Frank Ragano
Encyclopedia
Frank Ragano was a self-styled "mob lawyer" from Florida, who made his name representing organized crime figures such as Santo Trafficante, Jr.
and Carlos Marcello
, and also served as lawyer for Teamsters
leader Jimmy Hoffa
. In his 1994 autobiography Mob Lawyer, Ragano recounted his career in defending members of organized crime, and made the controversial allegation that Florida mob boss Santo Trafficante, Jr. confessed to him shortly before he died in 1987 that he and Carlos Marcello had arranged for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy
in 1963. These Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories have been called into serious question by others.
to Sicilian parents, Ragano attended Stetson Law School and clerked for the Florida Supreme Court
before admission to the Florida Bar in 1952 and beginning his trial practice in Tampa, Florida. In 1954 he was recruited by another attorney to represent several defendants arrested in Tampa for involvement in Santo Trafficante, Jr.'s illegal bolita
operations. He immediately befriended Trafficante, who thereafter admitted him into the inner circles of Florida's organized crime scene.
Ragano became a frequent visitor to Trafficante's Havana nightclubs. During one such visit, Trafficante told Ragano that in 1957 he and others had set up then Senator John F. Kennedy in a Havana hotel room with several prostitutes, and that Trafficante rued the day he had failed to preserve the moment in secret surveillance tapes that could have been used for bribery purposes.
In 1959, after Fidel Castro
overthrew the Fulgencio Batista
regime in Cuba, Trafficante's casinos were closed down and he was imprisoned by the new government. Ragano worked on various attempts to free Trafficante, who was released in early 1960 and returned to the United States.
, the entertainer, was one such client for whom he attempted to get a Teamsters' loan. Ragano witnessed kickbacks of millions of dollars to Hoffa from the Teamsters' pension fund.
In 1963, again on Trafficante's recommendation, Ragano began serving as attorney for Carlos Marcello
, the head of the New Orleans crime family
. In his book, Ragano claimed that Hoffa, who was being hounded by Attorney General Robert Kennedy on corruption and jury tampering
charges, asked him to convey a message to Trafficante and Marcello that an assassination of President Kennedy should be arranged. When Kennedy was shot and killed later that year, Ragano wrote that Hoffa always assumed that Trafficante and Marcello had actually carried out such a plan. Trafficante did "celebrate" with Ragano upon hearing word of Kennedy's assassination, but made no admission to Ragano at that time that he was in any way involved. He did tell Ragano later that the Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) had once asked him for help in assassinating Castro in Cuba.
In 1975, Ragano was asked by Trafficante to convey an urgent message to Hoffa to 'be very careful and not take any chances." Within days, Hoffa disappeared under mysterious circumstances, never to be found.
magazine as a "top Cosa Nostra hoodlum." He later sued Time for libel and was represented by famed trial lawyer Melvin Belli
. During the libel trial he was called "house counsel for the mob." He lost his suit. Belli had previously represented Jack Ruby
, the man who killed Lee Harvey Oswald
, the accused killer of Kennedy, and 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
, 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.
Ragano himself became the accused when he was charged with tax evasion in 1972. Although his conviction was reversed on appeal, he was later retried and convicted on related charges. As a result, he was suspended from the practice of law in 1976, and claims that Trafficante provided no support and abandoned him.
In 1978 Ragano testified before the House Select Committee on Assassinations, which was reinvestigating the Kennedy assassination, and he denied any involvement in any JFK plots. In 1981 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 also made famous in a film, Donnie Brasco
. Trafficante, who was also represented by others, was acquitted of all charges.
In 1990, Ragano was again convicted of tax evasion and sentenced to prison. Frank Ragano died in his sleep on May 13, 1998 in Tampa. He was survived by his wife and five children. In 1995, the A&E Network
aired an episode of American Justice
devoted to his career as a "defender of the mob."
