Momo: The Sam Giancana Story | JFK, Sinatra and the Mob | BEST OF MAFIA MOVIES

[Music] [Music] who's funny he was comical he was witty he's smart Sam was narcissistic grandiose I mean the man could have it all and yet live with nothing he really wasn't a bad guy deep down inside he had a good heart an arm of the federal government going to the boss of an organized crime family to talk about the assassination of the leader of a country to advance political purposes it's just that there was a certain presence about him the thing that made Sam Giancana dangerous was the same thing that made every member of the Chicago Outfit dangerous and that is their willingness and ability to kill without question based on an order he had a great sense of humor enjoyed people a lot mama Sam Giancana the sharp dressing guy who takes way too little credit for way too much Crossin once wake up death just ask Kennedy in 63 ain't no one and it all happened didn't seem like you know Jack [Music] Chicago always was a one boss town that's the world Sam came into born right there may 24th 1908 Guillermo Jian Ghana or Momo Salvatori Giancana on June 15th depends on who you want to believe grew up in the patch known as the spaghetti belt we're Italian immigrants came to recreate their past in broken-down buildings we never referred to it as the patch we always refer to it as Taylor Street I grew up in a cocoon maybe in this case we could call it a cannoli I I grew up in a protected neighborhood there was a defended neighborhood I I grew up feeling very safe it's kind of like everybody knows everybody people like to be where everybody knows your name and now that's the way it was on Taylor Street Sam's old man was a street vendor sold fruit and Tonino came over from Sicily about five minutes before Sam's mom Antonia died when he was two internal hemorrhaging so he didn't get a whole lot of mothering and there was nobody keeping him off the streets so when my dad talked about who took care of him when he was a little boy in the neighborhood it wasn't the police it wasn't social services it wasn't a church it was the gangsters his father would actually take him to a tree and hit him so his father was very beautiful but she doesn't help Sam's old man had a plan for him it was to beat the living crap out of him everyday it wouldn't take much maybe Sam spilled something his old man would chain him to a dead oak tree in the yard and just Flay him wrong and leave him there chained to the tree all night Sam took it out on the streets of Chicago I think a lot of it came from his being young and impoverished poor that he was driven to make a better life for remember he was around his family his future family then Antonino married again and had five more kids Josephine Antoinette Mary Jo Pepe and Chucky Sam's dad's second wife was killed saving Sam's brother Chuckie from being hit by a car by that time Sam was already into small neighborhood crime and boy detention centers then Antonino married a third time to a relative of his late second wife a woman with seven of her own kids when his father remarried he brought in another family it does it did create a lot of uneasy moments because of the way the new wife would treat his brothers and sisters as opposed to her family that was brought in and he had to play put food on the table and he had to go out and do whatever he had to do to get the food to put on the table like everybody else he was a thief and I'm you know progressed and they're getting involved in gambling and out there on the streets and in the gin mills in the back rooms and the counting houses just waiting for Sam to distinguish himself from the herd of everyday hoods was the outfit the Chicago family is called the outfit New York families are called the mafia I can't explain why but the difference but those are the nomenclature that they use he fell into the 42 gang a tough bunch of young freelance enforcers the kind of guys who could make you wish you hadn't done what you did the gang took their name from Ali Baba and the Forty fields [Music] but there were 42 of them so they had to become the 42 as opposed to the 43 they were the most notorious guys in the patch they killed guys for money this was mo most school the 42 gang was was a recruiting tool for the for the outfit they'd see somebody who was outstanding with regard to their viciousness and their criminality and their trustworthiness and they started grooming them for membership in the outfit and in my view Sam distinguished himself well the 42 gang was a group of the adolescents and young men age the average age was 21 but they were as young as 13 and were probably up to 25 their glory years so to speak in Chicago were from 1925 to 1934 and they were a criminal gang not a boy street gang in a conventional sense of the word the way we've come to view it later but they actually were a criminal group even though they had some very young children involved they were about committing crimes I mean the young kids started out with breaking into peanut machines and gumball machines and stealing pennies stealing clothes off of clothes lines and reselling them and as they got older they would graduate to auto theft stealing auto parts armed robbery 42 gang was involved in our two bank robberies that I'm aware of they turned out to be a pretty bad bunch of people they actually killed for Chicago policemen in their nine years there nine year reign of terror even though there were some very young kids they were very violent very aggressive criminal gang so 42 gang was a minor leagues for the outfit and just like minor league baseball not everybody makes it to the big leagues but several members of the 42 gang made it into the major leagues and some of them were starting players kind of like the n-c-double-a those were recruiting guys for the pros they go to colleges all their college here the wings of peds [Music] he had a couple different groups groups of young people one was led by Rocco Marc Antonio the other one was led by Babe Ruth Calero and another member of that group wasn't fayek sam giancana so when these seven young people got together Giancana Calero kind of adapted the younger kids and taught them to trade of being delinquents I think the older ones Calero and them were probably in their late teens as opposed to Rocco Marc Antonio and the others in their early teens but the gang really for men and it came together as the 42 gang when they began hanging around Mary's restaurant and I believe it was at Taylor and Loomis in Chicago they were extremely vicious gang and when when they were on the street they were victimizing people in the neighborhood Sam's many arrests kept his dad broke at 18 Sam was indicted for murder he got off from lack of evidence but he was becoming downright disrespectful even for a patch kid in my view Sam Giancana was the meanest the toughest and the smartest of the 42 game he had the ability had he been able to go through school he would have been successful anyway because he had the the ability to he had the intelligence to do it unfortunately he chose a different way to do it he was recognized as the other best driver the best wheelman around Taylor Street he drove a car better than anybody and even when he was older he could get away from the from the lockstep surveillance of the FBI in his car if he felt like it Sam liked a drag race on the city streets whipping souped-up cars around street corners on two wheels he hired out as a top-notch wheelman for robberies and getaways his Wild Eyes behind the wheel and the trigger got him known as Mooney meaning out of his freaking mind nuts as I know guys at work for bosses you know couples said he was a little out there so to speak crazy and a lot of things have been said and a lot of things have been written about his antisocial behavior diagnoses that were made it early on in his life that seemed to stuck with him through his time I just think that it's it's a misnomer it just backs up the fact that everything you hear about him from his nickname down to the fact that he was legit crazy just shows you that it respects adop that he was really not all there was you know a couple french fries short of a happy meal Sam Jean kind of did not kill for the pleasure of killing people it was purposeful killing and that's the way killing was usually done in the outfit you know I mean obviously the guy was using Capone bag you know hits at a very young age maybe where you carried him out with a little bit out there rather than just taking care of it business like so early on he showed us viciousness that the other members didn't show early on he showed leadership potential that the year the other members didn't show and early on he showed an intelligence that the other other members didn't show it was a growth time for street hoods prohibition in Chicago was still a one boss town the one boss was Al Capone Sam met Capone at the four deuces in 1925 Capone gave Sam a job get rid of Johnny Torrio who thought he was Al's boss Sam was the lead shooter when Torrio was almost killed outside his house even though an Irish gang got the blame Torrio pulled out of Chicago because Sam showed him it was a one boss town then Capone's six Sam on the rest of the competition guys like Diamond Joe Esposito within those circles Sam was like a killers killer guys like Frank Nitti and Jack McGurn guys they made movies about all called on young Sam to settle their books in 1928 Sam falls in love her name is Angelina de Tobey she was beautiful and from the neighborhood and she had what Sam didn't have any of respectability educated by nuns her family came from southern Italy naturally they hated Sam with his fast cars and white brim hats and she heard about Sam's bad-boy status and she was drawn to him I mean he acted real nice around her right they were a real item for a while there and maybe he was thinking about giving up the life for her but it didn't happen st. Valentine's Day Massacre in 1929 when seven members of a rival Irish gang headed by bugs Moran were killed in a garage up in a Lincoln Park area Chicago the next year machine gun Jack McGurn asked Sam to be wheelman for the st. Valentine's Day Massacre but Sam wasn't the kind of wheelman who waits in the car he dressed up like a cop with the others and helped mow down the bugs Moran gang McGurn later told Capone that Sam was a gold mine a wheelman who could shoot then Sam had to go to Joliet not for that but for a burglary rap you imagine the relief Angeline's father felt when Sam was upstream she got engaged to another boy when Sam got out on parole he died in a car accident angie was grieving and very vulnerable all he thought about in prison was her he became very persistent kind of bolder over with flowers and attention and and things like that Sam had two problems when he got out of Joliet prison one he had to support his dad brothers