JFK (Part 4)
Note: In this article I use the terms “mob” and “mafia” interchangeably to refer to organized crime in the US including both Cosa Nostra and other organized groups such as the Jewish mob and others. I know some people get particular about how only “made men” who are Italian can be in the “mafia”, but the fact is that the American mafia has operated in cooperation with other groups since its inception. After all, it was Arnold Rothstein, a Jewish gangster, who taught and mentored Lucky Luciano, the founder of Cosa Nostra in the US. So let’s not get too technical about it. —V
The Mafia and JFK
Inside the “Oswald had help” camp, there are a couple of different groups. The one we are going to explore today is the theory that the assassination of John F. Kennedy was a sanctioned mob hit and that Oswald was, as he said, a patsy who was then eliminated by mob associate, Jack Ruby.
To get started, I want you to forget everything you think you know about the Mafia. Goodfellas, The Godfather, prohibition, Boardwalk Empire, The Sopranos… that’s not the mob we are talking about. Almost all the players who are accused of being involved in getting Kennedy elected, and accused of being involved in his assassination are not members of the infamous five New York Families.
The Mafia, in the 1950’s and 1960’s was a national organization, and they didn’t all report to New York. There was the Chicago Outfit (Al Capone’s organization in the late 20’s) and other families in Kansas City, St. Louis, New Orleans, and Tampa. Chicago, from 1957 - 1966 was run by a man named Salvatore (Sam) Giancana. Tampa was run by Santo Trafficante during that period. New Orleans was run by Carlos Marcello.
In the late 1950’s and 1960’s these organizations were in the same business as the New York Mafia. They ran numbers, controlled gambling and sports betting, they ran prostitutes and did loan sharking… and they were involved in political influence and unions. They paid off and blackmailed judges, state officials, and congressmen.
In this period of American politics, things were a little dirty. They weren’t all above board and clean like today (he says with obvious sarcasm). Then, like now, the real corruption was much more at the local level than at the national level. First, the exposure to risk was much higher if you were trying to control Senators or cabinet members or a President. Those national politicians had far too large a bully pulpit and they had the Department of Justice to fight back with. Secondly, most legislation that the mafia tried to control was local. It was about stalling the rezoning a plot of land for a development until they got paid, or rigging local regulations around unions, not national policy.
History paints a distorted picture of crime bosses like Sam Giancana and Santo Trafficante. In reality, they were simply criminals. They killed people and made their money on usury, prostitution, drugs, and violence. They were less Vito Corleone and more Ralph Cifaretto. Most of them died in the streets or in prison.
Most Americans enjoy the lore of the mafia as it is part of the Italian story in America… and we are all fascinated by these characters. But the truth is that Italian and Jewish mobsters took advantage of their own people first… and for every Italian family in America with a famous mobster in it, there are 100 more with family members who have been victimized by those criminals.
Joe Kennedy and the Mafia
Quick, off the top of your head, name one thing you know about Kennedy family patriarch, Joe Kennedy.
Exactly, “made is money in bootlegging during prohibition”. Well, that and rumors that he was a Nazi sympathizer (which are not true).
Here’s the truth, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. became one of the richest men in the country. Like business barons of the time (early 20’s century) he bent and broke most of the rules that business is governed by today. He was from a successful Boston family. He went to Harvard. He became the president of a bank, in which his father was a major shareholder, at the age of 25. He engaged in insider trading in the stock market. By 1919, when the Volstead Act was passed, ushering in Prohibition, he was already 30 years old and a millionaire.
The idea that he was running around with a bunch of hoods, importing illegal Canadian whiskey is not credible. He was one of the most powerful men his age in the country. The rumor probably comes from the fact that in 1933 he and a congressman he knew (a relative of FDR) founded Somerset Importers which was a highly profitable business that imported scotch and gin, among other liquors. However, this was years after Prohibition ended, was completely legal, and he was already a millionaire many times over.
