Gangsters: Jack Ruby

Jacob Leon Rubenstein (March 25, 1911 – January 3, 1967), who legally changed his name to Jack Leon Ruby, was a nightclub operator in Dallas, Texas.

He is best known as the man who shot the man who (supposedly?) shot the President.

Ruby murdered Lee Harvey Oswald, the man who (according to four government investigations) assassinated President John F. Kennedy.

Some contend that Ruby was involved with major figures in organized crime, and conspiracy theorists widely assert that Ruby killed Oswald as part of an overall plot surrounding the assassination of President Kennedy.

Others have disputed this, arguing that Ruby’s connection with gangsters was minimal at best – and also that Ruby was not the sort to be entrusted with such an act within a high-level conspiracy.

In the 1992 film “Ruby”, Jack Ruby was played by Danny Aiello.

Video comes courtesy of YouTube:

That’s Hollywood.

Here’s some history, for you:

Ruby’s Early Life

Jack Ruby was born Jacob Leon Rubenstein to Joseph Rubenstein and Fannie Turek Rutkowski (or Rokowsky) – both Polish-born, Orthodox Jews – in Chicago, on March 25, 1911.

The fifth of his parents’ eight surviving children, Ruby had a troubled childhood and adolescence growing up in the Maxwell Street area of Chicago, marked by juvenile delinquency and time spent in foster homes.

On June 6, 1922, at age 11, he was arrested for truancy. Ruby eventually skipped school enough times to be sent to the Institute of Juvenile Research.

Back on the street, the young Ruby sold horse-racing tip sheets and various other novelties, then acted as business agent for a local refuse collectors union that later became part of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

Military Service

In the 1940s, Ruby frequented race tracks in Illinois and California.

He was drafted in 1943 and served in the Army Air Forces during World War II, working as an aircraft mechanic at bases in the US until 1946. He had an honorable record and was promoted to Private First Class.

Upon his discharge on February 21, 1946, Ruby returned to Chicago.

Ruby in Dallas

In 1947, Ruby moved to Dallas where he and his brothers soon afterward shortened their surnames from Rubenstein to Ruby.

The stated reason for changing the family name was that he and his brothers had opened up a mail order business and feared that some customers would refuse to do business with Jews.

Ruby later went on to manage various nightclubs, strip clubs, and dance halls. Among the strippers Ruby befriended was Candy Barr.

Ruby developed close ties to many Dallas police officers who frequented his nightclubs, where he showered them with large quantities of liquor and other favors.

Cuban Connections

In 1959, Ruby went to Cuba – ostensibly to visit a friend, influential Dallas gambler Lewis McWillie, an associate of Mafia boss Santo Trafficante. Ruby may have met directly with Trafficante on those visits, according to the testimony of British journalist John Wilson-Hudson, who was imprisoned in Cuba at the time.

Trafficante operated major casinos in Cuba, and was briefly imprisoned after Fidel Castro came to power.

The House Select Committee on Assassinations inferred from Ruby’s trip to Cuba and his subsequent trips “…that Ruby was at least serving as a kind of courier on behalf of gambling interests in Cuba.”

Alleged Links to Organized Crime

Ruby was known to have had links with both the police and the Mafia.

In 1946, mobster Tony Accardo allegedly asked Jack Ruby to go to Texas with Mafia associates Pat Manno and Romie Nappi to ensure that Dallas County Sheriff Steve Gutherie would acquiesce to the Mafia’s expansion into Dallas.

The House Select Committee on Assassinations said that Ruby had known restaurateurs Sam and Joseph Campisi since 1947, and had been seen with them on many occasions.

After an investigation of Joe Campisi, the HSCA found:

“While Campisi’s technical characterization in federal law enforcement records as an organized crime member has ranged from definite to suspected to negative, it is clear that he was an associate or friend of many Dallas-based organized crime members, particularly Joseph Civello, during the time he was the head of the Dallas organization. There was no indication that Campisi had engaged in any specific organized crime-related activities.”

Similarly, a PBS Frontline investigation into the connections between Ruby and Dallas organized crime figures reported the following:

“In 1963, Sam and Joe Campisi were leading figures in the Dallas underworld. Jack knew the Campisis and had been seen with them on many occasions. The Campisis were lieutenants of Carlos Marcello, the Mafia boss who had reportedly talked of killing the President.”

A day before Kennedy was assassinated, Ruby went to Joe Campisi’s restaurant. At the time of the Kennedy assassination, Ruby was close enough to the Campisis to ask them to come and see him after he was arrested for shooting Lee Oswald.

James E. Beaird – who claimed to be a poker-playing friend of Jack Ruby – told both The Dallas Morning News and the FBI that Ruby smuggled guns and ammunition from Galveston Bay, Texas to Fidel Castro’s guerrillas in Cuba in the late 1950s.

Beaird said that Ruby “was in it for the money. It wouldn’t matter what side, just [whatever] one that would pay him the most.”

Beaird said that the guns were stored in a two-story house near the waterfront, and that he saw Ruby and his associates load “many boxes of new guns, including automatic rifles and handguns” on a 50-foot military-surplus boat. He claimed that “each time that the boat left with guns and ammunition, Jack Ruby was on the boat.”

