Narcos and Colombia - Jack Rausch

I thought I would switch things up this week.  The show Narcos on Netflix is a hit.  It has brought back the 1980’s cocaine world with a sterilized Hollywood view. The show tells the story of Pablo Escobar, the Medellín Cartel (which included Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha, Jorge Ochoa and his brothers Juan David, Fabio, the DEA Agent who pursued them). The movie Blow told the same story from the view of an American pilot. I thought some of you would want to know what it was really like inside the Cartel on a day to day basis. They all show the drug lords sending off tons of cocaine and then bringing home bags of cash.  How was the cocaine distributed and the money picked up? I urge you to read From the Cartel to Christ: How God restores stolen dreams. This book will take you into the dark world that was the cocaine trade of the 1980’s.

Why would I write about this book?  I will tell you the story.

In 2005 when I was writing Breakshot I started reaching out to people from my past. I ended up speaking to someone who I've known since high school.  She dated a man named Jack Rausch, who I became good friends with in the 1980’s.  I liked Jack and had not planned on writing about him.  I also figured he was either dead or locked up forever.  If Jack was not locked up, I figured he might be living in Medellín, Colombia where he grew up.  The way they deal with people in that city is not good and I did not want to cause him any problems.  So I did not include him by name in my book.  Jack had been a player with the Medellín Cartel for years in the 1980’s and the early 1990’s.

In 2009 I was put in touch with Jack and we decided to meet for lunch.  I left my office and went to El Polo Loco in Lake Forest.  This was a long way from our old days of Sushi and nightclubbing.  I was a little nervous because I rarely saw anyone from my past and I was not sure how he would receive me. When he walked inside I knew I made the right choice.  He greeted me with a strong handshake and a smile.  The years had been good to Jack, or so I thought.

We sat down to lunch and he told me the story that was his life since I last saw him. He continued doing the same thing that he always had in the 1980’s.  He had been arrested for his part in moving a 10,000 kilo load of cocaine.  He was charged with delivering 500 kilos of that load himself. For your information that is 1102.31 pounds of cocaine. He had been locked up since the mid 1990’s but according to him, his life was good.  He told me he had found Christ and that is when I rolled my eyes inside my mind.  I thought, “Oh great, another criminal who found God when he was in trouble.” I figured some kind of pitch was coming in a minute. It never came. The more I spoke to Jack, the more I realized that he was speaking the truth.  He was not in trouble, he was no longer a criminal and he was everything he said he was. He was a working guy who also worked at a ministry.  He never pushed it on me and now I know he knew I was not ready for it yet. He was happy and that was the thing I first picked up on.  In the 1980’s neither of us were ever happy, even with large amounts of cash coming in daily. Then he brought up that he was writing a book.  I thought that it would be great for him to get it out.  From the Cartel to Christ came out last year and it is a must read for anyone interested in the 1980’s Southern California drug world.  

I read it and it made me feel a little sick to my stomach.  It brought me back to a place and time that I was not sure I wanted to go back to at this time in my life.  

Jack’s story begins in Medellín where Jack grew up after his father left his mother.  Jack's father had started a couple of profitable banana plantations in the jungle regions of the country.  Jack however had no interest in school or bananas.  He wanted to be a mafioso.  A mafioso in Colombia is not the same as we know it.  Colombians had historically been known as smugglers in South America but as tastes changed, they moved into cocaine and they became known as mafioso.  Jack was in the right place at the right time if you consider that life good. Times were changing in the way they smuggled cocaine to America. It went from the mom and pop use of mules (aka people who carry the cocaine into the country) to airplanes filled with kilos in the 1980’s.

Jack begins when the Cartel was born and he is one of the few who made it out alive.

Jack’s first job had him waiting in the jungles of northern Colombia when a small Cessna plane made a quick landing on a makeshift runway carved out of the jungle.  Jack waited for a tractor loaded with canvas sacks full of kilos to pull up.  Another crew quickly refueled the plane as Jack and another man threw the sacks into the seatless plane.  The plane quickly accelerated and took off just barely clearing the trees.

