page_title: Jack Dragna
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Jack Dragna / Biography / Early life
caption_attribution_description: English: Mug shot of Jack Dragna taken in 1915
context_page_description: Jack Ignatius Dragna was an American Mafia member and Black Hander who was active in both Italy and the United States in the 20th century. He was active in bootlegging in California during the Prohibition Era in the United States. In 1931, he succeeded Joseph Ardizzone as the boss of the Los Angeles crime family after Ardizzone's mysterious disappearance and death. Both James Ragen and Earl Warren dubbed Dragna the "Capone of Los Angeles". Dragna remained the boss of the Los Angeles crime family from 1931 until his death in 1956.
context_section_description: Dragna was born to Francesco Paolo Dragna and Anna Dragna in Corleone, Sicily, on April 18, 1891. On November 18, 1898, Dragna came to the United States on the S.S. Alsatia with his mother, older sister Giuseppa, and older brother Gaetano. They stayed in Brooklyn with Antonio Rizzotto's family, also from Corleone. It is unknown when Dragna's father arrived in the United States. Dragna stayed in New York for ten years before returning to Sicily. As a young man, he joined the Italian Army and later the Sicilian Mafia.
  In 1914, Dragna returned to America. He appears to have had a relationship with Gaetano Reina, who eventually would lead his own crime family in Manhattan and the Bronx. That same year, Dragna was a suspect in the murder of Jewish poultry dealer Barnet Baff. After the killing, Dragna fled to California and assumed the name Charles Dragna. Dragna was extradited to New York, but never went on trial. In 1915, Dragna was arrested for Black Hand extortion of a Long Beach man and served three years in prison. At the time of his extortion arrest, Dragna was using the alias Ignazio Rizzoto.
  During the Prohibition Era, Dragna and his brother Gaetano (now named Tom) ran extortion and illegal liquor distillation operations. Ignazio Dragna now became Jack Ignatius Dragna. In 1922, Dragna married Francesca Rizzotto. After his prison stint he worked closely with Joseph Ardizzone, a prominent mobster in Los Angeles.
caption: 1915 mug shot of Dragna.
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