I think ‘they’ told us who killed Charlie Kirk. They may as well have signed their names to it. My suspicions in this regard only increased when the FBI announced the arrest of six defendants and charged them with wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy. In these two incidents together, there may be clues to the powers that control the current administration.
Gambling
Assassinations and gambling are the specialities of organized crime. However, it’s not confined to organized crime. Or rather, organized crime is not roped off from the government. They are intertwined. The book, Double Cross,1 written by Sam and Chuck Giancana is helpful in this analysis. (Chuck Giancana is the brother of Sam Mooney Giancana. Sam is Chuck’s son and the godson of Mooney.)
At the end of his life, Mooney Giancana’s empire was based on a numbers racket–gambling was his forte. He learned about this racket when he was sent to Leavenworth for running a still in Illinois. There he met Eddie Jones, who was incarcerated for running a policy racket, also known as ‘numbers’. Black men invented the policy racket and back then, black men owned it.
Giancana had never heard of this racket, but after learning the ropes from Eddie Jones he determined to take it for himself. He probably had fewer scruples than usual, due to his extreme racism. After he secured Jone’s racket, he expanded it into Texas with the help of Jack Ruby.
This could be a coincidence or it could be a red flag, but five of the six suspects in the FBI’s recent gambling case are black.
Mooney Branches Out
Mooney spent the years from 1966-74 in Mexico setting up the most lucrative gambling enterprise in history. Chuck believed his murder was largely the consequence of his actions there, in combination with rogue elements of the CIA. It all came to an end for Mooney Giancana when the FBI pressured the Mexican government to deport him. He had received a subpoena to testify before a Grand Jury and he knew way too much. He was shot to death in his basement kitchen.
But before Giancana was deported, he had been operating from Mexico to the Caribbean and Central and South America, setting up operations on cruise ships and ports of call. He bought protection from dictators and presidents, including Noriega. And to top it off, he and his associates ingratiated themselves with Columbia’s Medellin Cartel. Naturally, they sent the Chicago Outfit a cut of everything. The relevant question today is what happened to this network after Mooney died?
In this light, the FBI’s apparent glee at taking down this gambling racket brings up more questions than it answers. The numbers rackets never ended. They would know that better than anyone. Illegal gambling continues today. Maybe this case was particularly egregious. But even so, it seems to me there would be an additional red flag: the crime families involved.
The Three Crime Families
The crime families involved in the FBI’s current case are the Gambinos, Bonnanos, and Genoveses. They all operate in New York. New York was sometimes allied with Chicago, but the two organizations were separate and had different bosses.
At Meyer Lansky’s suggestion all of the different branches had given their organization a name. The new names were:
- The National Alliance became the Combination or Commission
- The New York organization became the Mob
- Chicago became the Outfit
- New Orleans became the Combine or the Mafia
Before His Death, Mooney Giancana’s Organization Controlled Everything But New York
At the time the McClellan Hearings were being held in 1958, Mooney Giancana controlled everything but New York. His partners were Marcello for gambling in Texas, Alabama and Georgia and Trafficante Jr. in Florida. Trafficante was feeding casino money to Chicago from Cuba and drugs from Central America, the Caribbean and Asia. The term Chuck used for Mooney’s relationship with Carlo Gambino in New York is ‘aligned’. Mooney worked with him to deal with European rackets and drug trade.
The Most Important Question: Who Ended Up With Sam Mooney Giancana’s Empire?
It’s fair to assume that the empire that Mooney Giancana left behind was taken over by his associates. His brother, Chuck Giancana was concerned about this. He was concerned that its nefarious influence is still operating under the radar. And he would know better than anyone that this was a strong possibility. He states several times in his book that there are few lines of demarcation between the Outfit and the CIA. “There are no Black Hats and White Hats.” So he considered the following questions to be important. Have U.S. organized crime, the CIA and internal criminals shaped our world since his brother’s death? How many wars have been funded by this wealth? Which governments were compromised? How many world leaders were corrupted, imprisoned, and assassinated? Which U.S. presidents have benefitted from covert CIA operations and drug money?
These questions should be in the back of our minds when we read about the arrests of black athletes and New York crime families for gambling.
The Assassinations: JFK
I’ve argued previously that the signature on Kirk’s assassination was similar to the signature on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The first similarity is that they both crossed the wrong people.
JFK’s death warrant was sealed by his father’s behavior, his own behavior, and by the expectations of aggrieved parties, including organized crime, the CIA and officials in the U.S. government. He was aware of these factors, but he was probably in deeper trouble than he knew. Joe Kennedy had received favors from the Chicago Syndicate before JFK was in the public eye. When he asked Mooney Giancana for his assistance in getting JFK elected president his indebtedness reached a new level. This favor had far-reaching consequences for his family and the USA.
Joe Kennedy made certain promises to Mooney Giancana, which he had no intention of fulfilling. Instead, all three Kennedys, Joe, JFK and Bobby, betrayed Giancana by turning against the mafia that had helped them. This was a double cross. All things considered, the false sense of security was breathtaking. Joe in particular had to have known what Giancana was capable of.
Anton Cermak and Huey Long
As Chuck Giancana tells it, two previous assassination cases had similarities to the Kennedy assassination: the public murders of Anton Cermak and Huey Long. All the signs were there for anyone knowledgeable about mafia tactics. The first sign, according to Chuck, is making a hit look like a looney did it. It’s an old Sicilian tactic.