This was later found to be a complete fabrication by Ragano, because hospital records proved that Trafficante was in Miami receiving dialysis several times that week. The day that Ragano claimed to have talked to him was one of the days he was actually receiving dialysis. Hospital personnel, neighbors, and friends who all visited the afternoon before he left for Houston from Miami could also confirm this. The evening before leaving for Houston, because of his weakened condition, Mr. Trafficante was driven to the Miami airport by his goddaughter, so that she could help Mrs. Trafficante with securing a wheelchair and other boarding procedures.
This claim by Ragano, seemingly pointing to a successful mob plot to assassinate JFK, has come under much criticism. In his book Reclaiming History
: the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Vincent Bugliosi
has pointed out many flaws in Ragano's claims, including the fact that Trafficante was most likely not in Tampa on the day in question, but was rather in North Miami Beach receiving dialysis treatments.
Bugliosi based much of his conclusions on the research of author Anthony Summers. Summers reviewed medical records and talked to Trafficante's family, neighbors and friends, and discounted the idea that Trafficante could have been in Tampa on the day in question. When Summers talked to Ragano about these problems, Ragano told Summers that he could produce three witnesses who could prove his story, but never did so.
Both Trafficante and Marcello were very private individuals. The House Select Committee on Assassinations in its 1978 Final Report noted specifically that Trafficante was a very "discreet" individual who was unlikely to have made such an admission. Bugliosi argues that it is absurd to think that Marcello and Trafficante would get involved in plotting to assassinate a president, particularly as nothing more than a supposed favor to Jimmy Hoffa. Bugliosi also points out that by allegedly conveying a message in 1963 to that effect, and by relating this confession from an alleged conspirator, Ragano would himself be admitting to having been a part of a murder conspiracy. Ragano's claim, however, was featured prominently on his book's cover and was the most sensational revelation in the book.
When Ragano was questioned by the Assassination Records Review Board
, created in 1992 to reexamine JFK conspiracy theories after the release of the Oliver Stone
film JFK
, he claimed to have contemporaneous notes of his conversations regarding the JFK plot, but when they were produced, "he could not definitively state whether the notes were taken during the meetings [with mob figures]... or later when he was working on his book." His notes were subjected to Secret Service tests to determine when they were actually prepared, but the results were inconclusive.
Cigar City Mafia: A Complete History of the Tampa Underworld (2004), Scott M. Deitche, Barricade Books, ISBN 1-56980-266-1
The Silent Don: The Criminal Underworld of Santo Trafficante, Jr. (2007), Scott Deitche, Barricade Books, ISBN 1-56980-322-6
Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy (2007), Vincent Bugliosi, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., ISBN 978-0-393-04525-3
Santo Trafficante, Jr.
Santo Trafficante, Jr. was one of the last of the old-time Mafia bosses in the United States. He allegedly controlled organized criminal operations in Florida and Cuba, which had previously been consolidated from several rival gangs by his father, Santo Trafficante, Sr...
and Carlos Marcello
Carlos Marcello
Carlos "The Little Man" Marcello was a Sicilian-American mafioso who became the boss of the New Orleans crime family during the 1940s and held this position for the next 30 years.-Early life:...
, and also served as lawyer for Teamsters
Teamsters
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is a labor union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of several local and regional locals of teamsters, the union now represents a diverse membership of blue-collar and professional workers in both the public and private sectors....
leader Jimmy Hoffa
Jimmy Hoffa
James Riddle "Jimmy" Hoffa was an American labor union leader....
. In his 1994 autobiography Mob Lawyer, Ragano recounted his career in defending members of organized crime, and made the controversial allegation that Florida mob boss Santo Trafficante, Jr. confessed to him shortly before he died in 1987 that he and Carlos Marcello had arranged for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
in 1963. These Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories have been called into serious question by others.
