Ragano, Frank and Raab, Selwyn. Mob Lawyer. New York: Charles Scribner's
Sons, 1994. 372 pages.
Just when the controversy over Oliver Stone's movie "JFK" was at its
height, mob lawyer Frank Ragano, in an interview with Jack Newfield (New
York Post, 1992-01-14), confessed that in early 1963 he carried a message
from Jimmy Hoffa to Santo Trafficante and Carlos Marcello to take out the
President. Those who believe that the Mafia was responsible felt that this
was a major breakthrough. Stone himself, while noting that the Mafia and
CIA worked hand in hand, insisted that some aspects of the cover-up (the
autopsy photos and the Warren Commission, for example) convinced him of
non-Mafia involvement. And it's curious that every time a loose spotlight
flashes on the CIA, the media start feeding us articles and books about how
Oswald acted alone (Plan A) or how the Mafia did it alone (Plan B); only
kooks and buffs believe otherwise. By now both A and B are non-threatening:
all the players are dead and the mob in America is history. So pick one or
the other, but Plan CIA is still off-limits. The owners of our major media
know that too many threatening secrets are still buried in the vaults at
Langley. Ragano's autobiography is valuable, and it makes a case for Mafia
involvement because there's no strong reason to doubt him. But he was not
involved with the CIA during his career, and Hoffa and Trafficante didn't
tell him more than he needed to know. In the end Ragano merely adds one
very small piece to a much larger puzzle. -- D.Brandt
ISBN 0-684-19568-2
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