What's happening in Italian LCN in LA?

So, we all know about the LCN influence in NYC and Las Vegas, but what was the overall level of power of LCN in LA?

And how does the LCN influence compare today in NYC, after Giuliani?

Was the LCN screwed even before Giuliani - and after 911 - gave rise to greater police powers on every street corner?

(Not wanting to say no to police vigilance on the streets of NYC, just asking a question.... )

As far as I know there's next to no Mob activity in LA.

The LA family was disbanded in the 1980s due the fact that there are no italian communities in LA.For sure some NY wiseguy like James Isgro of gambino or dominick montemarano of colombos made some $$$ but the gangs rules on LA.

i'm sure that's had nothing do with it. I know places were Mafia cell exist with not more than 50 Italians. Well in California live 1,500,000 so more than enough. OC don't need closed neighborhood or areas. So i don't know why LCN not exist anymore. Los Angels always had a different underworld.

Maybe it had do with Sociocultural /Suburban phenomenons.

But another problem what we really know about organzed crime in LA ? In fact not much.

True.
who knows maybe there is ‏some mob activity which we didn't heard off

I think it's been stated on other threads that while certain members of the LA family are still alive , the family itself has been defunct for quite some time , much like the Pittsburgh family . Some of said members may be engaged in criminal activity , but it's probably low level and definitely doesn't make the news .

I think I've read somewhere that the son of Lenny Montana was/is a member of the LA family and that he owns/owned a pizza parlor in the LA area by the way .

Most of the families not on the East Coast were small time and died out due to multille factors, mostly because of how the Italians weren’t really close knit after a few generations after immigrating. In NYC, you not only have the neighborhoods but people didn’t really inter-marry between other groups as much, so you’re far more likely to have someone who is 50 or 100% Italian even though they’re fourth or fifth generation.

People in the rest of the country, like Los Angeles, Louisiana, or here in Texas tended to inter-marry a lot more. They also moved to different areas and even though they’re Italian, it’s in name only. Most of them are basically completely whitebread WASPs and don’t really have any concept of the old country, other than the Olive Garden and what they see on TV.

Israeli oc do have connections over there.

There is definitely some truth to what Nitro says; there just isn't really much known about organized crime in California in general. We know about the gang landscape over there. There's the African American street gangs and prison gangs (Bloods, Crips, BGF...), Mexican prison gangs and street gangs (La Eme, Nuestra Familia...), prison gangs and outlaw motorcycle gangs for good ole boy white criminals (Aryan Brotherhood, Hells Angels...). There's some Triad gang activity in the Chinatowns. There has been a Yakuza presence in the Japanese communities, a Korean gang presence in the Korean communities and a Vietnamese gang presence in the Vietnamese communities. There's documented Israeli mob activity in LA as well as Chaldean mob activity in San Diego. Eastern European OC is mostly confined to Armenian gang activity in the Armenian communities of LA.

That's it basically. I don't any other Southeast Asian or Polynesian gang can make a claim for the "organized crime" title. And even then remains the question if you consider prison gang, outlaw motorcycle gang as well as smaller ethnic mob activity organized crime the same way and on the same level you consider the American Mafia on the East Coast to be organized crime.

Dead as a doornail I'd imagine.

There was never a big family there in the first place. Other familes would do business in LA without involving them or asking permission.

Yep, according to Michael Franzese you never had to check in with anyone when you went to Los Angeles, the way you had to do in cities like Philly, Miami and even Cleveland. He said that within LCN they weren't taken seriously at all, they called them the Micky Mouse Mafia..

In Fratiano's book and interviews


They were in trouble way before Giuliani. I think LA is dead and New York is still active, but with low quality members compared to the older generation, I have to read Frattiano's book and see what he says about the state of LA when he was in it.

Spot on. Kenny Gallo worked with the LA mob in the early-to-mid 1990s but pretty much described it as nothing more than old remnants of a bygone era. I'd say that there was pretty much nothing left in any structural capacity by the turn of the century.

