Although there was no shortage of Sicilian and Italian racketeers active in San Francisco, California, by the late 1910s-early 1920s Prohibition era, it wasn’t until 1931, with the formation of New York’s Mafia Commission, that a formally structured Family or “borgata” was officially established in the city. Sicilian mafioso Francesco Lanza is generally credited with being the founding father of what would become known as the Lanza Crime Family or the San Francisco Family of Cosa Nostra.
Overlooking San Francisco Bay and spanning 47 miles, the city has a population of over 900,000. With the Greater San Francisco Metropolitan Area included in those numbers, it boasts over 4,700,000 residents, making the San Francisco Bay Area one of the largest populated territories in the entire United States. It was a prized plum for Cosa Nostra.
After “Representante” Francesco Lanza’s reign ended, there were several interim bosses through the years, such as Antonio Lima and Michele Abati, who were elected to oversee the Family. In 1961, Lanza’s son James (Jimmy the Hat) Lanza was finally selected to head the membership, and he would remain the boss for over a half-century until the mid-2000s.
