Fratianno was born in Naples, Italy, in 1913, later immigrating with his family to the United States, settling near Cleveland, Ohio.

In 1976, Australian criminal Murray Riley met with Fratianno in San Francisco, allegedly, to organize drug shipments.

[10] Bompensiero was one of the few made men that Fratianno trusted, as they were old friends, and he was infuriated that the Los Angeles family would give him such a 'contract'.

At this point Fratianno felt that he was tricked into becoming co acting boss with Louie Dragna, a leadership position which required him to be transferred from the Chicago Outfit back to the Los Angeles family.

Licavoli also told Fratianno that the Family had the code numbers for two informants and that the FBI clerk was working on getting their names.

[18] On October 6, 1977, Irish mob boss Danny Greene, a secret FBI informant and mortal enemy of the Cleveland crime family, was killed by a car bomb outside his dentist's office in suburban Lyndhurst, Ohio.

Soon after, Ray Ferritto, a soldier in the Cleveland and Los Angeles crime families, was arrested for the murder based on a detailed sketch by an eyewitness.

Upon hearing that Ferritto had been arrested, Cleveland Mafia boss James Licavoli immediately ordered the former's assassination.

The Cuyahoga County District Attorney indicted Licavoli, Angelo Lonardo, Ferritto, Ronald Carabbia and 15 other members of the Cleveland crime family for conspiring towards Danny Greene's murder.

In return for his testimony, he pleaded guilty to multiple murder charges and received a five-year prison sentence, of which he served 21 months.

[2] In 1980, after his testimony resulted in the racketeering convictions of five reputedly high level Mafia figures, Fratianno entered the federal Witness Protection Program.