Original subtitles

[MUSIC PLAYING

-He was funny, he was comical, he was witty, he was smart.

ARTHUR LURIGIO: Sam was narcissistic.

Grandiose.

-I mean the man did have it all and yet lived with nothing.

BONNIE GIANCANA: He really wasn't a bad guy.

Deep down inside he had a good heart.

ARTHUR LURIGIO: An arm of the federal government going

to the boss of an organized crime family

to talk about the assassination of the leader of a country

to advance political purposes.

BONNIE GIANCANA: It was just that there

was a certain presence about him.

-The thing that made Sam Giancana dangerous

was the same thing that made every member of the Chicago

Outfit dangerous and that is their willingness and ability

to kill without question based on an order.

BONNIE GIANCANA: He had a great sense of humor.

He enjoyed people a lot.

NARRATOR: Momo.

Sam Giancana.

The sharp-dressing guy who takes way too

little credit for way too much.

Cross him once, wake up dead.

Just ask Kennedy.

FRANCINE GIANCANA: [INAUDIBLE] 60's [INAUDIBLE]

did it all happen.

It just seems like [INAUDIBLE].

-The world will never know the true facts.

[GUNSHOT SOUND]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: Chicago always was a one boss town.

That's the world Sam came into.

Born right there, May 24, 1908.

Guillermo Giancana, or Momo Salvatore Giancana, on June 15.

Depends on who you want to believe.

Grew up in "the patch," known as the spaghetti built,

where Italian immigrants came to recreate

their past in broken down buildings.

ARTHUR LURIGIO: We never referred to it as "the patch."

We always referred to it as Taylor Street.

I grew up in a cocoon-- maybe in this case

we could call it cannoli.

I grew up in a protected neighborhood.

It was a defended neighborhood.

I grew up feeling very safe.

It's kind of like everybody knows everybody.

People like to be where everybody knows your name,

and that's the way it was on Taylor Street.

NARRATOR: Sam's old man was a street vendor.

Sold fruit.

Antonio came over from Sicily about five minutes before.

Sam's mom, Antonia, died when he was two.

Internal hemorrhaging.

So he didn't get a whole lot of mothering

and there was nobody keeping him off the streets.

ARTHUR LURIGIO: So when my dad talked

about who took care of him when he was

a little boy in the neighborhood,

it wasn't the police, it wasn't social services,

it wasn't the church.

It was the gangster.

FRANCINE GIANCANA: His father would actually

tie him to a tree and hit him.

So his father was very abusive.

Which doesn't help.

NARRATOR: Sam's old man had a plan for him.

It was to beat the living crap out of him every day.

It wouldn't take much.

Maybe Sam spilled something.

His old man would chain him to a dead oak tree in the yard

and just flay him raw and leave him there chained to the tree

all night.

Sam took it out on the streets of Chicago.

[GUNSHOTS FIRING]

BONNIE GIANCANA: I think a lot of it

came from [INAUDIBLE] young and impoverished, poor,

that he was driven to make a better

life for whomever he was around.

His family.

His future family.

NARRATOR: Then Antonino married again and had five more kids:

Josephine, Antoinette Mary, Joe "Pepe," and Chuckie.

Sam's dad's second wife was killed saving Sam's brother,

Chuckie, from being hit by a car.

By that time Sam was already into small neighborhood

crime and boy detention centers.

Then, Antonio married a third time

to a relative of his late second wife.

A woman with seven of her own kids.

BONNIE GIANCANA: When his father remarried,

he brought in another family.

It did create a lot of uneasy moments because of the way

his wife would treat his brothers and sisters as opposed

to her family that was brought in.

-And he had to provide the food on the table

and he had to go out and do whatever

he had to do to get the food to put on the table.

-Like everybody else he was a thief,

and then progressed to get involved in gambling.

[TRUMPETS BLARING]

NARRATOR: And out there on the streets

and in the gym mills, in the back rooms,

and counting houses, just waiting for Sam

to distinguish himself from the herd of every day hoods

was the Outfit.

ROSS RICE: The Chicago family is called the Outfit.

New York families are called the Mafia.

I can't explain why the difference,

but those are the nomenclatures that they use.

NARRATOR: He fell into the 42 Gang,

a tough bunch of young, freelance enforcers.