Jack was paid 100,000 pesos or about 300 dollars in the early 1980’s. That was not bad money for his age or the times, but that is not what he wanted.  He was a newly licensed pilot and he wanted in on the transportation money.  Pilots could net 5,000 a kilo for transporting it to the US and they could carry about 400 kilos on a small plane.  They made a lot but they lived short lives.  The planes would run out of fuel and drop into the ocean or crash in the jungle never to be seen again.  Jack made a couple of runs but life as a pilot did not work out.  He was instead sent by the traffickers to the US to oversee the loads that came into the country from Colombia. They had started working together to put together huge loads that would serve to spread out the risk.  The system worked because before if a 500 kilo load was sent by one group and it was lost it was a huge hit.  The new way the load was split between five groups and that softened the hit if it was busted. The Cartel itself was not just the men whose names we know but a lot of small traffickers and later Traqueteroros, drug traffickers from good families that wanted to dabble.  They would pool investors cash and daddys money to put together loads. He started working in Miami until things changed there and the Colombians started migrating to Southern California. He was told that the office handling distribution in California had become available.  What that really meant was the guy who ran it before was dead or under arrest.  So Jack was soon on a plane to SoCal but just before he boarded the flight in Miami some DEA Agents grabbed him and had his baggage brought to them. It was bad to be a Colombian flying from Miami to Los Angeles in the 1980’s.  Once Jack landed at LAX he was picked up by another DEA team and searched again.  Once freed Jack made his way to a cheap airport hotel where he rested and watched TV.  A few days later he went to a payphone and made a call to the Miami office.  The next day his contract picked him up at the hotel and he disappeared into urban sprawl that is SoCal.  The Colombians had set up a system of offices to handle the importation, distribution and the handling of the cash.  

People have to remember that that cellphones were a few years away.  Pagers just beeped and you had to call into a service who gave you a message.  I paid 800 dollars for a pager and it was not even a display pager it just beeped.  Payphone calls were dime then and they all took incoming calls.  They set up a number of offices in Colombia that were a kind of logistical support.  Guys like Jack had the numbers memorized and they would call in with their code names.  They would be given contact names and numbers. They also set up other offices here in the US to serve the same purpose.  These offices never came into contact with the product aka cocaine so they didn't have the heat.  Jack and others would get here and chill in hotels until they felt there was no heat.  They would then get fake papers and IDs then move to a nice middle class neighborhood.  They would rent houses or condos buy cars and live normal lives until they got the call.  They would then go someplace and be handed a set of keys for a truck.  They would then drive the truck to a house they rented and unload the kilos of cocaine.  They would unpack it to protect the shipping method and separate the kilos for different groups here in the US.  Then they would drop off the truck and somebody would pick it up.  A week would be spent dropping off the load and then it was time to close down the house and find another. They would also get calls to pick up cash.  Rule number one was the cash and the drugs were never in the same place at the same time. That is why the way it is portrayed in the movies with guys standing around with machine guns when a deal goes down is stupid and wrong.  What do a bunch of Harvard guys know about the drug world but what they imagine?   Waiting for a load was a time for many like Jack to relax and have fun.  

Jack rented a home in Orange County and started going to school.  Life was normal until he had to pick up a load.  Then it was unpacking the Kilos marking down the symbols or stamps.  They would be wrapped blocks stamped with a penny or a queen with numbers and each one of these would be recorded into a ledger book.  Then they would divide them up according to deliveries.  They would drop off hundreds and then even lower amounts like 20 kilos which were closer to the street level dealer. Jack had to make a number of trips back to Medellín because the business was very much hands on and what happens there affects what went down in SoCal.

Next week I will write about what was going on in Colombia when El Doctor was running the business. I suggest buying the book if this topic interests you and you want a more detailed account.

From the Cartel to Christ on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/From-Cartel-Christ-Restores-Stolen/dp/0991380703

http://fromthecarteltochrist.com

You can't teach a dumb old dog new tricks.

