He was the son of the first known boss of the San Francisco crime family and took over in 1961. James J. Lanza was born in Palermo, Sicily, to Francesco "Frank" Lanza, an Italian immigrant who the first boss of the San Francisco crime family, and Caterina Lanza, an Italian-American.
In 1957, he attended the infamous Apalachin Meeting, representing San Francisco, when the raid happened he was never caught, possibly escaping through the woods with other mobsters.
lieutenant is now probably extinct. He was first noticed when Life magazine published his photo in the late 1960s, identifying him as boss of the San Francisco crime family. Underboss
During the 1940s and 1950s, Lanza was underboss of the San Francisco crime family, working under Michael Abati.
He represented the San Francisco LCN family’s interest from the early 1940s to 1952 before being convicted of failing to report nearly $1 million in unpaid taxes.
Boss
After Michael Abati was indicted and deported back to Italy, Lanza was named boss in 1961, making his underboss, Gaspare "Bill" Sciortino. Lanza soon became the most powerful and successful boss the family ever had, he started making gambling operations, contract hits, and more.
Remmer was Lanza"s link to Las Vegas and started their own casino skim. He had close ties with former mayor of San Francisco, Joseph Alioto.
In 1973, Los Angeles crime family member, Jimmy Fratianno moved to the Bay Area, whom Lanza didn"t like at all, put a contract on him because he was bringing too much attention about the San Francisco family in 1977.
They"re friendship quickly ended. As the family grew older, Lanza would watch as his small crime family grow to include 15-20 made members. Lanza had the misfortune of being one of the first mob bosses to garner media interest and was linked by Life to Mob boss Carlos Marcello and to Mayor Joseph Alioto.
He was considered to be disliked by Jimmy Fratiano.
Lanza died peacefully of natural causes on February 14, 2006 in San Mateo, California. He was 103.
