SAM GIANCANA
(1908-1975)

Sam Giancana stepped from the plane at Chicago`s O`Hare airport looking more like someone's little old uncle from `back home` than a man who was once one of Chicago`s most powerful crime bosses. He was tired and dishevelled looking after his flight from Mexico, he was wearing a blue shirt which looked two sizes too big for his frail torso and a pair of green trousers, no belt, and on his feet a pair of house slippers. How had one of the American mafia`s most powerful bosses arrived off a flight looking like this? The previous night he had been arrested at his villa by the Mexican authorities, he never got time to change out of the slippers and pyjamas he had been wearing before being taken to spend the night in jail in Mexico City. Next morning he was handed a cheap $2 shirt and a pair of green trousers to wear. He was escorted to the airport where he was placed on an American Airlines flight to Chicago.

It was the 19th July 1974 he had been gone some eight years from America, now he was back, back, to where it all started many years before.

Momo Salvatore Giancana was born on May 24th 1908 in the `Patch` an Italian ghetto in Chicago`s west side. His mother Antonia Giancana died when he was two years old, his father Antonio Giancana remarried a short time later to a girl named Mary leonardi, Sam Giancana was beaten by his father almost routinely on a daily basis. It seemed he blamed Sam for any troubles or misfortune that had come his way in life. Sam Giancana stopped attending school at the age of 14, he has never held a legit job in his life or done one days honest work. He soon became a member of the 42Gang, a gang who ran wild on Chicago`s West Side he made a crust as a burglar and a car thief, he did his first jail term at 17 years of age a 30 day term for car theft. He was arrested on two occasions for murder and walked free both times. In the 1920`s Giancana had acquired the reputation of being a good wheel-man having once worked for"Machine Gun" Jack McGurn as his chauffeur. He was in later years to become wheel-man to another up and coming young turk who was a major player in the Chicago crime scene Anthony "Big Tuna" Accardo . A small blip in the advancement of Sam`s criminal career came in March 1929 when he was sent to Joliet prison for a term of three years on a burglary charge.

When released from prison on Christmas eve 1931 Giancana joined up with some old buddies from the`Patch` who had been members of the 42 Gang and by this time had elevated their status in Chicago by working for Capone. Prohibition was over but their was still some cash to be made from cheap un-taxed alcohol. From a still out in the suburbs Giancana and his buddies produced thousands of gallons of illegal alcohol everyday and sold it to wholesalers who were only to glad to buy the cheaper product from them and sell it off at a nice profit. The operation went well for a year, but on the 17th January 1939 the still was raided Giancana was busted and was charged with nine alcohol violation charges. He was found guilty and ordered to be detained for four years at Terre Haute Prison.

While at Terre Haute he met Edward Jones, Jones was a black guy from the South Side who had made a fortune from the nickel-per-bet policy game. Jones made the mistake of bragging to Giancana what a license to print money this numbers racket was. The Outfit had little or no interest before in these rackets and neither at first did Giancana, but Jones waxed lyrical about how easy it was to coin in a fortune.....Sam Giancana was becoming more interested by the second.

Jones explained, It cost little, so punters could bet on a three digit number combination between 000-999, the winning numbers were drawn from a `wheel` ( usually a half of an old oil drum ).`Runners` who were mainly young guys (kids) earned some cash running to take in the bets and placing them with Chicago`s collectors who numbered around two thousand, the men running the `Wheel` took the cash...it was that simple. Jones and his brothers had invested in property, buying hotels, and stores, they lived in lavish mansions and drove the best cars, all this coming from the million or more per year profits from the `numbers` racket. What Giancana had always thought to be a nickel and dime operation was much more it seemed once the figures were explained to him by Jones.

Sam Giancana was released from Prison in 1942, he was at a crossroads, he was married to Angeline and had two daughters, He was earning cash by stealing, and from counterfeiting rationing stamps and selling them. Sam got an unsuspected call from Uncle Sam when draft papers dropped through the letter-box. Sam was a lot of things but being a patriot was`nt among them he arrived at the Draft board and took his place in line with the rest of the men being given a medical, when it came Sam`s turn to be asked by the medical examiner "What do you do for a living" Giancana replied "I steal" as if it were the most natural reply to give. The examiners rightly decided Giancana was not fit to serve with the US army and rejected him, stating that Giancana had an "inadequate personality and strong anti-social trends".