Early life
Born in Ybor City, Tampa, FloridaYbor City, Tampa, Florida
Ybor City is a historic neighborhood in Tampa, Florida located just northeast of downtown. It was founded in the 1880s by cigar manufacturers and was populated by thousands of immigrants, mainly from Spain, Cuba, and Italy...
to Sicilian parents, Ragano attended Stetson Law School and clerked for the Florida Supreme Court
Florida Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the State of Florida is the highest court in the U.S. state of Florida. The Supreme Court consists of seven judges: the Chief Justice and six Justices who are appointed by the Governor to 6-year terms and remain in office if retained in a general election near the end of each...
before admission to the Florida Bar in 1952 and beginning his trial practice in Tampa, Florida. In 1954 he was recruited by another attorney to represent several defendants arrested in Tampa for involvement in Santo Trafficante, Jr.'s illegal bolita
Bolita
Bolita , is a type of lottery which was popular in the latter 19th and early 20th centuries in Cuba and among Florida's working class Hispanic, Italian, and black population. In the basic bolita game, 100 small numbered balls are placed into a bag and mixed thoroughly, and bets are taken on which...
operations. He immediately befriended Trafficante, who thereafter admitted him into the inner circles of Florida's organized crime scene.
Ragano became a frequent visitor to Trafficante's Havana nightclubs. During one such visit, Trafficante told Ragano that in 1957 he and others had set up then Senator John F. Kennedy in a Havana hotel room with several prostitutes, and that Trafficante rued the day he had failed to preserve the moment in secret surveillance tapes that could have been used for bribery purposes.
In 1959, after Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
overthrew the Fulgencio Batista
Fulgencio Batista
Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar was the United States-aligned Cuban President, dictator and military leader who served as the leader of Cuba from 1933 to 1944 and from 1952 to 1959, before being overthrown as a result of the Cuban Revolution....
regime in Cuba, Trafficante's casinos were closed down and he was imprisoned by the new government. Ragano worked on various attempts to free Trafficante, who was released in early 1960 and returned to the United States.
Hoffa and Marcello
In 1960, thanks to Trafficante's recommendations, Ragano was hired by Jimmy Hoffa to represent him on union corruption charges, thus beginning a long association with the infamous labor leader. He used his position with Hoffa to help place loans from the Teamsters' pension funds in return for "finder's fees." LiberaceLiberace
Wladziu Valentino Liberace , best known simply as Liberace, was a famous American pianist and vocalist.In a career that spanned four decades of concerts, recordings, motion pictures, television and endorsements, Liberace became world-renowned...
, the entertainer, was one such client for whom he attempted to get a Teamsters' loan. Ragano witnessed kickbacks of millions of dollars to Hoffa from the Teamsters' pension fund.
In 1963, again on Trafficante's recommendation, Ragano began serving as attorney for Carlos Marcello
Carlos Marcello
Carlos "The Little Man" Marcello was a Sicilian-American mafioso who became the boss of the New Orleans crime family during the 1940s and held this position for the next 30 years.-Early life:...
, the head of the New Orleans crime family
New Orleans crime family
The New Orleans crime family is one of the oldest American criminal organizations in activity. It is based in New Orleans and parts of southern Louisiana in the United States. Its status today is unknown, as it remained in the shadows since 1993...
. In his book, Ragano claimed that Hoffa, who was being hounded by Attorney General Robert Kennedy on corruption and jury tampering
Jury tampering
Jury tampering is the crime of unduly attempting to influence the composition and/or decisions of a jury during the course of a trial.The means by which this crime could be perpetrated can include attempting to discredit potential jurors to ensure they will not be selected for duty. Once selected,...
charges, asked him to convey a message to Trafficante and Marcello that an assassination of President Kennedy should be arranged. When Kennedy was shot and killed later that year, Ragano wrote that Hoffa always assumed that Trafficante and Marcello had actually carried out such a plan. Trafficante did "celebrate" with Ragano upon hearing word of Kennedy's assassination, but made no admission to Ragano at that time that he was in any way involved. He did tell Ragano later that the Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
(CIA) had once asked him for help in assassinating Castro in Cuba.
