The most iconic leader of what later became the resident Cosa Nostra Family based in Los Angeles, California, was Ignazio (Jack) Dragna. He was born in Corleone, Sicily, back on April 18, 1891. The actual family surname was Adragna, but they later dropped the “A” and adopted Dragna as their formal last name soon after landing on American shores.
He immigrated with his brother, sister, and other blood family to New York City in the year 1898.
The Adragna’s settled in the Little Italy section of East Harlem in Upper Manhattan. They were drawn there by the large Corleonese community that had developed along certain streets of the neighborhood, such as East 107th, East 109th, and East 112th Streets.
Among the young men from Harlem who were to become his closest, lifelong underworld associates was Gaetano Reina, Gaetano Gagliano, Gaetano Lucchese, and the brothers Stefano and Vito La Sala, who would become better known as the La Salle brothers. Each of them had also originally been born in the town of Corleone.
This is undoubtedly where the original ties between the men developed.
Note: For additional information on members of the Los Angeles Crime Family, please see our bios on Marco (Mimi) Li Mandri, Nick Licata, and Joe Sica and the pictorial mafia membership chart, The Jack Dragna Family Leadership Chart.
Ignazio Adragna soon began sporting the more American moniker of “Jack Dragna.” He initially became affiliated with the Harlem-Bronx-based clan headed by Tom Reina.
In future years, this group would expand into a formal borgata, and later became known as the notorious Gagliano-Lucchese Crime Family. Its succession of leaders for the first fifty years of its existence would be the three Tommy’s, right in a row.
Dragna cut his teeth alongside his Corleone amici, until one day a golden opportunity was laid at his doorstep.
It was an offer he couldn’t refuse. Dovetailing with the culmination of the infamous Castellammarese War, which was hard-fought between the years 1929 and 1931, and the subsequent assassination of boss of bosses Salvatore Maranzano the same year the war ended, there was a major reorganization of the Italian-American underworld.
