Sam Giancana
Encyclopedia
Salvatore Giancana 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."
immigrants in Little Italy, Chicago
, also known as "The Patch." His father, Antonino (later simplified to Antonio) Giangana, owned a pushcart and later briefly owned an Italian ice
shop, which was later firebombed by gangland
rivals of his son.
, 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 transformed into a de facto extension of the Chicago Outfit
. The Outfit was initially wary of the 42ers at first, 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 Cosa Nostra higher-ups 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. This story was famously referenced in The Godfather
. Giancana is also credited with the murder of Chicago "Policy King" Theodore Roe
in 1952.
, on September 23, 1933. They had three daughters. 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. , at least one daughter, Antoinette, had taken the "Giancana" name again.
, 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 Eddie Jones to leave his racket
and leave the country. Giancana's crew was also responsible for the 1952 murder of Theodore Roe
. Both men were leading South Side African-American "Policy Kings". However, Roe had refused to give up his share of the Chicago policy racket which the Italians had demanded and Roe had fatally shot a member of Giancana's crew, Lennard "Fat Lennie" Caifano. Though 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 didn't kill him, when the lottery money started rolling in for The Outfit after this gambling war, the amount that this game had 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 knowledge and 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 wire saying 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."
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 some allege she may have 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.
According to the recently-declassified CIA "Family Jewels
" documents, Giancana and Tampa/Miami Syndicate leader Santo Trafficante, Jr.
were contacted in September 1960, about the possibility of an assassination attempt by a go-between from the CIA, Robert Maheu
, 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 using 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 who had access to Castro. After a series of six attempts to introduce the poison into Castro's food, Orta abruptly demanded to be let out of 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.
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 tasked with planting 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.
and Central America
. Both of these factors resulted in much bitterness among the Outfit's rank-and-file.
As a result, Giancana was deposed as day-to-day boss by the still in control Accardo 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 and deported to the United States.
, 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 a friend. 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. Leading FBI experts and Giancana's daughter, Antoinette, do not consider him Giancana's killer. Other Mafia suspects are Harry Aleman
, Charles "Chuckie" English, Charles Nicoletti
and Anthony Spilotro
. In the 1995 movie Sugartime
, Dominic "Butch" Blasi, as portrayed by Elias Koteas
, is shown murdering Giancana.
Giancana was interred next to his wife, Angelina, in a family mausoleum at Mount Carmel Cemetery
, in Hillside, Illinois
.
Sicilian-American
Sicilian Americans are American people from Sicily or of Sicilian heritage. They are considered Italian Americans but are sometimes treated as a separate group due to cultural and historical differences between Sicily and the mainland....
mobster and boss of the Chicago Outfit
Chicago Outfit
The Chicago Outfit, also known as the Chicago Syndicate or Chicago Mob and sometimes shortened to simply the Outfit, is a crime syndicate based in Chicago, Illinois, USA...
from 1957-1966. Among his other nicknames were, "Momo", "Mooney," "Sam the Cigar," and "Sammy."
Early life
Born as Salvatore Giangana to SicilianSicilian people
Sicilian people may refer to either:* The people of Sicily, i.e. their ethnicity, see Sicily#Demographicsor* Individuals of Sicilian ancestry or birth, see the List of Sicilians...
immigrants in Little Italy, Chicago
Little Italy, Chicago
Little Italy is a neighborhood on the Near West Side of Chicago, Illinois. The current boundaries of Little Italy are Ashland Avenue on the west and Morgan Street on the east — bracketed by Harrison Street on the north and Roosevelt Road; i.e., 12th Street, on the south...
, also known as "The Patch." His father, Antonino (later simplified to Antonio) Giangana, owned a pushcart and later briefly owned an Italian ice
Italian ice
Italian ice, also known as water ice, is a sweetened frozen dessert made with fruit or other natural or artificial food flavorings, similar to sorbet. Italian ice is not shaved ice that is flavored; rather, it is made by the same process by which ice cream is made: freezing the ingredients while...
shop, which was later firebombed by gangland
Gangland
Gangland is a computer game created by Mediamobsters . It was released on 14 February 2004. It has the premise of mixing real-time strategy , role-playing game and simulation .-Story:...
rivals of his son.
Criminal career
Sam Giancana joined the Forty-Two GangForty-Two Gang
The Forty-Two Gang was a teenage street gang in Chicago during Prohibition. Like Brooklyn's Italian and Jewish street gangs of Brownsville and Ocean Hill, the Forty-Two Gang served as a "farm team" for future members of the Chicago Outfit...