Blaney Mack Johnson, an FBI informant, said Ruby was involved in “arranging illegal flights of weapons from Miami” to pro-Castro forces in Cuba in the early 1950s.

Conspiracy Theory

In his memoir “Bound by Honor: A Mafioso’s Story”, Bill Bonanno, son of New York Mafia boss Joseph Bonanno, stated that several Mafia families had longstanding ties with anti-Castro Cubans through the Havana casinos operated by the Mafia before the Cuban Revolution.

Many Cuban exiles and Mafia bosses disliked Kennedy, blaming him for the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion. They also disliked his brother, the young and idealistic Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who had conducted an unprecedented legal assault on organized crime.

The Mafia were experts in assassination, and Bonanno reported that he recognized the high degree of involvement of other Mafia families when Ruby killed Oswald, since Bonanno was aware that Ruby was an associate of Chicago mobster Sam Giancana.

Four years prior to the assassination of President Kennedy, Ruby went to see a man named Lewis McWillie in Cuba. Ruby considered McWillie, who had previously run illegal gambling establishments in Texas, to be one of his closest friends.

At the time Ruby visited him, in August 1959, McWillie was supervising gambling activities at Havana’s Tropicana Club. Ruby told the Warren Commission that his August trip to Cuba was merely a social visit at the invitation of McWillie.

The House Select Committee on Assassinations would later conclude that Ruby “…most likely was serving as a courier for gambling interests.”

The committee also found “circumstantial,” but not conclusive, evidence that “…Ruby met with [Mafia boss] Santo Trafficante in Cuba sometime in 1959.”

In his book, “Contract on America”, David Scheim presented evidence that Mafia leaders Carlos Marcello, Santo Trafficante, Jr. and Jimmy Hoffa ordered the assassination of President Kennedy. Scheim cited in particular a 25-fold increase in the number of out-of-state telephone calls from Jack Ruby to associates of these crime bosses in the months preceding the assassination.

According to Vincent Bugliosi, both the Warren Commission and the House Select Committee on Assassinations determined all of these calls were related to Ruby seeking help from the American Guild of Variety Artists in a matter concerning two of his competitors.

The House Select Committee on Assassinations report stated “…that most of Ruby’s phone calls during late 1963 were related to his labor troubles. In light of the identity of some of the individuals with whom Ruby spoke, however, the possibility of other matters being discussed could not be dismissed.”

The Kennedy Assassination

President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas – ostensibly shot by Lee Harvey Oswald.

White House correspondent Seth Kantor – who was a passenger in the President’s motorcade – told the Warren Commission that he went to Parkland Hospital about an hour after President Kennedy was shot. It was at Parkland Hospital that Kennedy received medical care after the shooting.

Kantor said that as he was entering the hospital, he felt a tug on his coat. He turned around to see Jack Ruby, who called him by his first name and shook his hand. Kantor said that he had become acquainted with Ruby when Kantor was a reporter for the Dallas Times Herald newspaper.

According to Kantor, Ruby asked him if he thought that it would be a good idea for him to close his nightclubs for the next three nights because of the tragedy, and Kantor responded that he thought that doing so would be a good idea.

It has been suggested that Ruby might have been involved in tampering with evidence while at the hospital.

Ruby would later deny he had been at Parkland Hospital, and the Warren Commission decided to believe Ruby rather than Kantor.

However, in 1979, the House Select Committee on Assassinations reversed the Warren Commission’s judgement, stating: “While the Warren Commission concluded that Kantor was mistaken [about his Parkland encounter with Ruby], the Committee determined he probably was not.”

Goaded by the Warren Commission’s dismissal of his testimony, Seth Kantor researched the Ruby case for years.

In a later published book called “Who Was Jack Ruby?”, Kantor wrote:

“The mob was Ruby’s “friend.” And Ruby could well have been paying off an IOU the day he was used to kill Lee Harvey Oswald. Remember: “I have been used for a purpose,” the way Ruby expressed it to Chief Justice Warren in their June 7, 1964 session. It would not have been hard for the mob to maneuver Ruby through the ranks of a few negotiable police [to kill Oswald].”

Witness Wilma Tice also said that she saw Jack Ruby at Parkland Hospital during the time Kennedy was being treated there.

Called to testify before the Warren Commission, Tice said that she received an anonymous phone call from a man telling her “…that it would pay me to keep my mouth shut.”

The Murder of Lee Harvey Oswald

Ruby (also known as “Sparky,” from his old boxing nickname “Sparkling Ruby”) was seen in the halls of the Dallas Police Headquarters on several occasions after the arrest of Lee Harvey Oswald on November 22, 1963.

Newsreel footage from WFAA-TV (Dallas) and NBC shows Ruby impersonating a newspaper reporter during a press conference at Dallas Police Headquarters on the night of the assassination.

District Attorney Henry Wade briefed reporters at the press conference, telling them that Lee Oswald was a member of the anti-Castro Free Cuba Committee. Ruby was one of several people there who spoke up to correct Wade, saying: “Henry, that’s the Fair Play for Cuba Committee,” a pro-Castro organization.