Today I am going way back to the 1990’s in the San Fernando Valley.  I was sitting in the back office of a business known as Mid Valley Trading.  What they really traded I have no idea, but they did have a lot of stuff go through that warehouse. Mid Valley Trading was the home base of Jerry Zimmerman circa 1990’s.  Jerry Zimmerman a larger than life Jewish con man who was around the Colombo family through his friendship with Sonny Franzese.

In mafia circles Sonny Franzese is very well respected, young guys call him “The Rock.”  He is much more respected than John Gotti to those involved in the life.

So here I am, sitting at Jerry's desk when the phone rings, and it's a collect call from a federal institution.  It is Sonny Franzese, and he is looking for Jerry, but Jerry has gone out and left me manning the phones.  Sonny asks me to write down a name and he tells me this guy will be calling Jerry tomorrow.  I wrote the name on a desk blotter calendar and when Jerry came back I told him.  He rolled his eyes because every guy Sonny sent turned out to be some loser.  While I was sitting there the guy called and Jerry made an appointment to see him the next day.

The next day came and the guy showed up, and when he did I left.  I didn't like this guy the first minute I set eyes on him.  One thing, and it may be nothing to some people, but to me it set off alarms.  He wore blue jeans that were pressed with a crease in the front.  Who does that?

I went with him on a collection once, and I pushed in the door when the guy answered it.  This guy just yelled with his tough voice after I went inside.  I didn't like him and I tried to keep my distance.  

He tried to con me out of a grand, but I got him back by reversing it on him.  He made threats but couldn't do a thing.  He called a friend in Florida in Sonny’s crew, and cried to him over it.  The guy in turn asked me not to bust his head open.

Later he was present when we received the counterfeit traveler's checks that helped the FBI put together Operation Thin Crust in Las Vegas.

A week later he suckered Jimmy Caci into taking a ride with him.  He went inside an office and threatened a guy who cracked him in the head with a tape dispenser.  The guy was getting a pistol when Jimmy stopped him.  This loser had to be carried out by a 70 year old man with his head gushing blood.  

Unknown to Jimmy or any of us, the loser had been busted for first stealing some pirate cable boxes from a police evidence warehouse and then agreeing to sell them to federal agents in New Jersey.  He had flipped and began giving information to the FBI.  He went to Frankie's on Melrose and wore a wire on Joe Dente Sr., a Capo in the Genovese family who was a huge shylock.  Joe wanted nothing to do with him and told Jimmy Caci. Jimmy told this guy to stay away from him.

One night we all went to Frankie's on Melrose for dinner and Jimmy decided to stay at this loser's place. This loser went downstairs so the LAPD could come up and arrest Jimmy for the incident where this loser got beat up by the tape dispenser for threatening the guy in his office.  The victim even told them it was not Jimmy, but the LAPD hated Jimmy so they arrested him on that crap charge.

This is how I got a tape he made when he was speaking to the FBI.  He claims that he was not an informant, that instead he was conning the FBI, just using them for money.  Come on!  You do not con the FBI.  They have multiple sources and they know when it's bad information.  He told them he would be made.  The tape of him talking to the FBI is public on YouTube for all who wish to hear it and decide for themselves.  

This was years ago.  Since then, this loser was arrested in a case where he had guys fly into LA and get a rental car for them, then go to a ladies home and beat her and tie her up because they thought it was a drug stash.  It was not.  They all went away but this guy did not get much punishment, and nothing at all happened to his son, who was part of the conspiracy. How do you rent a car in your name for guys who are flying in to rob a woman and the FBI knows it but you do not get in trouble?  This guy gets out of prison and runs around town claiming he is a made guy conning the FBI.

Fast forward to last week.  I get a call from a friend and he tells me a story.

There is a movie being made. Some producers have a falling out and one of them wants some money back from the other producer. The producers with the cash in hand say kick rocks to the LA Producer.

