PART 5 FINAL JUDGMENT ,THE MISSING LINK IN THE JFK ASSASSINATION CONSPIRACY

FINAL JUDGMENT 

The Missing Link in the 

JFK Assassination Conspiracy

By MICHAEL COLLINS PIPER 

Chapter Ten 

Little Man's Little Man: 

Meyer Lansky & Carlos Marcello 

Did the Mafia Kill J.F.K? Meyer Lansky's Louisiana front-man, Carlos Marcello, has become a favorite  target for JFK assassination researchers who like to claim that "The Mafia Killed JFK." 

The fact is that Marcello's most formidable chief accuser, G.Robert Blakey , staff director of the House Select Committee on Assassinations, had been on the payroll of a key figure in the Meyer Lansky Organized Crime Syndicate. 

Marcello was only one cog in the Lansky Syndicate. His key placement in New Orleans scene of much of the preassassination planning makes him the perfect fall guy. Marcello also had ties to Israel's allies in the CIA. There's a lot more to the Marcello story than meets the eye. 

It was Lee Harvard Oswald's pathetic cry, "I'm just a patsy," that has become immortalized. Ironically, though, one of the most widely alleged JFK assassination masterminds—New Orleans' widely-publicized supposed "crime boss"—might himself be able to make that same claim. We are speaking, of course, of the colorful Carlos Marcello—nicknamed "Little Man"—a sobriquet he happened to share with Meyer Lansky. 

BLAMING MARCELLO 

One book, John W. Davis's Mafia Kingfish: Carlos Marcello and the Assassination of John F. Kennedy, names Marcello as the likely mastermind of the JFK murder. Standing alone, with no further evidence such as that we have cited in the pages of Final Judgment, in this chapter and elsewhere, Davis' contention seems reasonable. But, as we've said, his conclusions are not based on the totality of all the evidence available to those who are interested in the big picture. 

DISTORTING THE TRUTH 

David Scheim, writing in Contract on America: The Mafia Murder of President John F. Kennedy, likewise blames "the Mafia" for the JFK assassination and also points the finger at Carlos Marcello in particular. For whatever reason, however, Scheim is devoted to underplaying (even ignoring) the critical role of Meyer Lansky in the underworld. 

In Scheim's view, Lansky was little more than a bit player,this in direct contradiction to even standard histories of organized crime which, by virtue of reality, are forced to recognize Lansky's particular influence.

Scheim, in fact, goes to great lengths to suggest that Lansky was of little consequence in the whole scheme of things. He writes: "The late syndicate financier Meyer Lansky could take no action without the approval of Mafia superiors."338 This is simply not true in any sense whatsoever. That Scheim even suggests this indicates that he is determined to ignore the entire picture. 

Scheim notes, incorrectly, that Lansky's alleged "Mafia superiors" kept him under constant surveillance through one Jimmy "Blue Eyes" Alo whom Scheim describes as a "capo regime" in the Genovese Mafia family out of New York. 339 Alo was indeed closely associated with Lansky, but, in fact, was not only a close personal friend, but also a working partner. He was not, contrary to Scheim's bizarre concoction, a Mafia handler of Meyer Lansky. 

CLAY SHAW AND THE CIA 

Scheim's own determination to ignore the role of the intelligence community in the JFK assassination conspiracy,particularly that of the CIA,is also interesting. In his book Scheim goes to great lengths to portray New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison as a tool of the Mafia and an associate of Carlos Marcello. He also comes down hard on Garrison's investigation of international businessman Clay Shaw. 

According to Scheim, "Equally bizarre was Garrison's prosecution of Clay Shaw, who became his prime culprit. A retired director of the New Orleans International Trade Mart, Shaw was a soft-spoken liberal who devoted most of his time to restoring homes in the Old French Quarter." 340 

What Scheim fails to note,and what he could not miss inasmuch as he is self-portrayed, as a longtime JFK assassination researcher,is that Shaw was, indeed, involved with the CIA. 

IGNORING THE FACTS 

This was a fact well known among JFK assassination researchers at the time Scheim's book went to press. There is simply no rational excuse for Scheim's deliberate deletion of this critical fact. 

Be that as it may, in Chapter 15 we shall examine Shaw's central positioning in the conspiracy that involved not only the CIA and the Mafia and the Meyer Lansky Organized Crime Syndicate, but also Israel's Mossad. 

Obviously, in order to perpetuate the myth that "The Mafia Killed JFK," Scheim is forced to avoid the facts that damage his thesis. And this is precisely what he has done. 

Scheim's own book (and the aforementioned work by John W. Davis) both rely heavily on a previously-released work, The Plot to Kill the President: Organized Crime Assassinated JFK by G. Robert Blakey and Richard N. Billings. 

(Scheim's book, in fact, is hardly more than a re-write of much of the same material and, actually, constitutes little more than a history of the Mafia, available in many standard sources. Scheim's book, all in all, fails miserably in its attempt to lay the blame anywhere for that matter. 

(And in light of the facts that we are uncovering in the pages of Final Judgment it is probably worth noting that Scheim's publisher, Shapolsky Publishers, is an affiliate of an Israeli-owned company,a fact that could perhaps have something to do with the decision to promote a book pinning the assassination of JFK on "the Mafia.") 

That Scheim and Davis relied upon the Blakey/Billings work is unfortunate, particularly since this book comes from what can only be charitably described as suspect sources. 

Blakey, of course, was director of the House Assassinations Committee which concluded that there had probably been a conspiracy behind the president's assassination and that, more than likely, elements of the "Mafia" may have been been involved. 

SABOTAGING GARRISON 

Richard Billings, who served alongside Blakey in the House Committee investigation, was no stranger to the JFK assassination conspiracy. In fact, Billings had been the Life magazine editor who led a team from his magazine to New Orleans ostensibly to collaborate with then District Attorney Jim Garrison in his investigation into the JFK murder. 

Garrison notes, however, that Life, instead, did just the opposite. Life ran several major articles which linked Garrison to organized crime—to the Mafia—to Carlos Marcello, specifically, thereby discrediting Garrison to many who believed the tales.341 

As a consequence when Blakey and Billings teamed up to write the book based on their experiences with the House Assassinations Committee, they reserved harsh criticism for Garrison and suggested that he was pointing the finger, wrongly, at the intelligence community and, in effect covering up for Marcello's involvement in the crime. 

Billings, it also just happens, was an in-law of C. D. Jackson, the publisher of Life magazine whom investigative journalist Carl Bernstein has described as "Life owner Henry Luce's personal emissary to the CIA."342 Billings also—perhaps not coincidentally—played a recurring role in Life's coverage of CIA-backed Cuban exile raids on Castro's Cuba. 

