Frank Buccieri
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Frank "The Horse" Buccieri (January 23, 1919-March 8, 2004), also known under the alias Frank Russo or by the moniker "Big Frank", was a Chicago mobster who later headed syndicate operations on the west coast during the 1970s and 80s. He was also the brother of Fiore "Fifi" Buccieri.
A business manager who ran syndicate criminal operations on Chicago's Westside during the 1960s, Buccieri had been involved in illegal gambling and loansharking with a clean criminal record (with the exception of a 1936 conviction for petty larceny) when, in June 1981, he was selected by a nine-member commission which included New York crime bosses Joseph Bonanno, Vito Genovese, Thomas Lucchese and Tony Accardo of the Chicago syndicate to head criminal operations in California following the murder of Frank "Bomp" Bompensiro and of Jimmy "The Weasel" Fratianno becoming a government informant.
Reportedly assigned a capo from the Lucchese crime family to help in the day-to-day operations, one investigator explained "The Commission wanted someone they could trust to handle the lucrative California rackets and this time they wanted to make sure nothing went wrong."
[edit] Further reading
- Peterson, Virgil W. Chicago: Shades of Capone. Annals of the American Academy of Politicial and Social Sciences, CCCXVII (May 1963).
[edit] References
- Sifakis, Carl. The Mafia Encyclopedia. New York: Da Capo Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8160-5694-3