Now enter another person who I hold in very low regard.  An aging “talent agent” who represents stars from years gone by that have seen better days.  This guy likes to go around and brag about his “mafia connections.”  He is the worst kind of person, a big coward that sits behind a desk and scares other cowards in the business with his big talk.  I always disliked guys like this agent - he reminds me of every Italian restaurant owner in every small city in America. They all think they are connected.  They talk big but they have no guts to do a thing themselves.  You cannot buy loyalty, you have to earn it.  Unless you are in a crew doing dirt you are nothing.  You are a cash machine for whatever guy you think you are “with.”

He tells the LA producer that he can get the money back for him, because he knows who to call.  He has the same pressed-jeans loser from the Jimmy Caci days call the producer.  Keep in mind this loser is now 70 years old with diabetes and could not fight his way out of a paper bag, even when he was young. He was no match for a tape dispenser. He was never in the same league as Jimmy Caci.  The loser tells the producer that for a cash payment he will get some guys to fly in from Florida and "get the money back for him."

This LA producer wonders if this might be the answer to his problem. Its a Federal crime, first of all, because he is sending guys across state lines to collect a debt.  Then, if they hurt the people, or worse, and it’s connected to you in any way?  It’s conspiracy, or possibly, murder, if someone dies.   Let’s say, best case scenario, they do get money back, or the other producer has a change of heart and pays what he owes after they have a “talk.” Now, these clowns who got involved will own this LA producer forever, as they can blackmail him on top of what he already paid.

Legitimate people that think they can dabble in the life are a joke. You are either a citizen or you are a gangster. You cannot be both.   People never learn and others keep doing the same thing.   I cannot understand why a 70 year old man would want to leave this world still doing the same stupid stuff he did when he was young.  He never learned from his time away.  He cannot see that he is just wasting his life.

You can't teach an old dog new tricks.

Armed Robbery, Mafia Style

Armed robbery has always been a staple of Organized Crime.  The five families in New York always had crews that pulled down great scores ranging from Brinks to Lufthansa.  Some guys especially liked robbing armoured cars.  One of the guys I was around in Brooklyn planned to ship a box with a small person inside it to an armoured car depot.  He was then going to open the doors and let the armed robbers inside.  The FBI foiled that plot before it got off the ground because they flipped the small person.

There is a lot in the recent news about the 1978 armed robbery of Lufthansa Airlines at JFK Airport of $6 million in cash and jewels.

The FBI has one 78 year old Bonanno Family capo under arrest after recording tapes of him speaking about it to informants.  Of course, he now has none of the money.  They have tape!  

There is a new book out that claims to have inside information about the heist from Henry Hill.  Henry Hill, although he was around the Lucchese Crew, was never a planner of heists.  He was a drug dealer, a drunk, and a drug addict, who died of heart failure from his years of drug abuse.  Anyone who ever heard him on the Howard Stern show or met him in person knows better.

The book claims that he was a planner of the heist and that he had a sitdown with John Gotti over it. You, the reader, would have a better chance of having a sit down with John Gotti.  

There was another crew that operated in upstate New York. They were under Angele Prisco, a Genovese Capo.  

The crew was made up of Rocky Melicharek, Michael Luni, Shakes Memoli, Angelo Nicosia, Danny Celaj, Neddy Gjelaj and Louis Pipolo (the nephew of Vincent Gigante).  They robbed upstate New York homes in October of 2003.

One of the homes was that of the star of the American Chopper TV series who lived in Montgomery, NY.  The crew busted in and dragged a 60 year old house sitter out of his bed and pistol whipped him.   Paul Teutul Sr. was not home during the robbery because he was traveling.  The crew also hit another home that same month where they got in excess of $250,000 in cash.  They kicked up a portion of the scores to Angelo Prisco.

All the members of the crew were caught and some of them flipped.  Angelo Prisco is now doing life for a murder, so this additional charge was no big deal.

The Gambino Family has had a lot of home invaders.  One of the low points was when Gambino Associate Frank LaCorte hired two men: Antoine Burroughs and Leon Whitfield, to rob a Queens Pizza shop owner.  The man tried to protect his elderly father from a brutal beat down he received from the two men.

