Frank "Frankie" DePalma is a character who appeared in Mr. Monk Is Someone Else. He is played by Tony Shalhoub.
Frank was born in Allston, Massachusetts in 1953 to Joseph and Helen DePalma, the former of which was a gambling addict who died when Frank was 14. He was arrested on October 12th, 1997 for assault and battery. He ended up serving 2 years in Joliet.
Frank was a notorious hitman, his reputation preceding him in the criminal underground, able to intimidate the people around him by simply informing them of his identity. He is said to have killed at least 17 people - 10 of them in America, 5 in Europe, and 2 in Asia - but the authorities couldn't prove a thing. His first killing was a billionaire from Key West Florida by the name of Donnie Hernandez. He murdered the real estate tycoon by blowing up his yacht and making it look like the blast was caused by a fuel leak.
In 2009, the FBI has had him under surveillance for around 2 months. Frank had recently returned to the U.S after an unspecified stint in Barcelona and the bureau had learned that he had been hired to come out to Los Angeles for a job, although they did not know who hired him or who he was to kill, Though they intended to find out. However, DePalma walked out into the street one day while reading a newspaper, and not looking where he was going, he was hit by a bus and killed instantly.
Agent Stone reveals that the FBI kept DePalma's accidental death quiet, to the point of falsifying his death certificate with the name "John Doe" so that it would be effectively said that the accident never happened.
The FBI reached out to the SFPD for them to use Adrian Monk's services to find Frank's client, as he was a dead ringer for the now deceased DePalma. It was eventually determined that Frank was sought out by mobster Jimmy Barlowe. Barlowe waned Frank to kill an old man named Stanley Greenblatt. In the year before, one of Stanley's sons, Alvin, stole several thousand from a casino he worked at that was owned by Barlowe. While Alvin had faked his death, Jimmy found out he was still alive and figured Stanley's death would draw Alvin out of hiding and allow them to "ask" him where the money was.
Stanley did end up dead, but due to a heart attack and not from any action by Monk. However, Alvin arrived at his father's funeral all the same, allowing him to be picked up by Jimmy's thugs. Thankfully for Alvin, Adrian figured out the plan and managed to stall the crooks long enough for law enforcement to arrive and arrest them all.