- Frank Bompensiero
Frank "Bomp" Bompensiero (
September 29 ,1905 –February 10 ,1977 ) was a longtime "capo" in theLos Angeles Mafia. In the 1950s, with the retirement of bossJack Dragna , Bompensiero was reduced to the rank of soldier by the new boss,Frank DeSimone .Born in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin , Bompensiero started working in organized crime as a young man. He eventually married Thelma Jan San-Felippe and had one child, a daughter Mary Ann. At one point, Bompensiero owned a San Diego music store withGaspare Matranga and a wire service company. His early arrest record includedbootlegging duringProhibition ,illegal gambling ,kidnapping , and murder. In 1955, Bompensiero was sent toSan Quentin Prison in California on bribery charges.Bompensiero participated in
loansharking and gambling. He also worked as a hitman inSan Diego , California, sometimes teaming up with Jimmy "The Weasel" Fratianno. Bompensiero also had dealings in Las Vegas with Cleveland mobsterMoe Dalitz , Chicago mobster Anthony "Tony the Ant" Spilotro and Los Angeles mobster John "Handsome Johnny" Roselli. In the early 1970s, Bompensiero and Spilotro started a loanshark operation. In November 1975, Bompensiero helped Spilotro murder Tamara Rand, a millionairereal estate broker and investor from San Diego. At the time, Rand was pressuringAllen Glick , a mob front man in Las Vegas, to pay back a $2 million loan. Spilotro shot and killed Rand in her home.Bompensiero was highly critical of the leadership of the Los Angeles Family. Angry at Bompensiero's criticism, the family leaders decided to kill him. However, Bompensiero was an extremely cautious gangster and proved difficult to kill. To make Bompensiero less cautious, the Los Angeles Family promoted him from
soldier to "consigliere ". On February 10, 1977, Frank Bompensiro was shot to death at close range with a silenced.22 caliber handgun while standing in a phone booth in San Diego. Unknown to the family, Bompensiero was also serving as anFBI informant. In 1978, Fratianno told law enforcement thatThomas Ricciardi , killed Bompensiero for membership in the Los Angeles crime family for themurder . Ricciardi was later charged with murder but died beforetrial of heart complications. Others were acquitted of the murder at trial, includingLos Angeles bossDominic Brooklier .In popular culture
*The character "
Salvatore "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero ", played by actorVincent Pastore in the TV series "The Sopranos ", was largely based on Frank Bompensiero Fact|date=February 2007.*The murder of Tamara Rand by Tony Spilotro was recreated in the 1995 film "Casino".
ources
*Roemer, William F., "The Enforcer- Spilotro: The Chicago Mob's Man in Las Vegas",Dutton Adult (June 30, 1994) ISBN 0-8041-1310-6
*Demaris, Ovid. "The Last Mafioso". New York: Bantam, 1981. ISBN 0553202308.
*Bureau of Narcotics, U.S. Treasury Department, "Mafia: the Government's Secret File on Organized Crime, HarperCollins Publishers 2007 ISBN 0-06-136385-5External links
* [http://www.ganglandnews.com/column129.htm This Week in Gangland: One From The Weasel's Book] by Jerry Capeci.
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