In 1975, Ragano was asked by Trafficante to convey an urgent message to Hoffa to 'be very careful and not take any chances." Within days, Hoffa disappeared under mysterious circumstances, never to be found.
Later life
In 1966, while representing Trafficante in connection with an arrest of several top mobsters in New York City, Ragano was photographed having lunch with Trafficante, Marcello and others, and was identified by TimeTime (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine as a "top Cosa Nostra hoodlum." He later sued Time for libel and was represented by famed trial lawyer Melvin Belli
Melvin Belli
Melvin Mouron Belli was a prominent American lawyer known as "The King of Torts" and by detractors as 'Melvin Bellicose'. He had many celebrity clients, including Zsa Zsa Gabor, Errol Flynn, Chuck Berry, Muhammad Ali, Sirhan Sirhan, the Rolling Stones, Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye Bakker, Martha...
. During the libel trial he was called "house counsel for the mob." He lost his suit. Belli had previously represented Jack Ruby
Jack Ruby
Jacob Leon Rubenstein , who legally changed his name to Jack Leon Ruby in 1947, was convicted of the November 24, 1963 murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin of President John F. Kennedy. Ruby, who was originally from Chicago, Illinois, was then a nightclub operator in Dallas, Texas...
, the man who killed Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald was, according to four government investigations,These were investigations by: the Federal Bureau of Investigation , the Warren Commission , the House Select Committee on Assassinations , and the Dallas Police Department. the sniper who assassinated John F...
, the accused killer of Kennedy, and Ragano claimed that Trafficante warned him not to ask Belli any questions about Ruby.
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
film Goodfellas
Goodfellas
Goodfellas is a 1990 American crime film directed by Martin Scorsese. It is a film adaptation of the 1986 non-fiction book Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi, who co-wrote the screenplay with Scorsese...
, 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.
Ragano himself became the accused when he was charged with tax evasion in 1972. Although his conviction was reversed on appeal, he was later retried and convicted on related charges. As a result, he was suspended from the practice of law in 1976, and claims that Trafficante provided no support and abandoned him.
In 1978 Ragano testified before the House Select Committee on Assassinations, which was reinvestigating the Kennedy assassination, and he denied any involvement in any JFK plots. In 1981 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 also made famous in a film, Donnie Brasco
Donnie Brasco (film)
Donnie Brasco is a 1997 crime drama film directed by Mike Newell, starring Al Pacino, Johnny Depp and Michael Madsen. It is loosely based on the real-life events of Joseph D. Pistone, an FBI agent who infiltrated the Bonanno crime family, one of the Mafia's Five Families based in New York City...
. Trafficante, who was also represented by others, was acquitted of all charges.
In 1990, Ragano was again convicted of tax evasion and sentenced to prison. Frank Ragano died in his sleep on May 13, 1998 in Tampa. He was survived by his wife and five children. In 1995, the A&E Network
A&E Network
The A&E Network is a United States-based cable and satellite television network with headquarters in New York City and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, London, Los Angeles and Stamford. A&E also airs in Canada and Latin America. Initially named the Arts & Entertainment Network, A&E launched...
aired an episode of American Justice
American Justice
American Justice is an American criminal justice television program on the A&E Network, hosted by Bill Kurtis. The show features interesting or notable cases, such as the Selena Murder of a Star, Scarsdale Diet doctor murder, the Hillside Stranglers, Matthew Shepard, or the Wells Fargo heist, with...
devoted to his career as a "defender of the mob."