Some speculate that Ruby may have hoped to kill Oswald that night at the police station press conference. Ruby told the FBI (a month after his arrest for killing Oswald) that he had his loaded snub-nosed Colt Cobra .38 revolver in his right-hand pocket during the press conference.

Two days later on Sunday, November 24 – after driving into town and sending a money order to one of his employees – Ruby walked to the nearby police headquarters and made his way to the basement.

At 11:21 am CST – while authorities were preparing to transfer Oswald by private car from the police basement to the nearby county jail – Ruby stepped out from a crowd of reporters and fired his .38 revolver into Oswald’s abdomen, fatally wounding him.

The shooting was broadcast live nationally, and millions of television viewers witnessed it. There is some evidence that Ruby’s actions were on a whim, as he left his favorite dog, Sheba, in the car before shooting Oswald.

However, the House Select Committee on Assassinations in its 1979 Final Report stated:

“…Ruby’s shooting of Oswald was not a spontaneous act, in that it involved at least some premeditation. Similarly, the committee believed it was less likely that Ruby entered the police basement without assistance, even though the assistance may have been provided with no knowledge of Ruby’s intentions…”

The committee was troubled by the apparently unlocked doors along the stairway route and the removal of security guards from the area of the garage nearest the stairway shortly before the shooting.

Aftermath of the Shooting

When Ruby was arrested immediately after the shooting, he told several witnesses that he had helped the city of Dallas “redeem” itself in the eyes of the public, and that Oswald’s death would spare “…Mrs. Kennedy the discomfiture of coming back to trial.”

Within hours of Ruby’s arrest for shooting Oswald, a telegram was received at the Dallas city jail in support of Ruby, under the names of Hal and Pauline Collins. In one of the Warren Commissions exhibits, Hal Collins is listed as a character reference by Ruby on a Texas liquor license application.

At the time of the shooting Ruby said he was taking phenmetrazine, a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant.

Ruby’s explanation for killing Oswald would be “exposed … as a fabricated legal ploy”, according to the House Select Committee on Assassinations.

In a private note to one of his attorneys, Joseph Tonahill, Ruby wrote: “Joe, you should know this. [My first lawyer] Tom Howard told me to say that I shot Oswald so that Caroline and Mrs. Kennedy wouldn’t have to come to Dallas to testify. OK?”

Another motive was put forth by Frank Sheeran (allegedly a hitman for the Mafia), in a conversation he had with the then-former Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa.

During the conversation, Hoffa claimed that Ruby was assigned the task of coordinating police officers who were loyal to Ruby, to murder Oswald while he was in their custody. As Ruby evidently mismanaged the operation, he was given a choice to either finish the job himself, or forfeit his life.

Prosecution and Conviction

After Ruby’s arrest, he asked Dallas attorney Tom Howard to represent him. Howard accepted, and asked Ruby if he could think of anything that might damage his defense. Ruby responded that there would be a problem if a man by the name of “Davis” should come up. Ruby told his attorney that he “…had been involved with Davis, who was a gunrunner entangled in anti-Castro efforts.”

Davis was identified years later — after research by journalist Seth Kantor — as being Thomas Eli Davis III, a CIA-connected “soldier of fortune.”

Ruby later replaced attorney Tom Howard with prominent San Francisco defense lawyer Melvin Belli – who agreed to represent Ruby pro bono (free of charge).

Some observers thought that the case could have been disposed of as a “murder without malice” charge (roughly equivalent to manslaughter), with a maximum prison sentence of five years.

Belli attempted to prove, however, that Ruby was legally insane and had a history of mental illness in his family. The latter was true, as his mother had been committed to a mental hospital years before.

On March 14, 1964, Ruby was convicted of murder with malice – for which he received a death sentence.

Appeals

During the six months following the Kennedy assassination, Ruby repeatedly asked, orally and in writing, to speak to the members of the Warren Commission.

The commission initially showed no interest.

Only after Ruby’s sister Eileen wrote letters to the commission – and her letters became public – did the Warren Commission agree to talk to Ruby.

In June 1964, Chief Justice Earl Warren, then-Representative Gerald R. Ford of Michigan, and other commission members went to Dallas to see Ruby.

Ruby asked Warren several times to take him to Washington D.C., saying “my life is in danger here” and that he wanted an opportunity to make additional statements. He added: “I want to tell the truth, and I can’t tell it here.”

Warren told Ruby that he would be unable to comply, because many legal barriers would need to be broken and public interest in the situation would be too heavy. Warren also told Ruby that the commission would have no way of protecting him, since it had no police powers.

Following Ruby’s March 1964 conviction for murder with malice, Ruby’s lawyers, led by Sam Houston Clinton, appealed to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the highest criminal court in Texas.

Ruby’s lawyers argued that he could not have received a fair trial in the city of Dallas because of the excessive publicity surrounding the case.

Not long before Ruby died, according to an article in the London Sunday Times, he told psychiatrist Werner Teuter that the assassination was “an act of overthrowing the government” and that he knew “who had President Kennedy killed.” He added: “I am doomed. I do not want to die. But I am not insane. I was framed to kill Oswald.”

Eventually, the appellate court agreed with Ruby’s lawyers for a new trial, and on October 5, 1966, ruled that his motion for a change of venue before the original trial court should have been granted.