ORGANIZED CRIME 'EXPERT' 

So it was that Blakey and Billings' work put much emphasis on Marcello as having been one of the prime movers in the conspiracy. Yet, Blakey's allegations about the role of "the Mafia" can only be described as suspect, to say the very least. There's much more to the story as we will see. 

A professor of law and the director of the Notre Dame University Institute on Organized Crime, Blakey is often loudly trumpeted by the media as one of the nation's leading authorities on "the Mafia." Previously a

special prosecutor in the Justice Department under then-Attorney General Robert Kennedy, Blakey is the author of the famous Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute that has become a major tool in federal organized crime prosecutions. 

Thus it is that Blakey's conclusions about the role of "the Mafia" (and specifically Carlos Marcello) in the JFK assassination conspiracy have received widespread recognition and credibility. However, just two years before he was named director of the House Assassinations Committee, Blakey had a different relationship with organized crime: he had been on the payroll of a top figure in the Lansky Syndicate. 

BLAKEY'S LANSKY CONNECTION 

After Penthouse magazine had published an article alleging that the La Costa Country Club in Carlsbad, California was linked to the underworld, several of La Costa's founders filed a lawsuit against Penthouse. One of the plaintiffs in the La Costa case was Morris "Moe" Dalitz, a former Detroit and Cleveland bootlegger-turned-Las Vegas casino boss, who had longstanding and close personal and business ties with Meyer Lansky. Brought in as part of Dalitz's legal team was Robert Blakey himself. This was certainly an unusual position for a self-promoted "crime fighter" such as Blakey. The longtime crime fighter, in fact, provided an affidavit on Dalitz's behalf against Penthouse. 343 

Blakey's employer Dalitz was very much an integral part of the Lansky Syndicate. In Chapter 4 we learned that it was the notorious "Purple Gang" in Detroit that had put out a contract on the life of Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy, father of the future president, during Prohibition for interfering in their "territory." Kennedy, as we saw, made contact with Chicago Mafia chieftain Sam Giancana who intervened on the elder Kennedy's behalf, convincing the Purple Gang to cancel the proposed "hit." At that time, in fact, one of the key leaders of the Purple Gang was none other than Moe Dalitz, an up-and-coming mob figure. 

DALITZ, SIEGEL AND LANSKY 

According to FBI organized crime expert William Roemer, "Moe Dalitz started his criminal career way back in the Prohibition Era. He had been one of the admirals in 'the Little Jewish Navy' in Detroit when, as a rum runner, he ferried booze across the Detroit River from Canada to quench the thirst of the many Motor City citizens who were eager to taste the whiskey, wine, and beer forbidden by the 'Noble Experiment.'"344 This was the beginning of a long, lasting, close working relationship between Lansky, "the chairman of the board of organized crime" and Morris Dalitz. 

In fact, according to Roemer, it was Dalitz who was the prime mover behind the Syndicate's move against Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, Lansky's boyhood friend and fellow racketeer who was shot dead in 1947.

According to Roemer, it was Lansky who sent Dalitz to Las Vegas to inquire into the activities of Ben Siegel. Dalitz, reports Roemer, "was the main contributor to the growing opinion that everything was not on the up and up. His report was the major reason why Lansky, Frank Costello, et al, made their report to the organized crime assembly in Havana in December 1946 and later in June when it was finally decided to chop Bugsy."345 

In Chapter 13 we shall review the Lansky-Siegel connection further and examine the bizarre role that the colorful thug, Mickey Cohen, Siegel's successor as Lansky's West Coast henchman, played in Israel's intrigues against JFK and in the JFK assassination conspiracy. 

In fact, as a direct consequence of Seigel's assassination, Dalitz stepped in as Lansky's official liaison in Las Vegas, becoming the so-called "godfather of Las Vegas." However, it would be nearly thirty years later that Robert Blakey, the chief proponent of the theory that "The Mafia Killed JFK" would end up on Morris Dalitz's team, proclaiming Dalitz innocent of any mob connections and directing attention away from any direct Lansky connections to the JFK assassination conspiracy. 

Unfortunately for Blakey, Dalitz and La Costa, Penthouse prevailed and beat back their libel suit and, in effect, repudiated Blakey's character reference on behalf of Dalitz and his associates. 

So it was that the chief proponent of the theory that "the Mafia Killed JFK" had lined up in defense of one of Meyer Lansky's closest associates— Moe Dalitz, a legendary figure in the underworld himself. 

Some seven months after Blakey and the House Assassinations Committee issued their report that "The Mafia Killed JFK"—a report that carefully and studiously ignored Lansky's high-level influence over "the Mafia"—the Wall Street Journal reported in September of 1979 that Dalitz had long been identified by federal authorities as an ongoing senior adviser to organized crime.346 This time Dalitz did not bring a libel suit. 

ISRAEL HONORS DALITZ 

Dalitz' public image, however, did not suffer as a consequence of the Penthouse victory in the libel suit or as a result of the report in the Wall Street Journal. Instead, in 1983 the aging mob figure and Las Vegas "philanthropist" was honored by the pro-Israel Anti-Defamation League (A.D.L) of B'nai B'rith with its prestigious "Torch of Liberty Award." 

Evidently the A.D.L did not see any problem with giving its highest honor to one of the top leaders of organized crime. Dalitz's service to the cause of Israel was apparently deemed more significant than his activities in the underworld. And Dalitz was indeed an active supporter of Israel's cause. 

In fact, Dalitz himself was the key mid-West contact for the Sonneborn Institute—the Israeli arms smuggling entity—that we first encountered in Chapter 7 where we examined the long-standing ties of the Lansky Syndicate to Israel. So we can certainly understand why the A.D.L would be so eager to award Dalitz for his services.

In Chapter 17 we shall examine the immense influence that the A.D.L itself has on the American news media. We shall also see one instance of how a longtime A.D.L collaborator floated a "new" theory about the JFK assassination—a widely-publicized cover story that seems to have been orchestrated by Israel's friends at the CIA. 

For his own part, Dalitz's defender, Robert Blakey, clearly prefers to look at the Italian elements of the underworld, but no further. As we saw in Chapter 7 (and which we will discuss further in this chapter and elsewhere) the differences between "the Mafia" and organized crime as a whole are far more profound then Blakey would allow us to imagine. 

