Frank Bompensiero - Western Rackets

Western Rackets

Bompensiero's early career in San Diego dates to the 1920s. Here he met Jack Dragna, who was working for the Los Angeles crime family and became his mentor. During this time he was active in bootlegging in San Diego during the prohibition era. He was convicted of a liquor violation in San Diego and his other early arrests were for possession of firearms, illegal gambling, kidnapping and murder. He eventually served a year in McNeil Island Corrections Center for the liquor conviction and was released in 1933. Impressed with the young criminal, Dragna eventually made him a caporegime (captain), placing him in charge of all of the L.A. family's interests in San Diego. He was later wanted for murder and was forced to leave the city to avoid law enforcement scrutiny, but returned in 1941. During the 1940s and 1950s, Bompensiero owned a San Diego music store with Gaspare Matranga and a wire service company. He also owned the Gold Rail cafe in downtown that he owned with Dragna's son Frank and nephew Louis. Bompensiero and his men owned and operated several bars in the downtown area where they often conducted loan sharking operations. During this time he was also used by Dragna as a hitman in San Diego and Los Angeles. He was involved in one of the botched attempts on Mickey Cohen's life. His San Diego crew consisted of men like Tony Mirable, Paul Mirable, Gaspare Matranga, Joe Adamo, Biaggio Bonventre, and Joseph Li Mandri. His close associates in Los Angeles included Jimmy Fratianno and Leo Moceri, both of whom he teamed up with on multiple occasions to commit murder. In 1955, Bompensiero was convicted of bribery, and conspiracy in an illegal liquor license transaction and was sentenced to 3–42 years in prison. He began his sentence at Chino in San Bernardino. While in prison, his wife Thelma died of a stroke. Bompensiero was escorted from prison by the police so he could attend her funeral. He was later transferred to San Quentin State Prison in Northern California, the same place where Jimmy Fratianno was serving a prison sentence.

During his time in prison, boss Jack Dragna died of a heart attack and Frank DeSimone took over the crime family. He demoted Bompensiero to soldier and placed Tony Mirable as boss of San Diego. Outraged, Bompensiero attempted to transfer to the Chicago Outfit, but was unsuccessful. While on parole, Bompenseiro worked several jobs for close associates. However, these were just front jobs to satisfy his parole requirements. Bompensiero had dealings in Las Vegas with Cleveland mobster Moe Dalitz and Chicago Outfit mobster Anthony Spilotro. He also counted retired Bonanno crime family boss Joseph Bonanno in Arizona, and John Roselli as his allies (although he'd have a falling out with the latter). In 1967, Bompensiero was arrested with Fratianno over a dirt hauling bribery scheme involving Fratianno's trucking company. Bompensiero agreed to become an undercover FBI informant and the charges against him were dropped.

In the early 1970s, Bompensiero and Spilotro started a loan shark operation in Las Vegas. In November 1975, Bompensiero helped Spilotro murder Tamara Rand, a millionaire real estate broker and investor from San Diego. At the time, Rand was suing Allen Glick, a mob front man in Las Vegas, to pay back a $2 million loan that she had made to him. Spilotro sneaked into Rand's house and fatally shot her.