Editing Los Angeles crime family (section)

==Pre-Dragna Southern California Mafia==
Southern California contained Sicilian criminal organizations before Dragna became boss. Historical reconstructions identify leadership phases involving Vito Di Giorgio, Rosario DeSimone and Joseph Ardizzone, although the precise chronology and institutional continuity remain disputed.<ref name="LAHistory">[https://mafiahistory.us/maf-b-la.html “Los Angeles Crime Family Bosses”], ''The American Mafia'', historical leadership and source overview.</ref>

Those groups drew on Sicilian migration networks from several towns, including Piana dei Greci/Piana degli Albanesi and other western Sicilian communities. A common location did not make every early Italian gang part of one family, and the earliest located leader does not necessarily establish a charter date.

Ardizzone was the dominant leader before 1931. He disappeared in October 1931 and was never found. Later accounts commonly suspect murder and connect his disappearance with a leadership struggle, but no conviction established who ordered or carried out his presumed killing.