BLAKEY AND THE CIA

 

Blakey, likewise, has refused to acknowledge the role of American intelligence, specifically the CIA, in the JFK assassination. No wonder then that prominent JFK assassination researchers such as Mark Lane, writing in Plausible Denial, and Jim Marrs, writing in Crossfire—among many others—have commented critically on Blakey's close relationship with the CIA during the period of the House Assassinations Committee investigation. In his own book, Conspiracy, Anthony Summers documents—in frightening detail—the CIA's subversion of the House investigation which, it appears, was aided and abetted by Blakey himself 

Blakey himself did nothing to allay the suspicions of his critics by first clearing his own book with the CIA. The concluding paragraph of Blakey's book—which another JFK assassination researcher, Carl Oglesby, caustically remarked should have appeared on the opening pages rather than buried at the end of the book—read as follows: 

"Pursuant to agreement with the Select Committee on Assassinations, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation reviewed this book in manuscript form to determine that the classified information it contained had been properly released for publication and that no informant was identified. Neither the CIA nor the FBI warrants the factual material or endorses the views expressed." 347 

Thus, while Blakey was busy pointing the finger at Carlos Marcello and away from the CIA and its allies in the Israeli Mossad, the facts about the Lansky-Marcello relationship belie Blakey's claim that "the Mafia" was the driving force in the JFK assassination conspiracy. 

LOUISIANA FRONT MAN 

The fact remains that whatever role Carlos Marcello or any of his underlings played in either the JFK assassination or the cover-up, Marcello was nothing more than a front-man for the "boss of all bosses"—Israel's longtime patron, Meyer Lansky himself. Marcello was indeed, Little Man's Little Man. Lansky was, in fact, much, much bigger—in terms of power and influence—than Carlos Marcello would ever be, Marcello's fame and reputation notwithstanding.

To understand the fatal flaws in the Davis, Scheim, Blakey-Billings theories—and to underscore the thesis of Final Judgment—it is vital to remember this all-important fact. 

Interestingly, Davis himself makes clear that Marcello was, in fact, a protege of Lansky. The author does not, however, place the significant emphasis on Lansky's superiority over Marcello that must be made in presenting any theory that "The Mafia Killed JFK." 

For the full story of the Lansky-Marcello relationship we are indebted to Hank Messick, the fearless investigative reporter who specialized in Organized Crime coverage. In his biography of Meyer Lansky, Messick described how Lansky picked Marcello out of relative obscurity and set up Louisiana's supposed "Mafia boss" in business. Messick told how Lansky (through his partner and longtime associate Frank Costello) first moved into Louisiana. 

Under heat from New York reform Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, Lansky and Costello had decided that New Orleans was an ideal location to relocate their slot machine operations. Costello met in New York with then Louisiana Governor Huey Long who agreed to open up his state to Organized Crime. 

Lansky-Costello associate "Dandy Phil" Kastel was sent in to take charge of the project. However, it was Lansky himself who went to New Orleans to cut the final deal with Long. The two met at the Roosevelt Hotel which was owned by a mutual crony, Seymour Weiss. 348 

(This was not the first meeting between Lansky and Long, however. The two had first met at the 1932 Democratic Convention in Chicago which nominated then-New York Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt for president. It was during that brokered convention that Lansky bribes, along with Long's support, enabled FDR to win his party's nomination. Lansky's longtime associate and primary link to the Italian underworld, Charles "Lucky" Luciano, described that momentous meeting in his historic posthumously-published memoirs.) 349 

THE LONG-LANSKY DEAL 

It was during their second fateful meeting that Long and Lansky cut a deal which sealed their fates irrevocably and which, in fact, ultimately led to Long's untimely demise at the hands of an assassin. Here was the deal: in return for allowing Lansky's syndicate to operate in Louisiana, Long agreed to take a $20,000 monthly kickback. Lansky's slot machines were installed by a company chartered for "charitable contributions." However, out of the first $800,000 made by Lansky and his cronies in New Orleans, widows and orphans got exactly $600. 350 

This cozy arrangement between Lansky's Organized Crime syndicate and Huey Long's powerful Louisiana political machine made possible the rise of Carlos Marcello. Lansky biographer Messick described the origins and nature of the Lansky-Marcello relationship as follows: "Lansky was smart enough, however, to recognize that even the innovation of slot machines which paid off in mints as well as cash would not suffice forever. Lansky's brother Jake was listed as an officer of the Louisiana Mint Company, the new outfit controlling the slots, but something more was needed. 

"In the Algiers section of New Orleans, across the Mississippi, he found Carlos Marcello. Born in Tunis, he had come to New Orleans in 1910 and made a living in a variety of ways, none of them successful. Nor had he bothered to become a U.S. citizen. 

"Lansky gave Marcello a franchise for the Algiers section, allowing him to keep two-thirds of the slot profit. By 1940 he had 250 machines in operation and proved himself as an efficient businessman. Later he was given a piece of the plush Beverly Club, the biggest rug joint (a posh gambling casino) in the area and at that time second to the Beverly Hills Club outside Newport, Kentucky."351 

MARCELLO TOOK THE HEAT 

Messick's concluding comments regarding the Lansky-Marcello relationship, however, are probably the most significant: "As a front man, Marcello worked out perfectly. In years to come he was touted as the Mafia boss of Louisiana—despite his birth in Tunis—and resisted all efforts to deport or jail him. 

"With all the heat on Marcello, the role of Lansky was almost forgotten—exactly what Meyer wanted. Ultimately, Lansky was able to shift Kastel to Las Vegas and leave Marcello and Weiss to run New Orleans."352 

"Meyer Lansky once explained why he left New Orleans to Marcello and others to run. 'There was just too frigging much to do elsewhere,' he said." 353 

As Messick elaborated even further, if only to drive home the point: Even Marcello's famous Beverly Club was not, in reality, Marcello's personal fiefdom. According to Messick, "Costello and Kastel were partners, Marcello had a small piece, but Lansky was the real boss." 354 

Aaron Cohn, who was director of the New Orleans Crime Commission, lends credence to Messick's analysis of the relationship. According to Cohn, "The Commission had long been suspicious of the massiveness of Marcello's holdings—which were much too large to be controlled by a single don—even one as powerful as Marcello." 355 Marcello, in short, was indeed fronting for Meyer Lansky. 

All of this, of course, taken together, sheds a more accurate light on the truth about the Lansky connection and Carlos Marcello. 

LANSKY, MARCELLO & THE CIA 

There is also evidence that Marcello was working directly with the CIA in at least one other sphere of influence that also links Lansky, whose own connections with American intelligence we examined in Chapter 7 and which we will examine further in Chapter 11, Chapter 12 and Chapter 14. 

According to Sam and Chuck Giancana, in their biography of Chicago Mafia boss, Sam Giancana, "Marcello was a co-conspirator with the CIA in gunrunning operations and a fervent supporter of the anti-Castro exiles. It was an arrangement Giancana said more than once, aimed at returning Cuba to its pre-Castro glory—meaning its lucrative casinos and vice rackets." 356 

But there was another realm in which the Lansky-CIA-Marcello nexus had a close working relationship: the illicit traffic in narcotics. The Senate Committee on Government Operations report to the 88th Congress on "Organized Crime and Illicit Traffic in Narcotics" had pinpointed New Orleans—at that time—as having been the key distribution point for drugs coming into the United States. 