Ori Spado, a Colombo Family Associate, while cooperating with the FBI, planned a Los Angeles home invasion with his buddy Christopher Curanovic.  Ori planned it and his son rented the car for the crew to use in the robbery.  They ended up hitting the wrong place and torturing a woman.  The FBI found out and later took them all down for it.

Tommy Gioli’s nephew Thomas McLaughlin recorded Big Anthony Russi, a Colombo Capo who flipped, Joseph Savarese and Associate Scott Fappiano planning an home invasion in which the would use pistols and bullet proof vests.  They were not able to pull it off.  The FBI stopped that one.

Armed robbery of businesses or armoured cars is one thing, but breaking into homes and torturing people or murdering them is quite another.  Both are crimes.  

What about Freddy in Brooklyn?

Ray Ferrito

This week I thought I would tell a story about a person you may know only from a short, explosive roll in a movie.  On April 8th 1929 Remo Ferretti was born on the West Side of Erie Pennsylvania.

The Ferretti family changed their last name to Ferritto and Remo was Americanized to Raymond and so he became known as Ray Ferritto.  Many know him simply as the guy who blew up Danny Greene in Cleveland in the movie “To Kill An Irishman.”

Ray was much more than a guy who detonated a bomb.  I touched on his story when I was writing about Jimmy Frattiano in the Los Angeles family.

Ray Ferrito

Ray began his criminal career in the Little Italy neighborhood of Erie by learning the art of burglary, not of houses, but of businesses.  Once he was caught in action and was beaten by a beat copper who had Ray remove his shoes so that he could beat the bottoms of his feet with a nightstick.  This very painful episode pushed Ray to the next level instead deterring him.  He waited and waited and when the incident was no longer fresh in the officer’s mind,  he pounced on him from behind while he was walking down the street.  The brass knuckles Ray was wearing made quick work of the copper who curled up in the fetal position only to be kicked repeatedly. He was away from his beat for months after the attack.  This incident made its way around underworld circles until it reached a local crime boss named Serafino Romeo.  Serafino was Ray’s cousin’s stepfather but he chose to bring Ray into his business because he was tough and smart. Serafino was big in the vending machine rackets, so Ray quickly learned the game and soon he was off dealing with the customers.  He received a draft notice and joined the Marines but because of an earlier foot injury he was Honorably discharged.

Once back on the street, Ray quickly picked up where he left off with Serafino, collecting cash and busting heads.  Serafino saw that Ray was a capable guy so when he was meeting with crime boss Russel Buffalino and a problem needed to be taken care of, he lobbied for Ray to handle it.  Buffalino was against it at first, but after listening to Serafino talk about young Ray he gave the okay.  Ray went away for the weekend and took care of the problem.  He did it without a hitch, but because he was the type of man who kept things to himself it would bother him for years.  

Ray was on his way up in the Italian Underworld and soon he was putting together his own crew of like-minded young guys. Soon Ray and his fellow crew member Anthony "Cy" Sciotti were pulling down scores.  They had learned how to bypass alarms and even crack safes. Things went well for the crew until someone dropped a dime on them one night and they were caught in the act.  Ray was sentenced to 3 years in Rockview Penitentiary and this turned out to be a good thing, kind of like going away to college.  Ray was locked up with many of the guys who would play great roles in his life. There were guys from the Cleveland Combination, Warren-Youngstown all run from Murray Hill in Cleveland.   Ronnie "The Crab" Carabbia, Allie Calabrese, Frank "Skinny" Vellotta  and many others.  After he was released he made the trip to Murray Hill and met with Jack White Licavoli and John Scalish.  The Cleveland bosses made a call to Russell Buffalino, who let them know know Ray was a capable guy.

They soon were pulling down large scores from jewelry stores and markets, bypassing the alarms and cracking the safes.  

