Sam the Cigar: A Biography of Sam Giancana
Sam Giancana is one of the most famous gangsters in U.S. history, with rumored links to the CIA and President Kennedy. But was he really involved in the assassination attempt on Fidel Castro and the assassination of J.F.K.? This thrilling bio gives you all the details on one of America's most fascinating underworld figures.
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Excerpt
Introduction
The vast majority of Italian-Americans are hard working, law abiding citizens. Coming to America hoping to find a better life they have integrated well, distinguished themselves in many fields and added color, richness and admirable Italian values to the culture of the USA.
That's the vast majority, of course. In many ways it's unfortunate that so many people are fascinated with the other Italian-Americans. Nobody can deny that the dark side of the community has its attractions, though. The success of movies like The Godfather or Leon, and the number of people who switched on every week to watch The Sopranos proves it. Of course that's all fiction, but the reality interests people too.
In late 1963 rumors began to spread that the Mafia had done something unbelievable at a national level. President John F. Kennedy was shot dead in Dallas on November 22 and not long afterwards conspiracy theories began to grow. By now it's been demonstrated often enough that Lee Harvey Oswald was easily capable of killing the president on his own, but some people still prefer to believe the conspiracies. One of those theories says that the Mafia was involved, as revenge against JFK for interfering in their activities, and the theorists even came up with a name. The man they identified was a Sicilian-American businessman called Sam Giancana. Before long details started to emerge. Giancana wasn't really a businessman; he was the boss of the Chicago Outfit, one of the most powerful mobs in the USA. He was rumored to have links with the CIA and socialized with Frank Sinatra. A string of deaths had been blamed on him, and now perhaps he'd been responsible for the most outrageous death of all. Had Giancana, son of an ice cream shop owner, snapped his fingers and ordered a hit on the leader of the free world? It seemed incredible - but people believed it.
As the 1960s went on people learned more about Giancana. He came from a poor background in a rough area of Chicago, but fought his way up to become a multi-millionaire and one of the most powerful men in American organized crime. He had a network of contacts that stretched through the worlds of show business and politics, all the way to the CIA and the White House itself. Reluctant to talk about his early life he now seemed to enjoy showing off his wealth. His flashy lifestyle earned him a variety of nicknames. One of them was "Sam the cigar," from the big Havanas he liked to smoke. Another was "Momo," which he said was a contraction of what he thought about the most - "More Money." Others said it came from an older nickname he'd had - "Mooney," given to him because he was a lunatic.
People said Giancana had killed the president, but in fact the same president had asked him to kill Fidel Castro. This, and many other secrets, lay at the center of a tangled web that spread from the backstreets of Prohibition-era Chicago to Kennedy's election and the CIA's secret war against communism. Just how did a former street gang thug get to have the ear of the best known US president of the 20th century, and was it a coincidence that both men ended up being shot to death?
Chapter 1: Childhood
Italy has only been a unified nation since 1861, and even now it can be difficult to tell. Travelling through it the impression you get is that it's more a patchwork of tiny states, all with very different cultures. In the south the food, architecture and language all show signs of centuries of Arab influence. Rome mixes the bustle of a modern capital with the remnants of an ancient empire. Tuscany is what most people think of when they imagine Italy - style, good food and a lively attitude to life. South Tyrol, where most people speak German, looks and feels more like part of Austria (until 1919 it was). The differences between regions are startling, and form part of a larger and often bitter north-south divide; everyone north of Rome thinks everyone south of it is lazy and inclined to crime. Indeed the notorious Italian organized crime groups all originate from the southern regions. The 'Ndrangheta come from Calabria, the "toe" of Italy. The Sacra Corona Unita operates in Apulia, around the "heel." The Camorra, perhaps the most powerful and violent, dominate Naples and the surrounding Campania region. Finally the Stidda and the most famous of all - the Cosa Nostra, or Mafia - have their homes in Sicily.