Ruby’s conviction and death sentence were overturned.

The Death of Jack Ruby

Arrangements were underway for a new trial to be held in February 1967 in Wichita Falls, Texas, when on December 9, 1966, Ruby was admitted to Parkland Hospital in Dallas, suffering from pneumonia. A day later, doctors realized he had cancer in his liver, lungs, and brain.

Ruby died of a pulmonary embolism, secondary to bronchogenic carcinoma (lung cancer), on January 3, 1967 at Parkland Hospital – where Oswald had died, and where President Kennedy had been pronounced dead after his assassination.

He was buried beside his parents in the Westlawn Cemetery in Norridge, Illinois.

And perhaps took the whole truth behind the affair with him.

That’s it, for this one.

I hope you’ll join me, for our next story.

Till then.

Peace.

Gangsters: Carlos Marcello

Carlos “The Little Man” Marcello (February 6, 1910 – March 3, 1993) was a Sicilian-American Mafioso who became the boss of the New Orleans crime family during the 1940s, and held this position for the next 30 years.

Marcello, together with fellow crime bosses Sam Giancana and Santo Trafficante, Jr., has long been suspected of involvement in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy – but no such links have ever been proved.

Here’s some footage of the man testifying before the U.S. Congress, in the wake of the Kennedy assassination (Video comes courtesy of YouTube):

And here’s what history has to tell us about the man, himself:

Marcello’s Early Life

Born as Calogero Minacori (or Minacore) to Sicilian parents in Tunis, Tunisia, Marcello was brought to the United States in 1911.

His family settled in a decaying plantation house near Metairie, Louisiana.

Carlos turned to petty crime in the French Quarter. He was later imprisoned for masterminding a crew of teenage gangsters who carried out armed robberies in the small towns surrounding New Orleans.

At the time, local newspapers compared him to the character of Fagin from Charles Dickens’ novel “Oliver Twist”.

This conviction was later overturned. However, the following year Marcello was convicted of assault and robbery, and was sentenced to the Louisiana State Penitentiary for nine years. He was released after five years.

Gangster

In 1938, Marcello was arrested and charged with the sale of more than 23 pounds of marijuana. Despite receiving another lengthy prison sentence and a $76,830 fine, Marcello served less than 10 months in prison.

Upon his release, Marcello became associated with Frank Costello, leader of the Genovese crime family, in New York City.

At the time, Costello was involved in transporting illegal slot machines from New York to New Orleans. Marcello provided the muscle, and arranged for the machines to be placed in local businesses.

Louisiana Crime Boss

By the end of 1947, Marcello had taken control of Louisiana’s illegal gambling network. He had also joined forces with New York Mob associate Meyer Lansky, in order to skim money from some of the most important casinos in the New Orleans area.

According to former members of the Chicago Outfit, Marcello was also assigned a cut of the money skimmed from Las Vegas casinos, in exchange for providing “muscle” in Florida real estate deals.

By this time, Marcello had been selected as the “Godfather” of the New Orleans Mafia, by the family’s capos and the Commission. He was to hold this position for the next 30 years.

Marcello continued the family’s long-standing tradition of fierce independence from interference by Mafiosi in other areas. He enforced a policy that forbade Mafiosi from other families from visiting Louisiana without permission.

Crime and Politics

On March 24, 1959, Marcello appeared before a United States Senate committee investigating organized crime. Serving as Chief Counsel to the committee was Robert F. Kennedy; his brother, Senator John F. Kennedy, was a member of the committee.

In response to committee questioning, Marcello invoked the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, refusing to answer any questions relating to his background, activities and associates.

In 1960, Marcello donated $500,000 through Teamsters Union president Jimmy Hoffa, to the Republican campaign of Richard M. Nixon, challenging the Democrat John F. Kennedy.

Deportation to Guatemala – Or Not

After becoming President, John F. Kennedy appointed his brother Robert Kennedy as U.S. Attorney General. The two men worked closely together on a wide range of issues, including the attempt to tackle organized crime.

In March 1961, under Attorney General Robert Kennedy – acting on requests which had first been made to the Eisenhower administration by former Louisiana state police superintendent Francis Grevemberg – the CIA abducted Marcello and forced him to jump from a C-130 aircraft (at night) over Central America.

Their plan backfired when Marcello reappeared in New Orleans just two weeks later.

On April 4, of that year, Marcello was arrested by the authorities and taken forcibly to Guatemala.

Once again, he reappeared in Baton Rouge, two weeks later.

Conspiracy

Undercover informants reported that Marcello made several threats against John F. Kennedy, at one time uttering the traditional Sicilian death threat curse, “Take the stone from my shoe”.

In September 1962, Marcello allegedly told private investigator Edwin Nicholas Becker that, “A dog will continue to bite you if you cut off its tail…,” (a reference to Attorney General Robert Kennedy.), “…whereas if you cut off the dog’s head…,” (meaning President Kennedy), “… it would cease to cause trouble”.

Becker allegedly reported that Marcello, “clearly stated that he was going to arrange to have President Kennedy killed in some way”.

Marcello allegedly told another informant that he would need to take out “insurance” for the assassination by, “…. setting up some nut to take the fall for the job, just like they do in Sicily”.

