Giancana and the 1960s

[chin_gigante]

I want to start a thread based on the significant events tied to Giancana, the Outfit or other bosses (i.e. Trafficante, Marcello, etc...) during the 1960s, such as the 1960 Presidential Election, involvement with the CIA in Cuba, the JFK assassination and anything else that led up to the Church Committee in the 1970s and Giancana's murder. It seems impossible to talk about Giancana without talking about these other events, just as it is borderline impossible to talk about the events without mentioning Giancana.

[chin_gigante]

An excerpt from “Organised Crime and the 1960 Presidential Election” (John T Binder, 2007). https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/276980 ... 13d9f59daf

The federal government first took concerted action against the Cosa Nostra, the organised crime families in the United States which grew out of the Prohibition Era bootlegging gangs, after the 1957 Apalachin meeting of gangsters from around the country was exposed by the New York state police. At the same time, the McClellan Committee of the US Senate, including Senator John F Kennedy and chief counsel Robert F Kennedy, probed organised crime in various cities, including Chicago. Robert Kennedy took particular delight in annoying mobsters, including Sam Giancana, the operating boss of the Outfit. In one exchange, Kennedy asked the smirking Giancana, “Are you going to tell us anything or just giggle? I thought only little girls giggled.”
Several writers claim the Outfit played a role in the election of John F Kennedy in 1960. The earliest statement, by William Brashler, is quite mild. He argues that Frank Sinatra approached Sam Giancana and asked him to help elect Kennedy. However, the Outfit’s efforts were secondary – the icing on the cake – to those of the Chicago Democratic Machine, which went all out for an Irish-Catholic strongly supported by Mayor Richard Daley. According to Brashler, “an order from the mob to work for Kennedy only insured a total Chicago effort of the kind that historically had been known to work miracles in the early-morning hours of vote counting.” In other words, the Chicago Democratic Machine delivered on election day as it usually did, with the Outfit controlled wards doing little/nothing for Kennedy beyond what was done by other wards.
Similarly, former FBI agent William Roemer states:

Whether or not Giancana got that commitment from Sinatra [that Kennedy would halt the FBI investigation of Giancana], Giancana exercised influence through the group of politicians known as the “West Side Bloc” [from political districts just west of and including the Loop] ... But much more important than Giancana’s influence was that of Mayor Richard J Daley, whose interests at the time just happened to jibe with Giancana’s. To say that Giancana’s influence swung the election to Kennedy would be farfetched; to say that Daley delivered Chicago and Illinois may be true...

Roemer, it should be noted, had developed two high placed informants in the Outfit and was uniquely aware of what happened in that world.
A greatly amplified version of these events, compared to the accounts by Brashler and Roemer, appears in the book Double Cross by Sam and Chuck Giancana, the half nephew and half-brother, respectively, of Sam Giancana, the Outfit boss from 1957 to 1966. According to the Giancanas, John Kennedy’s father, Joseph, contacted Sam Giancana before the election. After several meetings, Giancana and the elder Kennedy struck a deal. “I help get Jack elected and, in return, he calls off the heat,” Sam Giancana is reputed to have said. Giancana and Giancana claim the Outfit did everything possible for Kennedy in the wards they controlled. Not only was there massive fraudulent voting, but hoods inside polling places intimidated voters, making sure all ballots were cast for Kennedy by breaking the arms and legs of those who refused to comply. The Kennedys, however, “double-crossed” Giancana and the Outfit by ordering increased pressure on the Chicago Mob, despite Giancana supposedly meeting with John Kennedy at the White House. This in turn led the Outfit to assassinate both John and Robert Kennedy.
Seymour Hersh, in a chapter entitled “The Stolen Election”, also maintains there was a pre-election deal. Former Chicago lawyer Robert McDonnell claims he arranged a meeting between Joseph Kennedy and Sam Giancana in Chicago, which (curiously) McDonnell saw take place but did not attend. McDonnell asserts the Outfit delivered votes at the ward level in Chicago for Kennedy and also influenced various unions (although it is unclear whether he means locally or nationally) to support Kennedy. Furthermore, the wife of Chicago mobster Murray Humphreys, who in 1960 was the Outfit’s point man on political corruption, alleges the Outfit delivered Teamster union votes at the national level. She claims to not only have witnessed her husband co-ordinating this effort, but to have worked with him as Humphreys directed Teamsters leaders from around the country.
Gus Russo largely repeats the stories told by the Giancanas and Hersh. In his version of the events, the Outfit used extreme measures to deliver the vote for Kennedy locally and, through Murray Humphreys, made sure that union members nationally voted Democratic. Although he quotes Mrs Humphreys’ Teamster focused account, Russo asserts that non-Teamster union members around the country were influenced to vote for Kennedy. Russo places particular emphasis on the Outfit’s ability to deliver union votes in four states: Illinois, Michigan, Missouri and Nevada. He believes the “contention that it [the Outfit] ‘elected Jack’ is not without merit” and states more strongly that Humphreys, Tony Accardo and other Chicago mobsters met in June 1960 to “decide who would become the next president of the United States.”
On the other hand, Len O'Connor, the dean of Chicago's political commentators, remarks:

The power of the Daley Machine was evident throughout the city, only the two crime syndicate wards, the First and the Twenty-eighth, delivering a low count, fewer votes [in terms of plurality] for Kennedy in 1960, in fact, then they had delivered for Daley in 1955. The Machine interpreted this disappointing performance as a mild rebuke by the syndicate people who had been mercilessly pounded by the presidential candidate’s brother, Robert [during the McClellan Committee hearings].

O’Connor notes that Charlie Weber, the Democratic 45th Ward alderman, was persuaded by his friend Murray Humphreys to openly oppose Kennedy’s candidacy. In a nutshell, O’Connor’s view is that the Outfit controlled wards and the 45th Ward worked against Kennedy in 1960. O’Connor was certainly very well informed about Chicago politics, counting aldermen such as Weber among his sources and examines, at least in a cursory fashion, voting data. He further notes that labour unions tied to the Outfit were very displeased with Robert Kennedy and the McClellan Committee.
When closely scrutinised, the extreme versions put forth by the Giancanas, Hersh and Russo are highly implausible and/ or are based on sources who lack credibility. For example, there is not one word in any of Chicago’s four major daily newspapers about violence directed at voters in November 1960, much less of a 1920s style wave terror. More generally, the Outfit did not have the ability to deliver meaningfully for Kennedy in Chicago. As discussed below, it controlled the (Democratic party) political machinery in only five of Chicago’s 50 wards. Even if it had delivered unusual pluralities in those few wards, it is unlikely this would have tipped the scale in a national election.
Moreover, the Outfit did not have the manpower to deliver in even those five wards. In 1960 there were 279 precincts/ polling places in the five “Outfit wards.” To effectively intimidate voters at a polling place, it would have taken at least four or five goons – a smaller number would have allowed irate voters to possibly pummel the “intimidators”. With some 300 full members in 1960, many of whom were advanced in age, the Outfit would at best have been able to (if it so desired and the police did not intervene), coerce voters in one of these wards, each ward having between 46 and 63 precincts. On the latter point it is noteworthy that when Al Capone used violence in 1924 to help elect the Republican candidates in the suburb of Cicero, which had about 70,000 residents at the time, he needed to get additional men from Dion O’Banion’s North Side gang. Certainly Capone’s gang was larger than the Outfit in 1960 while Cicero was much smaller in population than the five Outfit wards.
Allegations the Outfit manipulated the Teamsters or other unions nationally are equally implausible. Individual Cosa Nostra crime families generally controlled local chapters of unions, rather than the national union. Therefore, the Outfit could not command union officials from the entire country to do its bidding. More important, Teamsters’ boss Jimmy Hoffa despised the Kennedys and publicly endorsed Richard Nixon, eliminating the possibility this union worked for John Kennedy.
It is also difficult to believe that Joseph Kennedy met with a notorious gangster under investigation by a Senate committee his two sons were associated with. If he had been seen, overheard or linked to Giancana, the damage to John Kennedy’s campaign would have been immeasurable. Even a hint of such a meeting, leaked by someone involved, would have been damaging. Also, it is hard to comprehend how the Outfit, having been attacked by the McClellan Committee, would trust the Kennedys. In fact, Brennan reports two days after the election that John Kennedy was going to crack down hard on organised crime, especially the Outfit in co-operation with Chicago’s police superintendent, as an outgrowth of his activities with the McClellan Committee hearings.
Furthermore, the credibility of several individuals who have made these claims is at best questionable. Organised crime operates with the same degree of secrecy as major intelligence agencies such as the CIA. Only those who absolutely “need to know” are informed at the time about particular operations. The average full member of the Outfit would not have known the information the Giancanas claim to have known, much less Chuck Giancana, who was only a lowly Mob associate. Moreover, the Giancanas’ book is not taken seriously by well informed students of the Chicago Outfit. In it the authors claim Sam Giancana was involved in every major organised crime event in Chicago from his adolescent years onward, even though most of their assertions are contradicted by known facts or are unsupported by other evidence.
The same point applies even more strongly to the wife of Murray Humphreys. In the completely male world of the Cosa Nostra, members do not share information with females, including wives. In fact, female relatives of gangsters make remarks such as, “I’m a girl. They never told me anything.” Certainly union leaders would have refused to talk business with Humphreys if a woman or non-Outfit member were present. If Humphreys had even suggested to his superiors that his wife attend business meetings – much less that she work with him – they would have decided he was insane and likely killed him and her also.
Bob McDonnell is similarly lacking in credibility. A disbarred attorney who was a compulsive drinker and uncontrollable gambler, McDonnell borrowed heavily from Outfit associated loan shark Sam DeStefano. When he was unable to pay his debts, DeStefano put McDonnell to work for him, including having him carry two dead bodies from his basement. It is difficult to find informed, unbiased individuals, especially retired Chicago police officers who worked on organised crime, who place faith in statements by Robert McDonnell.