In the case of Huey Long, the looney was a sharpshooter and in debt. Huey Long was a Louisiana senator on the take. He had worked for years with the Syndicate on everything from slot machines to casinos. His partners included Carlos Marcello in New Orleans; Frank Costello, Lucky Luciano, and Meyer Lansky in New York; Santo Trafficante in Florida; and Paul Ricca in Chicago. Unfortunately for him, he got greedy. By 1935 he demanded over $3 million a year in payoffs. Long’s friends in New York had him hit with the help of the New Orleans boss.
Anton Cermak was the Mayor of Chicago who went to war against Al Capone on behalf of a rival, Teddy Newberry. When Cermak fled to Florida in December of 1932, Paul Ricca enlisted Joe Zangara to kill him. Zangara had been a sharpshooter in the Italian Army. Diamond Joe Esposito had sponsored him five years earlier to come to the U.S. from Sicily. Since then he had been working sugar runs from Cuba. However, he got into debt and was in trouble with the Chicago bosses.
Zangara shot Cermak while he was riding in an open car with president-elect Roosevelt in Miami. When he was arrested he spouted anti-capitalist nonsense. The main problem with that tactic was that he was really a Republican. Or it would have been a problem if anyone had cared. He also claimed he had been trying to kill FDR and got Cermak by mistake. The press did not mention the fact that Zangara was connected to the Chicago Syndicate, and cops were paid off.
The Fall Guy
And then there are the cases where the accused shooter, although seeming to fit the description of a looney, appears to be a patsy. This is suspected in the assassinations of JFK and Charlie Kirk. Related factors include the claim that an ancient bolt-action rifle fired the fatal shot. Basically, the general details given to the public don’t match what people actually saw or what they know about the particular weapon. And there is the question in both cases as to the direction of the fatal shot. Finally, there is the nonchalant way the authorities address the inconsistencies–or refuse to address them.
Lee Harvey Oswald and His Connections
We are familiar with the FBI’s case against Tyler Robinson, but maybe not so much with Lee Harvey Oswald. We know Jack Ruby, Chicago’s man in Dallas and Oswald’s assassin, had ties to both the CIA and the Outfit. So did Oswald.Oswald was also connected to the New Orleans mob from birth. His uncle was Carlos Marcello’s lieutenant and he had a big influence on the boy.
U.S. Intelligence Community
Oswald was allied with the U.S. Intelligence community. He was in the Civil Air Patrol as a young man, where he worked with a homosexual CIA operative and Outfit smuggling pilot, David Ferrie. Mooney and Marcello used Ferrie to fly drugs and guns out of Central America.
Last but not least, Oswald was not a Castro supporter. He was a CIA agent and a right-wing supporter of the “Kill Castro’ Bay of pigs camp. When he was in the Marines in the late 50s he attended intelligence training sessions run out of the office of Naval Intelligence in a top secret Japanese Spy base.
Nor was he a communist. He went to the USSR as a spy for the U.S. government.
The Setup
After Oswald returned to the US he worked for a company that was doing top security projects for the US government. The CIA directed him to former Chicago FBI agent Guy Banister as soon as he and his Russian wife were back in New Orleans. Banister’s Camp Street detective offices were a front for CIA covert domestic operations, similar to the Miami-based detective agency of Richard Cain. Bob Maheu’s Washington-Vegas agency was similar. They were all fronts to cloak illegal CIA-Outfit activities and draw agents for the CIA. During this time, Oswald trained Cuban exiles.
Oswald’s intel superiors sent him to Dallas. There he met with Jack Ruby at the Carousel Club and re-established his relationship with David Farrie. He also established a relationship with another Mooney associate, Russian exile and CIA operative geologist George De Mohrenschildt. De Mohrenschildt had contacts with Texas oilmen. Texas oilmen contributed cash to the assassination project.
Oswald’s Patriotism and Malleability Were His Downfall
They decided on Oswald as the fall guy in early spring. They had already laid the groundwork to make him look like a commie by sending him to Russia and associating him with the pro-Castro stuff. He had been a bright kid according to Chuck Giancana. His downfall was his patriotism and his malleability.
The Professional Killers
Later, Chuck learned through the grapevine that Mooney had solicited professional killers from several quarters. They included two of Marcello’s men and two of Trafficante’s Cuban exile friends. One of them was a former Havana vice cop who became a mobster. The other was a radical-turned-corrupt US customs official.
From Chicago Mooney brought in Richard Cain, Chuckie Nicoletti and Milwaukee Phil. They had all worked previously on the Bay of Pigs. Cain and Nicoletti were the actual gunmen for the hit. They were at opposite ends of Dallas Book Depository. It was Cain who fired from the 6th story window.
The CIA added several of their own “soldiers” using one of the anti-Castro men and Roscoe White as actual gunmen, along with J. D. Tippet and Oswald. The CIA planned for White and Tippet to eliminate Oswald, but Tippet wavered and allowed him to escape. So, White had to kill Tippet.
It Was a Coup, Obviously
J. Edgar Hoover was fine with this plan. And if somebody knew too much the CIA took care of it. Mooney specifically told Chuck it was a coup. He said they had done the same in other countries.
“On November 22, 1963 the US had a coup; it’s that simple. The government of this country was overthrown by a handful of guys who did their job so damned well…not one American even knew what happened. But I know. I know I’ve guaranteed the Outfit’s future…once and for all. We’re set here in the United States. So, it’s time to move on to greener pastures. Spreadn’ the Outfit’s power and makn’ a fortune in deals overseas are two of the best reasons I can think of to leave the country.” (Sam ‘Mooney’ Giancana, as quoted by Chuck Giancana)
- Little Brown Paperbacks (a&C), Jan. 1, 1998. ↩︎