Dominic Brooklier

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Dominic Brooklier (1914 — July 18, 1984), aka Jimmy Regace, was an Italian-American mobster and head of the Los Angeles crime syndicate during the mid-1970s who mainly worked in pornography, extortion, and burglary.

Born Domenico Brucceleri in 1914, Brooklier joined Mickey Cohen's syndicate gambling operations in Southern California in the 1940s. He later defected to rival Los Angeles mobster Jack Dragna's family. While working for Dragna, Brooklier would unsuccessfully attempt to assassinate Cohen as he left a restaurant. During this time, the Los Angeles organization was forced to rely on the Chicago Outfit for support. This support included the use of mobsters such as John "Handsome Johnny" Roselli and Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel. The Outfit's objective was to extort millions of dollars from the lucrative Hollywood movie studios.

During this time, Brooklier had developed a working relationship with fellow Los Angeles mobster Jimmy "The Weasel" Fratianno. In 1974, Brooklier succeeded capo Nick Licata in 1974. However, within four years, Brooklier was imprisoned with Fratianno taking Brooklier's position as acting boss. Shortly after his release, Brooklier immediately replaced Fratianno (who he suspected of being an FBI informant). Brooklier later placed a murder contract on Fratianno. In response to these threats, Fratianno implicated Brooklier in the February 1977 murder of San Diego mobster Frank "The Bomp" Bompensiero. However, Brooklier was acquitted of that killing. Brooklier then brought in mobsters from Chicago and Cleveland, Ohio to eliminate Fratianno. By this time, Fratianno had safely disappeared into the Federal Witness Protection Program).

In 1978, Brooklier was finally convicted of racketeering and extortion. He was sentenced to five years in the Federal Correctional Institution in Tucson, Arizona. In 1984, Dominic Brooklier died of heart attack in prison.

Contrary to rumors that, following their father's death, Brooklier's children left California, Anthony, Brooklier's oldest son, and his two brothers, Jim and John, have outstanding educational backgrounds and live and work in the U.S. In fact, Anthony (Tony), is a prominent and successful criminal defense attorney in Los Angeles (http://pview.findlaw.com/view/2057602_1?noconfirm=0). It was actually the first indictment of his father and his own involvement in that case that led the younger Brooklier to leave general law practice, move back to Los Angeles, and focus on criminal law. He later led the defense of "Hollywood Madame" Heidi Fleiss. The suggestion that federal authorities^{[citation needed]} could only trace a daughter, who reportedly resided in the Netherlands with her spouse, is false, as Brooklier only had the three sons.