Acording to the book, A Bad, Bad Boy in which Adamo was prominently featured, both he and his brother Joseph Adamo were born in Sicily. Momo lived in Chicago upon his arrival in the U.S. but later moved to Kansas City at the urging of Kansas City crime family boss Johnny Lazia. In Kansas City, Adamo ran a speakeasy during Prohibition called the Garden of Naples before moving to Los Angeles in 1935 along with his wife Marie and her son Paul where he became underboss to Jack Dragna in the Los Angeles crime family. His brother Joseph Adamo also became a member of the Los Angeles crime family. Both he and his brother were well connected criminals in San Diego, working with such mobsters as Frank Bompensiero. In 1950, Momo was arrested along with several members of Jack Dragna's family includin