William Skidmore was a bail bondsman and gambler who had been around the Chicago crime syndicates for years and had dealings with Johnny Torrio and Jake Guzik on a close business level. He was also a friend of Sam Giancana from his time in Terre Haute Prison. It was Skidmore who helped `introduce` Giancana`s ideas for the Policy racket at a board meeting where Tony Accardo was in attendance. Accardo was now boss of The Outfit, having met Giancana he had taken a shine to him thinking he was someone with good potential, he made Giancana his driver. Accardo had also given him the green light to move in on the Jones brothers lucrative rackets operation once the profitability of it had been explained by to him by Giancana.

Sam Giancana soon came up with a plan to gain control of the Policy rackets. He kidnapped the main Jones brother, Eddie, the guy who explained the operation to him in Terre Haute and held him as ransom...the ransom was of course was the policy `Wheels` and control of the numbers rackets, Jones was held by Giancana and his buddies for a week, he was released when the `ransom` was paid. On his release Edward Jones took flight to Mexico. Giancana was now in command of the largest numbers operations in the City.

It was`nt all plain sailing though for Giancana, there was another numbers operator in Chicago an up and comer by the name of Theodore Roe. Roe had established a pretty good sized operation for himself among the poor in the black neighbourhoods. Giancana not pleased with just part of the pie insisted on having it all. He began using intimidating tactics on Roe in a bid to scare him off, but Roe didn't scare easily, he instead hired himself two police detectives to act as his bodyguards making sure he didn't get kidnapped like Jones or taken out the picture more permanently by Sam Giancana.


As reward for his enterprise and endeavour in running the numbers rackets so profitably and successfully for the Outfit (The Chicago Crime Commission in 1954 declared that the rackets had earned the underworld an estimated £150million) Accardo gave him a place on the `board` he was already by this time running the day to day operations of the elder gangster Louis "Little New-York" Campagna. With Willie Daddano and Fifi Baccieri at his side two of the most feared hitmen in the Outfit he took control of other lucrative rackets, he spread the mob controlled gambling operation even further afield, took more control for the mob in Chicago`s loansharking, jukeboxes, and prostitution operations along with labour racketeering.

As a sign of his increasing rise within the mob Sam Giancana moved his wife and two daughters into a yellow bricked home which was more in keeping with his new status within the Outfit in the suburb of Oak Park. In 1957 Louis Campangna died while in Florida, from a heart attack. This paved the way for Tony Accardo to appoint Giancana boss handling the day to day running of the Outfit. Accardo had long wanted to take a less active role in the daily running of the operations and wanted to be seen to be in a semi retired role, although always watching from the sidelines and never far away in the decision making and always Ready to step back into the role of boss if and when required.

Giancana was seen by all outside to be the `king` of the Chicago mob, no one could sneeze in Chicago without the little guys permission any crook wanting to set up business on mob territory had to apply to Sam for a `license` to operate, the standard fee was 50% of the take, if your Club or restaurant wanted as much as toilet paper you better make sure it was bought from a mob approved supplier, only those paying the mob operated without problems, everyone knew the score, the rules were simple for the club owners and restaurateurs as they were for every business .....no pay...no play!

Giancana like to live well, he liked being around the celebrity crowds, he dated night club dancers and singers lavishing his `love of the moment` with expensive gifts. Although not a good looking guy by any stretch of the imagination Giancana was dating some of the most beautiful woman around, he had a much publicised romance with one of the McGuire Sisters who were famous and beautiful singers of the time. In the fifties he became involved in with the Outfits move into Vegas being in control of the Teamsters Union made it easy for the Outfit to siphon off cash from the union pension funds which at the point in time was estimated to be over $100million. Men were placed in the new casinos to operate the `skim` where they would skim money from the casinos huge profits to send back to the outfit in Chicago.

Johnny Roselli was the mobs man on the West Coast, Giancana made numerous trips back and forth to Las Vegas to liaise with Roselli, Sam`s daughters were treated like royalty whenever they came to Vegas with him and were taken on guided tours of all the major Hollywood film studios. Meanwhile Giancana himself had struck up a friendship with the singer Frank Sinatra, Giancana would arrange celebrity charity benefits at the bequest of his wife who at that time was really ill. Frank and the rest of his rat-pack buddies would turn up every summer and pack out Chicago stadium. Frank and Giancana were spotted together frequently in the early sixties, Sinatra had given Sam`s girlfriend Phyllis McGuire a small part in the movie Come Blow Your Horn, Sam Giancana was on the set almost every day.