[Villain]

Long time ago I read one detailed report made by someone who made complete statistics of Chicago's voters at the time and to who they were going to give their votes to. And so according to the report, there was allegedly no swindle in the votes although I highly doubt it since the whole point of the Mob was to convince the voters or to fill the ballots and so after that its impossible to create a statistic but still there it was. On top of that, Kennedy won with a tight score in Chicago and by that time the Outfit was deeply infiltrated in the political system of their city such as the First Ward, so who knows?!

[chin_gigante]

9 Nov. 1970. Memorandum from Director of Security Howard J Osborn to Director of Central Intelligence Richard M Helms regarding the involvement of Giancana, John Roselli and Santo Trafficante in the conspiracy to assassinate Fidel Castro. http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/p ... andmob.pdf

In August 1960, Mr Richard M Bissell approached Colonel Sheffield Edwards to determine if the Office of Security had assets that may assist in a sensitive mission requiring gangster-type action. The mission target was Fidel Castro.
Because of its extreme sensitivity, only a small group was made privy to the project. The DCI was briefed and gave his approval. Colonel J C King, Chief, WH Division, was briefed, but all details were deliberately concealed from any of the JMWAVE officials. Certain TSD and Commo personnel participated in the initial planning stages, but were not witting of the purpose of the mission.
Robert A Maheu was contacted, briefed generally on the project, and requested to ascertain if he could develop an entrée into the gangster elements as the first step toward accomplishing the desired goal.
Mr Maheu advised that he had met one Johnny Roselli on several occasions while visiting Las Vegas. He only knew him casually through clients, but was given to understand that he was a high-ranking member of the “syndicate” and controlled all of the ice-making machines on the Strip. Maheu reasoned that, if Roselli was in fact a member of the clan, he undoubtedly had connections leading into the Cuban gambling interests.
Maheu was asked to approach Roselli, who knew Maheu as a personal relations executive handling domestic and foreign accounts, and tell him that he had recently been retained by a client who represented several international business firms which were suffering heavy financial losses in Cuba as a result of Castro’s action. They were convinced that Castro’s removal was the answer to their problem and were willing to pay a price of $150,000 for its successful accomplishment. It was to be made clear to Roselli that the US Government was not, and should not, become aware of this operation.
The pitch was made to Roselli on 14 September 1960 at the Hilton Plaza Hotel, New York City. His initial reaction was to avoid getting involved but, through Maheu’s persuasion, he agreed to introduce him to a friend, Sam Gold, who knew the “Cuban crowd”. Roselli made it clear he did not want any money for his part and believed Sam would feel the same way. Neither of these individuals was ever paid out of agency funds.
During the week of 25 September, Maheu was introduced to Sam who was staying at the Fontainebleau Hotel, Miami Beach. It was several weeks after his meeting with Sam and Joe, who was identified to him as a courier operating between Havana and Miami, that he saw photographs of both of these individuals in the Sunday supplement “Parade”. They were identified as Momo Salvatore Giancana and Santos Trafficant [sic], respectively. Both were on the list of the Attorney General’s ten most-wanted men. The former was described as the Chicago chieftain of the Cosa Nostra and successor to Al Capone, and the latter, the Cosa Nostra boss of Cuban operations. Maheu called this office immediately upon ascertaining this information.
In discussing possible methods of accomplishing this mission, Sam suggested that they not resort to firearms but, if he could be furnished some type of potent pill, that could be placed in Castro’s food or drink, it would be a much more effective operation. Sam indicated that he had a prospective nominee in the person of Juan Orta, a Cuban official who had been receiving kick-back payments from the gambling interests, who still had access to Castro, and was in a financial bind.
