Italian Mafia Today3/20/2021
He had a spectacular career as the leader of the Iowa Mafia family but it would end on November 24 1967 when he passed away from cancer.A lot of them have died out and the descendants have moved on to live productive, law abiding lives.These families did not disappear because of competition from other groups, they just died out because they no longer had a pool of poor hungry men to take their place in the family.It was based in Des Moines, Iowa and the first recorded boss was Charles Cherry Nose Gioe who was put in place by Al Capone.
Des Moines is strategically situated as the crossroads of America, all roads come together there for freight. This location was really important after prohibition when mobsters had all been running trucking companies to get their booze to market. Louis Fratto, Aka Lew Ferral, Aka Cock-eye would come into town after being on the lam from some gambling charges (originally from Chicago and then Milwakee). He would first work with Charlie Gioe in Des Moines until it was decided that he would replace Charlie. He would made a lot a money for the Outfit before the whole shakedown went bust. He had made a lot of money for himself and he had invested it well. Charlie was one of the first investors in a company that would put whipped cream in a can. He wanted other Outfit guys to invest in it and he asked Lou Fratto. Lou took over what Charlie had built, but he brought in his own guys. There was a sizable Italian population at the time but he liked to work with Jews, so besides his core group of his brother Frankie One Ear Fratto, Milwaukee Phil Alderisio, Johnny Marshall and a few others, he would not make any new guys in Des Moines. Lou was able to become the beer distributor for a number of named brands. Barney would become important later in many things including the assassination of John F Kennedy. Barney was also involved in the Boxing game when he was said to be close to Sonny Liston before he lost to Ali. Lou was made a lifetime member of the Chamber of Commerce and during World War Two he raised over 1 million dollars in War Bonds. Italian Mafia Today Movie Industry AndThe administration of the Outfit were soon sent away for extorting the Movie Industry and one of those men was Charles Gioe, his former boss. Charles Gioe wanted to be back in charge of Iowa and he stuck his nose in some Union business in 1954. On the night of August 18 1954 Charles was out to dinner with Hymie Wiseman and another man when they got into a car and another car pulled alongside and emptied a magazine into the car killing Charles instantly. Hymie was not hit and later was questioned by police but that proved to be a waste. Lou was arrested for the murder of his former boss but there was no evidence so he was released.
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