On the 14th November 1957 Sam Giancana had represented Chicago at the ill-fated mob meeting in Appalachin NewYork where hoards of mafia men were captured by the police, some escaped through the woods Giancana among them. Sixty-three members of La Cosa Nostra from all parts of the USA were eventually rounded up by the cops, there names now noted by government agencies. The FBI Director J.Edgar Hoover now ordered a huge intelligence-gathering operation, his agents had to focus on the top ten mobsters in each major city, Giancana filled the feds No.1 slot for Chicago.

John F Kennedy around this time had declared his candidacy for the 1960 presidential nomination His father Joe had made millions from importing whisky across the border from Canada in the days of prohibition he still had many mob connections from those days. Joe was a smart guy he knew he would need to enlist the help of the outfit to put his son in the White House and he saw his sons friendship with Frank Sinatra as the ideal link to the mob via Sam Giancana.

It was going to be tough even for someone of Sinatra`s charm to to swing this for Joe Kennedy, Sam Giancana hated Joe Kennedy's younger son Robert since in his position as council to the McClellan committee Robert had given Giancana a rough ride in questioning. Giancana had smirked and laughed as the young Kennedy fired his questions, answering each one by reading the fifth amendment out from a small card." Are you going to tell us anything or just giggle? I thought only little girls giggled? Giancana barely blinked at the remark, but it cut into him like a knife, being spoken to like that by some government clown.

Giancana and Joe Kennedy met in the chambers of a Chicago judge. Sam took Old Man Kennedy`s proposition to the outfits `board of directors`. Kennedy had promised that his guys would back off their interest in the outfits Las-Vegas casino`s operations, Sam also bragged to his friends that he`d have a `hot-line` to the White House he hinted also that maybe they would get Cuba back. For this to bare fruit they in return would raise money for John F Kennedy`s Virginia primary which was crucial, and would also provide help with the campaign in illinois. Kennedy won the Virginia primary by a 60-40 margin. In the election Kennedy won by the smallest of margins, one tenth of one per cent. He was propelled into the White House due to Giancana`s control over key Chicago wards and labour union votes.

Sam Giancana at one time shared a girlfriend with JFK. Frank Sinatra had been sleeping on and off with a dark haired beauty named Judith Cambell, she had been introduced to Frank by Johnny Roselli. In February 1960 Frank Sinatra introduced Judy as she was known, to John Kennedy, they hit it off straight away, Kennedy and the young divorcee started off on what was to become a serious long-term affair. Cambell had also been introduced to Giancana by Sinatra who had introduced Sam as Sam Flood one of Giancana`s many aliases, during a period of about two years she slept with both Giancana and Johnny Roselli while still carrying on an affair with John F Kennedy.

Cambell would subsequently reveal that she carried satchels of cash from JFK to Giancana to be used in Kennedy`s West Virginia primary. Giancana was said to have told her " Your boyfriend wouldn't be in the White House if it wasn`t for me."

Meantime J Edgar Hoover had spotted a pattern emerging that linked Sam and Johnny Roselli to the President via the sexual connection all three had with Judy Cambell. Hoover had no great love for the Kennedy`s, he decided to wait and see what would emerge hoping that given enough rope the Kennedy`s and Giancana would hang themselves. During the summer of 61 Agent Bill Roemer set up and led a team of federal agents with the principle duty of pressurising Giancanna into making errors. His first task was to serve Giancana`s famous girlfriend Phyllis McGuire with a subpoena to appear before a federal grand jury. Roemer and the agents stopped both at Chicago's O`Hare airport, Roemer and his partner Ralph Hill tackled Giancana hitting him with a barrage of questions designed only to distract him long enough for the other agents to whisk McGuire from the airport and into a waiting car to be taken to an other location for interrogation.

Giancana and Roemer were involved in a war of words at the airport which left the agent in no doubt that Giancana was now feeling the pressure. Giancana decided it was now time to call in a few markers with the Kennedy`s, Old Man Kennedy in particular, he was being hounded constantly by the feds and didn't like it. He was also losing face with the outfit all he had promised if they had got Kennedy elected had not come to fruition, in fact the president had elected his own brother attorney general who in turn quickly pushed through congress a number of anti racketeering laws.

Sam Giancana was undeterred, his pact with Old Joe Kennedy could still swing things in his favour, he enlisted his old friend Sinatra to help out on his behalf. Sinatra visited the Kennedy`s at their home in Hyannis Port, while alone in a room with the attorney general Robert Kennedy he passed him a piece of paper with the name Giancana scribbled on it. "This is my buddy. This is what i wanted you to know Bob." Robert Kennedy said nothing, and from that silence Sinatra knew he had his answer.....and it didn't look good for his friend Giancana. Frank soon after fell out of the Kennedy's circle of friends.