TSD was requested to produce six pills of high lethal content.
Joe delivered the pills to Orta. After several weeks of reported attempts, Orta apparently got cold feet and asked out of the assignment. He suggested another candidate who made several attempts without success.
Joe then indicated that Dr Anthony Verona, one of the principal officers in the Cuban Exile Junta, had become disaffected with the apparent ineffectual progress of the Junta and was willing to handle the mission through his own resources.
He asked, as a prerequisite to the deal, that he be given $10,000 for organisational expenses and requested $1,000 worth of communications equipment.
Dr Verona’s potential was never fully exploited, as the project was cancelled shortly after the Bay of Pigs episode. Verona was advised that the offer was withdrawn, and the pills were retrieved.
Of significant interest was an incident which involved a request levied by Sam upon Maheu.
At the height of the project negotiations, Sam expressed concern about his girlfriend, Phyliss McGuire, who he learned was getting much attention from Dan Rowan while both were booked at a Las Vegas nightclub. Sam asked Maheu to put a bug in Rowan’s room to determine the extent of his intimacy with Miss McGuire. The technician involved in the assignment was discovered in the process, arrested and taken to the Sheriff’s office for questioning. He called Maheu and informed him that he had been detained by the police. This call was made in the presence of the Sheriff’s personnel.
Subsequently, the Department of Justice announced its intention to prosecute Maheu along with the technician. On 7 February 1962, the Director of Security briefed the Attorney General, Robert Kennedy, on the circumstances leading up to Maheu’s involvement in the wiretap. At our request, the prosecution was dropped.
In May 1962, Mr William Harvey took over as Case Officer, and it is not known by this Office whether Roselli was used operationally from that point on.
It was subsequently learned from the FBI that Roselli had been convicted on six counts involving illegal entry into the United States. Our records do not reflect the date of conviction, but it is believed to have been sometime during November 1967.
On 2 December 1968, Roselli, along with four other individuals, was convicted of conspiracy to cheat members of the Friars Club of $400,000 in a rigged gin gummy [sic] game.
Mr Harvey reported to the Office of Security of his contacts with Roselli during November and December 1967 and January 1968. It was his belief that Johnny would not seek out the Agency for assistance in the deportation proceedings unless he actually faced deportation. Roselli expressed confidence that he would win an appeal.
On 17 November 1970, you were briefed on the latest development in this case, and it was decided that the Agency would not in any way assist Roselli. Maheu was so advised of the Agency’s position, and he was in complete agreement with our stand. He further advised that he was not concerned about any publicity as it affected him personally should Roselli decide to tell all. He stated he would advise us promptly of any developments that he may become aware of in this matter.

[chin_gigante]

Long time ago I read one detailed report made by someone who made complete statistics of Chicago's voters at the time and to who they were going to give their votes to. And so according to the report, there was allegedly no swindle in the votes although I highly doubt it since the whole point of the Mob was to convince the voters or to fill the ballots and so after that its impossible to create a statistic but still there it was. On top of that, Kennedy won with a tight score in Chicago and by that time the Outfit was deeply infiltrated in the political system of their city, so who knows?!

In general I approach subjects like this thinking that the point is less whether or not they actually did it, but more that it's feasible that they could have done it. Based on the evidence I've seen so far I'd say it's more likely that they did not get JFK elected and then orchestrate his assassination, but the fact that we can't rule it out completely is very telling as to the influence they held at the time.

