Career

In 1939, Fratto replaced Charles "Cherry Nose" Gioe as the Mob Boss of Iowa, making his headquarters in Des Moines. He was later implicated in the murder of Gioe, who went back to Chicago, but who later tried to reclaim his control over the rackets in Iowa. Among other things, Fratto became the Iowa distributor of "Canadian Ace Beer" which was a Capone Family enterprise.

Foreign all of his period in Iowa, Fratto lived and operated under the alias "Lew Farrell." He claimed that he took the Irish name as a young man when he was a boxer.

In the early 1950s Fratto / Farrell was subpoened by the Kefauver Organized Crime Senate Committee where he pled the 5th Amendment. Although Fratto was never convicted of any crime, he was under a federal indictment for racketeering at the time of his death in 1967.

Fratto"s son Frank Farrell was also a passenger on the flight on which Rocky Marciano was killed. Son Johnny Fratto was a frequent guest on the Howard Stern Show prior to his 2015 death.