The Real Gangster Squad - The Saturday Evening Post - Los Angeles v The Mafia #chicagooutfit #Dragna

The 1965 edition of The Saturday Evening Post painted a vivid tableau of Los Angeles—a city embroiled in a fierce struggle against the insidious tentacles of organized crime. At the helm of the city's underworld was the formidable Jack Dragna family, orchestrating a symphony of vice with notable mob luminaries like Bugsy Siegel and Mickey Cohen choreographing the chaos. These criminal virtuosos were not lone operators but agents for the broader ambitions of the Chicago Outfit and New York's fearsome crime families.

Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, California, effervescent and rich in industries like Hollywood and music, appeared as an alluring prize ripe for the taking. The mafia, with its voracious appetite for control, sank its claws deep into the Golden State, weaving a web of influence that seemed unshakeable. However, as the decades turned, the landscape transformed dramatically.

By the time the 1950s and 1960s rolled around, the public's and law enforcement's gaze sharpened. Figures like Cohen, with their brazen penchant for violence, drew unwelcome scrutiny to their operations. The city, once a structured empire of illicit dealings, devolved into a chaotic battleground—a veritable no man's land where lawlessness reigned supreme.

The once-dominant Jack Dragna family found their grip weakening, and with Mickey Cohen no longer a force, a vacuum emerged, beckoning other crime syndicates like vultures to a carcass. Yet, giants such as Tony Accardo and Sam Giancana of the Chicago Outfit, along with the Joe Gallo brothers, found Los Angeles a fortress impregnable. Every attempt to establish a foothold was thwarted by the city's increasingly formidable police forces, specifically their special divisions, designed as an impenetrable shield against organized crime.

The article elucidated with rich, dramatic flair how, by the swinging '60s and beyond, those who thrived in the underworld of the '30s and '40s would find themselves outsiders in the new, hostile terrain of Los Angeles. The city, once a playground for mob rule, transformed into a beacon of resistance, where the rule of law began to claw back the night from the shadows of organized crime.

Despite the seismic shifts, the presence of crime families never fully dissolved in California—like a specter, they lingered, always part of the state’s clandestine tapestry. However, their once iron-clad dominion was now a relic of a bygone era, a mere whisper of the formidable force they once were. Thus, the story of California’s battle with the mafia is not just a chronicle of crime but a saga of resilience and defiance—a breathtaking narrative of a state reclaiming its soul from the jaws of the underworld.

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