and sisters who were destitute - he desperately wanted to marry Angelina - Toby he knew he had nothing to offer her other than starving relatives a police record and no money something had to give Sam gave he changed he didn't go straight he went smart no more the crazy antics of Mooney he was back in the rackets but way cool in the background and his home life was immaculate yeah he changed because now he wanted something he wanted her her life was his life and anything he can do to make her life happier or better obviously you try and do that she was too old for her father to stop her so she said yes they were married on September 26 1933 regular Catholic wedding nothing fancy she had on her mother's wedding ring and a white satin wedding gown and he wore a big smile they moved into a house in the patch just two doors down from the one Sam grew up in he insisted on a clean house and an early dinner the relationship how can I explain it it was a tender true feeling emotional [Music] cheering Canada he was like a protector to her and he did everything in his power as I as we've talked about to make sure that her life was as beautiful as he could possibly make it he did adore her he was gentle with her you definitely got whatever you know she wanted or needed in life and with that situation he was a very gentle person which I feel he also was with me he was a caretaker he was a care giver yet anything could possibly do and I can only go back and you know the way he eventually took care of his children is that anything she needed anything she wanted I mean her her life was his life I hope we call them fighting the doctor worried for Angeline when she got pregnant in 1935 she had delicate health all her life but all went well and she gave birth to a baby girl they named Antoinette the me was a great batter never any yelling and screaming never any swearing I never heard my father swear on that house I understand he had quite a temper and but everybody he never said never heard him swear in the house no it was just a an easy Pleasant nothing contentious it was almost like you're in a make-believe world in 1938 Angelina gave birth to another girl Bonita Lucille bonny she was a very healthy baby these were very happy times at home for Sam Sunday mornings he'd make the Italian pancakes for everybody flour and milk in a frying pan with hot oil dad just camping out having dinner always had dinner together I mean that was growing up it was 5:30 6 o'clock he said we all sat down to dinner basically when he was there it was always amputated he never brought the outside in he was funny he was comical he was what he used he was smart he was charming he just would walk into a room or a restaurant and it there was something about him that people just were drawn to and they most of them didn't know who he was it's just that there was a certain presence about him he'd never step out of the house without looking like he came out of the catalog perfectly dressed from head to toe my dad especially admired the hats that he wore my dad would wear the same hat growing up he was always dressed very well it was me you know everything put together and then as I go back and I start looking at pictures when he was younger I'm saying oh my gosh you know he was baffled back then you know a very warm person very charming very personable very very generous and very giving what I remember the most about what he would do for people is that anyone they had problem could he could not say no and he wouldn't actually go out and offer but if someone would come to him and ask and I saw it over and over again especially with some of the children of some of his associates that possibly were gonna didn't want to go to school he believed it you know go to school get a better education having to cook like this is not a life for you and I know for a fact that he's changed he changed first they changed several lives encouraging him to go to school helping him go to school pay for their going to school the same Gymkhana I met personally was soft-spoken gentlemanly and bright well you walked into a room and everybody turned their head I think his biggest strength in my opinion what I heard over the years when he was very charismatic was he was able overwhelm people with his style and his power and being effective he wouldn't hesitate one second to take care of something you know that was you know just taste one his mouth about it [Music] representative analyst certainly should have been feared because he would not hesitate one man at the back of Cairo so now Sam was using his wheelman skills as the personal driver for outfit boss Paul Ricca there was a whole lot safer than driving for jobs more steady he needed to move up in order to support a growing family as a cover Sam worked with his brother-in-law in a small envelope Factory but it wasn't the kind of action he wanted to be close to so he found some new action looked hopeful prohibition was over but the wholesalers still liked to get the cheap tax-free stuff so you could make more money Sam teamed up with another patch hotshot we don't illy to supply the bootleg felt like a lucky plan but it wasn't the IRS rated the farm and busted the whole crew Sam included this was federal no way could Sam's dad afford the five thousand dollar bail that tab fell to Angeline's father to pay Sam got four years first in Leavenworth then Terre Haute tough on Angelina and the girls Angeline had delicate health and raising two kids alone with nothing took its toll the only thing I remember for some reason is that when Christmas might have been a Christmas Eve maybe Christmas day that someone came over I think one of his friends came over brought lots of lots of Christmas presents but for Sam it was like being sent away to graduate school he learned all he needed to know from guys who knew everything doing a stretch for tax evasion on Sam cellblock was a talkative black convict named Eddie Jones Eddie and his brothers were the policy kings of Chicago the policy racket took in a hundred and eighty thousand dollars a week in the black neighborhoods what was appealing about the policy rackets anybody could buy a lottery ticket you could be the poorest man or woman in Chicago you could pay you could pay a nickel and you buy a number and it was everybody's dream I'm gonna win today everybody it was it gave poor people a daily sense of hopefulness that's why it was so popular the Joneses controlled a policy racket and Sam learned all about it from Eddie Eddie and his brothers had made a fortune and on great estates in France and Mexico Sam and Eddie teamed up Sam used his pole to get any better treatment and Eddie taught Sam how his family business worked and how to memorize number combinations hey Jones is one of the three Jones brothers who involved in the policy gambling on the Southside Chicago there are a number of individuals most of them but not all of them african-american for running policy gambling which by the 1930s was focused in the cities black neighborhoods the south side and the west side the Jones brothers were very very successful at this big ad Jones was the at that period of time he was essentially the head of the policy racket in Chicago now there are probably a dozen different policy wheels independent policy wheels but like like the outfit they kind of unofficially would elect the titular head to represent them to the city in other words he would be the bagman to pay off man to bring the money into the city policy rackets is a lottery every day you pick a number if usually it's three number sometimes it's four or five Eddie Jones said the same Jacana Hey look you know when we get out of here you know maybe we can do with them things together they became friends and in prison and I think maybe it's because they had a Chicago connection I think Sam's like liked Eddie Jones because Eddie Jones was a gentleman Eddie Jones had class I think Eddie Jones talked about his criminal activities and probably Mooney did too and they shared some stories and Mooney figured out a way for the outfit to make millions of dollars through the policy rackets or the numbers [Music] when Sam got out in 1943 Chicago was still a one boss town only now the boss was a guy named Anthony Ricardo a guy Sam knew very well like Sam Accardo was a Capone wheel and triggerman while Sam managed to get out of the draft by saying the words I steal he did make a go at an honest living back in the envelope Factory then Angeline got pregnant again and Sam started thinking about ways to make his old colleague Accardo think of him as a major operator Angeline's health took a bad turn and family members were afraid her rheumatic heart might not survive the pregnancy she went into labor three months early and delivered a baby girl weighing only one pound barely alive the doctors had to work around the clock to keep her breathing Sam was right there for all that he'd come in every night after working the streets and fall asleep in that chair outside the baby's viewing room he was high on life the day she was well enough to go home the baby made it a third daughter Francine not the son every Italian is supposed to want they say she was Sam's favorite when Eddie Jones got out of the joint Sam was right there waiting for him pals in the joint house outside right Jones went for it in state Sam to $100,000 to run one of the Jones family rackets jukeboxes Sam did well with the jukeboxes for both himself and the Jones family that's the way if Sam made his first fortune by 1945 Sam was able to move his family out of the patch and into a large house in suburban Oak Park I think he admired Eddie Jones but his interest in business transcended any personal feelings he might have had about him and he saw an opportunity for for the outfit to encroach upon the policy rackets and eventually take over the policy rackets you think having some money for the first time in life he'd be satisfied no Sam wanted a seat at the table he knew the boss of Chicago came up the same way but the guys around the boss all thought of him as Mooney too crazy and unstable to run anything he had to change that that was a door that was open to Sam Giancana which Eddie Jones I'm sure did anticipate this but Sam Giancana then took the door partly open levered it open by saying to the guys in the outfit hey maybe the outfit can come in on this and basically grab us he worked overtime to get an audience with a card oh and his inner circle he offered to bring the profitable black policy wheel under outfit control all of it that got their attention all he had to do was sell out the best friend he ever had the guy that made it all possible for Sam to move his family to Oak Park Eddie Jones he kidnapped Eddie Jones and brought him to basement of a home unknown location and said Eddie you want to live here's what you have to do take this 250,000 dollars take