The kind of guys who could make you

wish you hadn't done what you did.

The gang took their name from Ali Baba and the 40 Theives.

[SINGING]

-But there were 42 of them so they

had to becomes the 42 as opposed to the 40 thieves.

NARRATOR: They were the most notorious guys in "the patch."

They killed guys for money.

This was Momo's school.

-The 42 Gang was was a recruiting tool for the Outfit.

They'd see somebody who was outstanding with regard

to their viciousness and their criminality

and their trustworthiness, and they started

grooming them for membership in the Outfit.

And in my view, Sam distinguished himself.

ROBERT M. LOMBARDO: 42 Gang was a group of adolescents

and young men age-- average age was 21,

but they were as young as 13 and were probably up to 25.

Their glory years, so to speak, in Chicago

were from 1925 to 1934, and they were a criminal gang.

Not a boyish street gang in the conventional sense of the word.

The way we've come to view it later.

But they actually were a criminal group.

Even though they had some very young children involved,

they were about committing crimes.

I mean, the young kids started out

with breaking into peanut machines and gumball machines

and stealing pennies.

Stealing clothes off the clothes lines and reselling them.

And as they get older, they would graduate to auto theft.

Stealing auto parts.

Armed robbery.

The 42 Gang was involved in the two bank robberies

that I'm aware of.

They turned out to be a pretty bad bunch of people.

They actually killed four Chicago policeman in their nine

years-- their nine-year reign of terror,

even though there were some very young kids,

they were very violent.

Very aggressive criminal gang.

ARTHUR LURIGIO: The 42 Gang was the minor leagues

for the Outfit, and just like minor league baseball,

not everybody makes it to the big leagues.

But several members of the 42 Gang

made it into the major leagues and some of them

were starting players.

MR. X: Kind of like the NCAA does

with recruiting guys for the pros.

They go to colleges.

Well, our college here is the wings and feet.

ROBERT M. LOMBARDO: We had a couple different groups

of young people.

One was led by Rocco Mark Antonio.

The other one was led by Babe Ruth Callero,

and another member of that group was in fact Sam Giancana.

So when these seven young people got together,

Giancana, Callero kind of adopted the younger kids

and taught them to trade of being a delinquence.

I think the older ones, Callero and them,

were probably in their late teens

as opposed to Rocco Mark Antonio and the others

in their early teens.

But the gang really fermented and came together as the 42

Gang when they began hanging around Mary's Restaurant,

and I believe it was at Taylor [INAUDIBLE] in Chicago.

ARTHUR LURIGIO: They were an extremely vicious gang

and when they were on the street,

they were victimizing people in the neighborhood.

NARRATOR: Sam's many arrests kept is dad broke.

At 18, Sam was indicted for murder.

He got off from lack of evidence,

but he was becoming downright disrespectful even

for a "patch" kid.

-In my view, Sam Giancana was the meanest, the toughest,

and the smartest of the 42 Gang.

He had the ability-- had he been able to go through school--

he would've been successful, anyway.

Because he had the ability-- he had the intelligence to do it.

Unfortunately he chose a different way to do it.

-He was recognized as the best driver,

the best wheelman around Taylor Street.

[TIRES SQUEALING]

He drove a car better than anybody

and even when he was older, he could get away

from the lockstep surveillance of the FBI in his car

if he felt like it.

NARRATOR: Sam liked to drag race on the city streets

with these souped up cars around street corners on two wheels.

He hired out as a top-notch wheel

man for robberies and getaways.

His wild eyes behind the wheel and the trigger

got him known as Mooney, meaning out of this frickin' mind nuts.

-Far as I know from guys I worked

for-- [INAUDIBLE] in Chicago-- said

he was a little out there, so to speak.

Crazy.

-And a lot of things has been said and a lot of things

have been written about his anti-social behavior.

Diagnosis that were made early on in his life that seemed

to have stuck with him through all this time.

I just think that it's a misnomer.

-It just backs up the fact that everything you hear about him,

from his nickname down to the fact that he was legit crazy,

just shows [INAUDIBLE] backs it up,

and he was really not all there.

He was, you know, a couple French fries

short of a Happy Meal.

-Sam Giancana did not kill for the pleasure of killing people.

It was purposeful killing and that's

the way killing was usually done in the Outfit.

