Sometime in October 1972, Maloney was recruited to become a part of the kidnapping-ransom ring with McBratney, along with fellow Irish-American Warren Schurman and John Kilcullen, Italian-American Gambino crime family mob associate Robert Senter, a paternal uncle of Irish-Italian mob associate Anthony Senter and Colombo crime family mob associate Thomas Genovese, a distant paternal relative of Genovese crime family patriarch and founder Vito Genovese. It is unknown if McBratney had been told of the kidnapping operation by Gambino crime family street soldiers, Flippo and Ronald Miano who at the time were "made men" in the Gambino family. The Miano brothers reportedly told McBratney and the others they wanted 10% of the ransom payment and had thought up the kidnapping plan for what they called "revenge".