a train go to Mexico see you later and Eddie Jones was a rational and reasonable person and that's exactly what he did Sam took over the entire policy wheel making him and the outfit rich [Music] [Music] all indications are that he rose in stature because of his ability to take over the policy wheels in Chicago which began with Big Ed Jones now that didn't happen overnight it was probably a 10-year struggle to take control of these different policy wheels because the black policy syndicate resisted but I really think that they had pushed Giancana status off with an organized-crime because it was able to bring in that much money money is power and at home in Oak Park things were great right there on the corner of Winona and Fillmore on a big lot and a garage against the alley the Giancana has lived in post-war suburban splendor but we thought was normal as they come home you have dinner you talk and you do things spend time together we had lots of vacations put vacations I mean as as a as a family but now that I never sensed that there was anything different we all had our kind of places at the table we just kind of fell into you know dad would sit here mom would sit there and I would sit in one place and my two sisters would sit someplace else in spite of Angie's delicate health these were good times Sam bought a 16 millimeter projector so he and Angie could watch their favorite movie every night always in my heart starring Kay Francis and Walter Huston well did she say yes exactly but I think I have an even chance if you don't know the story it's about a man who man that goes to jail for for something as it turned out he was falsely accused of it and he was married at the time since he was going to be gone for a long time he divorced his wife and she went on a basically on her way and the end of the story is they they get back together everything is okay and I think that that may have been around the time when he was in jail in the forties the story of a wife who stays loyal to a husband who goes to jail was stirring stuff for the Giancana always in my heart we have to set up the projector and the screen and now see many times I would see him watching the movie and when my father would sit and lose he had his legs propped on something and he had a cigar and he would twirl the cigar that's what I knew who if he would even do that it didn't their table dinner after my mom died and he would start thinking and if he had his twirling his cigar there's something was you know he was thinking about something Sam's daughter Bonnie excelled at athletics and that made her a special kind of companion for Sam if there was anything Sam loved more than hitting the links it was hitting the links with Bonnie who from a very early age could give Sam a run for his money on the green I was I was a Cub fan nice oh I think I want to be a baseball player my mother was hurt he was horrified and I remember so it's just think he said Sam better do something with your daughter and so the next day I was at the golf course Sam got along so well with his daughters that they really had no idea what the other part of his life was about and so I only know one part of them Sam was always there for his family not just looking after them and giving them things but contributing to their home life his charming side he was never demanding or overbearing but always charmed them into behaving the way he felt girls should behave I think he he expected certain behavior girls were different in his life in his world than than boys you know one thing that he really disliked was woman smoking would drive him crazy holidays with Sam were always a blast fourth of July Christmas New Year's they were all big big holidays for us Halloween was a wonderful time for some reason you liked Halloween had Halloween parties severly got rust always had pumpkins on the outside carve pumpkins Cracker Jack trick in the tree in our house obviously every kid the neighborhood would come and get a box of Cracker Jack you enjoyed the social part of holidays enjoyed having people in enjoyed having parties enjoyed even getting dressed up and doing kind of goofy things that you wouldn't expect a man like that to do everything took place in the basement we had a tree upstairs basically what would be the first floor of the house and we got another tree downstairs because we were always down there and the Christmas Eve Christmas Day the whole holiday season we would be spending it down there and of course Christmas was a another big big big time and we'd have the Santa Claus he'd had a Santa Claus and sleigh and the reindeer on the front on the front lawn all lit up and the they were all the shrubbery around the property was listed laid out now was a it was the enjoyed the holidays it was festive I had gifts that were taller than me gifts arriving you know wine cigars he would have presents and he would have gifts and he would have envelopes which I was more excited about and because I know when I used to get an envelope at home there was always a little money in it but his envelopes are a little bit fatter Angie was always the perfect wife living out the suburban American dream of the stylish homemaker I suppose maybe by today's standards and say socialite always dressed well she wouldn't never think of leaving the house like we see a lot of people leaving the house today she's always dressed always well well take you know what manicured me in cloth she always was very stunning I mean she she dressed very classy as Sam Rosen importance to the outfit he surrounded himself with his old pals from the 42 gang butch Blasi and Chuckie English butch and Chucky these two guys would Center their lives around Sam you've got almost certainly I think butch Blasi who becomes a Sam's driver bodyguard contract our Godfather was butch Dominick butch Blasi who was Sam Giancana bodyguard I just remember kind of butch that's butch Blasi I mean he for some reason maybe by the time I started putting anything together he was I mean he's like it seemed like he was his brother you know that's how much he trusted him which was actually a butcher so like many members of the outfit which had a legitimate business which was kinda like a a poster you know a leaning post didn't a communicator butch Blasi was extremely loyal to Sam Giancana which butch Blasi played a number of different roles in the author but they were all concentrated around Sam and what Sam needed and Sam's well-being so butch was called at various times his chauffeur his bodyguard his secretary I call him also his emissary an intermediary so Sam obviously trusted books being a chauffeur for a boss is a prized position Chuckie English was a handsome charming guy with the ladies everywhere one of Sam's most intimate friends he ran the very lucrative jukebox concession Chuck Inglish gets to be a very very prominent guy in the outfit with a lot of interest on Westside gambling and I think it's like vending machines and stuff like that Chuck Inglish reaches is the apex sort of under Sam Giancana another 42 alum was Jackie Cerrone who rose up with Sam but later turned on him in 1951 Sam got his mug on the front page of the Chicago trib as one of the bad 19 kind of a who's who of Chicago gangsters Sam's daughters felt the blowback at school finding out the hard way what their dad did for a living Angie tried to soft-pedal it at home explaining to the girls that their dad got into some trouble once but now he was just a real smart businessman kids in my class have made some kind of a comment about your dad's a gangster or something like that and I need was a second into a fight with Lee and it becomes this big 500-pound weight on your back they're pointing you know whispering I just ignored it hey hey I think it was real you hear whispers you hear people pointing the finger at you people making comments about your family and your uncles and stuff like that and you know we talked about it but the world does become small it becomes very small to you and you do get the sense that people are watching even when they're not you've become overly paranoid and you live a life that way and it's very difficult to it's very difficult to shake that well I don't know I just black lips my head hey if I didn't I just let it bounce off my shoulders well the one thing I always when I started seeing in our family that everybody just became very negative he fought for community who's investigating names were being brought up and and that's when I started to realize that he had a a higher position who he was different always thinking the worst paranoid of the male paranoia the doorbell ringing paranoid of people you don't know in a room you know you question everything because that's how you grow up you grow up you know being driven the skull you grow up being told you know make sure this person and picks you up no wait no didn't want to believe it no-one seemed happy in their own skin and while it may have been rough on the playground there were perks to having a dad who was quickly becoming the major earner for the outfit all you had to do was ask be there whatever yeah and you go you go to a restaurant if you go to work wherever you went you were always given red-carpet treatment things like that there was you if you wanted to see a show and there weren't any tables tables would would appear my mother said he wasn't just a wonderful guy every time she would go to dinner you know especially at places a Sam frequented never could pick up a check I mean it was a life that really that a normal person would list maybe we had a little bit more than other people when he had more privileges cars maybe driving better cars Sam told my father that if my name ever helped you out use it my father told me used at one time he was at a Christmas party when he worked for Ford back then and there in this this hall having dinner would all the salesmen and managers from all over probably the Midwest and he said that there was another table that got drunk and they were using profanity and they were swearing and everything else my father said would you mind toning it down because there's women at the table well apparent my dad had turned around the guy got up to walk towards my father with a bottle they hit him in a head with him so my my mother said Nick duck so my father ducked he swung it and the place broke out in his huge fight I file and his friends punched everything they laid him out the police came and they grabbed my father and they were taking him they're gonna arrest him my father said to him is my uncle wouldn't be happy if this happened to me and the cop said who's your uncle the Sam Giancana Gus come with me grab my father uncuffed him took him around the back got him an elevator and said get out of here [Music] she was not always in the best of health so the winners in Chicago were getting a bit much so we were spending a lot more