JFK assassination claims
Although Ragano believed he had received a few hints from both Trafficante and Marcello that they had somehow been involved in the Kennedy assassination, it was not until just before he died in 1987 that Trafficante, according to Ragano, made a direct confession to him. Ragano wrote that on March 13, 1987, a dying Trafficante (he died four days later) asked to meet him in Tampa for a hurried meeting. While riding in Ragano's car, Trafficante allegedly told Ragano in Sicilian: "Carlos e' futtutu. Non duvevamu ammazzari a Giovanni. Duvevamu ammazzari a Bobby," which Ragano translated as: "Carlos screwed up. We shouldn't have killed John. We should have killed Bobby."This was later found to be a complete fabrication by Ragano, because hospital records proved that Trafficante was in Miami receiving dialysis several times that week. The day that Ragano claimed to have talked to him was one of the days he was actually receiving dialysis. Hospital personnel, neighbors, and friends who all visited the afternoon before he left for Houston from Miami could also confirm this. The evening before leaving for Houston, because of his weakened condition, Mr. Trafficante was driven to the Miami airport by his goddaughter, so that she could help Mrs. Trafficante with securing a wheelchair and other boarding procedures.
This claim by Ragano, seemingly pointing to a successful mob plot to assassinate JFK, has come under much criticism. In his book Reclaiming History
Reclaiming History
Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy is a book by attorney Vincent Bugliosi that analyzes the events leading up to and including the assassination of John F. Kennedy, focusing on the lives of Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby. The book is drawn from many sources,...
: the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Vincent Bugliosi
Vincent Bugliosi
Vincent Bugliosi is an American attorney and author, best known for prosecuting Charles Manson and other defendants accused of the Tate-LaBianca murders. His most recent books are Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy , The Prosecution of George W...
has pointed out many flaws in Ragano's claims, including the fact that Trafficante was most likely not in Tampa on the day in question, but was rather in North Miami Beach receiving dialysis treatments.
Bugliosi based much of his conclusions on the research of author Anthony Summers. Summers reviewed medical records and talked to Trafficante's family, neighbors and friends, and discounted the idea that Trafficante could have been in Tampa on the day in question. When Summers talked to Ragano about these problems, Ragano told Summers that he could produce three witnesses who could prove his story, but never did so.
Both Trafficante and Marcello were very private individuals. The House Select Committee on Assassinations in its 1978 Final Report noted specifically that Trafficante was a very "discreet" individual who was unlikely to have made such an admission. Bugliosi argues that it is absurd to think that Marcello and Trafficante would get involved in plotting to assassinate a president, particularly as nothing more than a supposed favor to Jimmy Hoffa. Bugliosi also points out that by allegedly conveying a message in 1963 to that effect, and by relating this confession from an alleged conspirator, Ragano would himself be admitting to having been a part of a murder conspiracy. Ragano's claim, however, was featured prominently on his book's cover and was the most sensational revelation in the book.
When Ragano was questioned by the Assassination Records Review Board
Assassination Records Review Board
The Assassination Records Review Board was created as a result of an act passed by the US Congress in 1992, entitled the "President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act." The Act mandated the gathering and release of all US Government records related to the Assassination of John F....
, created in 1992 to reexamine JFK conspiracy theories after the release of the Oliver Stone
Oliver Stone
William Oliver Stone is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Stone became well known in the late 1980s and the early 1990s for directing a series of films about the Vietnam War, for which he had previously participated as an infantry soldier. His work frequently focuses on...
film JFK
JFK (film)
JFK is a 1991 American film directed by Oliver Stone. It examines the events leading to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and alleged subsequent cover-up, through the eyes of former New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison .Garrison filed charges against New Orleans businessman Clay...
, he claimed to have contemporaneous notes of his conversations regarding the JFK plot, but when they were produced, "he could not definitively state whether the notes were taken during the meetings [with mob figures]... or later when he was working on his book." His notes were subjected to Secret Service tests to determine when they were actually prepared, but the results were inconclusive.
Books
Mob Lawyer (1994), Frank Ragano and Selwyn Raab, Charles Scribner's Sons, ISBN 0-684-19568-2Cigar City Mafia: A Complete History of the Tampa Underworld (2004), Scott M. Deitche, Barricade Books, ISBN 1-56980-266-1
The Silent Don: The Criminal Underworld of Santo Trafficante, Jr. (2007), Scott Deitche, Barricade Books, ISBN 1-56980-322-6
Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy (2007), Vincent Bugliosi, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., ISBN 978-0-393-04525-3