Danny Greene

Ray then proved how capable he was to bosses.  Jack White had been ripped off for 75k from a deadbeat who was hiding out inside his home which was a fortress.  Ray dressed up like a priest and the man’s wife let him inside along with Julius Petro.  Once inside, they grabbed the wife and found the deadbeat who begged for his life.  The man then made another stupid move as if he was going for a pistol.  Ray quickly shot him twice, one to the chest and the other in the head.  The widow quickly showed them where they kept the cash so they tied her up and left with the cash.  This made Ray in Cleveland because he did the work and brought back the cash.  

Ray was never one to sit idle so when a former engraver from the US mint came to him with a proposition he jumped on it.  The guy could make perfect plates for 20's and 100's and soon they were moving it all the way in Las Vegas.  Thanks to some Chicago Outfit connections they were able to pass a lot of the cash in the count rooms of casinos for the next two years. Then, like all criminal enterprises, it had to end and he moved on to other rackets.

Ray came up just like most Mafia Associates except he was able to put in the work when asked.  It is a falsehood that all Mafia men are killers.  Many take part in murders as a driver or back up shooter but few can pull the trigger. So Ray was special, much like his friend Jimmy Frattiano, who was also a killer.  

Bosses love to use guys like Ray and Jimmy but when they are not being useful they are being feared.

Next week I will show you just how much honor the Mafia really has for its men.  They use everyone and then they discard them, and this is why they are in so much trouble today.

Please read

An Assassin Scorned -This book is great!

The LIFE BLOOD OF ORGANIZED CRIME.

So you would like to start your own Sports Book. That can be hard unless you live in Nevada, Atlantic City or on a Reservation.  Plus, you will need millions to get it started. The good news is you can still start your own Book, and it is being done everyday all over the country.   

The best advice I can give you regarding gambling is never gamble. Its a sucker's play, the house always wins. You may have a good run, but it will grind you down.  The best Bookies never play EVER.

What action will you take?  The old Mafia Bookies took bets on Horses.  Today unless they are huge races, don't waste your time. There are four races: the Kentucky Derby, the Belmont Stakes, the Preakness and the Breeder’s Cup. Those you can take action on, but use track odds and you will also take in some smaller bets but it will be easy and it pays. In New York they had the OTB (Off Track Betting) and somehow they lost money!  It is kind of like the Lottery.  For years Organized Crime made a ton of cash in the Numbers games.  Now that states run them, they cost millions and they do not give as much to schools as they say.

In America, Football is king.  That goes for NFL and College games. Then there is Baseball. I love to take action on Baseball because the game is slow and I enjoy it.  A lot of Bookies close up shop for Baseball season. Hockey is a game not many people bet on in Los Angeles, but hey, why not, and if you live in a cold climate take the action.  Boxing is another sport that has few bettors unless it is a big pay-per-view fight.  Where you live will determine how much boxing action you should take.  The new fast growing sport of MMA is great for bookies.  It is fast paced and there is a clear winner.  You can take action on many aspects not just a knock out, but a Submission a kick etc...Then you also have Golf, Soccer and Nascar.  

What types of Bets?

The Straight Bet- The most basic of bets.  Lets say it is the Los Angeles Lakers vs San Antonio Spurs. Who cares who wins the game.  If I bet a straight bet, I only care who covers. The Lakers score 102 and The Spurs score 98.  Whoever took the Spurs wins! The Lakers did not cover the spread! The Lakers need to score 103 to win by 4.5 points. Some of your bettors may want to buy for 10 dollars on every 100 on top of the vig.  This would have paid off in this case.

• San Antonio -4.5 -110
• LA Lakers +4.5 -110

Moneyline- This means you just bet the team that wins.  It is simple but it does not pay off well.

• San Antonio   -190
• LA Lakers   +160

Over/Under- This is very simple. It is the total scores combined.  

• Over +187.5 -110
• Under

Parlays- This means the player will bet multiple games and teams and all his picks must win.  It pays off big but it is difficult to win.  It will make you money.

Teasers are great because again the player has to win both games he plays and pay juice!