time and she was spending a lot more time in Florida in 1954 at age 40 angie suffered a stroke while vacationing in Palm Beach it was a blood clot that formed behind her heart and moved to her brain she slipped into a semi-coma Sam was at her side holding her hand for every second of her last 48 hours when she died Francine and Bonnie were at school in Chicago I came home from school and I walked in the house and so I've been full of people and I had looked around and I said where's mom he did wear a black tie a furrier when I remember and which kind of at that time I thought it was just that you know that was respectful he lost some of his life Sam was disconsolate after Angie died he retreated he turned over the day-to-day responsibilities of raising the girls de Angie's sister at night after the girls went to bed Sam would break out the projector and watch his and Angie's favorite movie always in my heart he fall asleep on the couch then wake up to the sound of the projector reel flapping he would play that over and over he would go in his little office but it I don't know you know 16 millimeter and he would just watch that quite a bit and I think more so after my mother passed away it was reminded him of his Gordy whatever buh Sam's father Antonino and his beloved wife Angie died in 1954 only a couple months apart and both after long illnesses politico's businessmen and mob leaders from across the country turned out for both funeral services noting momo particularly solemn and well behaved at both after that it seemed everything changed something changed in him and he wasn't as cautious as he may have been or should have been he became more flamboyant yeah it was I wasn't homeless as much following year my dad and I went to Vegas and he was going to have a birthday pray for me not that I know anybody but there was a bunch of celebrities there Danny town is Joey Lewis Sinatra I think showed up for a little while so the my show may have been there I mean it was you know it was something that it was a surprise Sam threw himself into his work and started to spread out in ways no man from the Pats had ever spread out before for starters he became crime boss of Chicago Sam probably had very good skills people skills for the people he wanted to sam giancana appears to come in as the operating boss now shoot at 57 tony accardo voluntarily steps out of animal well tony was the head of the Chicago family repeated head of the Chicago family for a number of years you got to start back in prohibition working for Al Capone never convicted of crime he had several different tenures as the head of Chicago family as best we can tell he would voluntarily step aside for health or personal reasons but what all the serve is a consigliere or counselor when Tony Kanal decided retire Sam was his underboss them and he just got into that slot initially Mikado in my opinion was the guy who pulled Giancana probably got him into the outfit he probably Sam D Conner was probably not more than an associate when he first went away at prison for the bootlegging charge in the late 1930s comes back out and I think he becomes a probably a full member of the outfit because of gene cuz she kind of gets recognized by a car - well this guy has got some ideas you got something on the ball and I believe his rapid rise was due solely to that for Sam to be able [ __ ] that guy you got to give Sam some credit for that as crazy as flighty as he was it's a pretty good accomplishment what Sam Soon discovered was that Chicago was no longer a one boss town Tony Accardo wasn't going anywhere he just wanted Sam to be his beard to step up and take the heat his boss before him Tony Accardo JB you know the outlined a program there you know live underneath the radar as well as you could which obviously in that spot it's really hard to do but you don't have to bring out more than necessary Tony Accardo in some respects was the antithesis of Sam Giancana Tony Accardo didn't want to be in the limelight over Tony Accardo wanted to keep his picture out of the newspaper Tony Accardo wanted a low profile Tony Accardo sold his mansion in River Forest because he was getting too much attention because it was palatial and moved to a small apartment with his wife Tony Accardo didn't want his face out there didn't want himself paying upfront starting about 1957 Sam Giancana is the operating boss of the outfit but in those years beginning probably around 1943 there is a guy above the operating boss the operating boss unlike in New York or other crime families is not the last word there's a chairman of the board above the operating boss when Giancana is Japanese from 57 to 66 Tony Accardo is the so-called chairman of the board so there's some suggestion that Sam was the street boss Sam was the front boss but behind the scenes Tony Accardo and Paul the waiter Rico we're still calling the shots making the final decisions 1957 there abouts Tony Accardo decided to step back let somebody else take over around that time there was a little more law enforcement heat being generated on the outfit there was no denying that there was organized crime in America effort after the epilation meeting took place they J Edgar Hoover couldn't say there's no such thing as organized crime what a lot of people fail to realize is that the FBI really didn't get involved in the investigation of organized crime of the Mafia until the mid to late 1950s on November 4th 1957 at the home of Joe the barber Barbara in Appalachian New York was the historic summit of mob leadership attended by over 100 mobsters from all over the United States Canada and Italy Sam was there representing the Chicago Outfit local and state law enforcement agencies who noticed all the out-of-state plates on all the fancy cars raided the meeting and detained and indicted over 60 crime bosses the others Sam included literally headed for the hills to avoid saying the main outcome was the FBI director J Edgar Hoover could no longer ignore the existence of organized crime in America he was forced to put some guys on it the event that really propelled the Cosa Nostra to the national prominence was the discovery of what was called the Appalachian meeting in upstate New York that's when law enforcement officials federal law enforcement officials the FBI and the Department of Justice realized that there was an organized crime element in American society with much larger much greater in in terms of length and in reach than we had ever thought existed Sam lived in Oak Park 11:47 were known as tree to know the address because my dad would drive me past Sam's house all the time to show me the FBI cars and they were always sitting there even if Sam wasn't there when Sam was in Mexico the FBI was sitting in front the FBI with virtually no experience dealing with organized crime put the full-court press on Sam utilizing nine cars to follow his every move they were going up against the best wheelman in Chicago he led these suits on a chase like something out of an action movie losing them causing them to have collisions and even sneaking up behind one agent who was totally lost and taunting Here I am but they found better ways to follow his activities and actually tried to Gaslight him they took been particularly light in trying to annoy and rattle Sam Giancana to the point where they had 24-hour surveillance on him our investigation here in Chicago didn't Center on Sam Giancana because of he was Sam Giancana was the disc he was the reputed head the Chicago Outfit so we were looking at him as a leader of this group as well as a number of his underlings lieutenants I think they knew that well or they estimated we can ran on this guy we can get to this guy you know are we looking over my shoulder till this day I won't sit with my back towards a window bill Romer was one of about a dozen agents assigned in Chicago office who were part of a squad or a group that was charged with investigating the Chicago Outfit FBI agent bill Romer came to know more about Sam Giancana than he'd ever wanted bill had attended Notre Dame University was a boxer had a very imposing physical presence like most of the agents that were on the squad then and worked with the bill they were very dedicated to their job it wasn't personal with them they had no personal animosity toward Sam Giancana or anyone else they were tasked with gathering evidence on the existence of this this organized crime group the outfit the Chicago Outfit and they said about that job in a very professional manner over his years of following Sam agent Roma would have a number of confrontations and here a lot of personal threats and every time Sam pushed back at the feds Tony Accardo got pissed off you weren't supposed to do things that attracted more attention to the outfit than was absolutely necessary and Sam drew a lot of heat Sam would often threatened watch as the instrumentality of violence he screamed at agent Romer I'm gonna get butch to come after you at the machine I think he and the other agents were offended at times by some of the things sangeun kind of did or said in the way that he treated the agents I know that Sam was always treated with respect and ordered his rights under the Constitution by the agents have investigated him I don't think Sam returned the favor Sam is not the most stable character as opposed to Paul Ricca Tony Accardo where stuff just bounces off those guys wave bounce off a couple game he'll so they em they had a very particular strategy then so how do we get to this guy the tails paid off for the feds before long they knew all the places where Sam talked business Romer planted the bugs himself fully aware that he could tell no one carry no badge and say nothing about the FBI if he got caught he managed to plant live mics in most of the places where Sam held secret meetings with Accardo butch Chuckie and many other intimates they had Sam wired for sound and over the years they found out a lot of amazing things that they could never prosecute because these wiretaps were not legal we had the tapes but they couldn't be used against them in court and I think that was disheartening to the agents because from my experience there is no better evidence that you could present to a jury than a defendant's own words in his own voice Sam tape the FBI following him Sam took pictures of the FBI filing even on the golf course they were playing the foursome the FBI guys are playing the force behind Sam Giancana and if they could try and drive their balls into the into our Sam was standing and is waiting at the next tee stuff like yeah I used to play golf for quite a bit and of course everybody knew that he was to play golf here and the government was after him and harassing him and following him they would end up coming ran a golf cart play golf some point in time we had a camera he had a camera started taking pictures of following here at the