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The Los Angeles crime family is an Italian American criminal organization based in California, as part of the American Mafia (or Cosa Nostra). Since its inception in the early 20th century, it has spread throughout Southern California. Like most Mafia families in the United States, the L.A. crime family gained power bootlegging during the Prohibition Era. The L.A. family reached its peak in the 1940s and early 1950s under Jack Dragna, who was on The Commission, although the L.A. family was never bigger than the New York or Chicago families. Since his death the crime family has been on a gradual decline, with the Chicago Outfit representing them on The Commission. The sources for a lot of information on the history of the family are the testimony of Aladena "Jimmy the Weasel" Fratianno, who in the late 1970s became the second member in American Mafia history to testify against it, and ''The Last Mafioso'' (1981), a biography of Fratianno by Ovid Demaris. Since the 1980s, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO Act) has been effective in convicting mobsters and shrinking the American Mafia; like all families in the United States, the L.A. Mafia now only holds a fraction of its former power. The current organization is small compared to other families, and is involved in fraud, extortion, loan sharking, illegal gambling, drug trafficking, and legitimate businesses. Although it does not have to share power with other Mafia families, as do New York's Five Families, never having a strong Italian-American population in the region leaves the family to contend with the many street gangs of other ethnicities in a city known as the "Gang Capital of America". The Los Angeles crime family is the last Mafia family left in the state of California. ==Origins and predecessors== The early years of organized crime in California were marked by the division of various Italian street gangs such as the Black Hand organizations in the early 20th century. The most prominent of these was the Matranga family, a gang run by relatives of Charles Matranga, founder of the New Orleans crime family. Their legitimate business was fruit vending. Otherwise they used threats, violence, arson, and extortion to control the Plaza area, which was the heart of the Italian American community of Los Angeles at the time. Its first leader was Orsario "Sam" Matranga, who started leading the family in 1905. Sam's relatives Salvatore Matranga, Pietro "Peter" Matranga, and Antonio "Tony" Matranga were other members of the gang. Joseph Cuccia was a well-respected criminal amongst the underworld, who served as a translator in court for Italians who didn't speak English.〔Los Angeles Times, (Shot Down as He is Driving ) September 26, 1906〕 This made him a well liked man in the Italian community. When prominent Black Hand leader Joseph Ardizzone was involved in a dispute with George Maisano, a member of the Matranga gang, they both went to Cuccia to mediate the dispute. Cuccia was a relative of Ardizzone's and member of his crime family. He ruled in Ardizzone's favor, causing the Matrangas to threaten Cuccia. In response, Ardizzone shot and killed Maisano on July 2, 1906. Ardizzone then fled authorities and became a wanted fugitive. With Ardizzone gone, the Matrangas fulfilled their promise of revenge. On September 25, 1906 Cuccia was shot and killed, allegedly by Tony Matranga. With both Ardizzone and Cuccia gone, the Matrangas became the dominant force in Los Angeles. However, their power was limited to within the Plaza community. To change this they cooperated with the police. Giving up information on their enemies and receiving immunity for most of their crimes, the Matrangas were able to expand their power and influence. Ardizzone returned to Los Angeles in 1914 and resumed his feud with the Matranga family. Sam and his successor, Pietro "Peter" Matranga, were both murdered within 33 days of each other in 1917. Mike Marino (aka Mike Rizzo), an Ardizzone ally, was responsible for the murders.〔Warner, Richard N. "The First Mafia Boss of Los Angeles? The Mystery of Vito Di Giorgio, 1880–1922." On The Spot Journal (Summer 2008), 46–54.〕 While their next leader, cousin Tony Buccola was able to get revenge and kill Marino in 1919, many years of violence ruined the Matranga family. It was becoming clear that Ardizzone's faction was winning the war. With the rise of bootleggers in the 1920s, the Matranga's power declined and was eliminated with Buccola's disappearance in 1930. Vito Di Giorgio, a Black Handler and grocery store owner, moved to the United States from Palermo, Sicily in 1904, and to Los Angeles from New Orleans in 1920. He was possibly the first boss of what would become the Los Angeles crime family.〔 With the continuing Ardizzone-Matranga feud, Di Giorgio was able to relocate to Los Angeles and bring some order to the Los Angeles underworld.〔 Di Giorgio was known as an intimidating and forceful man who was in conflict with several local underworld factions. Di Giorgio maintained strong connections with mobsters in New Orleans, Colorado, and Chicago,〔 and was a cousin, close friend, and mob associate of New York City mobster Giuseppe Morello, the first boss of the Morello crime family. He survived two attempts on his life before he was murdered in Chicago in 1922 while having a haircut. His underboss Rosario DeSimone, who moved from Pueblo, Colorado to Los Angeles around the same time as Di Giorgio, was another longtime power figure who took control of rackets quietly in Los Angeles County.〔 DeSimone officially stepped down from the top position in the 1920s, but was still the real power within his organization. Albert Marco seized control of Los Angeles in the 1920s not by working with the local Mafia, but with the "City Hall Gang", a political machine in Los Angeles run by Kent Kane Parrot and Charles H. Crawford. This transformed Marco into the Vice Lord of Los Angeles, earning $500,000 from bordello prostitution alone. With Crawford and Parrot controlling city hall and the local press, the City Hall Gang was able to operate bootlegging, prostitution, and illegal gambling rackets in the shadows with little law enforcement scrutiny. This all changed when Marco was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon in 1928, and the City Hall Gang broke down after a reform movement swept L.A. in the late 1920s. Since then a host of mobsters fought to take control of liquor operations that Marco and the City Hall Gang previously dominated.〔 In 1928, August Palumbo was the seventh bootlegger killed in a six-week period. Palumbo was Marco’s lieutenant and was killed for refusing to merge his criminal operations with Rosario DeSimone's. DeSimone’s lieutenant Dominic DiCiolla (aka Dominick De Soto) was acquitted of the murder and took control of Palumbo's liquor operations. When he tried to challenge higher powers by moving into syndicated gambling rackets, he was murdered in 1931. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Los Angeles crime family」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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