CA CA - Frank Damato, 28, San Francisco, 21 Dec 1983

[Gardener1850]

[h=1]Frank Joseph Damato[/h]

Damato, circa 1983

• Missing Since 12/21/1983
• Missing From San Francisco, California
• Classification Missing
• Date of Birth 09/14/1955 (62)
• Age 28 years old
• Height and Weight 5'9, 180 pounds
• Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian male. Brown hair, brown eyes. Damato may have a mustache.

[h=3]Details of Disappearance[/h] Damato was last seen in San Francisco, California on December 21, 1983. He has never been heard from again. Few details are available in Damato's case.

http://charleyproject.org/case/frank-joseph-damato


https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/37772/

 

[CastlesBurning]

Bumping for Frank, now missing over 38 years...

Frank Joseph Damato

 

[citizen_sleuth]

Frank Joseph Damato was the son of Frank Damato, a man known down at Fisherman's Wharf as "The King of Crab Fishermen." Frank J. followed in his father's footsteps, having spent his entire life immersed in crab fishing beginning at a young age just as Frank Sr. had done.

In 1982, the then-26-year-old Frank J. began working alongside his father on the 46-foot Leonilda, although the rapidly diminishing crab population in the Bay placed the fate of the family business in jeopardy. When Frank J.'s father first started fishing, crabs were plentiful and he could bring in 1,000 pounds a day; by 1982, that number plummeted to 100 pounds.

On December 21, 1983, at around 1 a.m., the Lillian D.––the boat that Frank J. was believed to have been on––was discovered abandoned underneath the Bay Bridge, idling out of gear and its radio and other electronic equipment turned on. Frank Sr. believed his son went out to fish for herring, which was going to be in season the following week, because the equipment was in use. Frank Sr. was also his son's partner in the boat.

"It could have been an accident, perhaps he got dizzy, slipped and fell," Frank Sr. told the San Francisco Examiner the day after the Lillian D. was located. "It does happen. Some people are lucky that there is someone there to retrieve them."

Less than a year after his son's disappearance, new efforts by the Port Commission to limit mooring access at the Wharf to non-commercial fishermen and an imminent depression in market prices threatened to destroy Frank Sr.'s business. Evidently, Frank Sr. did relocate––he moved his operations to the Ports O' Call Village in San Pedro to operate the Anna Maria II with Jim Damato.

In the early morning hours on January 31, 1987, an electrical fire broke out at the fishing pier, causing over $1.5 million in damages including the total destruction of two commercial fishing boats––one of which was the Damatos' Anna Maria II. The Los Angeles Harbor Commission agreed in 1988 to pay $400,473 to the Damatos as part of a settlement. Investigators with the Fire Department believed the blaze was the result of an electrical short in the wiring used to light the dock.

Sources

Frank Joseph Damato obituary, San Francisco Examiner, 25 December 1983, pg. B9.

Lon Daniels, "Season's first fresh crab tasty, but not too plentiful," San Francisco Examiner, 11 November 1982, pg. D9.

Marsha Ginsburg, "Port in a storm: Fishermen (only) wharf policy stirs protest," San Francisco Examiner, 29 July 1984, pg. B1-B10.

"Harbor panel to pay SP men for lost boats," News-Pilot [San Pedro], 14 July 1988, pg. A3.

John Jacobs, "California crab fleet declares war on the Navy," San Francisco Examiner, 20 March 1979, pg. 3.

"Price Row Idles S.F. Crab Fleet," The Times [San Mateo], 13 November 1974, pg. 4.

"Search for missing San Francisco fisherman is suspended," San Francisco Examiner, 22 December 1983, pg. B7.

Peter Stack, "The Dogged Fishermen: Hard Times for the S.F. Fleet," San Francisco Examiner, 26 November 1972, pg. 3.

Ken Wong, "In search of the elusive Bay crab," San Francisco Examiner, 6 January 1982, pg. C-4.

 

[citizen_sleuth]

@FOXINBOX would love to get your thoughts on this case—IMO (and I say this very hesitantly because I am the last person who would pass judgement on a family member of a victim) the Dads response struck me as... a bit weird?

 

[FOXINBOX]

Here I am. Was going to pull a face and say, "1983, that's a bit late for Fox's List." And then I put in the Last Seen map reference for Frankie, and I'm hooked [Sorry, naughty pun]. I am well familiar google-wise with the Streets of San Francisco [And that's a very 1970's moustache that Frank is sporting!] . Put in the "Streets" interior filming warehouse @ Kearny and wondered how much it would cost Douglas if Zeta Jones divorced him now...before I could move on.
And then that's a very "Zodiac significant" date on which Frankie chose to disappear...15 year anniversary of Lake Herman...