golf course and other places that done so it was kind of an interesting was kind of a he sued the FBI in court can you imagine how much that pissed Accardo off to bring that kind of public attention to the outfit are you kidding me to make matters worse Sam got up and testified in open court but the FBI counsel who had the first opportunity to cross-examine him was so unprepared it drove the FBI agents wild that the crazy head of the outfit put himself on the stand and no one was prepared to ask a single question and Sam found a lawyer or argued that case persuasively in court to me that was genius Sam used his own secret photos and films to prove that the technique of lockstep surveillance involving an intrusive 24-hour presence in the subjects life was more harassment than investigation this was the kind of public crap against legal authority that Accardo and others really hated Sam won that case the locked up surveillance case was an infringement of his constitutional right in 1959 Sam threw his oldest daughter the wedding of a lifetime not since the Capone days had any Chicago gangster thrown such a lavish affair it was at the LaSalle Hotel that all these people were there were more than 400 guests including Sam's associates and old friends from the patch and a few uninvited and unwelcome members of the press and law enforcement Sam left the reception to find a trip reporter and two federal agents taking notes from a guest list that included names like Tony Accardo Chuck Inglish and on and on it was a list of the names that could supply the feds with a blueprint of the outfit Sam got physical shoving them away from the list that opened him up for getting served with a subpoena to appear before the McClellan committee on organized crime once again Accardo was not amused Sam had a long reach Sam had relationships with bosses of other crime families in the way that none of us other predecessors to as soon as Sam took over outfit operations he started thinking beyond Chicago Sam was looking to extend the outfits operations beyond the city and he did the outfit became very powerful in Hollywood through control of all the labor unions Yaphet was actually able to a blackmail or extort money from the major Hollywood film producers normally imputed be very powerful individuals but they caved in and they paid up because the outfit got him by the rope they could shut down the moviemaking industry in the United States literally could shut it down and so they extorted the movie studios made millions of dollars from that but the movie studios also profited because they had I had no labor problems as long as the outfit was there [Music] the outfit became a force to be reckoned with in Las Vegas I mean I spent more time in Las Vegas than I did it all I mean Isis I was eight years old I was in Vegas so many times I got I thought I lift the outfit used the Teamsters pension fund to build one of the casinos in Las Vegas you'd like the outfit gets into Las Vegas in a very very big way and they ultimately become the Cosa Nostra crime families the biggest player in Las Vegas when the outfit has a casino they're not only controlling their casino they're not only taking the skim but they're venturing out into many other ancillary businesses that they're controlling Vegas was an open city declared by the Commission any cost an austere crime family could go in there so it wasn't just just Chicago in 1955 Accardo and the outfit financed the Riviera to the tune of 10 mil using a group of Miami investors as fronts then they got the Stardust through the efforts of Sam's man Johnny Roselli the Stardust paid off at $400,000 a month to the outfit then the Tropicana the most luxurious casino on the strip fell under outfit control when the Cardo got his hands on the Teamsters pension fund Sam Accardo Andres le brokered a deal with the desert Ian's Moe Dalitz and the New York families to run the desert in the Stardust and the Riviera all three major casinos on the strip over the next decade the outfit added the Hacienda the Sahara and the biggest downtown casino the Fremont to his Vegas Holdings the Vegas scam brought millions of dollars in for the outfit every month in Havana Cuba the outfit had a sweetheart deal with the local government to run casinos at a great profit Cuba's us-backed military leader Fulgencio Batista appointed New York Commission mastermind Meyer Lansky as the advisor on gambling reform in 1952 Lansky offered the previous Cuban president a bribe of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to step down so that Batista take office in return Batista offered Lansky a government match for any investment over 1 million in a casino Florida crime boss Santo Trafficante ran the outfits gambling empire there he and Sam's man Johnny Roselli were partners in managing the highly profitable Sans Souci Casino Resort Havana became a playground for Sam and a big concern of acardo's but there was trouble on the horizon and a man named Fidel Castro born on a Cuban sugar plantation gifted in academics and sports Castro was both a lawyer and a pitcher good enough to be scouted for American baseball teams but it was in the field of politics that he really made his mark connected with violent demonstrations against the government from his college days Castro was an anti-american nationalist and a family friend of Batista but when Batista assumed the Cuban presidency in 1952 Castro went underground and became a revolutionary in 1959 just when Meyer Lansky was celebrating the three million he'd made during his first operational year of his casino the Nacional Castro led a workers revolt it became a revolution a ousting Batista forming a communist government and nationalizing the casinos this was bad for the outfit one minute they were running the place and the next thing Sam knew Santo Trafficante was in a Cuban Jail he called up an old acquaintance from the patch to go down there get Trafficante out of jail a guy named Jack Ruby Jacob Rubinstein grew grew up a block away from me he lived on the same block actually Jack Ruby was low-level outfit associate worked with Jewish members of the outfit controlled gamble gambling on the west side ruby comes as a kid he grows up around Maxwell Street just down at the tail street he's you know he's from the old the old quote Jewish ghetto ghetto just meaning it an ethnic neighborhood inside Chicago and then he ends up is a gambler down in Dallas very low level guide by this time ruby ran a strip club in Miami and often went to Havana on Sam's behalf to handle Cuban relations Ruby got traffic auntie out of jail and back to the US Sam would remember Ruby for that giving him a piece of one casino and keeping him in mind for future operations one time he was watching these guys throwing dice in an alley and my father was watching it and he said that an unmarked squad car came pulling up and there was a detective that came out and planes closed and then there was a police officer that was in his uniform and he was trying to break up the game and said tell everybody get up and line up against the wall apparently then Sam comes running out were out of the building and my father was watching and they said they got into this discussion Sam got very angry and he grabbed the cop started punching punching a cop punching the cap kicked him threw him out of the ground grabbed him so don't you ever bother my game again threw him back in his car and they left late 50s 58 59 60 when I when I realized that it was different extremely different that there was extreme power I mean I met him all really just a fool don't know Dennis that's not true Mike Dean Martin movie prima it just goes on and on walk by every outfitter in the country Sam enjoyed hanging out with some pretty famous people he an old pal Frank Sinatra had some great times together like when they got a little loaded at the Fontainebleau Hotel and went around tossing cherry bombs onto yachts Tony Accardo watched antics like this and just fumed I think if they didn't know people that were owning these hotels he might not throw it out and Sam had a little bit too much wine and Sam announced I can call Frank Sinatra right now and that son of a [ __ ] will call me right back and they said oh sure Sam huh you know you're full of crap butch go dial the number and sure enough he had Frank Sinatra on the phone and he's passing the phone around Sam and Frank hung out a lot in Vegas Sinatra introduced him to starlets there was another guy Frank did the same thing for a guy about to run for president Jack Kennedy in fact Sinatra introduced both pals Kennedy and Giancana to an ex-girlfriend named Judith Campbell Exner soon both Sam and Kennedy were sleeping with her in 1988 Judith Campbell Exner claimed that she had been a courier between Kennedy and Giancana and even gone so far as to arrange several meetings between them was it true did Sam and Kennedy know that they were both sharing a woman maybe not but Sam knew Kennedy's dad Joe Kennedy much older than Sam supposedly members of organized crime saved Joe Kennedy from assassination a couple of times Joe Kennedy was a bootlegger there's no mistake about that he was in the alcohol business when it was illegal and when it was legal so there's no question that he was involved during an after prohibition and that he had contact with members of organized crime while outfit guys like Sam were always on the outs with society Joe Kennedy had managed a transition for him and his family from bootlegger to Brahmin was a Kennedy fortune based on the money they made during Prohibition sure it was Joe Kennedy ran afoul of the Purple Gang in Detroit there was a lot of pass-through from Canada of sugar and alcohol and supposedly Joe Joe Kennedy stepped on somebody's toes in Detroit the the Italians in New York stepped in saved Joe Kennedy Sam was credited by some with saving Joe Kennedy's life on another case another story is that Joe Kennedy insulted Frank Costello Frank Costello was going to have Joe Kennedy killed II contacted Sam Sam said Joe Kennedy in 1959 Joe Kennedy wanted major help from Sam and getting his son elected president he knew Sam might not be so approachable mostly because Joe's other son Bobby was giving him holy hell humiliating him on the McClellan committee hearings OHS daughter had married Rat Pack member Peter Lawford and Joe knew that his son John had met Sinatra through Lawford and shown him quite a time in Vegas he also knew that Sinatra wanted Jack to be President because Sinatra wanted a president for a pal and he also knew that Sinatra had a close friendship with the Chicago boss so Joe a Sinatra to Hyannis Port for a meeting in the last year of his life Sinatra publicly admitted through his daughter Tina that this meeting indeed took place Joe asked Frank to reach out to Sam Giancana to get Sam to use his resources and influence over unions and polling