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| - Martorano was born in Somerville, Massachusetts in 1940. He is the older brother of James Martorano by eleven months. His father, was an immigrant from Riesi, Sicily, Italy; his mother was of Irish descent. As a young boy growing up he was a devout Catholic and was even an altar boy. In his 60 Minutes interview with Steve Kroft he stated that his father instilled the value, "You're the oldest son and this is your heritage (referring to his father's connections to organized crime). You've got to take care of your family and be a man." The Martorano family soon moved to the Irish enclave of East Milton, Massachusetts. As a young boy he attended Thayer Academy in Braintree, Massachusetts with his brother Jimmie in grades 6 and 7. He later enrolled in Mount Saint Charles Academy in Woonsocket,
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| - Martorano was born in Somerville, Massachusetts in 1940. He is the older brother of James Martorano by eleven months. His father, was an immigrant from Riesi, Sicily, Italy; his mother was of Irish descent. As a young boy growing up he was a devout Catholic and was even an altar boy. In his 60 Minutes interview with Steve Kroft he stated that his father instilled the value, "You're the oldest son and this is your heritage (referring to his father's connections to organized crime). You've got to take care of your family and be a man." The Martorano family soon moved to the Irish enclave of East Milton, Massachusetts. As a young boy he attended Thayer Academy in Braintree, Massachusetts with his brother Jimmie in grades 6 and 7. He later enrolled in Mount Saint Charles Academy in Woonsocket, Rhode Island where he graduated. During high school, he played football with future CBS News television journalist Ed Bradley whom he affectionately referred to as "Big Ed". On the football field he earned the moniker "The Millkman" because as Ed Bradley would say, "... he always delivered." His high school yearbook quote states, "Courage can be a very difficult neurosis." It stated that he would "always be remembered for his great football potentials (as a running back) innumerable touchdowns... admits his pet peeve is the subject, history. He was his Home Room Delegate from Grades 9 to 11 and played on the football team for Grades 9 and 10, later becoming the co-captain of the team in Grades 9, 10 and in grade 11 became the team captain. Along with football, John also competed on the school's track and field team in long distance running and the hardball baseball team in Grades 9 and 10. He graduated with his younger brother James from Milton High School in 1959. Some of his criminal associates mispronounced his last name as "Marterannos". After becoming a mob turncoat, Martorano agreed to have his friend Bradley interview him on 60 Minutes, but Bradley died before this could occur. Steve Kroft interviewed Martorano in Ed Bradley's place shortly after Bradley's death. He is the ex-husband of Irish-American Carolyn Wood with whom he fathered a son he named after himself, John Martorano Jr., a daughter Jeannie that bore him one grand daughter. Carolyn divorced him in 1975. In October 1999 he made a deal to turn state's evidence for the government. Although by many criminologists and investigators his friends James Bulger and Stephen Flemmi are considered to be serial killers, John told Ed Bradley, "I might be a vigilante, but not a serial killer. Serial killers, you have to stop them. They'll never stop, they enjoy it. I never enjoyed it. I don't enjoy risking my life but if the cause was right, I would." Ralph DeMasi, convicted and incarcerated Boston mobster in White Deer, Pennsylvania would later write to the courts that when he was with fellow Irish mobster William (Billy) O'Brien in 1964, driving down Morrissey Boulevard that it was Martorano who pulled up in a car alongside them and gunned down O'Brien, shooting him seventeen times with a machine gun and wounding DeMasi. In a letter he would write about the events that almost led to his death, "I thought someone was taking target practice at us. It was my good friend John Martorano."
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