On This Day in 1905 Frank Bompensiero was Born

On This Day in 1905 Frank Bompensiero was Born

On this day in 1905 the former hitman and capo for the Los Angeles crime family was born. Bomp as he was also known as would take part in many mob related hits during his active years but was only ever confirmed and charged for 5 of them.

“he had buried more bones than could be found in the brontosaurus room of the Museum of Natural History.”

Frank’s family had close ties with the Balistrieri crime family, and the two families came to the US in 1904 from Sicily. Frank Balistrieri would eventually go on to become the boss of the Milwaukee Crime Family towards the end of 1961.

In the early 1920’s Bomp met Jack Dragna and the two built a solid friendship, Dragna would become the boss of the LA crime family but upon his death in 1956, Frank DeSimone took over and dropped Bomp from Capo to a street solider. It was during this era that Bompensiero tried to transfer to the Chicago Outfit but that didn’t work out for him.

Teaming up with Tony Spilotro

By the 70’s he had teamed up with the likes of Tony Spilotro and the two started a loan shark operation in Las Vegas, it was also during the mid-70’s that Bomp helped Spilotro in the murder of a millionaire real estate broker by the name of Tamara Rand.

As the 1970’s started to draw to a close, Bomp’s time was also fast approaching. The new boss of the LA crime family, Dominic Brooklier decide enough was enough, and he felt that he couldn’t trust Bomp anymore. Bomp had been critical of how the family was run ever since Dragna’s death.

Being a hitman himself, Bomp was cautious and meticulous in his manner and proved very hard to kill. It took months before they could get to him. Brooklier even promoted him to consigliere to aid in the efforts to make him less cautious but 6 months down the line they still couldn’t take him out.

The FBI Sting That Tricked Bomp

The downfall for Bomp came when the FBI setup a fake company in a sting operation that Bomp fell for. He convinced the rest of the LA family to extort the business, which they did. From this moment doubts started to plant themselves into the minds of his other mobsters, in particular Jimmy Fratianno believed that Bomp had turned informant.

Less than a week later Frank Bompensiero was finally shot to death at close range with a silenced .22 caliber handgun while standing in a phone booth. He was 71 years old at the time of his death.