Sicily, an island about the size of Vermont located just off Italy's toe, is even more distinctive than any of the mainland regions. Through recorded history it's been a playground for every invader who passed through the Mediterranean region. Settled by early Italians, it was colonized by the Greeks in around 750 BC. Carthage began building its own colonies around 600 BC, but in 264 BC the Punic Wars erupted as the powerful Carthaginian Empire tried to suppress the rising republic of Rome. In 216 BC Hannibal invaded Italy and destroyed the Roman army at Cannae, persuading several Italian cities to defect to the Carthaginian side and threatening Rome itself. This was a serious mistake. Infuriated, Rome raised a new army and changed its tactics, first driving Hannibal from Italy then going on the offensive. It was 154 BC before Carthage itself was burned to the ground and the last survivors of the empire's people taken to Rome as slaves, but by 210 BC the Carthaginian colonies in Sicily had been destroyed and the whole island was firmly under Roman rule. In 440 AD, as the western Roman Empire began to fall apart, the island was seized by the Germanic Vandals and then, in 488, by the Goths. Over the next 500 years it became part of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, then by 965 was conquered by Arabs and became a Caliphate. The island was under Islamic rule for nearly a hundred years, with a great effect on its culture and economy. By this time the Arabs had been expelled from mainland Italy, though, and the Italians were irritated by their continued presence in Sicily. Mainland rulers looked around for an army that could drive them out and decided to hire Norman mercenaries. "Norman" is a corruption of "Norseman," and the Normans were the sons and grandsons of Viking raiders who had settled in Normandy, in northwest France. They spoke French, but at heart they were still Vikings, and the rulers of Italy never stopped to wonder if, having taken Sicily from the Arabs, they might decide to keep it for themselves. They did, and created a unique mix of Arab, Italian and Norse culture. Over the following centuries Sicily was an independent kingdom, part of the Holy Roman Empire,[1] a colony of the Spanish kingdom of Aragon, a British-controlled protectorate during the Napoleonic Wars and a possession of the French Bourbon monarchs. Finally on March 17, 1861, it became part of Italy.
With this long and complicated history it's not surprising that the Sicilians developed a unique culture. Because their rulers changed so often and usually weren't very interested in the Sicilian people, they learned to rely on their families and neighbors. The law didn't matter to them much; they made their own rules and enforced them as they saw fit. A system of clans developed, closed to outsiders but fiercely loyal to clan members. When Sicilians began to emigrate to the USA in the late 19th century and found themselves alone in a strange country, they immediately looked for fellow Sicilians to give them strength in numbers. Within the expanding Italian communities in America networks of Sicilians began to grow. These networks linked back to Sicily itself, encouraging more people to make the journey and assuring them that they would find support when they arrived. At the start of the 20th century Antonino Giangana, from the town of Partanna in the west of Sicily, decided that he'd heard enough about life in the New World and wanted to try it for himself. With his wife he paid for a one-way ticket to New York and sailed for America. He ended up in Chicago, where he found an Italian community that numbered over 16,000 people and was growing fast. In that community were many Sicilians and Antonino settled in quickly. He built himself a pushcart and went into business selling vegetables in the street. To make his name easier for Americans to understand he simplified his name to Antonio. Then he started raising a family.
Salvatore Giangana was born in Chicago on May 24, 1908.[i] When he was two years old his mother died in childbirth, leaving Antonio to bring up his son alone. The little Giangana family was poor - selling from a pushcart was hard work and didn't pay well - but Antonio wanted the best for his son and enrolled him at Reese Elementary School.[ii] Salvatore - who soon picked up the nickname "Sam" - didn't get on well at school, though. When he was ten he was expelled and sent to St. Charles Reformatory. Opened in 1904 because of concern about the growing number of young boys running wild in Chicago, St. Charles took in both delinquents and boys who had been orphaned or neglected.[iii] It sat in 900 acres of farmland and housed up to 50 boys in cottages, each supervised by adult mentors. The aim was to create a stable home-like environment where the boys could be educated and taught trades, including farming. It wasn't a complete success, though. By bringing together boys who were already drifting into delinquency it acted as a university of crime. The Conservative Vice Lords were a radical grassroots activist group in Chicago in the late 1960s incorporated as an agency that opened community businesses with the approval of the Chicago authorities and distributed charitable donations from the Rockefeller Foundation. When it started out in 1958, though, they were just called the Vice Lords and they were one of Chicago's most powerful and dangerous gangs. [iv] It was formed at St. Charles Reformatory.[v] In 1918 the same forces were at work. Sam Giangana didn't form a gang at the Reformatory, but he learned all he needed to know to get on in one.
[1] Which as the French philosopher Voltaire said was "neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire" - it was a confederation of mostly German states and it was thoroughly corrupt.
[i] Encyclopedia Britannica, Sam Giancana http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/232919/Sam-Giancana
[ii] Spartacus Educational, Sam Giancana http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKgiancana.htm
[iii] Listphile.com, Illinois School for Boys/Illinois Youth Center http://www.listphile.com/StCharles_LocalHistory/Illinois_School_for_Boys_Illinois_Youth_Center
[iv] University of Chicago, Division of the Humanities, Youth Gangs: The Conservative Vice Lords and the Power in Self-Determined Change https://coral.uchicago.edu:8443/display/chicago68/The+Conservative+Vice+Lords
[v] University of Illinois at Chicago, Gang Research Online, The Conservative Vice Lords http://www.uic.edu/orgs/kbc/ganghistory/UrbanCrisis/ViceLords/VLTurf.html
The vast majority of Italian-Americans are hard working, law abiding citizens. Coming to America hoping to find a better life they have integrated well, distinguished themselves in many fields and added color, richness and admirable Italian values to the culture of the USA.