, a juvenile street crew answering to political boss
Political boss
A boss, in politics, is a person who wields the power over a particular political region or constituency. Bosses may dictate voting patterns, control appointments, and wield considerable influence in other political processes. They do not necessarily hold public office themselves...
Joseph Esposito
Joseph Esposito (mobster)
Joseph "Diamond Joe" Esposito was a Prohibition-era Chicago politician who was involved in bootlegging, extortion, prostitution and labor racketeering with the Genna Brothers...
. 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 transformed into a de facto extension of the Chicago Outfit
Chicago Outfit
The Chicago Outfit, also known as the Chicago Syndicate or Chicago Mob and sometimes shortened to simply the Outfit, is a crime syndicate based in Chicago, Illinois, USA...
. The Outfit was initially wary of the 42ers at first, 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 Cosa Nostra higher-ups like Frank "The Enforcer" Nitti
Frank Nitti
Francesco Raffaele Nitto , also known as Frank "The Enforcer" Nitti, was an Italian American gangster. One of Al Capone's top henchmen, Nitti was in charge of all strong-arm and 'muscle' operations...
, Paul "The Waiter" Ricca
Paul Ricca
Paul Ricca, also known as "The Waiter" , was a Chicago mobster who served as the nominal or de facto leader of the Chicago Outfit for forty years.-Early life:...
and Tony "Joe Batters" Accardo
Tony Accardo
Antonino Joseph Accardo , also known as "Joe Batters" or "Big Tuna", rose from small-time hoodlum to the position of day-to-day boss of the Chicago Outfit in 1947, to ultimately become the final Outfit authority in 1972, until his death...
. In the late 1930s, Giancana became the first 42er to join the Outfit. In 1942, Giancana also allegedly forced jazz musician Tommy Dorsey
Tommy Dorsey
Thomas Francis "Tommy" Dorsey, Jr. was an American jazz trombonist, trumpeter, composer, and bandleader of the Big Band era. He was known as "The Sentimental Gentleman of Swing", due to his smooth-toned trombone playing. He was the younger brother of bandleader Jimmy Dorsey...
into letting singer Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
out of his contract early, so that Sinatra could expand his career. This story was famously referenced in The Godfather
The Godfather
The Godfather is a 1972 American epic crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the 1969 novel by Mario Puzo. With a screenplay by Puzo, Coppola and an uncredited Robert Towne, the film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard...
. Giancana is also credited with the murder of Chicago "Policy King" Theodore Roe
Theodore Roe
Teddy Roe was an African-American mob boss who built an illegal gambling empire in South Side, Chicago during the 1940s and 1950s. Roe earned the nickname "Robinhood" because of his generous philanthropy among the neighborhood poor...
in 1952.
Family
Sam married Angelina DeTolve, the daughter of immigrants from the Italian Region of BasilicataBasilicata
Basilicata , also known as Lucania, is a region in the south of Italy, bordering on Campania to the west, Apulia to the north and east, and Calabria to the south, having one short southwestern coastline on the Tyrrhenian Sea between Campania in the northwest and Calabria in the southwest, and a...
, on September 23, 1933. They had three daughters. 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. , at least one daughter, Antoinette, had taken the "Giancana" name again.
Rise to power
In 1945, after serving a sentence at the Federal Correctional Complex, Terre HauteFederal Correctional Complex, Terre Haute
The Federal Correctional Complex, Terre Haute, is a federal prison for adult males located at the intersection of State Road 63 and Springhill Drive, two miles south of Terre Haute, Indiana United States...
, Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
(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
Numbers game
Numbers game, also known as a numbers racket, policy racket or Italian lottery, is an illegal lottery played mostly in poor neighborhoods in the United States, wherein a bettor attempts to pick three digits to match those that will be randomly drawn the following day...
" (lottery) pay-out system for The Outfit. Giancana's crew is believed to have been responsible for convincing Eddie Jones to leave his racket
Racket (crime)
A racket is an illegal business, usually run as part of organized crime. Engaging in a racket is called racketeering.Several forms of racket exist. The best-known is the protection racket, in which criminals demand money from businesses in exchange for the service of "protection" against crimes...
and leave the country. Giancana's crew was also responsible for the 1952 murder of Theodore Roe
Theodore Roe
Teddy Roe was an African-American mob boss who built an illegal gambling empire in South Side, Chicago during the 1940s and 1950s. Roe earned the nickname "Robinhood" because of his generous philanthropy among the neighborhood poor...
