25 Facts About Frank Ragano

Frank Ragano was a self-styled "mob lawyer" from Florida, who made his name representing organized crime figures such as Santo Trafficante, Jr.

Frank Ragano immediately befriended Trafficante, who thereafter welcomed him into the inner circles of Florida's organized crime scene.

Frank Ragano worked on various attempts to free Trafficante, who was ultimately released in early 1960 and returned to the United States.

Thanks to a recommendation from Santo Trafficante, Frank Ragano was hired by Jimmy Hoffa to represent him on union corruption charges, thus beginning a long association with the infamous labor leader.

Frank Ragano witnessed millions of dollars of kickbacks to Hoffa from the Teamsters' pension fund.

In 1963, again on Trafficante's recommendation, Frank Ragano began serving as attorney for Carlos Marcello, the head of the New Orleans crime family.

When Kennedy was shot and killed later that year, Frank Ragano wrote that Hoffa always assumed that Trafficante and Marcello had actually carried out such a plan.

Trafficante did "celebrate" with Frank Ragano upon hearing word of Kennedy's assassination, but made no admission to Frank Ragano at that time that he was in any way involved.

Frank Ragano did tell Ragano later that the Central Intelligence Agency had once asked him for help in assassinating Castro in Cuba.

Belli had previously represented Jack Ruby, the man who killed Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused killer of Kennedy, and Frank Ragano claimed that Trafficante warned him not to ask Belli any questions about Ruby.

In connection with an incident made famous in the Martin Scorsese film Goodfellas, Frank Ragano helped represent four mobsters, including "Jimmy the Gent" Burke and Henry Hill, charged in 1972 with extortion in collecting a gambling debt in Tampa, Florida.

Frank Ragano himself became the accused when he was charged with tax evasion in 1972.

In 1978, Ragano testified before the House Select Committee on Assassinations, which was reinvestigating the John F Kennedy assassination, and denied involvement in any JFK plots.

In 1981, Frank Ragano was reinstated as an attorney by The Florida Bar, and eventually made amends with Trafficante, whom he then represented in 1986 in a racketeering case made famous in the film Donnie Brasco.

On May 13,1998, in Tampa, Frank Ragano died in his sleep.

Frank Ragano was survived by his second wife and their two children, and his first wife and their three children.

Frank Ragano died peacefully in his sleep on May 13,1998, in his home in Tampa, Florida.

On January 14,1992, Frank Ragano told Jack Newfield of the New York Post that he relayed a request from Hoffa to Trafficante and Marcello asking that the two Mafia bosses kill Kennedy.

Frank Ragano repeated the claim two days later on ABC's Good Morning America, in Newfield's Frontline report entitled JFK, Hoffa and Mob broadcast in November 1992, and again in his 1994 autobiography Mob Lawyer.

Frank Ragano said that Jim Garrison served as a patsy for the New Orleans mob by disseminating theories that served to distract attention from mafia figures who were involved in the plot.

Frank Ragano wrote that on March 13,1987, a dying Trafficante asked to meet him in Tampa for a hurried meeting.

Duvevamu ammazzari a Bobby," which Frank Ragano translated as: "Carlos screwed up.

Selwyn Raab, who co-authored Mob Lawyer with Frank Ragano, when told of these allegations, stated that no mention was ever made by Frank Ragano about this in any of his notes or in the FBI files.

That is clearly not true as the Frank Ragano's original family had been in the Tampa Bay area since the early 1950s and Frank was born in Tampa.

In 1974, Frank Ragano was convicted on 5 separate tax fraud charges Further, Hal Shaw's recollection that he gave tennis lessons to Frank Ragano's wife was not confirmed by Mrs Ragano, who has no recollection of any such lessons in Tampa.