Frank
Ragano was born in 1923. His Sicilian born father ran a small store
in Tampa. He joined the United States Army
during the Second World War and won the Bronze
Star while fighting in Germany.
After
the war Ragano became a clerk for the Florida Supreme Court. In 1948
he began representing Mafia boss, Santos
Trafficante.
He also
worked for New Orleans Mafia boss
Carlos
Marcello
and in 1961 he defended
Jimmy
Hoffa
against claims that he had plundered the Teamster Pension Fund.
In
1971, Ragano was arrested for tax evasion. One of his partners, Sam
Rizzo, gave evidence against him in court. He was convicted and given
3 years probation. More importantly, he lost the licence needed to
work as a lawyer. This was eventually regained in 1981 and in 1984
he represented Santos
Trafficante
in a racketeering
trial.
In
August 1990, Ragano was again charged with tax evasion. After a long
struggle he was eventually sentenced to 10 months in prison.
On
14th January, 1992, the New York Post
claimed that Trafficante, Marcello and Hoffa had all been involved
in the assassination of President
John
F. Kennedy.
Ragano
was quoted as saying that at the beginning of 1963 Hoffa had told
him to take a message to Trafficante and Marcello concerning the plan
to kill Kennedy. When the meeting took place at the Royal Orleans
Hotel, Ragano told the men: "You won't believe what Hoffa wants
me to tell you. Jimmy wants you to kill the president." He reported
that both men gave the impression that they intended to carry out
this order.
In
his autobiography, Mob Lawyer
(1994) (co-written with journalist Selwyn Raab) Ragano added that
in July, 1963, he was once again sent to New
Orleans
by Hoffa
to meet Santos
Trafficante
and Carlos
Marcello
concerning plans to kill
President John
F. Kennedy.
When
Kennedy was killed Hoffa apparently said to Ragano: "I told you
could do it. I'll never forget what Carlos and Santos did for me."
He added: "This means Bobby is out as Attorney General".
Marcello later told Ragano: "When you see Jimmy (Hoffa), you
tell him he owes me and he owes me big."
Ragano also told Dan E.
Moldea of the Washington Post
that the Garrison investigation of Clay Shaw,
Guy Banister and David
Ferrie was an attempt to divert public attention away from Carlos
Marcello.
According to Ragano "Garrison was shielding Marcello from being
implicated in the Kennedy murder case," Ragano says.
Ragano
also told the story of how Santos
Trafficante remarked
just four days before he died: "That Bobby (Kennedy) made life
miserable for me and my friends... We shouldn't have killed John (Kennedy).
We should have killed Bobby."
Open
Debate on the Kennedy Assassination
(1)
Frank
Ragano, Mob Lawyer (1994)
Of the
Mafia trio, only Roselli testified before the State committee. On
July 19, 1975, the night before he was going to be questioned by committee
members, Sam Giancana was preparing a supper... when a person he evidently
trusted and had invited to share the meal ended his life by firing
a .22 caliber handgun equipped with silencer into the back of his
head. The killer followed up by discharging six more rounds into Giancana's
neck and mouth.
Some organized-crime experts
theorized that Giancana's murder was unrelated to the Senate inquiry,
and that he was killed by rivals to stop him from regaining supremacy
of Chicago's Mafia clan. From what I had picked up over the years
about mob executions, the nature of Giancana's death contradicts that
theory. In a traditional Mafia hit, a bullet in the throat signifies
that the victim had been 'talking,' and a bullet in the mouth means
he will never 'rat' again. Undoubtedly, Giancana was murdered to prevent
him from talking about the CIA-Castro plot or any other Mafia secret.
Almost exactly on the first
anniversary of Giancana's death, another layer of mystery was added
to the coincidence of his slaying and the Senate's CIA investigation.
After years of seemingly cooperating with congressional committees
and talking rather freely with newspaper columnists about Mafia affairs,
Johnny Roselli became extremely cautious, almost reclusive...
In late July 1976, Roselli
made a dinner date. He was seen with his old friend Santo Trafficante
at The Landings, a restaurant in Fort Lauderdale. Two days after dining
with Santo, Roselli disappeared.
Twelve days later, on August
7, 1976, a fifty gallon drum containing the legless body of a silver-haired
man... The corpse was Johnny Roselli.
The manner of Roselli's
death also fit a Mafia pattern. He was beguiled to his death by someone
he trusted. The dumping of his body in the bay was another message:
The killers either wanted to give the impression that he had deliberately
vanished or they wanted to punish his relatives for his misdeeds,
perhaps his violation of omerta...
One fact, however, was
indisputable: Santo Trafficante was the only survivor of the three
mobsters recruited by the CIA to kill Fidel Castro.
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