Cosmo (Gus) Frasca – The Enforcer

Gus Frasca was a Genovese Family enforcer who once got in the wind after hearing in the neighborhood that the homicide detectives were seeking him. He would end up staying "on the lam" for over two and a half years while his lawyers and codefendants kept him abreast of what was happening in the criminal case.

Cosmo (Gus) Frasca was born in 1907 and raised at 1527 66th Street, Brooklyn. He later relocated to 6718 13th Avenue and then moved directly down the block to 6513 Thirteenth Avenue, both in Brooklyn. Another address he gave to police at the time of a 1947 arrest was 1318 71st Street.

Gus Frasca

Gus Frasca stood approximately 5-feet 7-inches tall and weighed 150 pounds. He had dark brown eyes and dark chestnut hair, was light complexed, with a small scar running along his left temple and eyebrow.

NYCPD # B-82088, and # 7308

The New York City Police Department file for Cosmo Frasca starts in 1926. He had a very lengthy, serious felony record as follows:

1926 - robbery 1929 - assault 1930 - grand larceny 1930 - assault and robbery 1931 - robbery 1931 - assault and robbery 1931 - burglary 1931 - vagrancy 1933 - vagrancy 1934 - disorderly conduct 1935 - malicious mischief as a felony 1935 - assault and robbery 1935 - assault and robbery 1936 - policy slips 1937 - assault and robbery 1937 - assault, disorderly conduct 1947 - homicide (first degree) 1947 - selective service violation

Judging from his long criminal record listing over eighteen arrests, Gus Frasca was strictly a gunman and strong-arm. All during his fledgling years coming up in the underworld, he clearly targeted robberies and heists as his primary means of income.

He was also highly suspected as a Genovese enforcer and thought to have been the shooter in several related gangland slayings.

He was thought to have originally served in the crew of capo Mike Miranda before Miranda rose to the consigliere post of the borgata.

Authorities stated that Frasca, George Smurra, Salvatore Zappola, and several others were all members of the so-called "Black Hawk Gang."

Because of his notorious antics, by 1932, a 24-year old Frasca had been named a "Public Enemy" by the local police station of the Bath Beach-Bensonhurst precinct. He had been picked up and held on $1500 bail, on a charge of disorderly conduct. Police named Frasca as the brother of the proprietor of Frasca’s Night Patrol.

This patrol was called the strongest in the Borough Park and Bath Beach sections. They reportedly consolidated their power and control over the area by buying out another company that operated in Borough Park.

Frasca’s Night Patrol charged local businesses a weekly fee to patrol and ‘protect’ the area. The service amounted to nothing more than a friendly "shakedown" under the guise of performing community service.

In 1931, the 24-year-old Gus Frasca was one of several in his gang who were arrested and charged with the $10,000 armed payroll robbery of The New England Panama Hat Company, of 341 39th Street, in Manhattan. His accomplices were his long-time buddies Blah Blah Smurra and Solly Zappola.

Another steady hoodlum accomplice was Joseph Lenna. He and Lenna had been pinched together in 1934, charged as the pair of armed robbers who had held up a Lower East Side haberdashery of a Jewish shopkeeper.

Gus Frasca at the height of his power.

A year later, in 1935, Frasca and Lenna were nabbed together again on malicious mischief for smashing the windows of four barbershops that had been repeatedly broken by Frasca and his hoodlum friends in an attempt to solicit payments from shop owners under the guise of "contributions" to a trade association or “protective association” they set up similar to Frasca’s Night Patrol.

It was all part of a “price war” among barbershops and an attempt by the mob to capitalize on it by organizing these shops and setting up what was essentially another "shakedown racket."

He was allegedly inducted early on as a ‘soldier’ in the Lucky Luciano Family’s Brooklyn wing. By the 1940s, Frasca was being carried as a capo-regime of one of their Brooklyn-based crews.

Among his closest associates in the mob were underboss Vito (Don Vitone) Genovese, consigliere Michele (Big Mike) Miranda, boss Giuseppe (Joe) Profaci, capo Peter DeFeo, and soldiers Salvatore (Solly) Zappola, George (Georgie Blair) Smurra, Filippo (Phil) Fontana, and Sebastiano (Buster) Nani.

The Underboss

His name came to public prominence again in 1945 when Frasca was one of six top hoodlums charged with murder in a highly publicized case that featured mafia underboss Vito Genovese himself as the main defendant.

They were all indicted for the September 19, 1934 homicide of a small-time local hoodlum named Ferdinand (The Shadow) Boccia by Kings County District Attorney Beldock.

After hearing in the neighborhood that the homicide detectives were seeking him, Frasca quickly got in the wind. He would end up staying "on the lam" for over two and a half years while his lawyers and codefendants kept him abreast of elements of the criminal case.

In 1947, he casually walked into the Herbert Street Police Station and made the understatement that “I hear the police are looking for me.”

At the time of his arraignment on a charge of first-degree murder, the judge held Frasca without bail. Genovese, Frasca, and the others would all beat the ten-year-old Boccia murder charge after the prime witness, who was being held in protective custody for his own safety, was found dead in his jail cell of a drug overdose.

Genovese, Miranda, Smurra, and Frasca

After an autopsy, the coroner said Peter La Tempa had enough horse tranquilizers in his system to kill eight horses...and that was that! It was believed that La Tempa’s food tray had been spiked with the fatal mixture.

In his later years, Gus Frasca continued on as a respected, senior member of the Genovese borgata. He quietly led his own regime for decades.

It was believed that he controlled some gambling operations, primarily bookmaking and a numbers-lottery business in his section of Brooklyn and was also somewhat active in Lower Manhattan as well.

Most wanted poster for Cosmo Frasca

Despite a lifetime of serious criminal activity in New York’s underworld and with a record of over eighteen arrests to prove it for crimes ranging from armed robbery to murder, Gus Frasca is not believed to have ever served any heavy prison time. It is thought that he did serve a short jail term for robbery as a young man. But that’s it.

This was a mafioso who rose to a prominent "capo" status and allegedly held that position for decades. So, I guess it could be said that he was a big success in his chosen profession.

Cosmo (Gus) Frasca died in 1980 at the age of 73 years old.

Until next time...”The Other Guy!”

Cosmo (Gus) Frasca – The Enforcer

You May Also Enjoy

Racketeer Snapshot: Lucchese Family Soldier Carlo Piccioli

A Question About The Commission

Racketeer Snapshot: Detroit Mafia Soldier “Tony the Chump” Abate

Welcome Back!

Create New Account!

Retrieve your password

Are you sure want to unlock this post?

Are you sure want to cancel subscription?

Cosmo (Gus) Frasca – The Enforcer

Unlock This Door to the Underworld

Take the Journey!

You May Also Enjoy

Racketeer Snapshot: Lucchese Family Soldier Carlo Piccioli

A Question About The Commission

Racketeer Snapshot: Detroit Mafia Soldier “Tony the Chump” Abate

Welcome Back!

Create New Account!

Retrieve your password

Are you sure want to unlock this post?

Are you sure want to cancel subscription?