[chin_gigante]

Excerpt from “The Dark Side of Camelot” (Seymour Hersh) on the 1960 campaign (some of his work on this subject is criticised by Binder in his analysis of the election) and the general government attitude towards political assassination at the time. http://bztv.typepad.com/Winter/DarkSideSummary.pdf

Judith Campbell (now known as Judith Exner) was a gorgeous California socialite, 25 years old when she was introduced to JFK by Frank Sinatra in early 1960. One month later they become lovers. A month after that, JFK asked Campbell to carry a satchel containing at least $250,000 (“for the [presidential primary] campaign”) to Mafia kingpin Sam Giancana; who was also recently introduced to Campbell by Sinatra. She became a conduit between Kennedy and Giancana during the primaries and remained so during the general election and the Kennedy administration. She carried money and documents on the “elimination” of Castro from JFK to Giancana and arranged meetings between the two. Throughout her years with JFK, Campbell was under intense FBI surveillance due to her association with Giancana. The surveillance revealed to the FBI her relationship with JFK. Hoover chose not to make this information public at least in part because revealing it would indicate the extent of his illegal bugging and would damage his and the FBI’s reputations. By the fall of 1962, Campbell was out of JFK’s life. The FBI surveillance and JFK’s waning passion for her (he'd brought another woman to their bed much to Campbell’s dismay) left her heartbroken. Exner (Campbell) claims to have gotten pregnant from JFK during their last sexual encounter. According to Exner, JFK told her not to keep the baby and to seek help from Giancana, who had also become her lover, in terminating the pregnancy […]
In the 1960 presidential election, Joe Kennedy made a deal with Sam Giancana. This former Al Capone hit man was the most influential gangster in the powerful organised crime syndicate in Chicago. The deal was for Giancana to get out the JFK vote among the rank and file in the mob-controlled unions and siphon campaign funds from the corrupt Teamster’s union fund. What Giancana would get in return is unknown. JFK’s stolen win in Illinois was crucial to his narrow general election victory of less than one tenth of one percent of the popular vote […]
Under the direction of the Eisenhower administration, the CIA involved the Mafia in plotting the assassination of Fidel Castro as early as August 1960. The CIA contact, Johnny Roselli (believed to be personally responsible for 13 Mafia murders), was a top man directly responsible to Sam Giancana. Giancana was supposed to arrange the Castro hit in October 1960 for Eisenhower and Nixon while he was also working to steal the election for Kennedy. Giancana made no attempt to kill Castro before the election […]
Just prior to assuming office, JFK asked CIA director Richard Bissell to create a formal capacity for political assassination. He picked up where the Eisenhower administration left off; in plotting the assassination of three foreign leaders: Fidel Castro of Cuba, Patrice Lumumba of the Congo, and Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic. Well-versed in “plausible deniability”, there are no papers tying JFK to the use of the word “assassination”, but the evidence for his directives is overwhelming. In mid-January 1961, Lumumba was murdered. In May 1961, Trujillo was murdered by assassins using CIA supplied weapons and ammunition.
Over a three-year period, dozens of plans to assassinate Castro were developed by the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations, the CIA, and the Mafia under Sam Giancana. None of those plans was successfully executed. On November 22, 1963, as Oswald was shooting JFK in Dallas, an undercover CIA agent was meeting with a former follower of Castro and delivering to him an assassination device for use against Castro.
There was at least one more successful assassination by unknown killers. Mafia kingpin Sam Giancana was brutally murdered in his home the night before he was to meet with a lawyer for the Church Committee, the Congressional committee established in 1975 to investigate CIA assassination plots.

[Villain]

Long time ago I read one detailed report made by someone who made complete statistics of Chicago's voters at the time and to who they were going to give their votes to. And so according to the report, there was allegedly no swindle in the votes although I highly doubt it since the whole point of the Mob was to convince the voters or to fill the ballots and so after that its impossible to create a statistic but still there it was. On top of that, Kennedy won with a tight score in Chicago and by that time the Outfit was deeply infiltrated in the political system of their city, so who knows?!

In general I approach subjects like this thinking that the point is less whether or not they actually did it, but more that it's feasible that they could have done it. Based on the evidence I've seen so far I'd say it's more likely that they did not get JFK elected and then orchestrate his assassination, but the fact that we can't rule it out completely is very telling as to the influence they held at the time.

Nicely said.