There are no shortage of mafia figures who claim to have worked with Joe Kennedy during prohibition, however the stories all started after 1960. There is very little evidence that they are anything more than old mob lore. All that being said, Joe Kennedy was a ruthless businessman in a particularly corrupt era of American history. He did run into hoods and criminals. He did pay them off to leave his shipments alone. Just like he knew Presidents and Senators, he also knew criminals. That was just the landscape back then.
Fast Forward to the 1960 Presidential Race
By 1958 Joe Kennedy was one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in the country. He was worth an estimated $400 million (over $4 billion in today’s money) and his son, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was a highly respected war hero, US Senator, and was about to run for President. His opponent would be the then sitting Vice President, a young Richard Nixon.
The 1960 race was hard fought on both sides. Nixon was known as an energetic, popular, brilliant politician. He was vocally anti-communist and the fact that he was Vice President to Dwight Eisenhower, the two term GOP President and former Supreme Allied Commander made him a formidable candidate.
JFK, on the other hand, was a war hero, better looking, and in the age of TV, had an advantage over Nixon. There is a strong argument that had that race happened in 1956 before the proliferation of television, Nixon would have won walking away. I agree with that argument.
At any rate, the 1960 race was quickly coming down to a couple of states, the largest and most important being Illinois. JFK pulled out a victory, by winning five states by less than 1%, including the 27 elector state of Illinois by only 0.19%, or just over 8,000 votes.
There is no credible evidence that anyone in the Kennedy campaign ever approached anyone in organized crime to rig any votes, but there is a lot of evidence that the mafia had a preference in that election. Did they put their thumb on the scale in Chicago and other places? I can tell you this much, many mafia figures say they did… and they felt like Kennedy owed them one in return.
Jack & Bobby v. The Mafia
Before 1960 the Department of Justice wasn’t particularly interested in the mafia. The long time head of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, famously refused to even acknowledge its existence. Now that the mob felt like they helped JFK get into the White House (with his knowledge or without it) they were comfortable that in the new administration, they would continue to be allowed to operate unmolested by the feds. This was not to be the case.
The fact that Hoover was seemingly completely uninterested in a national network of criminals involved in all kinds of corruption is suspicious, to say the least. Hoover kept files and spied on everyone, from Presidents and politicians, to entertainers, to civil rights leaders, to average citizens. To think he simply wasn’t interested in the mafia is not credible. Having said that, whether it was because they were blackmailing him over crossdressing, or his decades long gay relationship with Clyde Tolson, it’s impossible to know… but Hoover did not want to go after the mafia.
In 1961, upon taking office, JFK appointed his brother Robert as Attorney General. To say this was controversial is an understatement and the press had a field day… but the fact was that Bobby was a Harvard educated lawyer, brilliant, and Kennedy needed someone he could trust in his administration. Bobby, for his part, made it the Department’s goal to focus on and root out organized crime in the United States.
There were hurdles. Hoover, whether because he was compromised by the mafia or simply because he fiercely guarded his independent and solitary control of the FBI, did his best to undermine the young Attorney General. In the end, however, he was the President’s brother and secret files or not, the AG was over the department and Hoover risked being fired and replaced if he pushed too hard. The mafia would be investigated and rackets would be broken up and people would go to prison.
Over the next three years, JFK and his brother would also rid themselves of mafia associated people in their circle. Kennedy ended his friendship with Frank Sinatra because he insisted on palling around with gangsters. This sent Sinatra into a rage and broke their relationship permanently. Sinatra became a Republican and never worked on behalf of the Democratic Party again. JFK also broke off his sometimes affair with Judith Campbell because of her association as a consort to Sam Giancana. The Kennedys sent message as clearly as they could, “you may believe we owe you for the votes in Chicago, but we don’t want anything to do with you.”
Sam Giancana, Santo Trafficante, Carlos Marcello, and other top gangsters around the country soured on Kennedy and began to think of him as a turncoat and an enemy. They especially despised Robert Kennedy as was verified via wiretaps from the time. Did they hate Kennedy enough to kill him? Yes, I believe they did.
