[2] 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.
[4] 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.
Thanks to a recommendation from Santo Trafficante, Ragano was hired by Jimmy Hoffa to represent him on union corruption charges, thus beginning a long association with the infamous labor leader.
[8] In 1963, again on Trafficante's recommendation, Ragano began serving as attorney for Carlos Marcello, the head of the New Orleans crime family.
[10] 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.
[19] 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.
'"[29] In a review for ABA Journal, Martin Kimel called it an "intelligent memoir" and wrote: "Despite the seaminess of its cast of characters, Mob Lawyer is engrossing reading and an object lesson in lifestyles of the rich and infamous.
"[30] Ronald Goldfarb reviewed the book for The Washington Post stating: "Ragano's biography of his career is full of naive rationalizations about the virtues of these men he cavorted with and represented..., and self-serving criticism of the government's Gestapo-like tactics, selective prosecution, use of spies as witnesses and intimidation of suspects' families.
"[31] On January 14, 1992, Ragano told Jack Newfield of the New York Post that he relayed a request from Hoffa to Trafficante and Marcello asking that the two Mafia bosses kill Kennedy.
"[37] 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.
[38] 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.
[40] Shortly after the initial allegations, Jeffrey Hart compared Ragano's account with that presented in Oliver Stone's recently released film JFK.
[41] Hart also quoted Frank Mankiewicz, Robert F. Kennedy's press secretary, as finding Ragano's scenario as "the most plausible (assassination) theory".
[42] In August, 2013, The Tampa Tribune newspaper and ESPN published allegations by a former employee of the Palma Ceia Country Club in Tampa, claiming that in 1973 an employee overheard Ragano, Trafficante and Marcello discussing plans by Bobby Riggs to throw the famed tennis match with female tennis star Billie Jean King.
Trafficante and Marcello were not known to frequent the Palma Ceia Country Club, preferring meetings at Malio's Steakhouse in Tampa or La Tropicana Cafe in Ybor City to discuss mob business.
[43] In 2016, Robert J. Cipriano obtained the film rights to Mob Lawyer from Ragano's wife Nancy and son Chris.