Frank Coppa

Frank Coppa, Sr. born (September 11, 1941 Manalapan Township, New Jersey) is a Sicilian-American gangster in the Bonanno crime family and close friend of Joseph Massino and Frank Lino. He is the godfather of Joseph Lino, Frank's Bonnano crime family capo and son as Frank is to his.

Biography

He started off burglarizing houses and was a member of the Avenue U Boys street gang. Frank was a lifelong childhood friend of Bonanno crime family capo Frank Lino. Coppa graduated from high school and event attempted college. He was gainfully employed as a grocery store clerk, transport truck driver and waiter but soon drifted back into a life of crime. In Bensonhurst he associated with the Colombo crime family and Genovese crime family before he eventually joined the Bonanno crime family. He elevated himself from a "sidewalk soldier" to a shady businessman. Coppa was one of the Bonnano crime family's biggest mobsters active on Wall Street and is credited for practically inventing the pump-and-dump stock scheme. Frank Coppa Senior has brown eyes and brown hair and stands at 6'2" and weighed 280 pounds with hands as big as ham hocks. He started off burglarizing houses and was a member of the Avenue U Boys street gang. Frank was a lifelong childhood friend of Bonanno crime family capo Frank Lino. Coppa graduated from high school and attempted college. He was gainfully employed as a grocery store clerk, transport truck driver and waiter but soon drifted back into a life of crime.

Criminal career

He began his criminal career selling stolen merchandise from transport truck hijackings. In Bensonhurst he associated with the Colombo crime family and Genovese crime family before he eventually joined the Bonanno crime family. He elevated himself from a "sidewalk soldier" to a shady businessman. Coppa was one of the Bonnano crime family's biggest mobsters active on Wall Street and is credited for practically inventing the pump-and-dump stock scheme. He worked with brokerage firms in New Jersey, Long Island and Manhattan as far back as the 1970s, and in 1979 he was convicted for his role in a stock deal involving a company called Tucker Drilling. Frank and his associates bought oil company stock that was nearly worthless and gave brokers cash, under the table, to sell to the stock to the public at high prices.

tock market racketeering

By the late 1980s he returned to the stock business but was never again convicted. He was indicted for income tax evasion in the 1980s by not declaring income received from the My Three Sons school bus company that was controlled by his sons and wife. He had named it after the 1960s television series of the same name. Frank had three sons, one became a doctor while the other two, Frank Lino Jr and Michael followed him into his school bus business. Frank then got out of the school bus business after the tax evasion conviction and funnelled his money into chick restaurant franchises, including Boston Chicken and his own corporation, Chic-Chick which was a chain of fast food chicken restaurants run by his family. By then both of his sons Frank Jr and Michael followed him into the business, Frank Jr was slated to be the chairman and chief executive officer when the company went public. Frank lived in New Jersey but operated on 86th Street at the eastern edge of Bensonhurst by the elevated train line which included a low-income municipal housing project called Marlboro Houses where he would eventually become involved in drug trafficking. Frank regularly disregarded New York State prohibited smoking laws in most places he went. He always wore slacks with button down shirts and a black, short mink coat. He smoked foot long foul smelling cigars. He was a close business partner of stock broker Nicholas Pasciuto. He was involved in crooked stock market deals for nearly thirty years and earned millions. Coppa acquired many wealthy assets including parking garage leases, soda vending machine and coin-operated telephone contracts and a chain of chicken rotisserie restaurants which he once tried to get onto the stock market. He used his influence to win a city contract to bus handicapped children to and from school. In 1972 from his stock market schemes Frank lost his fortune. To win it back he invested heavily in the Texas oil company "Tucker Drilling". When he had acquired a quarter of the stock to himself, he dumped it at $4.00 a share earning him hundreds of thousands of dollars. For his involvement in the stock dumping of Tucker Drilling Lino was indicted and convicted. He was sentenced to three years of supervised release and two years unsupervised. In 1978 he survived a botched car bomb attempt and suffered third degree burns and shrapnel wounds to his face, chest and legs when climbing into his Mercedes Benz. Despite his conviction he continued his scams in the stocket market and was arrested with Frank Lino in 1992 for it and they were both convicted of fraud. He became wealthy in the rackets driving a Mercedes Benz SUV and lived in a sprawling house in Manalapan, New Jersey. He later became state's evidence after faced with racketeering charges and testified against Joseph Massino following the actions of his friend Frank Lino who became state's evidence shortly before him.

In 1978 he survived a botched car bomb attempt and suffered third degree burns and shrapnel wounds to his face, chest and legs when climbing into his Mercedes Benz. Despite his conviction he continued his scams in the stocket market and was arrested with Frank Lino in 1992 for it and they were both convicted of fraud. He became wealthy in the rackets driving a Mercedes Benz SUV and lived in a sprawling house in Manalapan, New Jersey. He later became state's evidence after faced with racketeering charges and testified against Joseph Massino following the actions of his friend Frank Lino who became state's evidence shortly before him.

References

*Crittle, Simon, "The Last Godfather: The Rise and Fall of Joey Massino" Berkley (March 7, 2006) ISBN 0425209393