Frank Ragano

[Tim Gratz]

An interesting story I found on the Internet (re a Robert Capriano):

The most important and rewarding project for Cipriano was a movie development deal that he pioneered. Cipriano landed the exclusive rights to the Frank Ragano Story. Frank Ragano was the personal attorney to Jimmy Hoffa, Santos Trafficante and Carlos Marcello in the fifties, sixties and seventies. Frank Ragano came to Cipriano through a dear friend and business associate New York City based New York Times Book Editor named Tom Lipscomb. Frank was in his golden years and wanted to tell the story of his years with Jimmy Hoffa. Frank Ragano needed to “make things right.” Cipriano contracted with Robin Moore, writer of such books and screenplays as (1969's The French Connection, the story of an international drug ring; 1965's The Green Berets, about the Vietnam War; and 1994's The Moscow Connection, about illegal Russian arms smuggling. to sit down with Ragano and make sense of the entire story. In 1948 Ragano 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. Frank sat Cipriano down in Tampa Florida at a Holiday Inn Hotel and explained that Trafficante, Marcello and Hoffa had all been involved in the assassination of President John F. Kenendy. Further, that 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 Frank’s admissions he 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 the President . When Kennedy was killed Hoffa apparently said to Ragano: "I told you, 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." Cipriano proceeded to arrange the stars financing, production deal, director and producers, while holding on to the Executive Production position. Robert Cipriano, Griff O’Neil, Bob Parkinson, Clifford Perlman (Ceasars Hotel Casino) (Parkinson Friendly Productions) and Robin Moore met with Frank Ragano for production detailed meetings throughout all of 1985. After six months of pre-production, the temporary casting of Robert Redford as Hoffa, and other named Hollywood stars, MGM, the distribution on the project decided to retract their commitment due to influence and concerns by the Teamsters. The project was shelved until Oliver Stone and JFK was completed.

http://www.2424worldconcert.com/bios/rjc.htm

What happened to Cipriano later?

See:

http://www.xenu.net/archive/personal_story...iano/mutual.htm

[J. Raymond Carroll]

After six months of pre-production, the temporary casting of Robert Redford as Hoffa, and other named Hollywood stars, MGM, the distribution on the project decided to retract their commitment due to influence and concerns by the Teamsters. The project was shelved until Oliver Stone and JFK was completed.

The inference seems to be that Oliver Stone or Warner Bros. somehow killed this movie, but I doubt very much if that was so. I had never heard of a lawyer being disbarred TWICE, but Frank Ragano managed somehow to do it. In fact, being twice disbarred remains his principal claim to fame, although for some peculiar reason, that fact seems only to endear him to Tim Gratz, who persists in writing about Ragano on this forum as though Ragano were a credible person.

I pointed out to Tim Gratz on an earlier thread that when Frank Ragano first submitted his book proposal to an agent, it made no mention of the JFK assassination. When the agent told him that the book was not important enough to attract a major publisher and needed something that people might get excited about, it was then -- and not till then -- that Ragano suddenly "remembered" the ridiculous story about Hoffa asking him to carry the assassination message to Trafficante. The source for this is none other than Frank Ragano himself, who stupidly revealed it in an interview with the distinguished journalist Jack Newfield that was published in the New York Post.

The most likely reason MGM pulled the plug on the Ragano story is that they eventually found all this out.

Tim Gratz knows all this, because I pointed it out to him months ago. I do not know for certain what Tim Gratz hopes to accomplish by recycling this long-discredited story on this forum, but his posting here is consistent with an agenda that is designed, in the words of Charles Sanders Peirce, to "block the way of inquiry."

[Scott Deitche]

Unfortunately Ragano passed away shortly after I was getting ready to contact him for my first book.

Since then I've talked to literally hundreds of Tampans , from mob guys to law enforcement to lawyers, and they all say that Ragano 's story was major BS.

Now that's not anything credible- merely people talking- but it is by far the most prevailing comment when people meet me.

Anyway, Mob Lawyer is a great book to get a feel for the immigrant experience in Tampa and a side of Trafficante that many people rarely saw. As for the message transferred- don't think we'll never know for certain.

One thing is certain though- the days that Ragano said Trafficante drove with him on Bayshore Boulevard in Tampa and spilled his guts- Trafficante was in Miami Beach getting dialysis.

None of this discredits Trafficante's possible complicity in the assasination.