Ralph F. DeLeo was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas in 1943 and not much is known about his early life. He was sentenced to 25-40 years in state prison at Walpole,Massachusetts for kidnapping and armed robbery when he escaped in 1977. He was convicted of killing an Ohio doctor in 1977 while he was a fugitive and sentenced to 15 years to life. In the early 1990's he was serving time in a federal prison for murder when he met Colombo acting boss Alphonse Persico. they became close friends and when DeLeo was from prison in 1997 he inducted into the Colombo crime family and became a made man.