Sam Giancana
Sam Giancana was a prominent figure in organized crime during the mid-20th century, particularly known for his role in the Chicago Mafia. Born in Chicago's Little Italy to a troubled family, Giancana faced significant adversity in his early life, including the loss of his mother and a violent upbringing. He joined a street gang at a young age and quickly gained notoriety for his violent behavior, which led to connections with notable Mafia leaders like Frank Nitti and Tony Accardo. Over time, Giancana rose through the ranks, becoming a powerful boss within the Chicago underworld, controlling various illicit enterprises such as gambling, loan-sharking, and labor racketeering.
Giancana's influence reached beyond organized crime; he is infamously linked to political dealings during the 1960 presidential campaign, where he allegedly helped secure Illinois for John F. Kennedy in exchange for leniency towards his criminal activities. His relationships extended into the realm of conspiracy, with suggestions of involvement in plots against Cuban leader Fidel Castro, further intertwining his life with significant historical events. Ultimately, Giancana's life ended violently in 1975, when he was murdered in his home, a death believed to be connected to fears that he would testify against powerful figures in organized crime. His legacy remains controversial, as conspiracy theories suggest he may have had a role in the assassinations of the Kennedy brothers, raising questions about the intersections of crime and politics in America.
Subject Terms
Sam Giancana
- Born: June 15, 1908
- Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois
- Died: June 19, 1975
- Place of death: Oak Park, Illinois
Mafia leader
Major offenses: Murder, extortion, burglary, producing and selling illegal alcohol, operation of illegal gambling, racketeering, and automobile theft
Active: 1925-1975
Locale: Chicago, Illinois
Sentence: Three years in prison for burglary; four years in prison for alcohol violations
Early Life
Sam Giancana (gee-ahn-KAH-nah) was born in Chicago’s Little Italy section to a poor family. His mother died when he was two years old, and his father beat him regularly. At the age of ten, Sam was expelled from elementary school for misconduct and sent to a reformatory school. He eventually dropped out of school altogether and at the age of fifteen was living on the streets of Chicago’s west side. He joined a violent street gang called the 42 Gang. The 42 Gang got its name from the children’s story “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.” Giancana gained the nickname “Mooney,” a slang word for “crazy.”
Criminal Career
Giancana developed a reputation for violence and unpredictability, and he was noticed by such Mafia members as Frank “The Enforcer” Nitti, Paul Ricca, and Tony Accardo, for whom he performed robberies and murders. Giancana was also considered an excellent getaway driver and became the “wheel man,” or chauffeur, for Accardo, who was a major player on the Chicago crime scene.
While serving time for alcohol violations, Giancana became acquainted with an African American man by the name of Edward Jones from the South Side of Chicago. Jones told Giancana about a lucrative gambling operation, “running numbers.” After his release from prison in 1942, Giancana kidnapped Jones and held him for ransom, thus taking over Jones’s numbers running with the support of Accardo. In this way Giancana and Accardo gained control of the numbers racket in Chicago.
Giancana gradually gained control of a sizable portion of the labor racketeering, prostitution, and loan-sharking business in Chicago. In 1957, Accardo appointed Giancana to be a Mafia boss. At this time, Giancana moved his wife, Angeline, and his two daughters to Oak Park, a wealthy suburb of Chicago. Giancana eventually became the most senior Mafia figure in Chicago, with all organized crime activity approved solely by him.
Legal Action and Outcome
Law enforcement authorities were familiar with Giancana from the time he was young. At seventeen, Giancana was arrested for automobile theft and served thirty days in jail. At the age of eighteen, he was arrested twice for murder, although both charges were dropped. After another arrest, Giancana was released because a key witness for the prosecution was murdered. At the age of twenty-one, he served a three-year sentence in a Joliet prison for burglary and theft.
After his release from prison in 1931, Giancana joined his associates from the 42 Gang and began to produce and sell illegal alcohol. In 1939, he was again arrested on several alcohol violations and sentenced to four years in prison.
Because of constant harassment from the federal government, Giancana spent the last years of his life, from 1966 to 1975, in Mexico, paying Mexican officials for his protection. Eventually, Giancana was brought back to the United States and forced to testify before a grand jury about mob-related activities. Soon thereafter, on June 19, 1975, Giancana was murdered in his home at Oak Park when an assailant shot him seven times. Apparently, the organized crime leaders in Chicago feared that Giancana would provide damaging information to the grand jury in exchange for immunity.
Impact
Sam Giancana’s reach extended beyond the mob. During the 1960 presidential election campaign, he struck a deal with Joseph Kennedy to deliver the state of Illinois for his son, John F. Kennedy, by controlling the Chicago wards and labor votes. In exchange, Joseph Kennedy promised Giancana that the federal government would curtail investigations into organized crime and that Giancana would be able to call on the White House for assistance. Some evidence also suggests that Giancana and fellow mobster Johnny Roselli worked with the Central Intelligence Agency during the Kennedy years on a plan to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
The removal of Castro would have served both the interests of the U.S. government and the Mafia, who wanted to reopen the casinos in Havana, Cuba. Interestingly, Giancana and John F. Kennedy allegedly shared a girlfriend, Judith Campbell Exner; and J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, apparently used that information as leverage against Kennedy. U.S. attorney general Robert Kennedy, serving in his brother’s administration, refused to stop the government’s investigation of organized crime, thus angering Giancana, who felt double-crossed by the Kennedys.
Conspiracy theorists have argued that John Kennedy’s affair with Giancana’s mistress, as well as the federal government’s harassment of Giancana, may have caused the Mafia to play a part in the assassinations of John F. Kennedy in 1963 and Robert Kennedy in 1968. In 1978, the House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded that President Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy and pointed to organized crime as having the means, motive, and opportunity to carry out the murder. In short, although the theory remains unsubstantiated, Giancana may have played a role in the election and assassination of a U.S. president.
Bibliography
Brashler, William. The Don: The Life and Death of Sam Giancana. New York: Harper & Row, 1977. Brashler focuses upon the rise and fall of Sam Giancana as a Mafia figure, but he also provides a history of organized crime in general.
Giancana, Antoinette, John R. Hughes, and Thomas H. Jobe. JFK and Sam: The Connection Between the Giancana and Kennedy Assassinations. Nashville, Tenn.: Cumberland House, 2005. The daughter of Sam Giancana documents the tale of two murders: the assassination of President John F. Kennedy ordered by Giancana and the assassination of Giancana by the Central Intelligence Agency to prevent him from testifying before a congressional committee about the role of the CIA in the plot to assassinate Fidel Castro.
Giancana, Antoinette, and Thomas C. Renner. Mafia Princess: Growing Up in Sam Giancana’s Family. New York: Morrow, 1984. The daughter of Mafia chief Sam Giancana documents her life growing up in a family whose father controlled the city of Chicago in the 1950’s and 1960’s.
Giancana, Sam, and Chuck Giancana. Double Cross: The Explosive, Inside Story of the Mobster Who Controlled America. New York: Warner Books, 1993. The brother of Sam Giancana, Chuck Giancana, and his nephew Sam provide a profile of Sam Giancana’s rise from a low-level hood to a Mafia leader with international influence who may have had a role in the assassination of President Kennedy.