pesci. He did a good job portraying him. He perfected Spilotro's walk. Notice Spilotro really tells someone to be careful when stepping out into the street.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=za5bPZLGVMw&list=PLHYhuYZX1vD1yEDjoIA04KZbX2yifJsqN

Funny that Roselli and Accardo were at the same time at a tailor´s store in New York City.

Spilotro being sent out to Vegas to replace rather witty savants like Roselli, Greenbaum and Caifano might indicate that Chicago's insulated shadow boss system had some flaws. I can't imagine Accardo sending an animal like Spilotro out to oversee an operation as lucrative as that. I don't think he fully understood how much of an ass Spilotro was, and left the decision to his street bosses, Auippa or whoever else. Accardo was a sharp man who got rich and never spent a night in jail. Spilotro is an uncharacteristic choice for him. Had Accardo been more involved with day to day operations, the Vegas skim may have run smoother, and the midwest families might have been able to make a transition to other rackets in Vegas after the skim trial. The flipside to that however is that Accardo would have likely been caught in the dragnet of the skim case and would have died in prison, if law enforcement and informants could place him in meetings with the participants.

Spilotro belonged to the Melrose Park group and so he was possibly Nicolettis and Aiuppas choice while Accardo probably only gave the ok.

Im not sure if Roselli had his own base or territory in Chicago since it seems that his only connections were Ricca and Giancana. He also had connection to LaPorte just because he was some sort of voice on the west coast for the Outfits bosses. So in 1966 Giancana was out of the country while by 1972 Ricca was dead, which perfectly fits with the same year when Spilotro arrived.

I think that Rosell still had interests in LA at the time and also Vegas, since besides taking care of certain interests in the casinos, he also was involved in the garbage collection in that same town. Also story goes that in 1968 he wanted to take over the LA fam

I Read that Roselli was Close To Al Capone . And Tony Accardo Envy Him Over it .

Yes and he also knew Diamond Joe Esposito

Caifano was not a witty savant, he was Spilotro before Spilotro was Spilotro in Vegas. He was a muscle guy with a big temper, there is a famous incident where he went after a photographer who ended up knocking him out cold. Caifano spent a lot of time running around with Charles Delmonico, Charlie the Blade Tourine's son, who later became a capo in the Genovese family, extorting businessmen like Ray Ryan. Caifano like Spilotro was no deep thinker, he was a thug whose calling card was violence.

Accardo never spent a night in prison, but he did spend one night in jail:

https://www.nytimes.com/1992/05/29/...gure-in-mob-world-dies-in-bed-at-86.html

Thanks for clearing that up, JC. Assumed Caifano was one of the more brainy Outfit guys out west. Need to do more reading up. And, yes, I forgot there were accounts that Accardo spend a night in jail. Still has an impressive record. He wasn't called Joe Batters for nothing, however. And, I'm sure he mostly stayed out of prison because Illinois politics were so corrupted.

This was Fratianno's account of a conversation he had with Roselli. I take a lot of what Fratianno said with a grain of salt, especially his chest thumping about how scared Jews in LA were of Italians, but I don't think he had any reason to lie about Roselli and Accardo. I'm sure Roselli told him these things about Accardo.

edit: I think this was a wiretapped conversation between Fratianno and Roselli. So, yes, Roselli definitely said these things.

From what I remember of Fratianno's book, Accardo had always hated Rosselli over "some ancient beef" but he had been protected by his closeness with Ricca and Giancana.

The info regarding the friendship with Capone comes from Roselli himself.

Most of the guys who wrote the stories back then invented a lot of stuff but today we have all the sources which they had and maybe even more. So research and youll get my point

I misspoke (or typed). I think that conversation between Fratianno and Roselli, the one that's described in detail in Fratianno's book, was recorded by Fratianno, as he was working for the feds at that point. The one where Roselli talks about Accardo being a Capone suck-up and how he didn't trust him. I think that's on tape.

I know almost nothing regarding the LA mob but if the stories regarding Capones alleged influence in the unification of some of the gangs around the Midwest and WC are true, then this might explain all those so-called imports in different families such as Roselli. Afterall Dragna allegedly became the LA representate at the same time or right after Capone became the boss

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=95114&relPageId=4&search=capone_detroit

There's no doubt Chicago had a vested interest in either having a solid crew in LA or an organization there closely connected to them. It's an interesting contrast to New York, who just sought to do business there and have LA's existing crime lords play a supporting role.

Exactly.

Here are some additional infos regarding Roselli

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=70668&relPageId=16&search=accardo_los_angeles

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=93711&relPageId=5&search=giancana_desimone

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=147396&relPageId=4&search=accardo_los_angeles

FYI

Rosselli , upon arrival to New York, with his Mother from Italy,boarded a train and headed to Boston moving in with his Father in an apartment in the Maverick Square section of East Boston, Massachusetts . A few years later the family moved to Somerville Mass. Again they moved back to East Boston. He did time in the Billerica House of Corrections for selling morphine.

PAGE 14
https://www.amazon.com/dp/031256668...&ie=UTF8&qid=1542732896&sr=1

That might explain the reason on why the feds constantly asked for files from the fbn if Roselli was ever involved in the dope business

Meet the Mafia gangster the CIA wanted to assassinate Fidel Castro

https://nypost.com/2018/11/28/meet-the-mafia-gangster-the-cia-wanted-to-assassinate-fidel-castro/

Death of a psychopath: How mob boss who killed men for the kick finally met his match

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/real-life-stories/death-psychopath-how-mob-boss-13696839

Good article. I might check out the new Roselli book. Ed Becker had inside knowledge but it was obvious he also really liked Roselli so there was probably a lot of bias. A solid, well researched, 3rd party account of Roselli's life could serve as a compliment to Becker's book.

Hollywood is interested, there are talks going on.

https://themobmuseum.org/blog/mob-fixer-johnny-rosselli-is-back-in-the-spotlight/