SAM GIANCANA
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.
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.
Part Two
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