districts to get Jack Kennedy elected president some people say Sinatra arranged for Sam and old man Kennedy to meet face to face at the height of the outfits political power they controlled a block of wards in the city called the West Side block the West Side block was part of the Democratic machine and what would be in it for Sam well for one thing Bobby would lay off the new president would focus on the Soviet Union and lay off organized crime and Sam could operate freely knowing that he owned the White House something about that sounded good to Sam nice to have a president in your back pocket you know I would assume that's how he felt there was a tradition of organized crime corrupting politics in Chicago dating back to the late nineteen century in a sense Joe Kennedy challenged Sam to a test of his political muscle and Sam rose to the challenge Sam put people in Springfield who would ensure that legislation wouldn't pass if it was unfavorable to the business of organized crime so Sam Giancana was very political Sam's a ball but with the Kennedys the feel that I heard from people that I believe would null I said her job here in Chicago was to carry make sure that they got the vote from Illinois from what I heard that was what carried Kennedy into the presidency on election day seventy million votes were cast across the country Jack Kennedy won the popular election by a hundred and thirteen thousand five hundred and fifty four of those votes he won Chicago's Cook County by a margin four times larger in Illinois Michigan Missouri and Nevada Kennedy had very close victories these were all states where Momo's outfit had union control and they yielded the 63 electoral votes that kept Richard Nixon from being elected supposedly the vote in Chicago brought him over the threshold he won by the one of the smallest pluralities in presidential history [Music] it was right around that time that Sam in spite of a lot of fooling around fell in love for the second time in his life he had a lot of people that women that would come in and you know visit kibitz and keep him company that you know then Phyllis was basically out of state so we're just a little different he had the license to do whatever he wanted and I have to admire him for that that he never even he never got here Phyllis McGuire sang with a popular trio called the McGuire sisters when they played Vegas the sisters like to party and play the tables that's where Sam first cast his eyes on Phyllis she was tall ravishing and $100,000 deep in gambling debts Sam smooth talker but it wasn't so much what he said that impressed her is what he did he took care of her debt not by paying it but by telling the Cleveland Hood who owned the casino to eat it it was the beginning of a close devoted relationship that would pretty much go on the rest of Sam's life he was crazy about her I liked it because it made him happy he was happy and he used and and she was wonderful to be around she was wonderful to all of us it was it was a very good good relationship and it lasted a long time she was my cones but fire I mean he she was just so he he she lit a fire or you know when she just walked in you know what I mean and just put a lot of Judaism and not in the company yeah she truly cared about the McGuire sisters were playing gigs all over the world and Sam would take off with them in London a photographer got a shot of Sam partying with the sisters that made the papers all over the world Accardo and some of the other outfit players didn't like it seemed more and more Sam was leaving butch in charge of the Chicago rack while he chase Phyllis across the ocean lovely burger from pretty key guys was they were a little upset about it that a whole lot upset but that it was you know given a little to Hollywood for them in late 1961 Sam and Phyllis had a public encounter with agent Romer and his team of FBI men at Chicago's O'Hare Airport my understanding Giancana was at the airport to meet her to pick her up agents from the FBI here in Chicago had also gone to the airport they were armed with a grand jury subpoena which they planned on serving her she had apparently been able to avoid services pinna whether it was intentional or just because of the travel schedule I'm not sure but there was a confrontation at the airport between bill Romer and some of the other agents the agents took Phyllis aside and gave her a choice between going into a private room at the airport and answering some questions or going downtown and answering some questions in front of a grand jury she said she'd cooperated she was very upset over the publicity that was given to her because she had now been linked to what many consider to be the head of the Chicago organized crime family Sam saw her going into the room with the agents and just went ballistic Giancana on the other hand was enraged over the incident that is where his level of what I would call hatred toward the agents that were investigated and really reached its zenith and it's my understanding there was a verbal shouting match in the public concourse area at O'Hare Airport in front of hundreds of people that were coming and going for the plane he started calling me all kinds of names in the American Airlines concourse at O'Hare in Chicago and I just was not used to that kind of abuse and so I finally called everybody around I said come around and see this piece of scum this is Sam Giancana he's the boss of the Chicago mob you people are so lucky you can pass through Chicago we have to live with this piece of slime just look at this jerk he never had been talked to just the right guy had never been to talk to he had never been the successor to Capone and he bumped up against me he said Romer he said you lit a fire tonight that's never gonna go out we'll get you if it's the last thing we ever do it was this occasion more than any other that really rankled low-profile Tony Accardo and set him against Sam in ways that will become more and more of a problem [Music] that's one of the most sensational stories in the history of organized crime after the Cuban Revolution in 1959 Castro closed the casinos and sent the gangsters back home he allied himself with the Soviet Union against the United States bringing the threat of nuclear war dangerously close to American shores someone somewhere in the Central Intelligence Agency got the odd notion to form an unusual alliance this is so incredible to me we don't need to sensationalize this in and of itself it is highly sensational to imagine that the federal government was cooperating with organized crime for political reasons Robert Mayhew was a private investigator an ex-fbi agent with a history of contracting out to handle delicate matters for the CIA having secretly been on the CIA payroll for about six years he was approached by Colonel Sheffield Edwards director of CIA's office of security and deputy director of plans Richard Amba Cell jr. to arrange with Sam Giancana a contract hit on Fidel Castro it made sense to the CIA to may you and his contemporaries to enlist members of organized crime to do their dirty work and this is it this is incontrovertible because we have declassified documents that that recorded conversations with Sam Giancana and the CIA we have Robert may use and utterly credible witness to the event this this isn't fanciful this is documented and it's an incredible story CIA I think pretty clearly decides well you know the hoods have been dispossessed all those casinos and things were grabbed immediately and nationalize taken away let's go to the hoods and let's see if we can maybe and lose them to do some of our dirty work for us in the plot to kill Fidel Castro that would give the government distance from the assassination attempts of plausible deniability I I think that they wanted to use organized crime as a political tool they wanted they wanted the outfit to be the fall guy they didn't want to get their finger prints anywhere near their mayhew placed a call to Johnny Roselli Sam's man in Vegas Roselli aka handsome Johnny used to run the outfits Hollywood action but now he was running Vegas although the FBI files listed him as a producer at monogram studios Roselli was more than a little freaked out by the request Mayhew played on Johnny's patriotism telling him how Castro was another Hitler turns out Johnny had a lot of patriotism and he took the hundred and fifty thousand dollar offer to Sam Sam Giancana with one eye on the millions that weren't coming in from Cuba and one eye on the political power inherent in a clandestine relationship with the CIA said yeah Johnny let's do it for nothing the outfit has lots of connections that are left over from the days in which they controlled the casinos and other illegal activities thank you but they know people they can talk to people who maybe can get inside can get at Castro about a month later under the name Sam gold Giancana met would make you face to face and informed him that the outfit and the United States government were now officially partners in the assassination attempt on Castro Giancana Mayhew and Santo Trafficante holed up at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach planned the operation being a rival agency the CIA didn't know it but this meeting was taped by the FBI we have documentation that may you met with Sam Giancana and that they hatched several plots to assassinate Castro Sam suggested a simple effective mob hit a shooting but the CIA thought that would be difficult and dangerous the agents suggested poison pills which were delivered to Rosalie for an undercover CIA age and who had access to the premiere but before that plan could be executed the agent was fired the outfit came up with a couple of different plans hired hired and paid a person on the inside to try to poison Castro they got Castro's mistress to come back to Cuba to try to poison them and the CIA came up with a lot of what seemed almost comical ways of killing Castro the exploding cigar but Castro supposedly had himself well insulated Giancana decided to give Mayhew a bizarre and ill-advised loyalty test Sam had heard rumors that Phyllis McGuire was having an affair with comedian Dan Rowan of Rowan and Martin he asked me Huw in the CIA to plant a bug in Dan Rowan's Vegas hotel room they agreed to do it fearful of losing Sam's focus on the Castro job the man installing the equipment got caught by the Las Vegas police who turned him over to the FBI and that's how J Edgar Hoover learned that the CIA had contracted with Giancana from transcripts of the FBI wiretap tapes that he himself had sanctioned he was furious and so was his Justice Department boss Bobby Kennedy they both believed that the CIA had used horrible judgment in aligning with a thug they were both trying to build cases against Bobby said tersely two CIA general counsel Lawrence Huston if you ever try to do business with organized crime