Joseph Ardizzone: Difference between revisions

It was also during this time that a faction developed that opposed Ardizzone. In March 1931 he was driving with his friend Vincenzo "Jimmy" Basile when gunmen drove by and shot at them. Basile was killed and Ardizzone wounded.<ref>[https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SPNP19310323.2.101&srpos=1&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-Jimmy+Basile+killed------- San Pedro News Pilot, Volume 4, Number 15, 23 March 1931 (Calidornia Digital Newspaper Collection) Accessed 12/20/2023]</ref>. Ardizzone managed to be taken to the house of Leon DeSimone, the physician son of former L.A. don [[Rosario DeSimone]]. He was treated and sent to a hospital. A second attempt was made on his life in the hospital, so his family came to act as bodyguards. Underworld sources indicated that he agreed to retire after these incidents.

The opposing faction apparently did not believe Ardizzone, and on October 15, 1931, while on his way to his cousin Nick Borgia's house in [[Etiwanda, Rancho Cucamonga, California|Etiwanda]], driving a 1930 Ford Coupe SRW7653 and carrying a .41 caliber Colt revolver No.323 he was last seen picking up a man who had waved at him.<ref>[https://npaper2.com/foothill/2016/10/09/#?article=941304 Foothills Reader 10-09-2016 Article "From Black hand to Mafia-the mystery of Iron Man" citing Testimony of Ardizzone wife attorney F.W. Morrison. Accessed 12/20/2023]</ref>. Joseph Ardizzone "disappeared". An intense search followed, but his body was never found.<ref>[https://www.writersofwrongs.com/2019/10/wealthy-los-angeles-area-mafia-leader.html Wealthy Los Angeles-area Mafia leader vanishes]</ref> After seven years, Ardizzone's wife had him declared legally dead.<ref>State of California, ''Final report of the Special Crime Study Commission on Organized Crime'' (Sacramento, 1953).</ref>