Just before Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby allegedly made contact with Marcello, and Tampa, Florida boss Santo Trafficante, about a labor problem he was having with the American Guild of Variety Artists (AGVA).

G. Robert Blakey, Chief Counsel and Staff Director to the House Select Committee on Assassinations, published, “The Plot to Kill the President” in 1981.

In the book, Blakey argues that there was a conspiracy to kill John F. Kennedy. Blakey believes that Lee Harvey Oswald was a shooter, but also believes that there was at least one other gunman involved.

Blakey came to the conclusion that Marcello, Trafficante, Jr., and Chicago Outfit boss Salvatore “Sam Mooney” Giancana were complicit in planning the assassination.

On January 14, 1992, a New York Post story claimed Marcello, Trafficante, Jr., and Jimmy Hoffa had all been involved in the assassination of President Kennedy.

Frank Ragano was quoted as saying that at the beginning of 1963, Hoffa had told him to take a message to Trafficante and Marcello concerning a plan to kill Kennedy. When the meeting took place at the Royal Orleans Hotel, Ragano told the men: “You won’t believe what Hoffa wants me to tell you. Jimmy wants you to kill the President.” He reported that both men gave the impression that they intended to carry out this order.

In his autobiography, “Mob Lawyer” (1994), (co-written with journalist Selwyn Raab), Ragano added that in July 1963, he was once again sent to New Orleans by Hoffa to meet Marcello and Santo Trafficante, concerning plans to kill President Kennedy.

When Kennedy was killed, Hoffa apparently told Ragano, “I told you that they could do it. I’ll never forget what Carlos and Santo did for me.” He added: “This means Bobby is out as Attorney General.” Marcello later told Ragano, “When you see Jimmy (Hoffa), you tell him he owes me and he owes me big.”

Exonerated?

After Kennedy’s assassination, the Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated Marcello. They came to the conclusion that Marcello was not involved in the assassination.

On the other hand, they also stated that they, “… did not believe Carlos Marcello was a significant organized crime figure,” and that Marcello earned his living, “… as a tomato salesman and real estate investor.”

As a result of this investigation, the Warren Commission concluded that there was no direct link between Ruby and Marcello.

Arrest

In 1966, Marcello was arrested in New York City after having met with the National Commission.

The meeting was reportedly called because Marcello’s leadership was being challenged by Santo Trafficante Jr. and Anthony Carolla, the son of Marcello’s predecessor as boss of the New Orleans Combine, Sylvestro Carolla.

The Commission had reportedly ruled in Marcello’s favor just before the police burst in.

Marcello was charged with consorting with known felons.

After a long, drawn-out legal battle, Marcello was convicted of assaulting an FBI agent whom he had punched in the face, on his return to Louisiana. Sentenced to two years in prison, he served less than six months, and was released on March 12, 1971.

The BriLab Indictment

In 1981, Marcello, Aubrey W. Young (a former aide to Governor John J. McKeithen), Charles E. Roemer, II (former commissioner of administration to Governor Edwin Washington Edwards), and two other men were indicted in U.S. District Court in New Orleans for conspiracy, racketeering, and mail and wire fraud, in a scheme to bribe state officials to give the five men multi-million dollar insurance contracts.

The charges were the result of a Federal Bureau of Investigation probe known as BriLab.

U.S. District Judge Morey Sear allowed the admission of secretly-recorded conversations that he said demonstrated corruption at the highest levels of state government.

Marcello and Roemer were convicted, but Young and the two others were acquitted.

Marcello stayed out of prison for BriLab while his conviction was being appealed.

He finally reported to prison in 1983, when his appeal was denied.

The Death of Carlos Marcello

Early in 1989, Marcello suffered a series of strokes that left him severely disabled, and by the end of March, he was showing obvious signs of Alzheimer’s disease. At times he became so disoriented that he thought he was living in a hotel, and could not recognize family members who visited him.

In July, in a surprise move, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out his BriLab conviction. One judge denied this reversal, but his decision in turn was overruled.

In October – after having served six years and six months of his sentence – Marcello was released.

He returned to his white marble, two-story mansion overlooking a golf course in Metairie.

Here, he lived out the last years of his life, cared for by a group of nurses, and watched over by his wife and family. Apparently, he lost the power of speech and regressed to his infancy.

He was never seen in public again, and died on March 3, 1993.

The Marcello family and its descendants still own or control a significant amount of real estate in southeast Louisiana.

Nice work, if you can get it.

That’s all, for this one.

I hope you’ll join me, for our next story.

Till then.

Peace.

Gangsters: Santo Trafficante, Jr.

Santo Trafficante, Jr. (November 15, 1914 – March 17, 1987) was one of the last of the old-time Mafia bosses in the United States.

He allegedly controlled organized criminal operations in Florida and Cuba, which had previously been consolidated from several rival gangs by his father, Santo Trafficante, Sr.

Reputedly the most powerful Mafioso in Batista-era Cuba, he never served time in a United States prison.

The 1997 film “Donnie Brasco” is based on the true story of an FBI undercover agent (Joseph D. “Donnie Brasco” Pistone; played by Johnny Depp) who infiltrates the mob and finds himself identifying with the Mafia life at the expense of his regular one. In the movie, Santo Trafficante is played by Val Avery.