again with gangsters you will let me know the entire operation was scrapped all because Sam got the CIA to bug Dan Rowan's hotel room still certain outfit members continue to operate with CIA agents in inciting Batista loyalists to move against Castro delivering both arms and propaganda to Cuba from off the Florida coast one of the Gun Runners with Sam's old pal Jack Ruby in April of 1961 the CIA spearheaded an invasion of Cuba's coastline by 1500 exiles the success of the thrust hinged on the air support that the President had promised when the initial ground attack at the Bay of Pigs failed Kennedy reneged skittish about possible repercussions the insurgents regrouped huddled against the bay they suddenly found themselves seriously outnumbered by Castro's regulars the CIA pleaded for Kennedy to reconsider but was again denied the whole thing was a botched job and it really pissed Sam off [Music] in early 1962 roamers wiretap of the armory lounge conversations gave the FBI intelligence that President Kennedy and Sam Giancana were both shacking up with Judith Campbell Exner J Edgar Hoover brought the matter to Bobby Kennedy's attention and Bobby Kennedy took the matter very very seriously Whitehouse logs show that one more call was placed to Campbell Exner after which there was no further contact this is when Bobby got John to shut the iron gate against Sinatra and the whole bunch Sinatra had built a home for John Kennedy in Palm Springs a presidential getaway Kennedy never saw it the next time he came West John Kennedy snubbed Sinatra and stayed at the home of singer Bing Crosby Sinatra took it hard but there was more hell to pay than that Bobby Kennedy is Attorney General kept coming after Sam Sam knew that he'd been screwed by the Kennedys what was worse Accardo knew when Sam put the outfit to work for Kennedy's election he'd had to convince a Carter that Kennedy would ease up then Bobby Kennedy got new orleans boss carlos marcello deported to Guatemala and that was really the final straw a lot of heat was put on Sam to burn Sinatra who'd sworn up and down that Kennedy could be trusted but Sam loved Frank too much to kill him instead Sam was the silent owner of a supper club in Wheeling Illinois called the via Venise it was on eight acres and had canals and gondolas equipped with prostitutes and bus rides to a nearby Quonset hut where there was illegal gambling but the big draw was Sinatra and his pals the Rat Pack the place was packed for the grand opening and it was solid profit for Sam because the entertainment was free Sinatra performed at the via Venise for a solid month gratis as payment for failing to get the Kennedys to honor Joe's deal with the outfit he also got Eddie Fisher and Sammy Davis jr. to do likewise they said it wasn't the cigars fault overhead of [ __ ] they betrayed us you know there was another woman John Kennedy Frank Sinatra and Sam Giancana all slept with one much more famous than Judith Campbell Exner Sam had known Marilyn Monroe before she was famous he'd met her through Johnny Roselli he'd even invested in her career I think that there's another highly since sensational story there that the President of the United States and the boss of a major crime family are sleeping with America's number one starlet Sam had found out from his old CIA contact Mayhew that the CIA had recorded lovemaking between Jack Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe he'd known about the affair from Sinatra but now he learned from Mayhew that Jack had pulled out and now his brother Bobby was having an extramarital affair with Maryland an affair he was trying to end because she was becoming unstable Sam invited Monroe to the cal-neva the Tahoe lodge he owned with Sinatra where Sam had his own affair with her according to FBI wiretap conversations between Sam and Johnny Roselli at the Armory lounge maybe that was Sam's revenge against the Kennedys but according to Sam's brother Pepe there was more pepe claims that Sam told him that Marilyn told Sam that she had letters from Bobby Kennedy Sam's plan according to his brother's report was to murder Monroe make it look like suicide then have the police find the letters from Bobby Kennedy the Kennedys would be disgraced and removed from office pepé Giancana squares that Sam got a couple of out-of-town guys to break into her place and feed her a nembutal suppository which killed her quickly and left no evidence then they scattered Bobby Kennedy's love letters all over the place Sam opened the papers expecting to see Bobby Kennedy blame for the suicide but Bobby's name wasn't mentioned the Secret Service had gotten there first and swept the incriminating letters from the death scene not everybody believes this story I think Sam's relationship with with Marilyn Monroe was sexual only I don't think that he had any other kind of a relationship with her but the fact that the president and the boss of the outfit we're sharing women is an incredible story in and of itself [Music] the theories abound and we talk about organized crimes connection to the Kennedy assassination Sam's name comes up the Alex Reid despised the cannons going back to the McClellan committee hearings organized crime certainly had a motive they certainly had the means and they had an opportunity according to Pepe Giancana Sam told his brother of his own complicity in the events of November 22nd 1963 in his Oak Park basement according to this account Lee Harvey Oswald was recruited by carlos marcello as a passive one of Oswald's uncles was Marcello's lieutenant but more importantly Oswald had deep ties to Cuba and Castro would be blamed the actual shooters were supplied by Giancana Richard Cain Chuckie Nicoletti and Milwaukee Phil alder SEO Oswald I don't think could figure out how to wrap a gumball machine let alone to be positioned them to this it had up come from people that you know know how to kill is like tying their shoes it was Richard Cain according to Sam's brother who fired the shot that killed John Kennedy interesting guy this Richard came he was a Chicago cop on Sam's payroll both an FBI informant and a made member of the outfit he had also worked with the CIA Sam Ross Ellie and Ruby on the whole Cuban fiasco FBI agent Romer always claimed that no way could Sam have been involved in the Kennedy assassination because the FBI surveillance would have picked it up but the guy he had watching Sam was FBI informant Richard King and in 1963 Romer and the FBI had no idea the Kane was actually working for Sam so there were things that the feds didn't know to make certain that Oswald would never talk Sam got his old helper Jack Ruby to get to Dallas policeman JD Tippit and Rosco white who were secretly on his payroll to shoot Oswald everything was arranged in 63 ain't no one and it all happened and I remember he was home that day I was on the TV and I'm sitting there and he just didn't seem like you know checked was Sam Giancana happy that Kennedy was assassinated yes but Sam didn't stay happy the plan went wrong Oswald shot and killed officer Tippit and got arrested then he started to talk getting by and finally denied these charges Sam put the arm on Jack what occurred I heard it it was from fellows that would know that he had like six months the word would cancer or something and I don't know if it's all true or not I really don't know when he did that he died shortly after the how everything but makes sense that he would do that for them you know take one for the for the team there I'm playing with my cars on the carpet watching TV and there comes Jack Ruby shooting Oswald my dad screams that's Jacob for Christ's sake there's Jacob that was Jack Ruby think about how incredible that story is if Peppa giancana story is true then Sam had only half of a success the intrusion of Jack Ruby into this bit of American history would always raise questions about the outfits involvement in the Kennedy assassination which would also piss off Sam's boss Accardo who would once again see the outfit make the papers but there was one good outcome the events in Dallas greatly profited organized crime because the organized crime program died with with JFK [Music] his flightiness and his craziness all through his life was a tag and carried as a youngster all the way to when he's the boss and I would think that this just was enough enough when enough is enough it's enough it's not my word this is somebody that was very close to that situation that said Sam is a jet setter Sam Sam was in the newspaper Sam had his face on the camera all the time that just bought more opportunities for the media to cover Sam Tony Accardo didn't like it the outfit does not like a boss in the limelight every boss that's been in the limelight has suffered repercussions either from law enforcement or from the from the organized crime family the beginning of his downfall was his bringing attention to the outfit and it did not start with Phyllis McGuire it started with Sam's continuing battles with the FBI he had a desire to be in the public eye when he was running the Chicago family he had a very high profile there were almost daily news put newspaper stories and accounts of his activity whether it was going out to dinner or having a party at his house and that type of publicity isn't good for business when your business is a legal crime the outfit did did not did not like Sam's relationship with both McGuire because the cameras were always there and when the cameras were pointed on them the story was always about Sam Giancana boss of the outfit Sam Giancana boss of the crime syndicate she's playing in London he's in London she's playing on the west coast he's in the West Coast she's playing in Vegas he's in Vegas and he's just sending butch Blasi back and forth as the kind of butch fly back to Chicago tell the guy through his business know you're supposed to be in Chicago if you're the operating boss mining the business I that's what really got him into trouble unlike some other crime bosses they may never leave the neighborhood Sam was all over the world the other part was his unstable behavior in public as the FBI was uh putting the screws to him mentally shall we say it was on Tony Accardo recommendation that Sam rose in the outfit now Accardo had some serious buyer's remorse and powerful under bosses like Jackie Cerrone were complaining one day sitting in a in a kitchen of a home somewhere there's Paul Ricca Tony Accardo probably almost certainly Sam teets Battaglia and all of a sudden Paul Ricca hasn't off and he just goes off on a carto and says it's all your fault you brought this [ __ ] to me you vouched for this [ __ ] it's all your fault Accardo just kept looking at butch Blasi who seemed to be doing Sam's job Accardo developed is this incredible hatred for Sam Giancana and again that seems to have been driven by Sam fooling around with women which led him to not mind the