Rosario DeSimone (; 11 December 1873 – 15 July 1946) was the head of an Italian crime family during the 1920s to 1940s that was the predecessor to the

Los Angeles crime family The Los Angeles crime family, also known as the L.A. Mafia or the Southern California crime family, is an Italian-American organized crime syndicate based in Los Angeles as part of the larger Italian-American Mafia. Since its inception in the ea ...

of the American Mafia. Rosario was the father of the future California mob boss,

Frank DeSimone Frank A. DeSimone (July 17, 1909 – August 4, 1967) was an American attorney and the boss of the Los Angeles crime family from 1956 to 1967. DeSimone was the son of former don Rosario DeSimone. He was sometime referred to as "One Eye" because ...

. He is not to be confused with the Chicago Italian Timothy Rosario DeSimone.

Biography

DeSimone was born in

Salaparuta Salaparuta is a town and ''comune'' in South-Western Sicily, Italy, in the valley of the Belice river, administratively part of the province of Trapani Trapani ( it, Provincia di Trapani, scn, Pruvincia di Tràpani; officially ''Libero consorz ...

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

, Italy, on 11 December 1873. He initially settled in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

before moving to

Pueblo, Colorado Pueblo () is a home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Pueblo County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 111,876 at the 2020 United States Census, making Pueblo the ninth most populo ...

. In Pueblo he was part of that city's Mafia organization, and was evidently well-respected. He became a close ally of Vito Di Giorgio in Los Angeles. Upon Di Giorgio's death in Chicago in 1922, DeSimone took power. His empire spanned over Los Angeles County. His rule in Los Angeles was brief, and he stepped down around 1925. He later became a legitimate businessman who settled in Downey, California. DeSimone died of natural causes in 1946, and is buried in Calvary Cemetery.

Family

DeSimone married twice and fathered several children.

, his second son, became a criminal attorney and later don of the crime family, reigning from 1956 to 1967.

References

*Gentile, Nick, with

Felice Chilanti Felice Chilanti (10 December 1914 in Ceneselli – 26 February 1982 in Rome) was an Italian anti-fascist and journalist. Biography He was born to a Rovigo peasant family soon before Italy entered World War I. Chilanti moved to Rome as a teenag ...

. ''Vita Di Capomafia''. Rome:

Editori Riuniti Editori Riuniti is an Italian publishing house based in Rome that publishes books and magazines on the history of socialism, socialist thought, physics and mathematics theory, and the history of Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Histor ...

, 1963. *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. *''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' obituary for Rosario DeSimone, July 17, 1946 {{DEFAULTSORT:Desimone, Rosario 1873 births 1946 deaths People from the Province of Trapani Italian emigrants to the United States American gangsters of Sicilian descent American crime bosses History of Los Angeles Los Angeles crime family Gangsters from Los Angeles Prohibition-era gangsters People from Downey, California