Most observers believe that one of Marcello's "legitimate" businesses, a shrimp-boat operation, was, in fact, part of the drug-smuggling—and gunrunning—network. 

(In Chapter 12 we shall see, in fact, that Lansky was the prime mover behind that drug network working in conjunction with the CIA.) 

Needless to say, Marcello's central positioning in New Orleans made it such that it was inevitable that the Mafia chieftain would have an inside track to gaining first-hand knowledge about developments—at least in New Orleans—in the JFK assassination conspiracy. 

MARCELLO, FERRIE, 

BANISTER & THE CIA 

After all, Marcello's personal pilot was CIA contract agent David Ferrie, (now widely known as a result of his portrayal in Oliver Stone's Hollywood extravaganza, JFK). Ferrie's still-undetermined part in the JFK assassination conspiracy, and his apparent association with alleged assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, is but another piece of the whole puzzle. 

It was Ferrie's associate, Guy Banister, whose New Orleans private detective agency (a conduit for CIA arms to the anti-Castro Cuban exiles) employed several other Marcello cronies. Banister, who had been with the Office of Naval Intelligence, and was later special-agent-in-charge of the Chicago office of the FBI, had re-located to New Orleans. 357 

According to the Giancanas, Banister had long been close to the Chicago Mafia and that it was their good offices that brought Banister into Marcello's sphere of influence when the former FBI man went to New Orleans, initially working for the city police department.358 

(During the summer of 1963 the Cuban Revolutionary Council, a creation of the CIA's chief liaison with the anti-Castro Cuban groups, E. Howard Hunt, also maintained offices in the same building as Banister. 359 We first met Hunt, of course, in Chapter 9 where we learned of a libel trial in which both Hunt and the CIA were directly implicated in the JFK assassination.) 

Banister, clearly, was the intermediary between the CIA and the Lansky/Marcello operation in New Orleans. And it was through his office that Lee Harvey Oswald, was being set up as the patsy. (In Chapter 11, Chapter 14, Chapter 15 and Chapter 16 we shall examine that aspect of the JFK assassination conspiracy further.) 

Without question, New Orleans and the Marcello fiefdom were an integral part of the Lansky Organized Crime Syndicate. But to suggest that Marcello was the driving force behind the JFK assassination conspiracy is to ignore the whole picture. 

LANSKY & THE LONG ASSASSINATION 

As a passing historical note, it is probably appropriate to refer to the demise of Huey Long and the role that Lansky and his associates played in that important political event. 

By 1935, Long had been elected to the Senate and had risen to national prominence. In fact, Long was generally considered a major threat to Franklin Delano Roosevelt's 1936 re-election chances. Long had made it clear that if he didn't run as a Democrat or as a third party candidate—in 1936, he certainly intended to play a major part in that election, and not on FDR's side. 

This, obviously, was of major concern to FDR. Thus, a Justice Department investigation of Long and his finances was unleashed. Such an inquiry was dredging up Long's tangled financial arrangements and threatened to break the back of the very profitable machine that Long had assembled. There were more than a few Louisiana political figures and Long associates who were frightened of their impending demise alongside Long at the hands of federal prosecutors. 

As Messick notes—and this is ironic—it was in a Dallas, Texas hotel room that the federal authorities made the decision to indict Long. The colorful Louisiana Senator was shot that same day by a "lone assassin" who was himself promptly shot to pieces by Long's bodyguards. To this day there are myriad conspiracy theories relating to Long's murder. Some say that the alleged assassin never fired a shot—instead, that he swung a punch at Long and that the "murder weapon" was planted on the scene afterward by the bodyguards who wanted to cover up the fact that it was one of them who accidentally shot Long when firing at his assailant. There are those, however, who say that Long was, in fact, deliberately shot by one of his bodyguards. 

The Giancana family, in their biography of the Chicago Mafia boss, say that Sam Giancana later claimed that "Some of our friends in New York had him hit—worked it out with a New Orleans [Mafia] boss. They figured it out so it would look like a loony did it."360 

The real truth may never be known. Whatever the case, Long died in the hospital some hours after the shooting. What we do know is that Long's death removed from the scene a major threat not only to the Roosevelt administration, but to the Long machine which relied so heavily on the Lansky Organized Crime Syndicate. With Long out of the picture, the federal authorities gave up their interest in Louisiana and its murky political underworld. 

The evidence now indicates that Long's death could have been prevented. Hank Messick told the story: at a meeting in Hot Springs, Arkansas at the Arlington Hotel, shortly after Long's death, Frank Costello filled Lansky in on the truth about Long's departure. "We could have saved him," Costello told Lansky, "but I didn't see much use in it. The doctors had their orders to let him die."361 

This apparently was Meyer Lansky's first major involvement in the assassination of an American political figure with whom Organized Crime had collaborated. It would not be the last time, however. 

That Lansky's lieutenant, Carlos Marcello had his own reasons for wanting John F. Kennedy out of the way cannot be doubted. The Justice Department under Robert F. Kennedy had targeted Marcello repeatedly. 

John Davis's interesting biography of Marcello provides a detailed analysis of the Kennedy campaign against Marcello. No wonder Marcello made his famous oft-told exclamation, "Livarsi na petra di la scarpa" (Take the stone from my shoe.") Yet, such an emotional outburst does not an assassination order make. 

In fact, there is no evidence anywhere whatsoever that Marcello took any further affirmative action to have his order—if indeed one can call it an order—fulfilled. 

STALKING LANSKY 

THROUGH MARCELLO 

It's worth noting, in this regard, that Robert Kennedy's systematic prosecution and harassment of Marcello would have only been a logical first step in the Justice Department's ultimate prosecution of Meyer Lansky. 

This, of course, is a standard procedure in all similar organized crime prosecutions: first the underlings are targeted—then the boss. In this case, of course, it would have been the so-called "chairman of the board," Meyer Lansky. 

Seth Kantor, Jack Ruby's acquaintance and biographer, summarizes it well: "As Attorney General, Robert F. Kennedy got more indictments on members of America's criminal industry than had any previous prosecutor, pursuing them relentlessly. 

"Meyer Lansky, for instance, no longer was safe behind the bolted doors of that industry's executive suite. The Attorney General put together what was known inside the Justice Department as the O.C.D (Organized Crime Division) and was stalking Lansky's secret operations in the Bahamas and Las Vegas."362 

The assassination of John F. Kennedy and the demise of Robert Kennedy's campaign against organized crime as a direct consequence prevented this from happening. The end of the Kennedy war on organized crime was a major consequence,a major victory,for the organized crime fiefdom of Meyer Lansky.