My opinion is that Kennedy didnt really need their support but most of these fellas want to sleep peacefully at night and want to be sure about everything. So if the Outfit really did some small and less important pushes here and there, which again were probably unneeded by the Kennedy admin, then it doesnt matter if you won the fight by yourself, still they will take the credit about it and they feel that you owe them lol

[Antiliar]

I was reading Joe Valachi's take on the 1960 election. He said that Vito Genovese and most of the guys in his crime family were for Nixon. They didn't want JFK because of his brother's involvement in the McClellan Committee, and they were fairly certain that he would make his brother attorney general, which he did. So I think even within the Cosa Nostra that one's politics on the national level was a personal choice. Some important made guys were Democrats, others Republicans, and still others didn't like political parties. During the period from the 1920s to the 40s, some supported Fascism while most rejected it as time went on. Joe Bonanno was anti-Fascist, but Frank Garofalo, one of his top men, was very pro-Fascist. In Chicago, Mafia boss Tony Lombardo was also pro-Fascist. They got involved in local politics and supported whoever was most likely to be corrupted. So with this background I think John Binder's analysis is correct. Even if Giancana did want JFK elected, what about Ricca and Accardo? Did they agree? I think their opinions would be pretty important.

[Villain]

I dont much about every possible Outfit figure in the political world at the time but Libonati was a Democrat for sure and so was D'Arco i think

[Confederate]

I was reading Joe Valachi's take on the 1960 election. He said that Vito Genovese and most of the guys in his crime family were for Nixon. They didn't want JFK because of his brother's involvement in the McClellan Committee, and they were fairly certain that he would make his brother attorney general, which he did. So I think even within the Cosa Nostra that one's politics on the national level was a personal choice. Some important made guys were Democrats, others Republicans, and still others didn't like political parties. During the period from the 1920s to the 40s, some supported Fascism while most rejected it as time went on. Joe Bonanno was anti-Fascist, but Frank Garofalo, one of his top men, was very pro-Fascist. In Chicago, Mafia boss Tony Lombardo was also pro-Fascist. They got involved in local politics and supported whoever was most likely to be corrupted. So with this background I think John Binder's analysis is correct. Even if Giancana did want JFK elected, what about Ricca and Accardo? Did they agree? I think their opinions would be pretty important.

I never read anything about what Ricca or Accardo thought about Politics. However, since Chicago was run by the Democratic machine, I would assume that Ricca and Accardo would have supported the Democrats (which would have been Kennedy) since they worked so closely with them, no matter what they might have thought privately. I would think their first loyalty would have been to how the election would help the Outfit, even if they secretly didn't like Kennedy. I wonder if there is any info on them talking about the Election?

[Confederate]

the Book "Double Cross" with Chuck Giancana is really filled with a bunch of HUGE exaggerations. If you listen to Chuck Giancana, Sam Giancana ran the entire free world and Chuck, who was a nobody, knew every move that was made by him. lol

[Villain]

The Mob always played ball on both sides. Like for example during the Capone era Big Bill Thompson was a Republican and Capone associate Daniel Serritella was also a Republican committeeman and even Diamond Joe was Republican 25th Ward committeeman. Later it seems that the so-called West Side Blocc was formed mostly by former Republicans who transferred on the opposite. In fact it was James Adduci who represented the Outfit's enclave on the city’s West Side, who also switched his alliance from the Republicans to the Democrats to suit their purpose. But they still had their connections on both sides, like for example Riccas and Accardos close associate also was Andrew Flando Sr., who was a 25th Ward Republican committeeman. They always preferred to have one Republican and one Democrat in the ward to work together, thereby insuring both sides of the fence in case the "favorite" candidate did not win.

[Confederate]

The late 1950's through the mid 1960's was probably the height of the Outfit's power after the Capone era in the late 1920's. Giancana and most of the 42 gang followed him right into the Outfit and held supervisory positions. Before Giancana got into trouble with all the Publicity and the Feds who he openly hated, he was untouchable. He even sued the Feds for harrassment which made them even more determined to get him. Ricca and Accardo had promoted someone who easily rivaled them. "Cigar", which was one of his nicknames, built his power base around the Taylor St. men that he grew up with and he kept them close to him. I have read that some "dead" people voted in that 1960 election which helped Kennedy. In addition, since Kennedy was a Democrat, he had the cooperation of the Daley "Machine" behind him and the Outfit. No other Mafia Group had as much control over their City as Giancana and the Outfit during this time period.