Frank Bompensiero

Frank "Bomp" Bompensiero (September 29, 1905 – February 10, 1977) was a longtime "capo" in the Los Angeles Mafia. In the 1950s, with the retirement of boss Jack 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 with Gaspare Matranga and a wire service company. His early arrest record included bootlegging during Prohibition, illegal gambling, kidnapping, and murder. In 1955, Bompensiero was sent to San Quentin Prison in California on bribery charges.

Bompensiero participated in loansharking and gambling. He also worked as a hitman in San Diego, California, sometimes teaming up with Jimmy "The Weasel" Fratianno. Bompensiero also had dealings in Las Vegas with Cleveland mobster Moe 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 millionaire real estate broker and investor from San Diego. At the time, Rand was pressuring Allen 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 an FBI informant. In 1978, Fratianno told law enforcement that Thomas Ricciardi, killed Bompensiero for membership in the Los Angeles crime family for the murder. Ricciardi was later charged with murder but died before trial of heart complications. Others were acquitted of the murder at trial, including Los Angeles boss Dominic Brooklier.

In popular culture

*The character "Salvatore "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero", played by actor Vincent 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 0-06-136385-5

External links

* [http://www.ganglandnews.com/column129.htm This Week in Gangland: One From The Weasel's Book] by Jerry Capeci.