Of course, as we have said, even if the J.F.K murder was strictly a "Mafia" operation—with no tentacles leading elsewhere—it would have been Lansky who ordered it from the start. 

Meyer Lansky was Carlos Marcello's immediate superior in the world of organized crime and not vice versa. There is simply no way of getting around Lansky's critical positioning in the center of the vast conspiracy. What we are demonstrating here is that the conspiracy reached above and beyond "the Mafia." And that is central to our thesis. 

LANSKY'S 'KOSHER NOSTRA' 

Interestingly, Ruby biographer Seth Kantor differentiated between what he called "Lansky's 'Kosher Nostra" and what the separately referred to as "the hot-blooded Sicilian Cosa Nostra." 363 Certainly, Carlos Marcello breathed a sigh of satisfaction when John F. Kennedy died in Dallas. However, Meyer Lansky was, of course, the ultimate beneficiary. 

Any major operation such as the assassination of a president—even if proposed by Marcello single-handedly—would have first had to have been cleared by Marcello through his boss, Meyer Lansky. Thus, it would have been Lansky himself who most certainly had to have given the go-ahead, even if the Kennedy assassination plot originated with Marcello alone. 

The evidence, of course, suggests, however, that Marcello and his associates in New Orleans were simply pawns in a more far-reaching conspiracy that originated elsewhere. Their proximity to Oswald and the New Orleans end of the conspiracy, however, makes them an easy target for those who seek to find a "Mafia" conspiracy behind the murder. 

WEASEL WORDS 

As noted previously, those very sources who point to Marcello as the mastermind of the J.F.K murder choose to ignore Marcello's secondary positioning to Meyer Lansky in the syndicate chain of command. Lansky linked Robert Blakey's House Assassinations Committee gingerly skirted around the issue, however. In its final report the committee concluded: 

"Given the far-reaching possible consequences of an assassination plot by the commission [i.e. the national `commission’ of Organized Crime], the committee found that such a conspiracy would have been the subject of serious discussion by members of the commission, and that no matter how guarded such discussions might have been, some trace of them would have emerged from the surveillance coverage [by federal authorities]. 

"It was possible to conclude, therefore, that it is unlikely that the national crime syndicate as a group, acting under the leadership of the commission, participated in the assassination of President Kennedy. 

"While the committee found it unlikely that the national crime syndicate was involved in the assassination, it recognized that a particular organized crime leader or a small combination of leaders, acting unilaterally,might have formulated an assassination conspiracy without the consent of the commission." 364 

These are weasel words, to be sure. However, one could also conclude from the committee's presumption that if indeed Organized Crime did play some significant role in the assassination conspiracy, that it was not a conspiracy that originated with "the Mafia," for example. Perhaps then the conspiracy originated elsewhere. That, of course, is the conclusion presented in Final Judgment. 

Unwittingly, then, the House Committee has provided us even further basis for the conclusions drawn here. 

LANSKY NOT MENTIONED 

The House Committee report had nothing to say about the Lansky/Marcello connection. This is par for the course in standard accounts of the J.F.K assassination which promote the theory that "The Mafia Killed JFK." What is also particularly interesting is that Robert Lacey's Lansky biography, Little Man, never once mentions Lansky's sponsorship of Marcello, nor does Marcello's name appear once in the book. The New Orleans connection is barely mentioned at all, and only in passing. Was Marcello—who even the FBI has said headed "the first family" of the Mafia—that unimportant? 

Could it be that because Marcello's name has been repeatedly linked to the JFK assassination that for Lacey—a very friendly biographer who worked closely with Lansky's family—to bring up Marcello's much-abused name would obviously draw in the Lansky connection to the JFK assassination? 

Is it possible that Marcello and his associates such as David Ferrie were deliberately drawn into the periphery of the assassination plot in order to deliberately plant the possibility that the blame for the assassination could be laid upon Marcello and the Mafia—in the event, perhaps, that the image of Lee Harvey Oswald as a "pro-Castro agitator" failed to work? [Yes,without a doubt D.C]

This is indeed a possibility and would fit firmly into the long-standing Israeli Mossad policy of using "false flags" in its criminal endeavors. 

Clearly, there's a lot more to the relationship between Meyer Lansky and key "suspects" in the JFK assassination than meets the eye. All of which, again, points toward Lansky's central role in the international conspiracy which we document.

Chapter Eleven 

Cuban Love Song: 

Meyer Lansky, the Mafia, 

the CIA and the Mossad 

and the Castro Assassination Plots

 

Three top "Mafia" figures—Sam Giancana and Johnny Rosselli of Chicago and Santo Trafficante, Jr. of Tampa were key figures in the CIA-Mob plots against Fidel Castro and often linked to the JFK assassination. 

Although the three Italian-American gangsters were major mob players, evidence shows they also were—like Carlos Marcello— subordinates of Meyer Lansky. 

Amazing new evidence demonstrates Giancana and Rosselli were actively collaborating with the Mossad, essentially mere 'front men" for Meyer Lansky's little-known Chicago partner-in-crime, Mossad-connected Hyman Larner, the real 'boss" of the mob in the Windy City. 

Carlos Marcello is not the only major "Mafia" figure whose connections with Organized Crime syndicate boss Meyer Lansky have been ignored by Lansky's friendly biographer Robert Lacey. The legendary Johnny Rosselli is never mentioned either. Was neither Marcello nor Rosselli worth mentioning? 

Were they really that insignificant? Not according to standard accounts of Organized Crime history. Both Marcello and Rosselli have particular prominence in the annals of criminal folklore, especially in relation to the Kennedy assassination. 

It is quite significant that Lacey has chosen to delete Rosselli from his account of Lansky's life: 

 Rosselli was a major figure in Organized Crime in Los Angeles, where Lansky's longtime associate Ben Siegel—and Siegel's successor as Lansky's West Coast operative, Mickey Cohen—represented Lansky's interests. 

 Rosselli was a major figure in Organized Crime in Las Vegas, where Lansky maintained major gambling operations. He was Chicago Mafia boss Sam Giancana's primary representative there; 

 Rosselli was a major figure in Organized Crime in Havana, representing the interests of the Chicago Mafia, where Lansky also dominated gambling operations. 

By all standard accounts, Rosselli was very much a key figure in the modern "Mafia" as we know it. 

In short, while Marcello's activities were based almost entirely in his Gulf Coast fiefdom (and extending into Texas), Rosselli operated as almost a roving ambassador for the Italian wing of Organized Crime (popularly called "the Mafia."), primarily the Chicago branch.

Yet, Rosselli's ties to Lansky have been ignored by Lansky's biographer Robert Lacey. Why? Lacey's biography (which is otherwise quite detailed) would suggest—by virtue of ignoring both Marcello and Rosselli— that Lansky had no connections with them at all, or that any connections he did have were so insignificant that they weren't even worth mentioning. 