Yes,the Dragna family was called the Mickey Mouse Mafia and at it peak in the 1950s had 50 or few more made men some of them come from the east coast families.
The Dragna men was so weak that Mickey Cohen was the real boss of LA;and was so less respected that Joe Bonanno tried to made his son Bill as LA family boss.

In California there was italian communities that was more integrated and so the mob family in L.A.,San Francisco and San Jose was small and ehen the old wiseguy died there was nobody for replace them.

another reason is that most of italian immigrants in california came from northern regions

There are no Italian communities in California. Some older people think there are, and try to preserve their once Italian dominated areas by having clubs and organizing events or dinners with like 50 or so people. But as far as the type of Italian neighborhoods you have on the east coast? The Latino neighborhoods in California probably have more of a resemblance, just by way of large families, working class, devout Catholicism, and similarities between the Spanish and Italian languages. I grew up with a lot of Italians who blended in with Chicano culture. Most of the traditional Italian neighborhoods in CA are now Latino, or gentrified. North Beach in SF, the old Lanza turf, is a total rich area now. All that's left of its Italian past is the lamp posts painted in the Italian flag colors, and a few pizzerias along Columbus. It's Italian like the Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland are real pirates.

The early 1930s was probably the peak of Jack Dragna's control over LA. Dragna was given a Commission seat. John Roselli took him to NY and vouched for him and his family to be recognized. But yeah, once Siegel moved west, New York clearly disregarded Dragna and gave Siegel the run of the place.

After Siegel died, Tommy Lucchese, who was Dragna's in-law, backed Dragna over Mickey Cohen. This is probably why so many Italians in Cohen's crew started switching to the Dragnas. The writing was on the wall. Cohen was one tenacious bastard, though. He took over all of Siegel's gambling rackets, didn't give the Dragnas a dime, and survived several attempts on his life.

Frattiano made the Dragna family seem like Murder Inc. in his book. Despite his proclamations of LA's power during his time, there just isn't a lot of court records or testimony from other turncoats to back it up. I don't believe his stories about pushing Moe Sedway around or Siegel speaking with him as equals for one second. Other than keeping up appearances with Dragna, Siegel wouldn't have wasted one second with Italians west of Chicago.

When the Milanos of Cleveland took over LA in the 80s they were still making some moves. A lot of guys in the LA family at that time were former Vegas guys who retreated to SoCal after the corporations bought the old Teamster casinos, and just about reaching retirement age. That was probably the last hurrah of the LA family. As others have said, New York guys operate in LA on their own now.

Who are some of the new york guys that operate there? The only one I know of is Dominick Montemarano who has already been mentioned.

Dragna/Milano's structure are gone thats obviously. "
"There are no Italian communities " does not explain why they stop recruited new members. Again the mafia don't need communities. It's a simplification to think mafia only existed in italian neighberhood.

So may guess is young criminals don't need a fix structure to make money. Culturel mixed groups are more powerfull. But again we don't know much about OC in Cali.

Joe Isgro, Tommy Gambino (the one related to Cali, not Carlo's son).

If there´s an active crew it answers to the Gambinos.

This I believe.

Southern Italians in California have more in common with Latinos than they do with the bourgeois Italians that claim a generational identity to the region.

Give me a Mafia family that operated in areas with no Italian communities or presence.

There’s a lot of stuff going on right now with the Mexican Mafia, but there’s no real Italian/LCN organization crime here like the East Coast.

So Cal, where you been hiding?

Update one of the EME threads and let us know what's going on.

I’m still around and reading the forum. Some of the news stories I’ve been following have been already been posted by Ciment in that Mexican Cartel thread, but those news updates should be posted under a separate thread since the Mexican Mafia isn’t part of the Mexican Drug cartels.

I speak about communities places like "Little Italy". Not about presence. Of course you need italians for mafia activity.

Las Vegas from the beginning...

Gambling operartion in 60's,70's,80's was much bigger as traditional "communities". (Dixie, Midwest) ...Cuba, Bahmas, link to European groups. )

Ndrangheta - Frauenfels, Thurgau CH. Maybe only 5 % .... (I believe Cali ~7 or 8 %)

Cosa Nostra / Ndrangheta activity in Allgäu, Germany they are villages. Sometimes you have only a pizzeria. One or two italian families.