The question we must answer is could they, and would they dare?
Where does Oswald fit?
As we have established in earlier parts of this series, there is only one confirmed shooter in the assassination, and that is Lee Harvey Oswald. While Oswald has a lot of shady connections to Russian, Cuban, and American intelligence, there is no known connection to any gangsters. So if the mob killed Kennedy, and Oswald pulled the trigger, there would have to be some connection somewhere, right?
There is one connection, though tangential. As it turns out, Sam Giancana and Santo Trafficante had intelligence ties too. They had actually been approached by the CIA and were asked to assassinate a world leader, Fidel Castro.
The mafia had long ties in Cuba, going back to prohibition. Before the dictator Batista was overthrown by Soviet backed Castro in 1959, the mafia was welcome in Cuba. They had hotels and casinos and were looking to do there what they were doing in Las Vegas. When Castro and his rebels toppled the Batista government, they expelled the mob. Suddenly, the US Government and the mafia had a common enemy, although for very different reasons.
Under CIA Director Allen Dulles, people working for the US Government asked Giancana and Trafficante to assassinate Castro. If they did so, the US Government would turn a blind eye to mafia activities in Cuba and they would have a get out of jail free card in the United States.
The plot ultimately failed, and wasn’t made public until 2007, but that could be the connection. If the mob wanted Kennedy dead, could they cook up a scheme to make a CIA asset do it for them through subterfuge? They’ve done it before… never a President obviously, but the mob was experienced in having people killed by unconnected assets who didn’t know for whom they were working or why.
It is possible that Oswald was under the impression that he was working for the Soviets on a mission that would make him a hero in the USSR or Cuba. Is it possible he really was just a patsy?
How would that go?
How could a conspiracy like that take place? It’s actually somewhat simple. Oswald, while in New Orleans, came across a lot of shady characters. Some of them had mafia connections. It is possible that mafia associates could have posed as Cuban or Russian agents and asked Oswald to murder the President on their behalf. Keep in mind, Oswald was a violent guy… he was in New Orleans because he fled Dallas after an unsuccessful attempt on Gen. Walker’s life.
It’s possible that when Kennedy’s trip to Dallas was announced, that the mob made a call and decided to have Oswald take his shot, thinking he was working for the communists. The mafia would have sent at least one spotter or perhaps a back-up shooter to help. A man named James Files says that’s exactly what happened and claims the man on the grassy knoll was him.
As soon as the President was shot, it would be the job of the spotter and back up shooter to kill Oswald outside the book depository. But Oswald got out of the building too quickly and we aren’t quite sure what he thought he would do next. What he did do was panic. He killed a police officer and hid in a movie theater where he was immediately discovered.
When Oswald was arrested, he specifically asked for the help of John Abt, a New York attorney who represented American communists. As it turns out Abt was likely a Soviet Spy. This could be seen as some evidence that Oswald was under the impression that he was, in fact, working for the Soviets… even though we know he was not. If he wasn’t working for the Soviets while killing the President, we are left with two options… either he was delusional, or he was actually working for someone else who told him he was working for the Soviets.
Jack Ruby
While Lee Harvey Oswald might not have been directly connected to the mafia, the man who killed him certainly was. Jacob Rubenstein (Ruby’s given name) was born in a tough neighborhood in Chicago in 1911. He grew up running packages for none other than Al Capone. He was known as a tough kid and a fighter. In the 1930’s he went to San Francisco where he worked at mob owned race tracks. He acted as a business agent for a Teamsters local. After WWII he moved to Dallas and owned several night clubs and was known for a very close relationship with morally dubious police officers.
Look, I don’t know how much of a picture I need to paint for you, but Jack Ruby was a connected guy. He was controlled by the Chicago outfit and when they said jump, he jumped. Interestingly enough, like so many characters in this web, Jack Ruby was also probably gay. He lived with a known homosexual man who called him his “boyfriend”. He never married or had children… and the women at the Carousel Club (his strip club in Dallas) liked working for him because he never used to make advances on the dancers. It’s interesting how all of that stuff was just under the surface back then. Most people never thought of it… But I digress.