Rosselli's name—like that of Marcello—has also been prominently linked to the Kennedy murder. 

One can only wonder why Lansky's biographer failed to bring in these clearly important connections. Even Tiger (described in the index as "(Lansky's dog)" is mentioned—not once, but twice. (Carlos Marcello is not mentioned at all.) 

Rosselli was also particularly close to Lansky's Florida and Havana lieutenant, Santo Trafficante, Jr, who is also practically a "non-person" in Lacey's account of Lansky's ventures. And, as we shall see, it may well have been Trafficante who arranged Rosselli's own ultimate assassination on behalf of the CIA. 

Like Rosselli, Trafficante was also a major figure in the annals of crime and much more so than even Rosselli, was an intimate working partner of Lansky. In fact, as we shall see in much more detail in Chapter 12, Trafficante— although a "Mafia" leader—was Lansky's immediate underling in the gambling and narcotics rackets. 

In Lacey's biography of Lansky, Trafficante is also given short shrift. In fact, he is hardly mentioned at all, except in minor passing—just eight times. In fact there are fewer references to Trafficante than there are to yet another Lansky dog, Bruzzer, who rates 13 references, including a detailed review of the dog's sad final days. 

In Kennedy assassination folklore this is also particularly relevant, inasmuch as we have been told repeatedly that Trafficante once told one Jose Aleman, Jr., a wealthy Cuban exile, that JFK was scheduled to be hit. However, interestingly enough, the rest of the story goes untold. According to J. Edgar Hoover biographer Curt Gentry, it was, in fact, Aleman's impression that although Trafficante may have been aware of assassination plot against Kennedy that Trafficante himself "wasn't principal architect." 365 Who, then, was? 

THE LANSKY-CIA ALLIANCE 

All of this is interesting about Rosselli and Trafficante, particularly in the context of their central involvement in CIA-Organized Crime assassination plots aimed at Fidel Castro who had seized control of Lansky's gambling operations in Havana. 

There is much, much more to the Rosselli-Trafficante link with Meyer Lansky that needs to be explored, for this connection opens up another area: Lansky's long-standing and intimate ties with Israel's allies in the CIA. Indeed, as we shall see in Chapter 12, Lansky's CIA linkage goes far beyond Cuba and the Caribbean. It even extended into Southeast Asia.

As we saw in Chapter 7 (and which has been repeatedly documented by perhaps hundreds of writers over and over again), organized crime—Meyer Lansky in particular—had much to lose when communist revolutionary Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba. 

Prior to the advent of Castro, Cuba had been a primary gambling money-making base of operations for the Meyer Lansky Organized Crime Syndicate and its Mafia lieutenants. Anthony Summers summarizes the situation well: 

"Castro's predecessor, the dictator Batista, had long been a puppet on strings pulled by American intelligence and the mob. In 1944, when the United States feared trouble from the Cuban left, Lansky reportedly persuaded Batista to step down for a while. When he came back in 1952, it was after the current President, Carlos Prio Socarras, was persuaded to resign, a departure reportedly eased by a bribe of a quarter of a million dollars and a major stake in the casino business. 

"It was now that the gambling operation already established in Cuba became a Mafia bonanza . . .When the Batista regime began to crumble before a revolution of popular outrage, the mob hedged its political bets by courting Fidel Castro. 

"Many of the guns which helped him to power in 1959 had been provided courtesy of Mafia gunrunners, a policy which did not pay off. Lansky saw the writing on the wall and flew out of Havana the day Castro marched in."366 

Investigative reporter Jim Hougan described the relationship between the Meyer Lansky Organized Crime Syndicate and the Cubans—both Castro and his enemies. "The Mob's relationship to the arrivista Castro regime was a stormy one. On the one hand, some of its members had been active in the revolution, ferrying guns to Castro's guerrillas. On the other hand, the new Cuban premier seemed determined to eradicate those social evils that the Mob found most profitable: drugs, prostitution, and gambling. Castro had, moreover, jailed both Trafficante and Meyer Lansky's brother Jake in the wake of his triumphal march upon Havana."367 

However, the initial mob support for Castro went sour when Castro proved to be a danger to the Lansky syndicate's lucrative operations in Cuba. It was at this point, then, that the mob did a turn-around and began working against Castro. 

Although many syndicate figures still hoped that they could resume operations in Cuba after Castro was removed from office, Lansky was more realistic and practical. He began looking to the Bahamas as his next Caribbean gambling base of operations. 

Still, Lansky maintained his ties with the anti-Castro Cubans. It was during this period the CIA was preparing to move against Castro. Lansky would play a major role in that effort. 

For an even more obscure reason—one which has often gone unnoticed— perhaps unmentioned—Lansky had another reason to be disenchanted with Fidel Castro and supportive of anti-Castro Cuban elements. The fact is that many of the anti-Castro Cubans who had settled in Miami and elsewhere following Castro's rise to power were Cuban Jews. 

THE CUBAN 'JEWISH CONNECTION' 

American CIA-financed anti-Castro propagandist Paul D. Bethel, writing in the December 15, 1965 issue of the Latin America Report (subtitled the "Free Cuba News") gives us some interesting facts about the status of Jews in Cuba before and after the advent of Castro. Bethel noted that of a total of 11,000 Jews in Cuba at the time of Castro's takeover, only 1,900 remained at that time. The rest had already joined the anti-Castro Cuban colonies which had largely migrated to the Miami and New Orleans areas. Of those remaining, an additional 1,300 were leaving at the time of Bethel's report .368 

The affluent Cuban Jewish community was, in fact, an important faction within the overall anti-Castro Cuban community. This, coupled with Lansky's financial loss in Cuba, made him all the more inclined to strike against Castro in cooperation with the CIA. 

LANSKY AND THE 

ASSASSINATION PLOTS 

Although Anthony Summers' previously-cited book on the JFK conspiracy, aptly titled Conspiracy, devotes very little attention to Meyer Lansky's pivotal role in Organized Crime, he does make reference to a CIA anti-Castro operation funded by Lansky. 

CIA operative E. Howard Hunt put together the Revolutionary Democratic Front, a coalition of anti-Castro Cubans, headed by Manuel Antonio de Varona, a former president of the Cuban Senate. In fact, as Summers tells us, de Varona met with Lansky for financial support and also received funds through the Washington, D.C. firm of Edward K. Moss and Associates, which represented the interests of Lansky operatives Dino and Eddie Cellini.369 
(In Chapter 9 we first met the aforementioned CIA operative, E. Howard Hunt, and learned how he was implicated, in a little-publicized libel trial, in the JFK conspiracy. In Chapter 16 we shall learn much more about the circumstances which led up to that trial.) 

