Originally Posted by Fleming_Ave
Originally Posted by NYMafia
Originally Posted by Galassi70
I liked it.the LA family is intesting cause of really wasted potential
California families should have had imported guys.from the old country
To add strength to.the rank.and file


Operating within a state such as Cali that had such a small Italian populous, they were always challenged for recruits. If it weren't for out of state imports, the Dragna's would have been hard pressed to build a crew in the first place.


I read that the L.A. police would threaten wiseguys from back east who came into L.A.. Telling them we know who you are, we will be watching you, etc. I guess that must have put a damper on at least some of the guys who wanted to do business in California.


"Mulholland Falls"

It was a waterfall with no water, just wiseguys that police threw off the mountain.

A liberal, "easy breezy" lifestyle had nothing to do with the mob never getting a foothold in Cali, either. It's actually quite the opposite. Before the 1960s, California was one of the most conservative states that made up the former union "northern" states. So conservative in fact that the protestants who ran LA were reluctant to work with Irish, Italian or Jewish gangsters, despite being on the take. By the time the "City Hall Gang" was broken up and Willie Parker took over as chief, the fix in LA was done, and the east coast and midwest mobs that previously ran rackets in LA moved to Vegas. When LA became liberal in the 1960s, this was when the Dragna family began to actually thrive again through drug distribution. Frattiano was wisely trying to form an alliance with la Eme (Mexican Mafia) just before he flipped.


"...the successful annihilation of organized crime's subculture in America would rock the 'legitimate' world's foundation, which would ultimately force fundamental social changes and redistributions of wealth and power in this country. Meyer Lansky's dream was to bond the two worlds together so that one could not survive without the other." - Dan E. Moldea