John Fratto Dies

[Rocco]

Not a made member but I believe his father was. He had a brother who died in a plane crash with boxer Rocky Marciano...a Stern Show guy. He was last seen picking up JOey Merlino from LA Airport in 2012 which was caught on tape by TMZ. Died of lung cancer 3 mos after being diagnosed.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/35034605 ... ies-cancer

[Snakes]

His father was Lew Fratto (aka "Lew Farrell") who was most likely a made guy that ran Chicago's interests in Des Moines, IA. Lew had a couple of brothers who were also involved with the Outfit. Frank, who was born with a deformed left ear, was another guy who was probably made and was also active in Des Moine as well as Chicago's North Side. He was acquainted with several boxers and popular singers of the era, including Ernie Terrell and Sammy Davis, Jr. Rudy Fratto, Sr. ran some garbage rackets for the Outfit. His son and namesake, Rudy Jr., is currently a made guy operating out of the Elmwood Park area. He got out prison a couple of years ago after being convicted of bid-rigging.

[Ed]

Evidence suggests Louis Fratto may have given Intel to the FBI just before he died.

I wrote about here.

http://informer-journal.blogspot.ca/201 ... mants.html

It’s behind a paywall, but FBI files show a well-informed Outfit source from the Omaha/Des Moines-area shared some Intel between 1966 and 1967 at least. The source id'ed members and gave background on the Outfit.

For example, I believe Fratto is T-1 in this FBI file.

http://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html ... 2&tab=page

[Snakes]

Huh, never heard that before. I've heard Butch Blasi and Ralph Pierce being mentioned as highly placed Outfit informers, but never Fratto.

[Jimmerz]

Here's the link to the clip of Merlino getting picked up at LAX , by Johnny Fratto shortly after he was released from prison. I think I read somewhere, that Merlino was out there for his nephews bar mitzvah, but it's still kinda odd that he was picked up by a pseudo gangster like Johnny Fratto. Wonder Wtf that was all about, and how these two got chummy?

http://www.tmz.com/2012/10/18/ex-mob-bo ... ny-fratto/