Now although the famous CIA-Mafia assassination plots against Castro have been reported time and again, the key organized crime players in the tale are always the aforementioned Santo Trafficante, Jr., Johnny Rosselli and Sam Giancana of Chicago. 

Rosselli's biographers note that it was CIA contract agent Robert Maheu, a longtime acquaintance of Rosselli, who initiated the CIA's dealings with organized crime in the anti-Castro plots. 370 

It was this same Maheu, a former FBI agent as well, who had worked directly under the former special-agent-in-charge of the Chicago FBI office, Guy Banister. 371 It was Banister, as we saw in Chapter 10, who was the direct link between the Lansky-Marcello-CIA gun-running on behalf of the anti-Castro Cuban network.

Maheu, who had become friendly with Rosselli during business trips to Las Vegas, had been approached by the CIA to open up negotiations with the Mafia for this special, mutually beneficial, operation. Thus, the initial plot was set in place. However, there were subsequent developments: 

"Once the basic groundwork was laid, Rosselli decided to introduce two new players into the picture. One was Rosselli's Chicago boss, Sam Giancana, and the other was Santo Trafficante, Meyer Lansky's colleague in the Havana casinos. Trafficante's connections could prove helpful in moving the plots along, and besides, Mafia tradition required that as the local don, he be informed of any activity taking place in his domain."372 

There is no question that Trafficante, Rosselli and Giancana did indeed help coordinate assassination plots against Castro with representatives of the CIA. (This, as we have said, has been thoroughly documented time and again. To discuss this here would belabor the point.) 

However, as one author succinctly put it: "Lansky was the top man in the CIA-Mafia plot against Castro, but the only journalist who had guts enough to point this out was columnist Victor Riesel." 373 JFK assassination researcher Peter Dale Scott acknowledges that Lansky was indeed involved in the CIA plots against Castro,374 but, Lansky's role has been obscured, ignored, or otherwise gone unmentioned. 

In fact, as we shall see in Chapter 12 when we examine the Lansky-Trafficante relationship further, Trafficante was Lansky's subordinate. All of Trafficante's anti-Castro operations in league with the CIA were being conducted with Lansky's approval and under Lansky's watchful eye. 

The latter phase of the CIA's anti-Castro operations were known as Operation Mongoose Headquarters of the operation—known as JM/Wave— were in Lansky's own city of Miami and based on the campus of the University of Miami. Part of the CIA's campaign against Castro included its so called ZR/Rifle Team project. Skilled assassins, recruited from around the globe (and often from the ranks of professional mercenaries and from within organized crime) were on retainer for use in the CIA's own private "hit team" or terrorist army, as the case may be. One of the prime in-house supervisors of the ZR/Rifle Team project was the CIA's counterintelligence chief, Israel's loyal ally, James J. Angleton. 

ROSSELLI & THE JFK ASSASSINATION 

That Rosselli, for example, was entwined in some aspect of the JFK assassination conspiracy seems certain. Evidence suggests that Rosselli was definitely engaged in activities during the summer and fall of 1963 that tied him directly to several of the key figures in the assassination conspiracy. 

Rosselli's biographers themselves have suggested that Rosselli was indeed involved in the assassination itself. According to Rappleye and Becker: "The strongest indication that John Rosselli had a hand in the pre-assassination planning is a report of a direct contact between Rosselli and Jack Ruby in early October 1963. There were two meetings, both taking place in small motels near Miami, and both observed by the FBI. One of the federal investigators probing Rosselli's murder thirteen years later came across an FBI report on the meetings and relayed its contents, on a confidential basis, to Washington, D.C. reporter William Scott Malone. 

"An accomplished investigator himself, Malone said in an interview he was confident of the integrity of his source, and said the FBI had determined the actual site of the Miami meetings." 375 

According to Rappleye and Becker, Rosselli visited Guy Banister's office at 544 Camp Street in New Orleans. It was in the same controversial building that the Cuban Revolutionary Council (CRC) had an office. The C.R.C, as we saw in Chapter 9, was the brainchild of the CIA's chief liaison with the anti-Castro Cuban exiles, E. Howard Hunt, himself implicated in the JFK assassination. 

Rosselli's biographers even go further, asking "Was Rosselli, in fact, in Dallas? FBI surveillance loses his trail on the West Coast between November 19 and November 27."376 

According to the Giancanas, the president was deliberately lured to Dallas where the operation could be carried off to the specifications of the plan. "The politicians and the CIA made it real simple," Sam Giancana explained. "We'd each provide men for the hit. I'd oversee the Outfit [Mafia] side of things and throw in Jack Ruby and some extra backup and the CIA would put their own guys on to take care of the rest." 377 

So it was that Johnny Rosselli and Sam Giancana—along with Santo Trafficante, Jr.—were brought into the JFK assassination conspiracy. 

The full story of Sam Giancana's role in much of these matters—the JFK assassination in particular—never became known until his own nephew and brother went public in 1992 with their book Double Cross. 

However, we now know that there was indeed a major Mossad influence at work in the affairs of Sam Giancana. 

SAM GIANCANA'S 

MOSSAD CONNECTION  

An eye-opening new book, Double Deal, bares new facts about the secret history of the famed Chicago "Mafia," revealing certain significant never-before-told details that further confirm the likelihood of Mossad involvement in the JFK assassination. 

The author of the new book, Michael Corbitt—the mobbed-up former chief of police of a Chicago suburb has joined writer Sam Giancana, nephew of the legendary Chicago Mafia figure,in producing a startling expose that unveils, for the first time ever, the surprising identity of the little known "mystery man" who was the real "power behind the throne" in organized crime in Chicago and whose influenced reach all the way to Israel, Panama, Iran, Las Vegas and Washington, D.C. 

Despite his famous "Mafia" name, Corbitt's co-author, Giancana, was never involved in the family business and earlier wrote the account of the life and crimes of his late uncle, who had been murdered in 1975. Now Giancana is telling "the rest of the story."

Giancana and Corbitt dare to report something that has never been published anywhere before: that a shadowy Jewish, Mossad-connected gangster named Hyman "Hal" Lamer was the real, continuing behind-the scenes force guiding the Chicago mob for over thirty years. 

Despite the media-ballyhooed "revolving door" of Italian-American Mafia bosses such as Giancana and others who were alternately jailed or "whacked," it was Lamer who was continually in charge. Beyond that, the authors reveal that much of Lamer's criminal activity was conducted not only in concert with the CIA, but also, in particular, with the Mossad. 

Lamer was not just a major figure in Chicago crime, but on the international scene as well. He was also a longtime associate of Jewish crime chief Meyer Lansky but, effectively, Lansky's successor when Lansky died in 1983. 