. Both men were leading South Side African-American "Policy Kings". However, Roe had refused to give up his share of the Chicago policy racket which the Italians had demanded and Roe had fatally shot a member of Giancana's crew, Lennard "Fat Lennie" Caifano. Though the South Side "policy"-game takeover by the Outfit was not complete until another Outfit member, Jackie "the Lackey" Cerone
Jackie Cerone
John "Jackie The Lackey" Cerone was a Chicago mobster and boss of the Chicago Outfit, during the late 1960s. He was the younger brother of mobster Frank "Skippy" Cerone and father of lawyer, John Peter Cerone and husband to the late Clara Cerone.He was born to John Cerone Sr. and Rose Valant. He...
, scared "Big Jim" Martin to Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
with two bullets to the head that didn't kill him, when the lottery money started rolling in for The Outfit after this gambling war, the amount that this game had 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
Consigliere
Consigliere is a position within the leadership structure of Sicilian and American Mafia crime families. The word was popularized by Mario Puzo's novel The Godfather , and its film adaptation...
," in 1957. However, it was generally understood that Accardo and Ricca still held the real power. No major business transactions, and certainly no hits
Contract killing
Contract killing is a form of murder, in which one party hires another party to kill a target individual or group of people. It involves an illegal agreement between two parties in which one party agrees to kill the target in exchange for consideration, monetary, or otherwise. The hiring party may...
, took place without Accardo and Ricca's knowledge and approval.
Giancana was present at the Mafia's 1957 Apalachin Meeting
Apalachin Meeting
The Apalachin Meeting was a historic summit of the American Mafia held on November 14, 1957, at the home of mobster Joseph "Joe the Barber" Barbara in Apalachin, New York. The meeting was attended by roughly 100 Mafiosi from the United States, Canada, and Italy...
at the Upstate New York
Upstate New York
Upstate New York is the region of the U.S. state of New York that is located north of the core of the New York metropolitan area.-Definition:There is no clear or official boundary between Upstate New York and Downstate New York...
estate of Joseph Barbara
Joseph Barbara (mobster)
Joseph "Joe the Barber" Barbara was a New York state mobster who became the boss of the Bufalino crime family. Barbara is most notable for hosting the abortive Apalachin Conference in 1957...
. Later, Buffalo
Buffalo crime family
The Buffalo crime family, also known as the Magaddino crime family and The Arm, is an Italian American criminal organization based in Buffalo, United States. As part of the American Mafia the family operates throughout Western New York and Canada.The Buffalo crime family, gained power during the...
crime boss Stefano Magaddino
Stefano Magaddino
Stefano Magaddino was an Sicilian mafioso who became the boss of the Buffalo crime family in western New York. His underworld influence stretched from Ohio and Southern Ontario as far north as Montreal, Quebec...
and Giancana were overheard on a wire saying 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 CommitteeChurch Committee
The Church Committee is the common term referring to the United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, a U.S. Senate committee chaired by Senator Frank Church in 1975. A precursor to the U.S...
Hearings, that during the Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
administration, the Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
(CIA) recruited Giancana and other mobsters to assassinate Cuban president Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
. 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 some allege she may have 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.
According to the recently-declassified CIA "Family Jewels
Family Jewels (Central Intelligence Agency)
The Family Jewels is the informal name used to refer to a set of reports that detail activities conducted by the United States Central Intelligence Agency. Considered illegal or inappropriate, these actions were conducted over the span of decades, from the 1950s to the mid-1970s...
" documents, Giancana and Tampa/Miami Syndicate leader Santo Trafficante, Jr.
Santo Trafficante, Jr.
Santo Trafficante, Jr. 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...
were contacted in September 1960, about the possibility of an assassination attempt by a go-between from the CIA, Robert Maheu
Robert Maheu
Robert Aime Maheu was an American businessman and lawyer, who worked for the FBI, CIA and as the chief executive of Nevada operations for the industrialist Howard Hughes.-Biography:...
, after Maheu had contacted Johnny Roselli, a Mafia member in Las Vegas
Las Vegas metropolitan area
The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...
