In 1931 his uncle Jack Dragna became Boss of the Los Angeles crime family and named his father Tom his Consigliere.
Dragna became a made man in 1947 along with Jimmy "The Weasel" Fratianno, Dominic Brooklier, Joseph Dippolito, and Salvatore "Dago Louie" Piscopo.
In 1959, Dragna was arrested with mobsters Joe Sica, Frankie Carbo, Frank "Blinky" Palermo, and Truman Gibson for extorting Jackie Leonard, the manager of boxing champion Don Jordan in 1958.
Fratianno wrote in The Last Mafioso that he felt Dragna was so busy with his Roberta Manufacturing Company he did not have time to be a mob boss.
[11] On October 14, 1980, Jimmy Fratianno, a longtime member of the Los Angeles family and close associate of Dragna's, testified in the case.
According to federal prosecutors, Peter Milano once discussed in the 1980s with members of the Cleveland crime family a plot to have Dragna murdered for violating the oath of omertà.
[12] During Milano's arrest in 1987, prosecutors were going to call Cleveland crime family underboss-turned-government witness Angelo Lonardo to testify to this allegation.
Milano's lawyer strongly denied these allegations, stating that if it were true, Dragna would have received a formal warning from the FBI.