According to Corbitt, he learned early on, during his mob days, of Larner's existence, although Larner's presence so high up in the mob was something neither government investigators nor a media (which was otherwise fascinated by the mob) wanted to focus on. Corbitt writes: 

"All the other Outfit guys were in the papers every day, their pictures plastered all over the front page of the Tribune. But when Hy Larner's name was mentioned in the papers, he was described only as an 'associate' or `protege' or some gangster and nothing more than that. Nobody knew how deep his contacts went or how high up. Reporters called him a 'riddle" and a `mystery man.' 378 

As Corbitt himself advanced in organized crime circles under the patronage of Lamer's man, Giancana, Corbitt ultimately began to learn the secret of how and why the Chicago mob was able to operate so freely. It was the partnership with the Mossad—running guns to Israel–that gave the Chicago mob its 'get out of jail free' card as far as Israeli sympathizers high up in the Justice Department were concerned. Corbitt writes: 

"At the insistence of Meyer Lansky, Giancana and his pals started working with the Israeli Mossad, smuggling weapons in the Middle East. Everything was coming in and out of Panama, which meant that everything was being handled by Hy Lamer. Lamer was without a doubt Sam Giancana's most trusted financial adviser. He had everybody who was anybody in Panama—from bankers to generals—eating out of his hand. Once they started running guns to Israel, Lamer also had the U.S. military and its airstrips at his disposal."' 379 

And contrary to popular legend, they say—confirming what Final Judgment had already reported in earlier editions—it was not Giancana nor another famed Chicago mobster, Johnny Roselli, who cemented the now infamous CIA-Mafia plots to kill Castro, it was Meyer Lansky and Lamer. 

In addition, Corbitt and Giancana reveal, Lamer was also deeply enmeshed with two of Lansky's chief high-level lieutenants, Carlos Marcello in New Orleans and Santo Trafficante in Tampa. The two southern Mafia leaders were engaged with Lamer in lucrative guns and drugs smuggling operations in the Caribbean, not to mention gambling as well.

Larner and Lansky were particularly close. Corbitt and Giancana say that the two master criminals were "Zionists—passionate defenders of the divine right of Jews to occupy the Holy Land of Jerusalem. . . But Hy Lamer and Meyer Lansky weren't just Zionists, they were also mobsters who believed the end justifies the means. Put organized crime and the U.S. government at their disposal and you've got a very powerful force." 380 

Lamer and Giancana were also engaged in gambling deals with casinos based in Iran, then the fiefdom of the Shah of Iran whose infamous secret police, SAVAK, was a joint creation of the CIA and the Mossad—a major point of contention when Islamic fundamentalists overthrew the Shah and forced him into exile. 

Corbitt also reveals the amazing story of how Giancana (with Larner's help) finally got the U.S. Justice Department off his back. It turns out that as much as President Lyndon Johnson and his Zionist advisers wanted to wage war against Egypt and the other Arab states on behalf of Israel, U.S. entanglement in Vietnam made it impossible for Johnson to act. However, Giancana not only put up a substantial amount of money to help arm Israel for its 1967 war against the Arab countries, but, in addition, Lamer and Giancana arranged shipments of stolen weapons to Israel from one of their outposts in Panama, an operation conducted in league with the Mossad's Panamanian-based operative, Michael Harari. In return for this service on behalf of Israel, President Johnson ordered the Justice Department to drop its campaign against Giancana. 

In the end, though, the arrangement between Giancana and Lamer came to an end. Lamer, it appears, was almost certainly behind Giancana's 1975 murder. Lamer, however, continued to thrive, even as a series of Giancana's successors were faced with a continuing series of federal prosecutions, widely hailed by the media as "the end of the mob in Chicago." 

GIANCANA AND ROSSELLI EXECUTED 

Giancana was murdered execution style in his own home in Chicago on June 19, 1975. The Establishment media hyped it as yet another "Mafia killing." The Giancana family doesn't think that's what it was. They say it was a CIA double cross. (And clearly, too, the Mossad was involved.) As it just so happens, Giancana was killed the very day that congressional investigators were on their way to Chicago to interview the Mafia leader about reported CIA-organized crime plots against Castro. 

Sam and Chuck Giancana frankly assert in their own book that it may have been Johnny Rosselli who helped arrange Giancana's murder. According to the Giancanas they believe that the CIA contracted out the Giancana murder and that the CIA had arranged it through Trafficante. 

The Giancanas believe that Trafficante, in turn, saw to it that Rosselli arranged the Chicago hit on Sam Giancana. As they summarize matters: "Giancana's Outfit friends knew he never would have divulged damaging information; the CIA, rampant with spies and counterspies, crosses and double crosses, may not have been so certain of his loyalty."381

In any case, Johnny Rosselli never lived long enough to tell the true story of the CIA-Meyer Lansky Crime Syndicate operations in the Caribbean—and in Dallas. On July 28, 1976, Rosselli disappeared in Miami. On August 7, the flamboyant mobster's butchered corpse bobbed up in a drum from the bottom of the ocean. 

Charles Rappleye and Ed Becker note that there have been suspicions that it was indeed Trafficante, again, who may have even arranged the hit on Rosselli. However, they point out that there are many in the Mafia who do not believe this necessarily to be the case. 

In the judgment of Rosselli's biographers, "The CIA certainly had the contacts in Cuban Miami to pull off Rosselli's execution, and as it had demonstrated by enlisting him in the first place, it had the will. Even the evidence pointing to Trafficante did not rule out collaboration by the spy agency.” 382 

As the authors point out, Trafficante did indeed have very close connections with the CIA—connections that went above and beyond his dealings with the spy agency in anti-Castro operations. In Chapter 12 we shall see, indeed, that Trafficante, as Lansky's primary lieutenant in the Southeast Asian drug smuggling racket, developed even closer and more intimate ties to the CIA following the JFK assassination. 

Only Santo Trafficante, Jr., Meyer Lansky's subordinate, remained alive and, as the Giancana family notes, "conducted business without so much as a whisper of legal difficulty." 383 

The Giancanas point out: "One had only to read the newspapers to see that the focus of underworld crime busters was not on Tampa, Florida, but on its highly visible New York and Chicago cousins to the north." 384 

And by this time—the mid-1970's—Lansky himself was ailing and almost infirm. Trafficante himself died of kidney failure in 1987—just four years after Lansky. 

THE MAFIA AND THE MOSSAD 

The bottom line: anyone who attempts to view the JFK assassination as a "Mafia hit" is making a big mistake, failing to calculate in the role of Mossad-connected Meyer Lansky, his Chicago associate Hyman Lamer, and their allies in Israel's Mossad, not to mention the CIA itself. 

So, once again, the Mossad connection is very much there, although there are few "JFK assassination experts" who are willing to admit it. But there's more.

next
An Opiate for the Masses: The Lansky-CIA-Southeast Asian Drug Pipeline and the Mossad Connection