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 using 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 who had access to Castro. After a series of six attempts to introduce the poison into Castro's food, Orta abruptly demanded to be let out of 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
Bay of Pigs Invasion
The Bay of Pigs Invasion was an unsuccessful action by a CIA-trained force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba, with support and encouragement from the US government, in an attempt to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. The invasion was launched in April 1961, less than three months...
in April 1961.
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 tasked with planting the device. According to the documents, Robert Kennedy
Robert F. Kennedy
Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy , also referred to by his initials RFK, was an American politician, a Democratic senator from New York, and a noted civil rights activist. An icon of modern American liberalism and member of the Kennedy family, he was a younger brother of President John F...
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
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
. During part of the affair, according to Sam's daughter Antoinette, McGuire had a concurrent affair with President Kennedy.
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 IranIran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
and Central America
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
. Both of these factors resulted in much bitterness among the Outfit's rank-and-file.
As a result, Giancana was deposed as day-to-day boss by the still in control Accardo and replaced by Joseph "Joey Doves" Aiuppa
Joseph Aiuppa
Joseph John Aiuppa , also known as "Doves," "Mourning Doves," "O'Brien," or "Joey Doves," was a Chicago mobster who became a leader of the Chicago Outfit.-Early career:...
. After about seven years of exile inside a lavish villa
Villa
A villa was originally an ancient Roman upper-class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became small farming compounds, which were increasingly fortified in Late Antiquity,...
in Cuernavaca
Cuernavaca
Cuernavaca is the capital and largest city of the state of Morelos in Mexico. It was established at the archeological site of Gualupita I by the Olmec, "the mother culture" of Mesoamerica, approximately 3200 years ago...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, Giancana was arrested by Mexican authorities and deported to the United States.
Death
Upon 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 ParkOak Park, Illinois
Oak Park, Illinois is a suburb bordering the west side of the city of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is the twenty-fifth largest municipality in Illinois. Oak Park has easy access to downtown Chicago due to public transportation such as the Chicago 'L' Blue and Green lines,...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
. 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 a friend. Giancana was killed shortly before he was scheduled to appear before a U. S. Senate committee investigating supposed CIA and Cosa Nostra collusion
Collusion
Collusion is an agreement between two or more persons, sometimes illegal and therefore secretive, to limit open competition by deceiving, misleading, or defrauding others of their legal rights, or to obtain an objective forbidden by law typically by defrauding or gaining an unfair advantage...
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
William Colby
William Egan Colby spent a career in intelligence for the United States, culminating in holding the post of Director of Central Intelligence from September 1973, to January 1976....
has been quoted as saying, "We had nothing to do with it."
Another theory is that Trafficante crime family
Trafficante crime family
The Trafficante crime family better known as the Tampa Mafia, is the only original Mafia crime family in the state of Florida.-Tampa's underworld:...
boss Santo Trafficante, Jr.
Santo Trafficante, Jr.
Santo Trafficante, Jr. 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...
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
Tony Accardo
Antonino Joseph Accardo , also known as "Joe Batters" or "Big Tuna", rose from small-time hoodlum to the position of day-to-day boss of the Chicago Outfit in 1947, to ultimately become the final Outfit authority in 1972, until his death...
and Joseph Aiuppa
Joseph Aiuppa
Joseph John Aiuppa , also known as "Doves," "Mourning Doves," "O'Brien," or "Joey Doves," was a Chicago mobster who became a leader of the Chicago Outfit.-Early career:...
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
Michael J. Corbitt
Michael Jerome Corbitt was a police chief of Willow Springs, Illinois, and an associate of Chicago Outfit mobsters such as Sal Bastone, Sam "Mo Mo" Giancana and Antonino "Tony," "Joe Batters" Accardo. He became a cooperating witness after being convicted of aiding in the murder of Chicagoan Diane...
, 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. Leading FBI experts and Giancana's daughter, Antoinette, do not consider him Giancana's killer. Other Mafia suspects are Harry Aleman
Harry Aleman
Harry "The Hook" Aleman was a Chicago mobster who was one of most feared enforcers for the Chicago Outfit during the 1970s. Aleman got the nickname "Hook" from his boxing career in high school.-Early life:...
, Charles "Chuckie" English, Charles Nicoletti
Charles Nicoletti
Charles "Chuckie" Nicoletti, also known as "The Typewriter" "Chuckie Typewriter" , was a top Chicago Outfit hitman under Outfit boss Sam "Mooney" Giancana before and after Giancana's rise and fall.-Early years:...
and Anthony Spilotro
Anthony Spilotro
Anthony "The Ant" Spilotro was an Italian-American mobster and enforcer for the Chicago Outfit in Las Vegas during the 1970s and 1980s. His job was to protect and oversee the Outfit's illegal casino profits...
