Sam Giancana liked to be number one. He let everybody know ... he was the capo die capo of the Chicago crime circuit. John Dineen, retired Chicago rozzer
Robert Kennedy never made it to Chicago, home of the crime boss he tried to destroy in the early sixties. Ever since his assassination, there has been speculation that Sam Giancana had a hand in it. The connection between Giancana and the Kennedys began many years earlier, when Joseph Kennedy and Sam Giancana were in the boot-legging business. Although they didn’t know each other, they shared a common interest – ambition. Sam Giancana the documentary
At about 10:30 on the evening of the 19th June 1975, an old friend visited Giancana in his basement kitchen. Sam cooked a snack of Italian sausages while they chatted. With his back to his visitor, Giancana attended to his cooking. The visitor pulled out a .22-calibre pistol, placed it on the back of his neck and pulled the trigger. ibid.
I steal. Sam Giancana
‘Hey, Sam! How about a loan?’
‘Whattaya need?’
‘Oh about $500.’
‘Whattaya got for collateral?’
‘Whattaya need?’
‘How about an eye?’ Sam Giancana
Sam Giancana was the most extravagant gangster of all. Mafia’s Greatest Hits s1e1: Sam Giancana, 2012
Sam Giancana had learnt his gangster trade from Al Capone’s top enforcers. ibid.
Boss of the Chicago outfit. ibid.
He was well connected to the Kennedys ... Before voters went to the polls Giancana sent one of his men to spread $50,000. ibid.
Giancana called them G Men ... Kennedy was changing the game. ibid.
It wasn’t just the Mob who wanted Castro gone. ibid.
When a US government agency secretly commissions murder from gangsters, they should have seen trouble coming. ibid.
An injunction against lockstep surveillance was granted. ibid.
It hadn’t gone unnoticed that Giancana had asked Ruby for help from time to time. ibid.
Sam Giancana was at home ... He was cooking in his basement kitchen ... But the Mafia hadn’t finished with Sam Giancana. The way he was killed showed the Mob no longer trusted him to keep quiet. ibid.
A home-loving husband, dedicated father, Tony Spilotro was in fact suspected by the FBI of over twenty murders. As Las Vegas enforcer for the Chicago Mafia Spilotro hit whoever his bosses wanted taking care of. Mafia’s Greatest Hits s1e5: Tony the Ant Spilotro
The Chicago Mafia controlled some of the biggest hotel-casinos in the city. ibid.
1973: Spilotro found himself back in Chicago under investigation for murder. ibid.
Frank Cullotta decided to accept the protection of the FBI. ibid.
The bodies were found just eight days later on a farm in the neighbouring state of Indiana. ibid.
Tony Spilotro’s death marked the end of an era in Sin City. ibid.
In 1979 the FBI launched a vast electronic surveillance operation of one criminal in particular: Allen Dorfman. Allen Dorfman wasn’t a Mafioso, he wasn’t even Italian, he was Jewish, and his weapon was not a gun but a pen. Dorfman’s crime was to raid a billion dollar pension fund for his bosses. Mafia’s Greatest Hits s1e9: Allen Dorfman
An ambitious Teamsters’ official, Jimmy Hoffa, wanted to become president. Red Dorfman agreed to help. ibid.
Government agencies discovered Allen Dorfman had made $3,000,000 from Teamsters’ insurance policies. ibid.
And what did the gangstas do with all these millions? They built casino hotels in the Nevada desert – Las Vegas. ibid.
Hoffa and Dorfman approved sixty loans totalling a mammoth $91,000,000. ibid.
Hoffa was gone ... this was a great opportunity ... Access to the pension fund was just too important to the Mob. ibid.
Joey The Clown Lombardo was a serious gangsta ... Lombardo oversaw the Las Vegas casinos. ibid.
Joey Lombardo was a Mob enforcer and would stop at nothing to back up their money man Allen Dorfman. ibid.
Suddenly, the man who’d loyally bankrolled the Mob for years seemed a dangerous liability. Mob bosses decided to put out a contract on Allen Dorfman. ibid.
Allen Dorfman’s death was a watershed for both the Mafia and US law enforcement. ibid.
Without Dorfman, the Mafia’s money supply was suddenly cut off; this crippled the Mob and they never recovered. ibid.
Giancana was head of the Chicago Mafia mob that had once been run by Al Capone. Joe Kennedy had asked him to support his son’s election campaign. JFK – The Scandals Revealed, Channel 5 2011
The Mafia’s skill at exploiting human weaknesses gave them an opportunity to snare the future president of the United States. They contributed to his election campaign, and they paid for his personal pleasures. But JFK seemed oblivious to the risks. ibid.
Then I became what they call a raving maniac. Do I make myself clear? Mad Sam DeStefano
Another night on Chicago’s south side. Gangsta Al Capone may have run this town in the twenties but for three decades a vicious street gang had the city in a stranglehold. They called themselves the Black Keystone Nation. They claimed to be about brotherhood. They said they were saviours of the streets. But as it turned out, these Robin Hoods were just robbing the hood. Inside their violent world their religion was guns and greed. Their goal absolute power. No-one was safe especially the police. Gangland s1e7: Stone to the Bone, History 2007
The Blackstone Rangers needed more firepower to fight the Disciples. ibid.
The Blackstone Rangers would brutally beat anyone who robbed a residence or business in their home base. ibid.
The Keystone Nation [Keystone conglomerate] seemed unstoppable. ibid.
The Blackstone Nation was starting to show cracks. Their federally-funded training program was starting to come under scrutiny. ibid.
Heroin flooded the streets ... The drug-dealing and the violence have created chaos on Chicago’s south side. ibid.
Chicago has long had a reputation as a mob town ... A haven for the drugs trade. Rival gangs fought to control the tower blocks. Welcome to Chicago: a gangster city. Gangland s1e9: Gangster City
The shooting spree was an annual ritual. Most Cabrini residents stayed inside on New Year’s Eve. ibid.
The social experiment soon faltered. Gangs turned these buildings into armed camps. Thug-run fiefdoms in the midst of the city. The tower blocks began to serve as recruitment centres and incubators for gangs and their violence. ibid.
More than a hundred and twenty-five street gangs claim territory in Chicago. ibid.
There was a tacit agreement between tenants and gang members. ibid.
Chicago’s public housing complexes became war zones divided by gang rivalries. ibid.
As the gangs splintered, new conflicts erupted over turf and drug money. ibid.
Chicago still has a murder rate three times that of New York City. ibid.
The Gangster Disciples once run like a large corporation are now broken into rogue cliques with no loyalty to anyone. ibid.
This gang has a problem with authority. Especially within its own ranks. The gang is destroying itself. It’s destroying part of Chicago. This is the messed-up world of the MLDs – the Maniac Latin Disciples. Gangland s2e1: Maniacal, History 2008
The Maniac Latin Disciples weren’t always murderers. They started in the 1960s as a club. ibid.
These Lady Ds helped the gang steer clear of the police. ibid.
They used any weapon they could find. ibid.
Hernandez died. And with one act of violence the relationship between the Latin Kings and the Latin Disciples changed for ever. ibid.
Many LDs would do anything to wear the crown. ibid.
A new drug came to the streets of Humboldt Park – crack cocaine. ibid.
By the summer of 1998 the FBI had stepped in ... Operation Devil’s Head. ibid.
The gang survives. The Maniac Latin Disciples have ruled Humboldt Park for four decades. ibid.