Frank R. Sica; Called a Major Crime Figure of 1940s and ‘50s

Memorial services were conducted Thursday evening in Burbank for Frank R. Sica, the youngest of three brothers considered by police to be major California crime figures during the late 1940s and early ‘50s.

Sica, 70, who died last Saturday after a lengthy illness, was the owner until early last year of the Sir Sico restaurant in Sun Valley.

Beginning in 1959 he fought a lengthy battle to obtain an entertainment permit for that establishment. For seven years it was opposed by the Los Angeles Police Commission on grounds that he had a lengthy record of arrests for gambling and that he was associated with “known criminals”--his brothers.

He finally won that permit after Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Alfred Gitelson noted that Sica already had a liquor license and that addition of a piano bar had no relation to any allegations of bad character.

The brothers in question, Joseph and Alfred Sica, were described in a state Special Crime Commission report of that era as having left the notorious Mickey Cohen mob to join that of rival gangster Jack Dragna.

Joseph and Alfred Sica were indicted by a federal grand jury in January, 1950, with Abraham Davidian and 13 others on charges of operating the then-biggest heroin smuggling ring in Southern California.

Davidian turned state’s evidence, but was murdered in Fresno before the trial. Prosecution of all defendants was abandoned, prompting U.S. District Judge Peirson M. Hall to criticize prosecutors for their failure to track down the killer or killers in that and three other dope case killings.

Frank Sica leaves two other brothers, Jimmy and Nunzio; his wife, Mary; sons Gary, Bob and Ron as well as sisters Ann DeVito and Jennie Sica.