. In the 1995 movie Sugartime
Sugartime
"Sugartime" is a popular song, written by Charlie Phillips and Odis Echols and published in 1958. The biggest hit version was recorded by The McGuire Sisters, who topped the charts with their single in February of that year. In 1961, the song briefly returned to the US Cashbox country charts in a...
, Dominic "Butch" Blasi, as portrayed by Elias Koteas
Elias Koteas
Elias Koteas is a Canadian actor of film and television, best known for his roles in The Prophecy, Fallen and the live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films.-Early life:...
, is shown murdering Giancana.
Giancana was interred next to his wife, Angelina, in a family mausoleum at Mount Carmel Cemetery
Mount Carmel Cemetery (Hillside)
Mount Carmel Cemetery is a Roman Catholic cemetery located in the Chicago suburb of Hillside, Illinois. Mount Carmel is an active cemetery, located within the jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago. The cemetery is located near the Eisenhower Expressway at Wolf and Roosevelt...
, in Hillside, Illinois
Hillside, Illinois
Hillside is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 8,155 at the 2000 census.One notable landmark in Hillside is the Mount Carmel Cemetery. On the grounds of the cemetery are the graves of a number of organized crime figures, such as Al Capone and Dion O'Bannion...
.
In popular culture
- Giancana is the subject of the biography Mafia Princess, written by his daughter Antoinette. This book was later adapted into the 1986 TV film Mafia Princess, starring Tony CurtisTony CurtisTony Curtis was an American film actor whose career spanned six decades, but had his greatest popularity during the 1950s and early 1960s. He acted in over 100 films in roles covering a wide range of genres, from light comedy to serious drama...
as Giancana. - The 1995 TV film Sugartime depicts Giancana's relationship with singer Phyllis McGuire of The McGuire SistersThe McGuire SistersThe McGuire Sisters were a singing trio in American popular music. The group was composed of three sisters: Christine McGuire , Dorothy McGuire , and Phyllis McGuire...
, with Giancana being played by John TurturroJohn TurturroJohn Michael Turturro is an American actor, writer and director known for his roles in the films Do the Right Thing , Miller's Crossing , Barton Fink , Quiz Show , The Big Lebowski , O Brother, Where Art Thou? and the Transformers film series...
. - Rod SteigerRod SteigerRodney Stephen "Rod" Steiger was an Academy Award-winning American actor known for his performances in such films as On the Waterfront, The Big Knife, Oklahoma!, The Harder They Fall, Across the Bridge, The Pawnbroker, Doctor Zhivago, In the Heat of the Night, and Waterloo as well as the...
portrayed Giancana in the 1992 TV miniseries SinatraSinatra (TV miniseries)Sinatra is a 1992 award-winning CBS miniseries. Directed by James Steven Sadwith and written by William Mastrosimone and Abby Mann and produced by Tina Sinatra and Richard M. Rosenbloom...
. - Robert Miranda played Giancana in the 1998 TV film, The Rat PackThe Rat Pack (film)The Rat Pack is a 1998 HBO TV movie about the Rat Pack. The movie stars Ray Liotta as Frank Sinatra, Joe Mantegna as Dean Martin, Don Cheadle as Sammy Davis, Jr., and Angus Macfadyen as Peter Lawford....
. - As of May 2007, a six-hour miniseries on Giancana is under development in Hollywood.
- Influential mafioso-rapper Kool G RapKool G RapNathaniel Thomas Wilson , better known by his stage names Kool G Rap , Kool G. Rap, and Giancana , is an American rapper, from the Corona neighborhood of Queens, New York. He began his career in the mid-1980s as one half of the group Kool G Rap & DJ Polo and as a member of the Juice Crew...
once stated that the "G" in his name stands for Giancana. Kool G Rap released an album in 2002 called The Giancana StoryThe Giancana StoryThe Giancana Story is the third solo album by Mafioso rap artist Kool G Rap. It was released on November 12, 2002 on Koch Records and it contains two singles "The Streets"/"Thug 4 Life" & "My Life." The album, however, was not very commercially successful by not making it to the Billboard 200...
