Petrucci was born to a humble family, and rose first as an assistant to Giovanni Ammirato di Aversa, to become skillful in jurisprudence and negotiations.
On 13 August 1486, while celebrating at Castel Nuovo the marriage of Maria Piccolomini (niece of Don Ferrante) and Marco Coppola, son of a rich baronial merchant, the king entered the great hall with his soldiers and arrested both Petrucci and Coppola and their sons, and others for being part of the conspiracy.
On 11 December, Francesco was placed in a small cart, with a cord round his neck and chained; he was conducted past all the noble sediles (districts) in the town, until he reached the great Piazza del Mercato, where a high scaffold had been erected, and the executioner decapitated him and quartered him: the quarter of the head was exposed upon a stake with iron prongs by the custom-house at Casa Nuova, the second by the custom-house at Sant'Antonio, the third by the bridge and the house of Angelo Covio, and the fourth by a chapel.
It is noticeable that both Coppola and Petrucci were newcomers to the aristocracy, gaining their titles through service and not through ancestral landholdings; this, and their residence in Naples, made them more susceptible and easy targets for the king to acquire their riches.
Much controversy followed because some pointed out the king had agreed to a general pardon for those in rebellion, when the arrests were made, and that he had set up the wedding as a trap for the families.