East Germany cities like Erfurt. There never exist a closed neighborhood but a strong mafia activity.

CN activity in Africa.

Wholesale drug trading had nothing to do with communities. Nightclub / Redlight activiets had mostly nothing to do with. White Dollar crime ...

another example we know a lot examples for isreali OC networks in Cali. But only 0,1 % Cali population are Isreali-American.

My point is about whether a Mafia family could viably exist and sustain itself in an area with little to no Italian communities. An American Mafia family, to be specific, since groups in Italy are a whole different discussion entirely. I'm not talking about the mob having influence in Vegas or pre-Castro Cuba, since we all no there was no "Las Vegas crime family" or "Cuba crime family."

It's kinda like Stubbs said. There are probably lots of people in California carrying an Italian surname that can actually trace the bigger part of their ancestry back to Oklahoma, Arkansas or Texas than to any of the Italian regions. The concept of the Mob isn't something that speaks to them. The ones that got criminal tendencies are much more likely to join some outlaw motorcycle gang.

https://www.laweekly.com/restaurant...the-patriarch-of-eastside-market-2382445

Why Doesn't Los Angeles Have a Little Italy?

Actually, Los Angeles did have a Little Italy for over a century. It started in the 1800's on Olvera Street and North Main, when Los Angeles was a Mexican puebla. By the turn of the 20th century, Los Angeles's Little Italy had expanded into present-day Chinatown and eventually to Lincoln Heights and the foothills of Elysian Park. Johnny Angiuli, owner of Eastside Market Italian Deli, can wax nostalgic for hours about the hillside neighborhood, just above Chinatown where his deli is located, that was still a thriving Italian enclave when he immigrated here in 1956 from Adelphia, Italy, at the age of twelve.

The market portion of Eastside Market is long gone. As upwardly mobile Italians moved out of Little Italy, the demand for Italian and Mediterranean produce waned. By the time Johnny Angiuli purchased the market in 1974 from Sam Pontrelli and George Laricchia, after having worked there for fifteen years, he knew times were changing. He converted the market section of the store into a dining room and introduced hot foods to the deli.

Angiuli has seen the neighborhood turnover many times from good to bad to good again. The 1970s, in particular, was a lean decade, when the neighborhood was at a crossroads with an ever-diminishing and aging Italian population and influxes of decidedly non-Mediterranean residents.

Los Angeles LCN Family chart http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/u...p;Board=8&main=23553&type=thread

@Nicky from Tempa
By the way Frauenfels Ndrina is completely independent.

I see your point. So i give you right if we talk about a new family. But American Mafia exist there. So the need only new Blood and i think there are more then enough. So 5 or 10 guys (without arrest) are more than enough. If it necessary got to New York and take some guys from there. Mafia is a elite thing not a mass organization. But they die out. And again it is not enough to say " of course they had no neighborhood.

Another thing is American Mafia can change the rules. So they don't need to ask Palermo. In fact LA don't need ask New York for new rules about new members. They can give mixed blood made member status or work with non-italians( like Chicago). So my guess is they hadn't enough business on the run. Not enough White dollar connection. So young guys don't need them. After a while they lost muscles and cannot protect his business and members get older. So they disappear. (exception is Tommy Gambino this guy is a mystery for me).

Another scenario is LA mafia never (or only Dragna) exist as a independent group and chicago and Cleveland was not interested to the refresh the group in the late 90's. So only Gambino with his New York connection "survive".

For SF i think is the other way around. They was verry successful and lost the interest in street/crime stuff.

This isn't entirely true. There are a lot of Italians in Northeast LA and East LA county, even in Lincoln Heights. Since the boomers, they've embraced the Chicano culture that now dominates the region. Many Latinos in California have Italian lineage, due to intermarrying between the cultures. I'm sorry if these older Italians that contribute to these articles have too much pride in their "Mediterranean" lineage to accept it, but it's the truth. Italians that grew up in Latino areas of California have their "Brown Card". The two cultures have largely embraced each other since the 1960s.