Giancana was not well pleased with Sinatra either, as Frank had stalled in giving Kennedy`s reply to Sam, fearing it might be a case of shoot the messenger...literally. Johnny Formosa a mobster friend of Giancana`s had wanted to hit Sinatra for `jerking us around` Giancana said no.

J Edgar Hoover, who`s dislike of the Kennedy`s had become no less intent after they had threatened to sack him from his post as director of the FBI sent a carefully worded note to Bobby Kennedy in February of 1962. The note gave details of what Hoover knew about The President, Judith Cambell and Sam Giancana. Roughly a month later Hoover and the President met for lunch, the details of Hoover`s note to Bobby Kennedy a month earlier was the main focus of conversation. Later the same afternoon The President phoned Judith Cambell, it was their last ever conversation. He was also scheduled to stay at Frank Sinatra`s estate.....the stay was cancelled. The Kennedy`s had doubled-crossed Sam Giancana, and Robert the Attorney General was hell bent on nailing Sams head to the wall.

Robert Kennedy sent a team of more then 50 agents to Chicago with the orders to get results and get them fast. They targeted 40 mobsters with Sam Giancana considered number one priority. Phil Alderisio leg-breaker in-chief of the Chicago mob led a charmed life for more than 30 years he had been arrested 20 times but never convicted. He was first to fall, he was arrested, convicted and jailed. Rocco Pranno was convicted of extortion. The mob was starting to get a little shaky, was Sam Giancana losing his grip?

A meeting was called between Tony Accardo, and Paul Ricca Paul Ricca, Murray Humphrey's advised them that in his opinion Sam Giancana was shirking his responsibilities and neglecting his position by running around with Phyllis McGuire and Keely Smith. Johnny Roselli was also missing in action when it mattered in Las-Vegas, spending his time working alongside the CIA on the Cuban thing. Accardo and Ricca had been thinking along the same lines as Humphrey`s, Giancana was slipping. Sam Giancana and Johnny Roselli were both beginning to fall foul of the `old guard` of Accardo and Ricca.

By the summer of 1963 Giancana was being hounded day and night by the FBI every where he turned the agents were there, purposely allowing themselves to be seen thus pressurising Giancana more with each passing day. Giancana went to court with a harassment charge aimed at the FBI, he won his case, but in doing so he brought even more attention on the outfit, Ricca and Accardo were furious, Murray Humphrey`s claims that Giancana was losing it, and panicking seemed to be coming true. November 22nd 1963 saw the assassination of John F Kennedy, Brother Bobby resigned his position as Attorney General a year later, some good news at least for the outfit.

However the absence of the Kennedy`s from the picture brought no respite for Sam Giancana, the Chicago branch of the FBI increased their already considerable effort to get Giancana, and they had a new strategy to use this time around.

Giancana was summoned to a federal grand jury in Chicago. Giancana appeared for the trial smartly dressed, smiling and unconcerned, he was brought before Judge William J Cambell and was granted immunity from any prosecution that could result from his testimony. This shock tactic completely shook Giancana, being granted immunity meant that he could no longer use his fifth amendment defence, he could not incriminate himself if he could not be prosecuted, and he could`nt be prosecuted because the judge had just granted him immunity!

Giancana would not speak to the grand jury, the judge ordered him to be held for the duration of the grand jury sitting. He was placed in the cells at Chicago`s Cook County jail. Three weeks later Murray `The Camel` Humphrey's was subpoenaed, Humphrey's was a top associate of the Chicago mob and held a lot of sway within the mob, a survivor of the Capone era. Labour racketeering and political fixing was the criminal forte of Murray Humphrey`s his expertise in these fields had been invaluable to the mob for years. Humphrey`s thought wrongly that he would be granted immunity like Giancana had, in a desperate act totally out of character he took to his heels and fled. He was arrested the very next morning attempting to buy a ticket at a train station in Oklahoma. He was put in leg-irons taken to court and questioned with no grant of immunity. Humphrey's gave testimony but lied in answer to every question, on the 23rd November 1965 he was indicted for perjury and duly arrested by the feds, some six hours later he was dead from a massive heart attack.