I think I had better stop being a Silly Fox, as it's now 8am and the dog has arrived to supervise me.

So far, what strikes me is:-
1) The Lillian D is retrieved with barely a scratch. So no dent in the Damato finances there.
2) As far as I can ascertain, the boat was abandoned almost exactly due east of Fisherman's Wharf, at a convenient spot for the helmsman [Whoever] to be picked up by an accomplice.
3) I'm not too phazed by Frank Snr's reaction. It reminded me of an episode in Rick Stein's Road to Mexico [Yes, I like to eat, and I have a very eclectic and not particularly discriminatory viewing habit] but this is a serious comment. It was season 1 episode 2, where he interviewed a Californian fisherman

[Stein] Can I just ask you this? You don't have to answer. You lost all your brothers fishing?

[Fisherman] Yeah. In one form or another, yeah.

How many brothers did you lose fishing?

Nine. There was nine boys. I'm the last one still here. Yeah.

But you still believe in it?

I-I got no choice. This is what I do. It's what I know. I left school to be a fisherman and I wanted to be a fisherman
like my dad and my brothers.

- [Fox] It's a dangerous profession!

4) Was that a rather quick mass for our Frankie, or am I wrong?. [I might be, I don't have much insight into these matters].
Just to hype up the Zodiac followers and the Da Vinci Code theorists - That's Christmass @ 666 Filbert. OMG The Number of the Beast! Heh Heh...you naughty Fox!

5) That "Last Seen", which I got from coordinates on findthemissing, turns out to be San Francisco State Uni,- a smidgen unlikely, although not without some merit. Have we got any more information on this sighting?

6) Ports o Call - that's a hellova long way to relocate.

At the moment, I'm leaning towards an insurance scam or a change of identity. Without wishing to draw any prejudicial inferences, Frankie Jo was 28 and unmarried, unusual in his community.

Two hours later and the dog's abandoned me, so I better be getting along.

Proto-map @ Frankie Went to... - Google My Maps

 

[FOXINBOX]

Frank Jnr. is officially dead. A death certificate has been issued for him. So how is he on a missing list?

 

[FOXINBOX]

Not in a jokey mood this morning.

The problem with this case is that there is so little data. We don't know when Frank Jnr. was last seen or anything about his relationships, we don't know whether he was a veteran of the armed forces, or how long he'd had the Lillian D, and...I was going to say frankly...but I'm quite serious about this...we need an expert on the tides and currents of San Francisco Bay to tell us if Frank Jnr.'s boat was a plant or a genuine derelict.

I can however envision a scenario where the Damato's boats were being used, not necessarily with their cognizance, for more than crab fishing, and the loss of earnings when the navy destroyed hundreds of crab pots might have been a deal more more than the face value given. Furthermore, the organisations involved in this sort of trade are adept at staging the disappearance of opponents.

I'm still working on the map, and I'll keep it open for a while to see if any WebSleuth has something to add. Frankie Went to... - Google My Maps
but I'm not hopeful

 

[FOXINBOX]

A few notes on the San Francisco mob.
By 1990, there were only a few in San Francisco, one was Sergio Maranghi, who was involved in drug trafficking.
Maranghi had moved to the U.S. from Florence, Italy in 1975, settled in San Francisco in 1978. He first began working at Starfish Co., a fish processing company on Pier 45 [Fishermans' Wharf], then in 1980 he opened the Anchor Cafe on Colombus, in North Beach also home to the Damatos. Who knows but they rubbed shoulders with him @ the church or cafe, without even knowing Eventually Maranghi became an informant in order to avoid a long prison sentence.
4 Dec 1988, 19 - The San Francisco Examiner at Newspapers.com

I have added the information to the map, see above.

 

[FOXINBOX]

C_S, the map is quite interesting now, especially close-up in the North Beach area...

 

[citizen_sleuth]

C_S, the map is quite interesting now, especially close-up in the North Beach area...

This is very interesting! I'm wondering if Frank Damato and Maranghi crossed paths––although we will never know for sure, the fact that both of them were a) fishermen b) from Italy and c) operated out of the same wharf leads me to believe they at least knew of eachother.

 

[spartanx]

Generally, fishermen die at sea, the boat capsizes in a storm or perhaps pirates... we will never know what happened to him, there are no maps or clues that will help if the sea took him away...
rest in peace