There are still members in Los Angeles, but the family is defunct. Overall excluding the former L.A. family members. The Gambino family has three made members in the area, the Genovese family has one member, the Outfit has two members, Detroit has one maybe two members in the area, Colombos only has one member and the last known made member on the west coast, Bonanno family has two or maybe one member as Ronnie has not been kicking anything up since the 1990's. Then you have a bunch of associates and half-ass wiseguys in the area. That is it for American LCN, then you get into the Sicilians and Italy members who operate in the drug trade, some with connections to Canada and South America.

Oaks is right in his post about the majority of those with Italian ancestry in SoCal, even in Nor-Cal.

A few years ago the feds did say Tommaso Gambino was the underboss after serving 20 years in prison.

I just don't see any need for an LA family anymore. It's not about lack of Italians. It's about gangs having all of the muscle on LA's streets. And, in areas where gambling would be popular, Asian gangs are savvy enough to bookmaking to run it without help, and have the numbers to not let relics from the Peter Milano mob push them around. Maybe laying off action to mobsters, but I bet people like Isgro who run book in the rich areas already provide that service. I can't imagine there being any room in the rackets for LA family members other than working for New York guys in the region.

Hollander .tommy never spent a day in prison, his father did more than twenty, but was deported and is a member of sicily.hope that helps

Bronx do you think tommy is a capo of some sort of gambino crew in LA ?

I hear that Tommy Gambino taked what remained of the L.A. crew under the Gambinos umbrella.

You´re right my friend the father did the time. The sons Tommy and Anthony have no record.

Rosario "Sal" Gambino (Tommy's father)was a sicilians from pizza connection and was expelled from the USA in 2009,in Italy he was sentenced in absentia for a 40 kg of heroin found in Milan in 1983 but in 2014 in appeal the sentenced was overtuned and he is free from then.

hello Hollander, both sons were made under pete milano

This sounds very believable. I'm guessing that anyone made under Milano looking to put money on the street today is answering to the Gambinos. And, even with that, we're talking, what, some bookmaking and loan sharking? If even that? Very, very slim piece of the pie left in LA's underworld for Italians. They'd make more just working for a living.

yeah oak street gangs out there in LA give a fuck about the gambino's
maybe some of them don't know who they are

I think minority gangs in NY have a lot more respect for the mob, because the mob still exists there. Older ones remember a time not long ago when the mob controlled everything. In LA, the mob is Joe Pesci movies. If someone came up to them and said, "I'm with the Gambinos", they would literally laugh.

I think so too. I don't think most ever cared either. In fact most are young now and are not into following the Mafia

I just moved back from LA. LA is all Mexican Mafia and the street gangs they pledge allegiance to them. However, LA is huge and spread out so are there some independent bookies ..sure. But there is no Mob like NYC controlling construction, unions, garbage. Never was. You meet some Italians here and there. I went to an Italian festival in Hollywood once, but there is no concentration of them. As far as white ethnic groups more Jews (Persians especially) and Armenians. Armenians live in Hollywood, Burbank, and Glendale. There is a gang called Armenian Power. Armenians are tough.

"low quality" ?! no one knows that !
since 911 the lcn have rest from the feds
so they rebuilding themselves, and they are on very low profile
almost no knows who the bosses of any family in ny...
don't get me wrong i understand your comment buddy
cause it looks like they are weak, but imo they are rebuilding themselves.
but no one really knows the truth.

Italians in LA live in Latino areas. Lincoln Heights was LA's Italian section in the early 20th century. There are still a lot of Italians there. A lot of Italians that came into a little money in the 40's and 50's moved out to the San Gabriel Valley. They're still there. A lot of Italian owned restaurants in the area.

Frattiano's book is a fun read, probably the best book written about the LA mob, but I believe he exaggerates about the relevance of that family. I don't believe he pushed Moe Sedway around the way he claims. I don't believe Bugsy confided in him, as he claims.