. - Giancana plays a major role in James EllroyJames EllroyLee Earle "James" Ellroy is an American crime fiction writer and essayist. Ellroy has become known for a so-called "telegraphic" prose style in his most recent work, wherein he frequently omits connecting words and uses only short, staccato sentences, and in particular for the novels The Black...
's fiction, most notably "American TabloidAmerican TabloidAmerican Tabloid is a 1995 novel by James Ellroy. The novel chronicles three rogue American law enforcement officers from November 22, 1958 through November 22, 1963. Each becomes entangled in a web of interconnecting associations between the FBI, CIA, and the Mafia, which eventually leads to their...
" and its sequels "The Cold Six ThousandThe Cold Six ThousandThe Cold Six Thousand is a 2001 crime fiction novel by James Ellroy. It is the first sequel to American Tabloid in the Underworld USA Trilogy and continues many of the earlier novel's characters and plotlines...
" and "Blood's a RoverBlood's a RoverBlood's a Rover is a 2009 crime fiction novel by American author James Ellroy. It follows American Tabloid and The Cold Six Thousand as the final volume of Ellroy's Underworld USA Trilogy. A 10,000-word excerpt was published in the December 2008 issue of Playboy...
". - Giancana is a central figure in the Max Allan CollinsMax Allan CollinsMax Allan Collins is an American mystery writer. He has written novels, screenplays, comic books, comic strips, trading cards, short stories, movie novelizations and historical fiction. He wrote the graphic novel Road to Perdition , created the comic book private eye Ms...
novels Chicago Confidential and Road to Paradise. - Giancana is a character in the Robert Randisi Rat PackRat PackThe Rat Pack was a group of actors originally centered on Humphrey Bogart. In the mid-1960s it was the name used by the press and the general public to refer to a later variation of the group, after Bogart's death, that called itself "the summit" or "the clan," featuring Frank Sinatra, Dean...
novels. - News footage of Giancana is featured in the film JFKJFK (film)JFK is a 1991 American film directed by Oliver Stone. It examines the events leading to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and alleged subsequent cover-up, through the eyes of former New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison .Garrison filed charges against New Orleans businessman Clay...
. - Giancana is portrayed under the name "Joseph Palmi" in the 2006 film, The Good ShepherdThe Good Shepherd (film)The Good Shepherd is a 2006 spy film directed by Robert De Niro and starring Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie, with an extensive supporting cast. Although it is a fictional film loosely based on real events, it is advertised as telling the untold story of the birth of counter-intelligence in the...
, starring Matt DamonMatt DamonMatthew Paige "Matt" Damon is an American actor, screenwriter, and philanthropist whose career was launched following the success of the film Good Will Hunting , from a screenplay he co-wrote with friend Ben Affleck...
. Palmi may be a mix of the several other mobsters (Santo Trafficante, Jr.Santo Trafficante, Jr.Santo Trafficante, Jr. 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...
, Carlos MarcelloCarlos MarcelloCarlos "The Little Man" Marcello 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.-Early life:...
, etc.) involved with the operation. Matt Damon's character, Edward Wilson, is depicted in proposing Palmi (Joe PesciJoe PesciJoseph Frank "Joe" Pesci is an American actor, comedian, and musician.He is known for playing a variety of different roles, from violent mobsters to comedic leads to quirky sidekicks...
) to assist in the assassination of Fidel Castro. - Giancana is mentioned in the song "Dope money" by The LoxThe LOXThe Lox are an American hip hop group composed of Jadakiss, Sheek Louch, and Styles P. They were originally signed to Sean Combs' Bad Boy Records before joining Ruff Ryders Entertainment, and are now a part of their own label, D-Block Records-Early career:...
. "Bring Drama 'cause Giancana got Kennedy Killed". "Dope money" is song number six, on The LOXThe LOXThe Lox are an American hip hop group composed of Jadakiss, Sheek Louch, and Styles P. They were originally signed to Sean Combs' Bad Boy Records before joining Ruff Ryders Entertainment, and are now a part of their own label, D-Block Records-Early career:...
second Album, Ryde or Die Vol. 1Ryde or Die Vol. 1Ryde or Die Vol. 1 is a 1999 album by the New York-based rap group Ruff Ryders. The album was released on April 27, 1999.-Track listing:-Chart positions:-See also:* Number-one albums of 1999 * List of number-one R&B albums of 1999...