Video comes courtesy of YouTube:

And here’s some documentary footage of the man, himself:

That’s a slice of his reel life.

Here’s what history has to tell us, about his real one:

Trafficante’s Early Life

Trafficante was born in Tampa, Florida to Sicilian parents Santo Trafficante, Sr. and his wife Maria Giuseppa Cacciatore, in 1914.

Power Bases

He maintained several houses in Tampa and Miami, and also frequented Havana, Cuba (while Fulgencio Batista was in power), and New York City.

Trafficante maintained links to the Bonanno family, in New York City, but was more closely allied with Sam Giancana, in Chicago.

While generally recognized as the most powerful organized crime figure in Florida throughout much of the 20th century, Trafficante was not believed to have total control over Miami, Miami Beach, Ft. Lauderdale, or Palm Beach.

The east coast of Florida was a loosely knit conglomerate of New York family interests with obvious links to Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel, Angelo Bruno, Carlos Marcello, Leo Stein and Frank Ragano.

Even today, control of Florida organized crime likely continues to be divided between New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, New Orleans, and international interests.

Business Ventures

U.S. Treasury Department documents indicate that law enforcement believed Trafficante’s legitimate business interests to include several legal casinos in Cuba, a Havana drive-in movie theater, and shares in the Columbia Restaurant and several other restaurants and bars in Tampa. He was rumored to be part of a Mafia syndicate which owned many other Cuban hotels and casinos.

As one of the most powerful mobsters in the U.S., Trafficante was invited to the Havana Conference in December, 1946.

Trafficante was arrested frequently throughout the 1950s on various charges of bribery and of running illegal bolita lotteries in Tampa’s Ybor City district. He escaped conviction all but once, receiving a five-year sentence, in 1954, for bribery – but his conviction was overturned by the Florida Supreme Court before he entered prison.

Cuba

During the rule of Cuban dictator General Fulgencio Batista, Trafficante openly operated the Sans Souci and the Casino International gambling establishments in Havana.

As a leading member of the syndicate, it was suspected that he also had behind-the-scenes interests in other syndicate-owned Cuban gambling casinos, namely, the Hotel Habana Riviera, the Tropicana Club, the Sevilla-Biltmore, the Capri Hotel Casino, the Commodoro, the Deauville, and the Havana Hilton.

Nightly, Batista’s “bagman” would collect 10 percent of the profits at Trafficante’s casinos.

Apalachin Fall-out

Trafficante was arrested in 1957, along with 56 other mobsters, at an apparent underworld convention – the Apalachin Meeting in New York. Charges were later dropped, though authorities believe the meeting was set up, among other things, to fill the power vacuum created by the recent assassination of Murder, Inc. head Albert Anastasia.

In January 1958, Trafficante was questioned by the Cuban National police regarding the Apalachin meeting.

A full report was made by the Cuban police (dated January 23, 1958) that includes transcripts of long distance telephone calls made from the Sans Souci during the period August–December 1957. This report was given to the District Attorney’s office.

In addition, “on January 23, 1958 the Cuban Department of Investigation, Havana, Cuba notified the Bureau of Narcotics that Santo Trafficante was registered in their Alien Office under No. 93461.”

Plots Against Castro

After Fidel Castro’s revolutionary government seized the assets of Trafficante’s Cuban businesses and expelled him from the country as an “undesirable alien,” Trafficante came into contact with various U.S. intelligence operatives, and was involved in several unsuccessful plans to assassinate Castro.

Allusions to these historic connections were confirmed by the Central Intelligence Agency’s 2007 declassification of the “Family Jewels” documents.

Kennedy Conspiracy?

Suspicions that Trafficante, along with Carlos Marcello (mob boss of New Orleans in the 1950s and 1960s), Teamster president Jimmy Hoffa, and Chicago boss Sam Giancana, were involved in some way with the John F. Kennedy assassination have been alleged repeatedly, but have not been proven.

Donnie Brasco

Trafficante was summoned to court in 1986 and questioned about his involvement with the King’s Court nightclub operated by members of the Bonanno family from New York – including undercover FBI agent Joseph D. “Joe” Pistone, alias, “Donnie Brasco”.

Trafficante again escaped conviction.

Trafficante’s Later Years

Trafficante’s health declined in his later years.

He died on March 17, 1987 at the age of 72.

And that’s it, for this one.

I hope you’ll join me, for our next story.

Till then.

Peace.

Gangsters: Sam Giancana

Salvatore Giancana (born Salvatore Giangana; June 15, 1908 – June 19, 1975), better known as Sam Giancana, was a Sicilian American mobster and boss of the Chicago Outfit from 1957–1966. Among his other nicknames were, “Momo”, “Mooney,” “Sam the Cigar,” and “Sammy.”

Giancana was at the height of his power when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated – and has been depicted in popular conspiracy theory folklore as one of the background movers of that event.

The 1995 TV film “Sugartime” depicts Giancana’s relationship with singer Phyllis McGuire of The McGuire Sisters. In the movie, Sam Giancana is played by John Turturro.

Video comes courtesy of You Tube:

So much for Hollywood.

