Frank Buccieri
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Frank "The Horse" Buccieri (January 23, 1919-March 8, 2004), aka Frank Russo or "Big Frank", was a Chicago mobster who headed mob operations on the West Coast of the United States during the 1970s and 80s. He was also the brother of Chicago hitman Fiore "Fifi" Buccieri.
In 1936, Buccieri was convicted of petty larceny; this would be his only arrest in a lifetime of crime. During the 1960's, Buccieri was a business manager for gambling and loansharking operations on Chicago's West Side.
In June 1981, the New York-based the Mafia Commission, made up of all the mob bosses nationwide, appointed Buccieri to run their criminal operations in California. Buccieri succeeded mobster Frank "Bomp" Bompensiro, who had been murdered and Jimmy "The Weasel" Fratianno, who had become a government informant. Buccieri was reportedly assigned a capo, or captain, from the New York Lucchese crime family to help in the day-to-day operations in California. 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."
On March 8th, 2004, Frank Buccieri died of natural causes.
[edit] Further reading
- Peterson, Virgil W. Chicago: Shades of Capone. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, CCCXVII (May 1963).
[edit] References
- Sifakis, Carl. The Mafia Encyclopedia. New York: Da Capo Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8160-5694-3
