Frank DeSimone

Frank A. "One Eye" DeSimone (born July 17, 1909 in Pueblo (Colorado) , † August 4, 1967 Los Angeles ) was an Italian-American mobster of the American Cosa Nostra and boss of the Dragna family in California . He was the son of Los Angeles gang boss Rosario DeSimone and the uncle of Thomas DeSimone , who was an associate of the Lucchese family . He got his nickname "One Eye" because one of his eyelids hung down in a similar way, as was the case with Lucky Luciano in particular .

Life

Early years

From Colorado , the family went to California . DeSimone graduated from the University of Southern California Law School and became a lawyer in May 1933.

When Bugsy Siegel was murdered in 1947, Chief Jack Dragna did not accept his successor Mickey Cohen and there were several attacks on him. Frank DeSimone - under the command of Jimmy Fratianno - is said to have been involved in this.

Possibly DeSimone rose to the rank of Capo regime ; however, he continued to work as a lawyer to an extent that went beyond the framework of a bourgeois facade for camouflage. As a lawyer, DeSimone was difficult to get at by the police.

In particular, he defended family members like Jimmy Fratianno and Johnny Roselli as well as completely innocent citizens in the 1940s and 1950s .

Los Angeles family boss

After Jack Dragna died as the head of the family after a heart attack in 1956 , a family vote took place and DeSimone became the third elected boss of the Los Angeles family.

Under DeSimone, the family's reputation and integrity waned ; Fratianno and Roselli saw his choice as manipulated and directly joined the Chicago outfit , which already played a dominant role on the west coast of the USA .

This was made clear by the fact that - in contrast to the late Dragna - DeSimone did not get his seat in the National Crime Syndicate , although he took part in the 1957 Apalachin meeting . This exposed his role as a leading mobster .

Further conflicts also arose within the family. According to a police informant, DeSimone is said to have raped the wife of his "underboss" Girolamo "Momo" Adamo in front of his eyes. Other sources speak of an affair between DeSimone and Girolamo's wife.

After this humiliation shot Momo his wife down and committed suicide at his home in San Diego suicide . The woman survived and married Frank Bompensiero , whom DeSimone had replaced after taking office as leader in San Diego and replaced by Tony Mirable .

Although DeSimone was listed as one of the classiest gangsters by Look Magazine in 1965 , the family was ridiculed as "The Mickey Mouse Mafia".

When in the 1960s Joseph Bonanno wanted to realize plans to become Capo di tutti i capi , this led to problems for DeSimone after these plans failed. To get it through, Bonanno would inevitably have to bring about the murder of Tommy Lucchese , Carlo Gambino and Stefano Magaddino .

DeSimone was booked on the credit side by Bonanno and should probably be part of the execution of these murder plans, although this was probably not yet inaugurated in any form. Maybe he was himself on Bonanno's death list. In any case, DeSimone developed an extraordinary caution; so, during the last years of his life, he preferred not to leave his house at night.

In 1967 DeSimone died of a heart attack.

family

In addition to his father Rosario DeSimone, other relatives of Frank DeSimone were important members of the La Cosa Nostra. Simone Scozzari became "Underboss" of the Los Angeles family under Frank after the death of her predecessor. Joseph Civello was an important link to the "family" in Dallas . Nephew Thomas "Two-Gun Tommy" DeSimone became an "enforcer" in the Lucchese family .

literature

• Ovid Demaris : The Last Mafioso: The Treacherous World of Jimmy Fratianno . Bantam Books, 1981. ISBN 0-553-27091-5

Individual evidence

1. ↑ [1] news.google.com (English)
2. ↑ [2] books.google.com (English)
3. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from May 28, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. www.crimemagazine.com (English) 
4. ↑ Frank DeSimone ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at www.onewal.com (English)  
5. ↑ ^{a b} Frank DeSimoine ( Memento from February 6, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) on members.fortunecity.com (English)
6. ↑ [3] books.google.ca (English)

Web links

• Attendee Profiles At The 1957 Apalachin Mob Confab on www.americanmafia.com in May 2008 by Mike La Sorte (Professor Emeritus) (English)

predecessor	Office	successor
Jack Dragna	Head of the “Los Angeles Family” of La Cosa Nostra 1956–1967	Nick Licata