Here’s what history has to tell us:

Giancana’s Early Life

Giancana was born as Salvatore Giangana to Sicilian immigrants in Little Italy, Chicago.

His father, Antonino (later simplified to Antonio) Giangana, owned a pushcart and briefly owned an Italian ice shop, which was later firebombed by gangland rivals of his son.

Criminal Ties

Sam Giancana joined the Forty-Two Gang (the 42ers), a juvenile street crew answering to political boss Joseph Esposito.

Giancana soon developed a reputation for being an excellent getaway driver, a high earner, and a vicious killer.

After Esposito’s murder (in which Giancana was allegedly involved), the 42 Gang was transformed into a de facto extension of the Chicago Outfit.

The Outfit was initially wary of the 42ers, thinking them too wild. However, Giancana’s leadership qualities, the fact that he was an excellent “wheel man” with a get-away car, and his knack for making money on the street gained him the notice of higher-level Cosa Nostra figures like Frank “The Enforcer” Nitti, Paul “The Waiter” Ricca, and Tony “Joe Batters” Accardo.

In the late 1930s, Giancana became the first 42er to join the Outfit.

In 1942, Giancana also allegedly forced jazz musician Tommy Dorsey into letting singer Frank Sinatra out of his contract early, so that Sinatra could expand his career.

Family Life

On September 23, 1933, Sam married Angelina DeTolve, the daughter of immigrants from the Italian region of Basilicata. They had three daughters: Antoinette, Bonnie and Francine.

Angelina died in 1954, and left Sam to raise his daughters.

Sam never remarried after becoming a widower and was known as a good family man (despite frequent infidelities), and held his late wife in high regard and respect during their marriage and after her death.

All of the Giancana daughters have married at least once.

As of 1984, at least one daughter, Antoinette, had taken the “Giancana” name again.

Giancana’s Rise to Power

In 1945, after serving a sentence at the Federal Correctional Complex, Terre Haute, Indiana (during which time he told his children he was away “at college”), Giancana made a name for himself by convincing Accardo (then the Outfit’s enforcement chief) to stage a take-over of Chicago’s African-American “policy” (lottery) pay-out system for The Outfit.

Giancana’s crew is believed to have been responsible for convincing African-American mobster Eddie Jones to leave this racket, and leave the country.

Giancana’s people were also responsible for the murder on August 4, 1952 of African American gambling boss Theodore Roe.

Both Jones and Roe were leading South Side “Policy Kings”. However, Roe had refused to surrender control of his operation as the Outfit had demanded.

To further complicate matters, on June 19, 1951, Roe had fatally shot Lennard “Fat Lennie” Caifano, a made man in Giancana’s organization.

The South Side “policy”-game takeover by the Outfit was not complete until another Outfit member – Jackie “the Lackey” Cerone – scared “Big Jim” Martin to Mexico, with two bullets to the head that did not kill him.

From then on, the lottery money started rolling in for The Outfit.

After this gambling war, the amount that this game produced for The Outfit was in the millions of dollars a year, and brought Giancana further notice. It is believed to have been a major factor in his being “anointed” as the Outfit’s new boss when Accardo stepped aside from being the front boss to becoming “consigliere,” in 1957.

However, it was generally understood that Accardo and Ricca still held the real power. No major business transactions (and certainly no hits) took place without Accardo and Ricca’s approval.

Giancana was present at the Mafia’s 1957 Apalachin Meeting at the Upstate New York estate of Joseph Barbara.

Later, Buffalo crime boss Stefano Magaddino and Giancana were overheard on a surveillance tape saying that the meeting should have taken place in the Chicago area. Giancana claimed that the Chicago area was “the safest place in the world” for a major underworld meeting, because he had several police chiefs on his payroll. If the syndicate ever wanted to hold a meeting in Chicago, Giancana said, they had nothing to fear because they had the area “locked up tight.”

Alleged CIA connections

It is widely reputed – and partially corroborated by the Church Committee Hearings – that during the Kennedy administration, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) recruited Giancana and other mobsters to assassinate Cuban president Fidel Castro. Giancana reportedly said that the CIA and the Cosa Nostra were “different sides of the same coin.”

The association between Giancana and JFK is indicated in the “Exner File” written by Judith Campbell Exner. Exner was reputed to be mistress to both Giancana and JFK – and claimed she delivered communications between the two, regarding Fidel Castro.

However, Giancana’s daughter, Antoinette, has stated her belief that her father was running a scam, in order to pocket millions of dollars in CIA funding.

Cuba and Castro

According to the recently-declassified CIA “Family Jewels” documents, Giancana and Tampa / Miami Syndicate leader Santo Trafficante, Jr. were contacted in September 1960 by a go-between from the CIA, Robert Maheu, about the possibility of an assassination attempt.

After Maheu had contacted Johnny Roselli – a Mafia member in Las Vegas, and Giancana’s number-two man – Maheu had presented himself as a representative of numerous international business firms in Cuba that were being expropriated by Castro.

He offered $150,000 for the “removal” of Castro through this operation. The documents suggest that neither Roselli, Giancana, nor Trafficante accepted any sort of payments for the job.