. - Giancana played a major role in the 1965 J. X. WilliamsJ. X. WilliamsJ.X. Williams is an American avant-garde filmmaker and director. Numerous critics have cited him to be one of the most influential figures in American avant-garde cinema . Williams was an innovative cult director for several notorious exploitation films produced in the 1960s and 1970s...
film Peep Show and has a personal performance credit for this on the IMDb movie data-base. - Giancana may be mentioned in the ShyneShyneMoshe Levi Ben-David , better known by his stage name Shyne, is a Belizean rapper.-Background:...
song "Edge" on his second album "Godfather Buried Alive." "Fuck comma rap's, Sam Giancana", although this is sometimes rendered as "... same G and canna". - The fictional character Louie RussoLouie RussoLuigi 'Louie' Russo is a fictional character in Mark Winegardner's The Godfather Returns. Russo serves as the Don of the Chicago Outfit from 1955 to 1961.-Biography:...
from The Godfather ReturnsThe Godfather ReturnsThe Godfather Returns is a novel written by author Mark Winegardner, published in 2004. It is the sequel to Mario Puzo's The Godfather, which was originally published in 1969, and The Sicilian...
by Mark WinegardnerMark WinegardnerMark Winegardner is an American writer born and raised in Bryan, Ohio. His novels include The Godfather Returns, Crooked River Burning, and The Veracruz Blues. He published a collection of short stories, That's True of Everybody, in 2002. His newest novel, The Godfather's Revenge, was published...
, could be based on Sam Giancana. - The character Mob Man (uncredited) from The X Files episode Musings of a Cigarette Smoking ManMusings of a Cigarette Smoking Man"Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man" is a 1996 episode of The X-Files television series. It was the seventh episode broadcast in the show's fourth season...
is likely based on Giancana who is present at a planning meeting on the assassination of JFK. - Giancana is a notable character in Norman Mailer's historical fiction "Harlot's Ghost".
- Serge Houde portrays Giancana as a major nemesis of the Kennedy clan in the controversial 2011 television miniseries The Kennedys
Further reading
- Cain, Michael J. The Tangled Web. New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2007. ISBN 978-1-60239-044-7
- Brashler, William. The Don: The Life and Death of Sam Giancana. New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1977. ISBN 0-06-010447-3
- Giancana, Sam and Chuck. Double Cross: The Explosive, inside Story of the Mobster Who Controlled America. New York: Warner Books, 1992. ISBN 0-446-51624-4
- Giancana, Antoinette and Renner, Thomas C. Mafia Princess. New York: William Morrow & Company, Inc., 1984.ISBN 0-380-69849-8
- Hersh, Seymour M. Dark Side of Camelot. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1997. ISBN 0-316-35955-6
- Morgan, John M. Prince of Crime. New York: Stein and Day, 1985. ISBN 0-812-88297-0
- Nash, Jay RobertJay Robert NashJay Robert Nash is an American author of more than seventy books on myriad aspects of true crime. Among Nash's crime anthologies are Encyclopedia of Western Lawmen and Outlaws, Look For the Woman, Bloodletters and Badmen, and The Great Pictorial History of World Crime...
. Bloodletters and Badmen. New York: M. Evans & Co. 1973. ISBN 0-871-31777-X - Sifakis, Carl. Encyclopedia of Crime. New York: Facts On File, 1982. ISBN 0-8160-5694-3
- Talbot, David. Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years. Free Press. May, 2007. ISBN 0-743-26918-7
- Thompson, Nathan (2003). KINGS The True Story of Chicago's Policy Kings and Numbers Racketeers. The Bronzeville Press. ISBN 0972487506.
- Waldron, Lamar, Hartmann, Thom. Ultimate Sacrifice: John and Robert Kennedy, the Plan for a Coup in Cuba, and the Murder of JFK. Carroll & Graf. 2006. ISBN 0-786-71832-3
- Zion, Sidney. Loyalty and Betrayal: The Story of the American Mob. San Francisco: Collins Publishers, 1994. ISBN 0-006-38271-1
- Dark, Tony. The FBI Files Sam Giancana, H H Productions, Chicago, 2004. ISBN 0-615-12720-7
External links
- Sam Giancana at Encyclopædia BritannicaEncyclopædia BritannicaThe Encyclopædia Britannica , published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia that is available in print, as a DVD, and on the Internet. It is written and continuously updated by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 expert...
- Federal Bureau of Investigation - Freedom of Information Privacy Act: Sam Giancana
- Seize the Night: Sam "Momo" Giancana