That's the vast majority, of course. In many ways it's unfortunate that so many people are fascinated with the other Italian-Americans. Nobody can deny that the dark side of the community has its attractions, though. The success of movies like The Godfather or Leon, and the number of people who switched on every week to watch The Sopranos proves it. Of course that's all fiction, but the reality interests people too.
In late 1963 rumors began to spread that the Mafia had done something unbelievable at a national level. President John F. Kennedy was shot dead in Dallas on November 22 and not long afterwards conspiracy theories began to grow. By now it's been demonstrated often enough that Lee Harvey Oswald was easily capable of killing the president on his own, but some people still prefer to believe the conspiracies. One of those theories says that the Mafia was involved, as revenge against JFK for interfering in their activities, and the theorists even came up with a name. The man they identified was a Sicilian-American businessman called Sam Giancana. Before long details started to emerge. Giancana wasn't really a businessman; he was the boss of the Chicago Outfit, one of the most powerful mobs in the USA. He was rumored to have links with the CIA and socialized with Frank Sinatra. A string of deaths had been blamed on him, and now perhaps he'd been responsible for the most outrageous death of all. Had Giancana, son of an ice cream shop owner, snapped his fingers and ordered a hit on the leader of the free world? It seemed incredible - but people believed it.
As the 1960s went on people learned more about Giancana. He came from a poor background in a rough area of Chicago, but fought his way up to become a multi-millionaire and one of the most powerful men in American organized crime. He had a network of contacts that stretched through the worlds of show business and politics, all the way to the CIA and the White House itself. Reluctant to talk about his early life he now seemed to enjoy showing off his wealth. His flashy lifestyle earned him a variety of nicknames. One of them was "Sam the cigar," from the big Havanas he liked to smoke. Another was "Momo," which he said was a contraction of what he thought about the most - "More Money." Others said it came from an older nickname he'd had - "Mooney," given to him because he was a lunatic.
People said Giancana had killed the president, but in fact the same president had asked him to kill Fidel Castro. This, and many other secrets, lay at the center of a tangled web that spread from the backstreets of Prohibition-era Chicago to Kennedy's election and the CIA's secret war against communism. Just how did a former street gang thug get to have the ear of the best known US president of the 20th century, and was it a coincidence that both men ended up being shot to death?
Chapter 1: Childhood
Italy has only been a unified nation since 1861, and even now it can be difficult to tell. Travelling through it the impression you get is that it's more a patchwork of tiny states, all with very different cultures. In the south the food, architecture and language all show signs of centuries of Arab influence. Rome mixes the bustle of a modern capital with the remnants of an ancient empire. Tuscany is what most people think of when they imagine Italy - style, good food and a lively attitude to life. South Tyrol, where most people speak German, looks and feels more like part of Austria (until 1919 it was). The differences between regions are startling, and form part of a larger and often bitter north-south divide; everyone north of Rome thinks everyone south of it is lazy and inclined to crime. Indeed the notorious Italian organized crime groups all originate from the southern regions. The 'Ndrangheta come from Calabria, the "toe" of Italy. The Sacra Corona Unita operates in Apulia, around the "heel." The Camorra, perhaps the most powerful and violent, dominate Naples and the surrounding Campania region. Finally the Stidda and the most famous of all - the Cosa Nostra, or Mafia - have their homes in Sicily.