Exotics-These are bets like who wins the coin toss, first round knock out etc.  

There are many more types of bets. Things to remember regardless of what action you decide to take: the gambler will always lose.  The edge is always with the house.  If a player is on a roll and wins 50k in a week, pay him. My rule as a bookie was always pay, no matter what.  When I give him that payout, I will put anything on it I would soon earn it right back, plus double, because he will keep chasing that big win.

I liked to settle up on Tuesdays.  I was taught that way, so I did it.  Most action was taken over the weekends. If someone lost, he will want to recoup some of his lost money, hence Monday Night Football is so popular!

I would only have my guys meet players if we were owed a thousand or more or if we owed it.  Some smaller books have different numbers, those were mine.

Today gambling has changed so much. There is no need to get a bunch of hardlines or a telephone system for a room.  You can get an 800 number for cheap and have it forwarded to a cell phone and then roll over to another.  A lot of guys use Offshore rooms, I did use those but sometimes the people working were hard to understand and were not that good.  

Getting set up Online combined with local Agents is the best for what I needed. I had a site and I had other bookies as Agents they would get their clients to post (deposit)  Then I would credit their account or they would tell me what to credit their clients. That way the could go online and bet whenever they wished.  If they lost or won they would meet their guy on settlement day and collect.  It is the same as a regular local bookie only now they have an option.  Plus with the service they can see the lines for all the games.  You used to have to call and ask what the line was at the time.  The papers print it but it may change.

Book Making is easy and it makes huge money.  You just have to balance your books and you will never lose because you get the vig no matter who wins, that is the fee you take for the bet.  If you are a Bookie it is up to you to look over your players.  If you have a guy who is a waiter and is married to a waitress you cannot allow him to bet more than a hundred or so.  If he gets in over his head its lost.  If a guy owns a couple of used car lots he can bet up to 10k because he can pay.  If someone gets in over their head, cut their debt and get a payment.  It is stupid to threaten players for a debt. Its all "Air" money anyway.  In other words you are not out any product.  If you sell cocaine, you bought it so you are out that money.  If you front it and do not get paid then you are out real hard money.  So if a player does not pay just write it off.  I used to just say oh well now you cannot bet with us or anyone I know.  The business is real small and if you let people know a player is a deadbeat it works!  A Gambler that cannot gamble is lost.  Gambling is a great business and it supplies the cash for so many things.  It also goes hand in hand with my other former favorite way to make money, Shylocking or Loan Sharking.  The funny thing is, even today I see these payday loan places and they charge the same rates! Usary!  More on this another time.

How the LCN Made Money in the 70's & 80's

Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates dubbed the Los Angeles Cosa Nostra "The Mickey Mouse Mafia."

It was a funny name and it stuck, but it diminished what they really were - anything but Mickey Mouse.  

In the 70’s Jimmy Frattiano, along with Louie Dragna, had been acting bosses of the family while Dominic Brooklier and his underboss, Sam Scorintino were away (locked up) for just about two years. During this time, Jimmy had been making moves from California and Las Vegas to New York to make the family more known.  

Jimmy put together deals and shook down outsiders operating in the LA Area.  He sent his guys out to scare guys like the Labor Attorney who handled business for the Chicago Outfit.  Jimmy’s guys grabbed bookies from other families that were showing up on the west coast that it was LA Family area and they had better “do the right thing”.  He sent guys not only to FOREX (as told in Iast week’s post) but also to shake down porn kingpins like Rubin Sturman, who was based in Cleveland but was also operating on a large scale in the west coast’s Porn Valley outside Los Angeles.  

