The Los Angeles crime family itself has been on a gradual decline, with the Chicago Outfit representing them on The Commission since the death of boss Jack Dragna in 1956.

[9] The sources for much of the current information on the history of the Los Angeles Cosa Nostra family is the courtroom testimony and the published biographies of Aladena "Jimmy the Weasel" Fratianno, who in the late 1970s became the second member – and the first acting boss – in American Mafia history to testify against Mafia members,[10] and The Last Mafioso (1981), a biography of Fratianno by Ovid Demaris.

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 Rosario "Sam" Matranga (often misreported as "Orsario," due to a typo on his death record), who started leading the family around 1905.

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.

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.

DeSimone's lieutenant Dominic DiCiolla (aka Dominick De Soto) was acquitted of the murder and took control of Palumbo's liquor operations.

Joseph "Iron Man" Ardizzone returned to California in 1914 and was acquitted of murdering Maisano in 1915 due to lack of evidence and no witnesses willing to testify.

Along with close supporter John Roselli, Dragna's Mafia family ended local gang wars by driving older gambling syndicate headed by Guy McAfee and Milton "Farmer" Page out of business.

While most mobsters simply threatened harm on a business for not paying tribute to their organization (protection racket), Dragna's family came up with a more sophisticated course of action.

[26] Although there was not as big a pool of Italians to recruit on the West Coast like there was back East, the L.A. family worked around this by accepting members from across the country, such as Johnny Roselli from Chicago, Nick Licata from Detroit, and Aladena "Jimmy the Weasel" Fratianno and Dominic Brooklier from Cleveland.

Armed with top hitman Frank Bompensiero and Jimmy Fratianno (who committed over 30 murders on the orders of their superiors), Dragna muscled his way into controlling territory stretching throughout California and Southern Nevada.

[29][30][31] When Lucky Luciano sent Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel from New York City to Los Angeles to take control of their interests on the West Coast (including Las Vegas), he formed an uneasy partnership with Dragna.

After Siegel's death, his chief lieutenant Mickey Cohen took over his remaining gambling and loan shark operations in Los Angeles.

The number of high-profile murders and gangsters moving into the West Coast, combined with the recall of Mayor Frank L. Shaw because of corruption charges related to organized crime, caused law enforcement to stop accommodating the Mafia.

In the late 1930s, California Attorney General Earl Warren took command of a tough assault on Dragna's empire, most notably shutting down the gambling ships run by Anthony Cornero.

[42] This meant the top three men from Dragna's era, the boss, underboss, and consigliere were all inactive in Los Angeles almost immediately after DeSimone took charge.

[51] By then, law enforcement knew much about mob activities in Los Angeles, which was helped by top hitman Frank Bompensiero becoming an undercover informant in 1967.

In 1963, Joe Valachi outed the Mafia as a secret criminal society, aiding in law enforcements attacks on organized crime, and fingered Licata as a high ranking mobster in Los Angeles.

[52] A bright spot during the period was that Louis Tom Dragna's company "Roberta Dress Manufacturing" was turning into a $10 million a year business.

[56] Their trial was delayed when the key informant and witness, former Mafia associate John Dubcek, was shot and killed in Las Vegas.

Licata's successor, Dominic Brooklier, was initially able to stabilize the family's businesses, but later endured considerable damage done by FBI informants.

Brooklier was able to make a lot of money in pornography, extortion, and drugs, but wasn't able to take back control of many independent bookmaking rackets in Los Angeles.

The fall of the Los Angeles family came when Fratianno became the second American Mafioso to turn state's evidence and testify against the Mafia in court.

[60] In 1980, after testifying for the government that led to the racketeering convictions of five reputed Mafia figures, Fratianno entered the federal Witness Protection Program.

Although the Justice Department thought it finally crippled the Mafia in Los Angeles, a Federal Judge gave Brooklier, Sciortino, Michael Rizzitello, Dragna, and Jack LoCicero light sentences ranging from two to five years in 1981 for racketeering and extortion.

[64] 20 reputed organized crime figures were arrested in 1984, in what law enforcement officials said was a bid to take over a $1 million-a-week bookmaking operation in Los Angeles.

Members like Stephen Cino and Alfred Mauriello were convicted on related charges along with other associates who cooperated with officials to receive a reduced sentence, putting the L.A. crime family on its last leg.

With Southern California's many racial groups, La Cosa Nostra faced an uphill battle to challenge the many street gangs in the area over criminal rackets.

Iavarone was killed two weeks after his alleged induction, reportedly ordered by Joseph Todaro Jr. whose Buffalo crime family had historically been the liaison between the Canadian and American mobsters.