According to the files, it was Giancana who suggested employing a series of poison pills that could be used to doctor Castro’s food and drink. These pills were given by the CIA to Giancana’s nominee, Juan Orta – whom Giancana presented as being a corrupt official in the new Cuban government, and one who had access to Castro.

After a series of six attempts to introduce the poison into Castro’s food, Orta abruptly demanded to be excused from the mission, handing over the job to another, unnamed participant.

Later, a second attempt was mounted through Giancana and Trafficante using Dr. Anthony Verona, the leader of the Cuban Exile Junta, who had, according to Trafficante, become “disaffected with the apparent ineffectual progress of the Junta”.

Verona requested $10,000 in expenses and $1,000 worth of communications equipment. However, it is unclear how far the second attempt went, as the entire program was canceled shortly thereafter due to the launching of the Bay of Pigs Invasion in April 1961.

Intrigues

At the same time, Giancana (according to the “Family Jewels”) approached Maheu to bug the room of his then-mistress Phyllis McGuire – whom he suspected of having an affair with comedian Dan Rowan.

Although documents suggest Maheu acquiesced, the bug was not planted, due to the arrest of the agent who had been given the task of installing the device.

According to the documents, Robert Kennedy moved to block the prosecution of the agent and of Maheu (who was soon linked to the bugging attempt), at the CIA’s request.

Giancana and McGuire, who had a long lasting affair, were originally introduced by Frank Sinatra. During part of the affair, (according to Sam’s daughter Antoinette), McGuire had a concurrent affair with President Kennedy.

Giancana’s Downfall

Giancana’s behavior was too high profile for Outfit tastes, and attracted far too much federal scrutiny. He also refused to cut his underlings in on his lavish profits from offshore casinos in Iran and Central America.

Both of these factors resulted in much bitterness among the Outfit’s rank-and-file.

Giancana was also the subject of many hours of wiretap surveillance. On one recording, he was heard to say “We’re whacking a lot of the wrong guys lately.”

As a result, Giancana was deposed in the mid 1960s by Ricca and Accardo as day-to-day boss, and replaced by Joseph “Joey Doves” Aiuppa.

After about seven years of exile inside a lavish villa in Cuernavaca, Mexico, Giancana was arrested by Mexican authorities in 1974 and deported to the United States.

He arrived back in Chicago on July 21, 1974.

The Death of Sam Giancana

After his return to the U.S., Giancana joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a witness in the prosecution of organized crime in Chicago.

The police detailed officers to guard his house in Oak Park, Illinois.

However, on the night of June 19, 1975, someone recalled the police detail.

A gunman later entered Giancana’s kitchen and shot him in the back of the head as he was frying sausage and peppers.
After Giancana fell to the ground, the gunman turned him over and shot him six more times in the face and neck.

Investigators suspected that the murderer was a close friend whom Giancana had let into the house. One reason for this suspicion was that Giancana, due to his heart problems, could not eat spicy foods. Therefore, he might have been cooking for the friend.

Giancana was interred next to his wife, Angelina, in a family mausoleum at Mount Carmel Cemetery, in Hillside, Illinois.

Conspiracy Theories

Giancana was killed shortly before he was scheduled to appear before a U. S. Senate committee investigating supposed CIA and Cosa Nostra collusion in plots to assassinate President John F. Kennedy.

Some commentators have alleged that the CIA killed Giancana because of his troubled history with the agency. However, former CIA Director William Colby has been quoted as saying, “We had nothing to do with it.”

Another theory is that Trafficante crime family boss Santo Trafficante, Jr. ordered Giancana’s murder due to mob fears that Giancana would testify about Cosa Nostra and CIA plots to kill Cuban president Fidel Castro.

Trafficante would have needed permission from Outfit bosses Tony Accardo and Joseph Aiuppa to kill Giancana. Johnny Roselli – whose body was found stuffed in an oil drum floating off Miami – was definitely killed on Trafficante’s orders.

Most investigators believe that Aiuppa ordered the Giancana murder. Giancana was still refusing to share any of his offshore gambling profits with the Outfit. In addition, Giancana was reportedly scheming to become Outfit boss again.

According to former Mafia associate Michael J. Corbitt, Aiuppa seized control of Giancana’s casinos in the aftermath of the murder, strategically sharing them with his caporegimes.

Longtime friend and associate Dominic “Butch” Blasi was with Giancana the night he was murdered, and was questioned by police as a suspect. FBI experts and Giancana’s daughter, Antoinette, do not consider him Giancana’s killer.

Other Mafia suspects are Harry Aleman, Charles “Chuckie” English, and Charles Nicoletti.

Within days of Giancana’s murder, Willow Springs police chief and Outfit associate Michael J. Corbitt discussed the murder with capo Salvatore Bastone.

Bastone told him, “You know, Sam sure loved that little guy in Oak Park… Tony Spilotro…. Tony was over to Sam’s house all the time. He lived right by there. Did you know Tony even figured out a way where he could get in through the back of Sam’s place without anybody seeing him? He’d go through other people’s yards, go over fences…”

When Corbitt asked for a reason for Giancana’s death, Bastone quipped, “Let’s just say that Sam should’ve remembered what happened to Bugsy Siegel.”

Indeed.

A cautionary tale.

And one I hope will sustain you, till our next one.

Peace.