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SAM GIANCANA

Sam Giancana stepped from the plane at Chicago`s O`Hare airport looking more like someone's little old uncle from `back home` than the 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 departed from an international 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 his home in the US, 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 had never held a legitimate job in his life or done one day's honest work. He 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 thirty 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 'wheelman' having once worked for "Machine Gun" Jack McGurn as his chauffeur. He would in later years become driver to another young turk who had become a major player in the Chicago crime, scene Anthony 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 there was still some cash to be made from cheap untaxed alcohol. From a still out in the suburbs Giancana and his buddies produced thousands of gallons of illegal alcohol every day and sold it to wholesaler's who were only too glad to buy the cheaper product and sell it on 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 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. Jones waxed lyrical about how easy it was to coin in a fortune, Sam Giancana was becoming more interested the more he heard Jones explain the operation. 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 mostly) 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 profit from the `numbers` racket. What Giancana had always thought to have been a nickel and dime operation was so very much more it appeared once the figures were explained to him by Jones..

Sam Giancana was released from Prison in 1942, he was at a crossroads in his life. He was married to Angeline and had two daughters, He was earning cash by stealing and from counterfeiting rationing stamps and selling them as the real thing. Sam got an unsuspected call from Uncle Sam when draft papers dropped through his mailbox. Sam was a lot of things but being a patriot wasn't among them. He arrived at the Draft board and took his place in line with the rest of the men who were 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?" Sam Giancana replied matter of factly "I steal sir." as if stealing was a profession on a par with practising law or medicine. The examiners rightly decided Giancana was not fit to serve with the US Army and rejected him, stating in the records 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 very 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 by this time boss of The Outfit. Having met Giancana Accardo had taken a shine to him thinking he was someone with good potential, he made Giancana his driver. Accardo gave Giancana the green light to move in on the Jones brothers lucrative rackets operation once the profitability of it had been explained by to him fully by Giancana.

Sam Giancana quickly came up with a plan to gain control of the policy rackets. He kidnapped the main Jones brother, Eddie Jones. Eddie had been the guy who earlier had explained the operation to him in Terre Haute and held him as ransom. The ransom was of course the policy `Wheels` and control of the numbers rackets. Jones was held by Giancana and his associates for a week, he was released only when the ransom had been paid. On his release Edward Jones took flight to Mexico. Giancana was now in total control of the largest numbers operations in the City. 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`. Giancana had already by this point in time been running the day to day operations of the older gangster Louis "Little NewYork" 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 for the Outfit. Sam Giancana spread the mob controlled gambling operation even further afield also taking more control for the mob in Chicago`s loansharking, jukeboxes, and prostitution operations along with labour racketeering.

Part One