Frank Bomp Bompensiero, a longtime figure in the Los Angeles crime family, was shot to death on February 10, 1977, in San Diego, California. He was 71 when someone using a silenced .22 caliber handgun fired at close range while he was walking home after using a pay phone outside an Arco Station in Pacific Beach.

Bompensiero’s criminal career dated back to Prohibition and included arrests for bootlegging, violations of the Volstead Act, bribery, conspiracy, and murder. Despite repeated charges he served only relatively short sentences. In the years before his killing he had been providing information to the FBI; that betrayal was discovered and a contract was placed on his life. Investigators linked the execution to leadership in the Los Angeles crime family, and the subsequent murder and conspiracy trial of five reputed West Coast Mafia leaders focused attention on who ordered and carried out the hit.

Anyone who knew Bompensiero, saw him in Pacific Beach around February 10, 1977, or has information about the shooting is asked to come forward.