story by essentially 1966 they they pulled him from that job they told him Sam ground took over in 62 he had it for about a good four or five years world was the Alpha was at a strength that when he left he hid out for all that time kind of just left her in shambles hauled off before a grand jury Sam kept taking the fifth the judge told him that all his past crimes were officially forgiven so he could not possibly incriminate himself Sam took the fifth again if the judge had Sam arrested and held in the Cook County Jail while the grand jury sat for almost a year for contempt [Music] he was asked questions I think it was the it's the grand jury during Chicago and he refused the answer and they says well just sit in jail for a while until you're ready to answer to go see him in jail was devastated when Momo got out he read the handwriting on the wall and left the country he fled Chicago and I believe it was 1965 or 1966 he went to Mexico it was a self-imposed exile if you will he had been subpoenaed several times testify before a Senate committee that was investigating racketeering and organized crime I think he felt that the FBI was getting close to having charges filed against him making an arrest one year two years dad I think was when I kind of realized basically what was going on Sam went to Mexico and settled in just outside of san cristobel he appears have been living in a in a villa you know somewhat secluded perhaps in Mexico probably paying off the Mexican authorities too you know the left alone be ignored there are reports of him doing gambling stuffs outside the United States at that point from there Sam traveled all over Latin America running gambling operations when Phyllis or his daughters wanted to see him they had to see him there there are some claims that the outfit was mad at Sam for not giving him a cart of some of this stuff finally the US government brought enough pressure on the Mexican government to have Momo deported he's in his Villa the Mexican police or the National Police whoever first in grab Minh maybe nothing more in his pajamas take him to the airport shove him on a plane and forcibly you know deport him from the country he flies back to United States he's they at that point date is somewhat ill older man and has nowhere else to go other than the holidays and whatever basically when he would come home and be there or you know finally seem like he was going to settle he made it home just in time for his daughter Francine's wedding well when I got married I got marriage oh I you know and then he had this beautiful thing bonnie and another one he just come home he had left the country in 66 and then gone to Mexico he somehow found a way to get back here he wasn't able to walk her down the aisle but he was in the house and it was a catered affair and we just had the wedding here he couldn't leave the house summoned to appear before the Senate Select Subcommittee on intelligence Sam's failing health allowed him to postpone his appearance a series of gallbladder operations kept him bedridden at last back on his feet another subpoena ordered him to appear without alibi in Washington DC on June 24 1975 what the newspapers will tell you is that they're the Alpha was afraid he was gonna testify he was subpoenaed to testify in front of some federal grand jury about these CIA activities it was a weird feeling leaving that night because first of all it usually Butch is always there he wasn't there Sam was there eating we were talking about it he was by himself he said it just kept staring that though out the window they had no one around him none of his friends you know butch Blasi Chuck Inglish other people that you know we're supposed to be there and protect them they were never around Sam's boss Tony the Big Tuna Accardo known to insiders as JB had lost all patience with Sam by this time Jerry went to pick him up brought him to the house they came home and got he Andrew and me we went over there for dinner you don't know what's going on behind the scenes I think Chuck being the West within the house though which was strange it was strange for him to be there that day he left there by 9:30 at 10:30 we gotta go why would it be bacon sausage and peppers at the house in old Park where everybody know he was that if he thought that he was in any danger Sam trusted who was down there in the basement Sam might have been cooking for the people down in the basement the people who were down in the basement had been down on the basement hundreds of times before and I think I know who the people down in the basement or which was the last one there that night when the party broke up everybody left the car doing surveillance on I think the Chicago Police Property card doing a roving surveillance that night at the time was still 2g con house if every leaves they see butch come back and then the Chicago car gets called off to go somewhere else and then when we were pulling out of the driveway he was pulling in and we got home and Joe calls and to blow something happened to Dan at him with drama I know that another crew was on it they were on first they got called off at the last minute it was an easier way to do it it was butch Blasi Chuckie English and which blasted went down in the basement that would be my guess my thing is that I don't think butch was as close to Sam as people thought there's at least the same as you know he was killed in the kitchen of his home in June of 1975 another many unsolved gangland slayings we have in Chicago there was no sign of forced entry he obviously knew the person that was sent to kill him when Sam was killed I looked at my dad and I said hood who do you think did this and he said you know who our Goomba when we'll just pulled that 22 out on him I think then he might have started regret things prior to head I don't think he knew what the hell was going on allegedly the murder weapon was found in Thatcher woods on their way to River Forest where butch lived and where Chucky left I think that Tony Accardo would have been involved in the decision to have Sam Giancana killed I don't think there's any question about that somebody of Sam stature it would have to be approved from the top JB's this guy was Jackie sarong he wanted him to be underboss Sam rejected him flat-out says I don't want him in fact his quote was over my dead body which Jack later hears that said well he finally got his wish Sam Giancana is killing in 1975 was as far as I'm concerned certainly ordered and sanctioned by Tony Accardo Sam was ready to testify before the Senate Committee on assassinations I don't believe Sam Giancana was killed because they thought that that he would be a rat Sam Giancana would never be a rat but Sam's testifying would continue to bring attention on the outfit that was big news when Sam Giancana testified it's devastating for a lot of people with depended on him it's difficult losing family members and what that does quite frankly is it teaches you not to get close to people deep down inside he had a good heart and a lot of things have been said no other things have been written about his antisocial behavior diagnoses that were made it early on in his life that seemed to have stuck with him I just think that it's a misnomer that it that's probably the most important thing is that we know he wasn't an agent but he wasn't the bad guy you knew him in one particular way and then you hear everything else about him when you leave you know you hear things in the television you read things in the newspaper he was always in the headlines at that time I think he made a lot of his own look he created good things and I'm sure that a little luck was involved in that he he lived as long as he did he had a good life considering the so-called occupation he was in I mean he would come to my house he would shovel the driveway he would any his simple things just being a father and a grandfather everyone's world just changed in a moment and it was never gonna be the same all this kind of stuff was this kind of weird normality that we had to grow up with death was always around and it was just kind of very surreal how everybody just dealt with tragedy because it always just was there while Sam was running the outfit he brought in millions every month whatever money sam giancana had when he died was never found strong belief is that it was squirreled away somewhere and you know what he maybe were thought of as the great love of his later life after his wife died Phyllis McGuire doctor she had control over those accounts and she got the money that's the other common belief it's we've never really been able to to solve every year around his birthday there's a rose on the door and to this day we still don't know we had a wonderful life growing up I had a wonderful life even after I left the home and married and it was just it was good I don't know how he was in business I don't know to tell you the truth the only thing I know about a lot of things are things that I've read in the paper I would just like him to be remembered as the genuine gentle person a father was a wonderful husband to my mom you know what I don't even want to know hey sorry no I don't read the books I don't read the newspaper I you know I don't want to know because I it's not how I remember him as my father then you do it I just remember good things he just was my idol he really was in the late 1970s partly is an aftermath to Watergate related federal prosecutions of FBI surveillances the FBI began making public the secret files of recorded conversations of Sam Giancana and other public figures these files now available to the public show the tip of a fascinating iceberg that was Sam Giancana during his lifetime you could read in the papers that he was a ruthless crime boss but now these transcripts revealed to anyone who's interested a man who was the intersection of illegal gambling murder CIA plots for presidential black ops spies and the most sexually haunting women the world has ever known a man who grew up poor in the patch who killed guys who loved his family was adored by his daughters betrayed by his friends who hung out with the famous and the invisible who was both courted and prosecuted by Kennedys and was finally exposed by these tapes as a very complicated guy the tip of a very strange iceberg [Music] [Music] [Music] you [Music]

Channel: FFF Full Free Films

Views: 409,048

Rating: 4.6592178 out of 5

Keywords: full length movies, hd movies, free movies, sam giancana, jfk assassination, frank sinatra mafia, frank sinatra sam giancana, jfk mafia, chicago mob, mafia documentary, sam giancana part 1, marilyn monroe, al capone, sam giancana jfk, jfk mob, jfk assassination conspiracy, momo the sam giancana story, al capone tom hardy, cosa nostra movies, mafia movies, mafia films

Id: obn1Y-bMk34

Length: 109min 4sec (6544 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 21 2020