Sicily, an island about the size of Vermont located just off Italy's toe, is even more distinctive than any of the mainland regions. Through recorded history it's been a playground for every invader who passed through the Mediterranean region. Settled by early Italians, it was colonized by the Greeks in around 750 BC. Carthage began building its own colonies around 600 BC, but in 264 BC the Punic Wars erupted as the powerful Carthaginian Empire tried to suppress the rising republic of Rome. In 216 BC Hannibal invaded Italy and destroyed the Roman army at Cannae, persuading several Italian cities to defect to the Carthaginian side and threatening Rome itself. This was a serious mistake. Infuriated, Rome raised a new army and changed its tactics, first driving Hannibal from Italy then going on the offensive. It was 154 BC before Carthage itself was burned to the ground and the last survivors of the empire's people taken to Rome as slaves, but by 210 BC the Carthaginian colonies in Sicily had been destroyed and the whole island was firmly under Roman rule. In 440 AD, as the western Roman Empire began to fall apart, the island was seized by the Germanic Vandals and then, in 488, by the Goths. Over the next 500 years it became part of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, then by 965 was conquered by Arabs and became a Caliphate. The island was under Islamic rule for nearly a hundred years, with a great effect on its culture and economy. By this time the Arabs had been expelled from mainland Italy, though, and the Italians were irritated by their continued presence in Sicily. Mainland rulers looked around for an army that could drive them out and decided to hire Norman mercenaries. "Norman" is a corruption of "Norseman," and the Normans were the sons and grandsons of Viking raiders who had settled in Normandy, in northwest France. They spoke French, but at heart they were still Vikings, and the rulers of Italy never stopped to wonder if, having taken Sicily from the Arabs, they might decide to keep it for themselves. They did, and created a unique mix of Arab, Italian and Norse culture. Over the following centuries Sicily was an independent kingdom, part of the Holy Roman Empire,[1] a colony of the Spanish kingdom of Aragon, a British-controlled protectorate during the Napoleonic Wars and a possession of the French Bourbon monarchs. Finally on March 17, 1861, it became part of Italy.
With this long and complicated history it's not surprising that the Sicilians developed a unique culture. Because their rulers changed so often and usually weren't very interested in the Sicilian people, they learned to rely on their families and neighbors. The law didn't matter to them much; they made their own rules and enforced them as they saw fit. A system of clans developed, closed to outsiders but fiercely loyal to clan members. When Sicilians began to emigrate to the USA in the late 19th century and found themselves alone in a strange country, they immediately looked for fellow Sicilians to give them strength in numbers. Within the expanding Italian communities in America networks of Sicilians began to grow. These networks linked back to Sicily itself, encouraging more people to make the journey and assuring them that they would find support when they arrived. At the start of the 20th century Antonino Giangana, from the town of Partanna in the west of Sicily, decided that he'd heard enough about life in the New World and wanted to try it for himself. With his wife he paid for a one-way ticket to New York and sailed for America. He ended up in Chicago, where he found an Italian community that numbered over 16,000 people and was growing fast. In that community were many Sicilians and Antonino settled in quickly. He built himself a pushcart and went into business selling vegetables in the street. To make his name easier for Americans to understand he simplified his name to Antonio. Then he started raising a family.
Salvatore Giangana was born in Chicago on May 24, 1908.[i] When he was two years old his mother died in childbirth, leaving Antonio to bring up his son alone. The little Giangana family was poor - selling from a pushcart was hard work and didn't pay well - but Antonio wanted the best for his son and enrolled him at Reese Elementary School.[ii] Salvatore - who soon picked up the nickname "Sam" - didn't get on well at school, though. When he was ten he was expelled and sent to St. Charles Reformatory. Opened in 1904 because of concern about the growing number of young boys running wild in Chicago, St. Charles took in both delinquents and boys who had been orphaned or neglected.[iii] It sat in 900 acres of farmland and housed up to 50 boys in cottages, each supervised by adult mentors. The aim was to create a stable home-like environment where the boys could be educated and taught trades, including farming. It wasn't a complete success, though. By bringing together boys who were already drifting into delinquency it acted as a university of crime. The Conservative Vice Lords were a radical grassroots activist group in Chicago in the late 1960s incorporated as an agency that opened community businesses with the approval of the Chicago authorities and distributed charitable donations from the Rockefeller Foundation. When it started out in 1958, though, they were just called the Vice Lords and they were one of Chicago's most powerful and dangerous gangs. [iv] It was formed at St. Charles Reformatory.[v] In 1918 the same forces were at work. Sam Giangana didn't form a gang at the Reformatory, but he learned all he needed to know to get on in one.
[1] Which as the French philosopher Voltaire said was "neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire" - it was a confederation of mostly German states and it was thoroughly corrupt.
[i] Encyclopedia Britannica, Sam Giancana http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/232919/Sam-Giancana
[ii] Spartacus Educational, Sam Giancana http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKgiancana.htm
[iii] Listphile.com, Illinois School for Boys/Illinois Youth Center http://www.listphile.com/StCharles_LocalHistory/Illinois_School_for_Boys_Illinois_Youth_Center
[iv] University of Chicago, Division of the Humanities, Youth Gangs: The Conservative Vice Lords and the Power in Self-Determined Change https://coral.uchicago.edu:8443/display/chicago68/The+Conservative+Vice+Lords
[v] University of Illinois at Chicago, Gang Research Online, The Conservative Vice Lords http://www.uic.edu/orgs/kbc/ganghistory/UrbanCrisis/ViceLords/VLTurf.html