If the JFK assassination was actually a mob sanctioned hit, and if Oswald was their useful idiot shooter, then it stands to reason that Oswald would have to be eliminated. Given that it seems that they missed their chance right after the shooting, it stands to reason that the mob would then call on their local soldier, Ruby, to do the deed.
Based on all of my research on the mob, if you are an associate of that life, and you are given an order, you don’t have a choice as to whether or not you follow it. If you don’t, you will be killed.
Ruby was well known in Dallas. He had police contacts. He had access to the police station and could get in. Was he ordered to kill the patsy Oswald by Sam Giancana and Santo Trafficante? We will never know for sure, but that would make sense.
Did the Mafia really do it?
What is the evidence for the theory the mafia was responsible for the assassination:
— First, they said they did it. Santo Trafficante said it was a mob hit before he died. It has been mob lore since it happened that it was the Chicago Outfit with Trafficante in Tampa and Carlos Marcello in New Orleans. There are interviews all over the place from old mob guys like Michael Franzese, Sammy the Bull Gravano, and others that all claim they heard it was a mob hit.
— The gunman on the grassy knoll has identified himself. James Files claims he was there and working on behalf of the mafia.
— The mafia had a motive. They felt that Kennedy owed them and that he then attacked them through his brother, the Attorney General. They felt disrespected and openly hated JFK by the time he was killed.
— They could have pulled it off. The fact is that while these guys were criminals and not particularly well educated, they were the most sophisticated murderers and assassins in the country. Between the men mentioned in this article, it’s not possible to count the number of people they had killed… and they got away with the vast majority of it.
That is means, motive, and opportunity. They had all three. But that doesn’t mean they did it.
I don’t think the mob did it. Here’s why:
The biggest reason I don’t think they are guilty is that they survived. There are no words to express how swiftly and how mercilessly the government of the United States would have destroyed the mafia if there was any evidence that they had a hand in the murder of a sitting US President. The mob was being watched by 1963. Frankly that was one of their biggest complaints about Kennedy. The idea that they could have pulled this off without the government finding out it was them is laughable.
We know about almost every major mob hit in the 20th century from Arnold Rothstein to Albert Anastasia to Big Paul Castellano. We know who killed them, we know why they were killed, and in most cases we know the details of who pulled the trigger. I am supposed to believe the one hit that was bigger than anything they had ever done or ever would do is in a complete black box? Come on…
Further, the mafia in the United States has never attempted to kill a federal judge. They have never attempted to kill a US Attorney who is investigating or prosecuting them. They have never killed an FBI agent. Why? Because the heat would be too much. It would destroy the organization. Kill a President? You’d have to be suicidal. They knew the government wouldn’t just let that go. Proof or no proof, if the US Government believed the Chicago Outfit killed JFK, there wouldn’t be anyone left to tell the story. Keep in mind, the US Government has trained killers too, battalions of them.
One last thing. For all the old mobsters who claim they heard the assassination was a mob hit, the only guy who has been interviewed recently who was actually a member of the Chicago Outfit under Sam Giancana in that era, is a guy named Frank Cullotta. Frank says “no way”. (BTW, if you want to go down a fun internet rabbit-hole, Cullotta was the real deal)
Conclusion on the mob connection
In the end, the real answer is that we just don’t know. We don’t know exactly why Lee Harvey Oswald pulled that trigger. We don’t know why Santo Trafficante claimed to be behind the assassination. We don’t know why Jack Ruby killed Oswald in that police station.
All that said, we do know one thing. The mafia survived 1963 and if they had been responsible for the death of a US President, they wouldn’t have. At least that’s what I think.
Tune in early next week for Part 5 of the JFK series on Line of Fire! In the next part, we get really serious. Did a rogue element of the CIA kill the President? Did they use mob ties to get Ruby to kill the shooter? Find out next time!
Happy Friday all!
—Virgil