Giancana never spoke to the jury and after a year in jail was freed when the grand jury was ended. He fled to Mexico in June of 1966, he bought a luxurious villa in the town of Cuernavaca which acted as a base, from their he toured all over the world, looking after mob investments. He lived a grand lifestyle, visiting the French Riviera, Switzerland the Bahamas, and Beirut, he had his suits hand made by Mexican tailors costing around $400 a time. Meanwhile back in the Windy City Tony `the Big Tuna` Accardo had reclaimed his position as head honcho in the Chicago mob, he calmed things down after the bloodshed years of Giancana`s leadership, he kept a lower profile, much lower, and told the troops in the front lines to do likewise, his aim was to keep the mob out of all newspaper headlines.

Giancana stayed in Mexico for ten years before being forcefully taken to the airport and put on a US bound flight. His exile in Mexico was assured by the bribes he had been paying Mexican-government officials for the privilege of living in their country free from the worry of expulsion, but somewhere along the line he had upset one of these guys and now his bribes were no good.

He returned to his home in Oak Park. By the time of his return Joey `Doves` Aiuppa was street-boss but still Accardo was in the shadows never far from the decision making and always watching ready to initiate any actions necessary to keep the wheels of the Chicago mob turning smoothly and with minimum interruption.

Giancana was ordered to attend another grand jury and like before he was granted immunity from prosecution, he took it, but gave little away on the stand. Investigators from the Senate Committee had been probing the Kennedy administrations plan to murder Fidel Castro and wanted Johnny Roselli and Giancana to testify. Roselli volunteered to give evidence, if Giancana testified also, this would make for huge headlines, something Accardo did`nt want, headlines brought attention, and attention brought trouble.

He was due to make an appearance before the grand jury acted on a perjury indictment, he supposedly told those closest to him that he would do anything to keep from "rotting in a stinking jail." He was appearing to crack, so it seemed to those who knew him.

In May of 75 Sam Giancana took ill while on a trip to Houston visiting a girlfriend, he had emergency gall bladder surgery. he returned home to Oak Park still a very sick man. On the evening of June 18th 1975, he was given a party by his two daughters, a `welcome home` party his two sons-in-law along with Butch Blasi and Chuckie English two long time friends also attended. the last of the guests left around 10:00pm. It was reported later that one of Giancana`s daughters had returned to pick up her handbag which she had forgotten. She mentioned that as she left her fathers for the second time that evening having retrieved her bag she spotted Butch Blasi heading back toward the house but thought nothing of it.

Giancana sometime later decided to cook himself a snack, sausages and greens had always been a favourite, he went down to his basement Kitchen and began cooking, before he had finished cooking he was shot in the back of the head, as he lay on the floor, the pistol was placed in his mouth and another shot fired, then placed under his chin, and once more the killer pulled the trigger. The hitman had used seven bullets in all and was gone, unseen and unheard into the night.

Sam Giancana was found around midnight by his old friend and neighbour Joe Di Persio lying on his back, a pool of blood surrounding his head by the amount of blood it was obvious that Sam Giancana was dead.

Few if any mob figures attended Giancana`s funeral, no Accardo and no Auippa a final indignity and show of disrespect by his mob friends. Butch Blasi was in attendance though and helped carry the coffin. The main source of enquiry at the police investigations in to the death of Giancana focused on Butch Blasi, it was he who Francine, Giancana`s daughter had seen return to the house that night, he was a close friend of Sam`s and Giancana would have felt safe around him, safe enough to turn his back on him to cook a meal. The murder weapon was a gun with around 40 holes drilled in it`s barrel making the silencer more effective it was found on the driveway of a nearby suburb, on a route that Blasi would have used to get home to his place on night of the party and subsequent murder.

Blasi was put before a grand jury, granted immunity he refused to say anything by way of testimony, he spent eighteen months in jail, still refusing to utter a word of testimony. He was released, but never again took any part in mob activity.

Johnny Roselli just six days after Giancana`s demise gave testimony to a Senate Committee, he appeared on several more occasions giving good testimony later as he was holidaying in Florida with his family he vanished. Roselli`s revelations to the senate committee will not be released for twenty years such was the magnitude of his testimony. The mob of course had by this time decided that Johnny had already said too much. Roselli`s remains were found when a metal oil drum was washed up on the shore, he had been strangled, dismembered, stuffed in the drum and dumped at sea.

Tony `Big Tuna` Accardo died of natural causes on May 27th 1992 aged 86.

Article: Kenny Torro

Sources:

• Organized Crime 25 years after Valachi
• Double Cross - Sam & Chuck Giancana
• The Chicago Tribune

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