By the way, while it made sense to whack Gambino, Lucchese, Magaddino, since they were national key figures, but why DeSimone? He was boss in Los Angeles, and that family was always one of the weakest. Why bother with him, or did Bonanno have some personal reasons?
Word was that he wanted to make his son Bill boss of the L.A. family, because there was lots of money to be made in California.
I'm not sure how much money there was in California. The two most powerful gangsters to operate in California were Bugsy Siegel and John Roselli, and they both ended up in Vegas. California's law enforcement community was just too tight knit. They closed all the doors to rackets in show business and things like that. Dragna family was mostly into vice and drugs. Mickey Cohen got out of the rackets and pretty much went legit late in life. The San Francisco and San Jose mobs were mostly legit by the 70's, making enough in olive oil and insurance to close their books and retire off.
Last edited by OakAsFan; 06/11/1710:20 PM.
"...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