Porn was a huge money maker for the Mafia.  While some porn was shot in New York or San Francisco, the majority was shot in the San Fernando Valley just over the hill from Hollywood. The reason?  So many people came to Hollywood to become stars and most never were able to make it.  So you end up with a lot of pretty women looking for work.  These actresses would answer newspaper ads for figure modeling and when they showed up, they were told they could make more money doing it nude. Then came the sell.  They were promised they could make good money and not to worry, no one would ever know that they did it.  That may have even been true back in those days when they shot porn on 35mm or 16mm film to be shown only in adult movie theaters or on stag reels.  The audience was not large but with the advent of video it then became huge. The availability of equipment and those able to operate them also contributed to the growth of porn business in Hollywood.  Most of the people who worked on regular films in Hollywood would moonlight between projects.  It was a gray area business, while not fully legal, it was tolerated.  It was illegal to shoot porn in LA but they printed it here and shipped it out.  Porn sets would have guys with walkie talkies around the street looking for Vice cops who might come bust the set.  There were guys on set waiting on hand in case of a raid.  Their job was to take the shot film and hide it in a trunk a couple of blocks away.  If a raid happened another guy was waiting to run away with the camera and another with the lenses.  

The Mafia controlled the distribution of all these porn films.  As a result, many of the theaters and adult bookstores were theirs.  Any outsiders who tried to sell or make movies would get hurt.

 

Papers and books about how things worked in the mafia were all written by people who have no idea how Cosa Nostra works.  They write what they read in FBI 302's or Police reports.  They write that the LA Family was weak and that other families came and operated freely.  This was not entirely true then and was not true when I was around.  

Every Cosa Nostra family big and small is equal, they run their area and their family.  If Outfit guys came to Los Angeles, they had worked out a deal between the bosses of the families. The rank and file may not be privy to these deals, and they would only be told that it was taken care of.  If the Gambino's wanted to work in LA, they would send word and they would cut in the LA family.  

Jimmy Frattiano had deals going in New York with the Westchester Premier Theater. This was a large entertainment center in Tarrytown just outside New York City.  It was a Gambino-Genovese family business.  Frattiano first got involved through a guy named Tommy Marson who lived in Palm Springs and invested a lot of money in the business. Jimmy was introduced to him because Tommy was afraid he was going to lose his investment.  Frattiano saw dollar signs for himself and the LA Family. The Mafia looted the theater to the tune of over 8,000,000 dollars in the 70's and then it went bankrupt. Frattiano used his wealth to start a Chemical company with Tony Spilatro from the Outfit that would supply soap and other things to the Las Vegas Casino's.  Frattiano used his contacts in Las Vegas to promote the company.

The LA Family also had the Largest Toyota Dealership on the Westcoast. They had "Made" the owner and now he was a soldier in the family.

They had also infiltrated the Garment Center in Downtown LA by using their East coast Union contacts, mainly John Dioguardi aka Johny Dio.  He was a big player in the Unions all over the East coast. First they had to instill fear in some of the Unions that ran the Garment Center, so they wrecked some factories and put the hurt on some people.   He hooked them up with the right people so they could operate sweatshops and have people working in their own homes for pennies.  Then they would wholesale out the Garments at a top price.  They also ran Bookmaking and Loan Sharking downtown.

Did it stop there?  No.  They had successful trucking businesses all over Southern California and this again came from contacts in the Unions and other crime family members.

When the media says that “So and so” controls the drug trade in an area, its crap.  Nobody can control drug trade, there are too many people involved from all over.  A majority of cocaine in the 80's came from the Medillion Cartel, but not all of it.  Today they say the Mexican Cartels control cocaine distribution.  They do not grow the coca plant in Mexico and they do not process the paste.  They simply transport it for the Colombian traffickers.  The majority of the coca leaves come from three countries: Bolivia, Peru and Colombia.

What about gambling?  Again so many people gamble and each ethnic group has their own forms.  The Mafia never 100% controlled Gambling in any town.  They would control the biggest share or large books in cities, but not all.

Things shift, people play different games, so like everything, the mafia changed with the times.

The LA Family was no exception.  They didn't have a large family to begin with, and no talent pool.   So, they became smaller and focused on their specialties.  Many became very wealthy and left the life.  Why would anyone want their kids in the Life?  Nobody who has half a brain wants their child to get locked up or killed, and that is all the life will lead to.