-You know, I mean obviously the guy

was a-- he was a Capone guy.

He was doing hits at a very young age.

Maybe the way he carried them out was a little bit out there

rather than just taking care of it business-like.

-So early on he showed viciousness

that the other members didn't shown.

Early on he showed leadership potential

that the other members didn't show.

And early on he showed an intelligence

that the other members didn't show.

NARRATOR: It was a growth time for street hoods.

Prohibition.

And Chicago was still a one boss town.

The one boss was Al Capone.

Sam met Capone at the Four Deuces in 1925.

Capone gave Sam a job.

Get rid of Johnny Torrio, who thought he was Al's boss.

Sam was the lead shooter when Torrio

was almost killed outside his house.

even though an Irish gang got the blame.

Torrio pulled out of Chicago because Sam

showed him it was a one boss town.

Then Capone sicked Sam on the rest of the competition.

Guys like Diamond Joe Esposito.

Within those circles, Sam was like the killer's killer.

Guys like Frank Nitti and Jack McGurn.

Guys they made movies about all called on young Sam

to settle their books.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

In 1928, Sam falls in love.

Her name is Angelina DeTolve.

She was beautiful, and from the neighborhood,

and she had what Sam didn't have any of.

Respectability.

Educated by nuns, her family came from southern Italy.

Naturally they hated Sam with his fast cars

and wide brimmed hats.

Angie heard about Sam's bad boy status

and she was drawn to him.

I mean, he acted real nice around her, right?

They were a real item for awhile there,

and maybe he was thinking about giving up the life for her,

but it didn't happen.

-You think Valentine's Day Massacre in 1929

when seven members of a rival Irish gang headed by Bugs Moran

were killed in a garage up in the Lincoln

Park area of Chicago.

NARRATOR: The next year, "Machine Gun" Jack McGurn asked

Sam to be wheelman for the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

But Sam wasn't the kind of wheelman who waits in the car.

He dressed up like a cop with the others

and helped mow down the Bugs Moran gang.

McGurn later told Capone that Sam was a gold mine.

A wheelman who could shoot.

[GUNSHOTS FIRING]

Then Sam had to go to Joliet-- not

for that, but for a burglary rap.

Can you imagine the relief Angeline's father felt?

When Sam was upstream, she got engaged to another boy.

When Sam got out on parole, he died in a car accident.

Angie was grieving and very vulnerable.

All he thought about in prison was her.

He became very persistent.

-He just kind of bowled her over with flowers

and attention and things like that.

NARRATOR: Sam had two problems when

he got out of Joliet prison.

One, he had to support his dad, brothers,

and sisters who were destitute.

Two, he desperately wanted to marry Angelina DeTolve.

He knew he had nothing to offer her other

than starving relatives, a police record, and no money.

Something had to give.

Sam gave.

He changed.

He didn't go straight, he went smart.

No more the crazy antics of Mooney.

He was back in the rackets, but way cool in the background,

and his home life was immaculate.

Yeah, he changed, because now he wanted something.

He wanted her.

BONNIE GIANCANA: Her life was his life and anything

you could do to make her life happier or better

he would obviously try and do that.

NARRATOR: She was too old for her father to stop her,

so she said yes.

They were married on September 26, 1933.

Regular Catholic wedding.

Nothing fancy.

She had on her mother's wedding ring and a white satin wedding

gown, and he wore a big smile.

They moved into a house in "the Patch"

just two doors down from the one Sam grew up in.

He insisted on a clean house and an early dinner.

Their relationship-- how can I explain it.

It was a tender, true feeling, emotional,

sharing-- he was like a protector to her,

and he did everything in his power--

as we've talked about-- to make sure that her life was as

beautiful as he could possibly make it.

FRANCINE GIANCANA: He did adore her.

He was gentle with her.

She definitely got whatever-- you

know-- she wanted or needed in life.

And with that situation, he was a very gentle person

which I feel he also was with me.

-He was a caretaker, he was a-- and a caregiver.

He-- anything he could possibly do-- and I can only go back

and, you know, the way he eventually

took care of children is that anything she needed, anything

she wanted-- I mean her life was his life.

FRANCINE GIANCANA: I don't recall them fighting.

NARRATOR: The doctor worried for Angeline

when she got pregnant in 1935.

She had delicate health all her life.

But all went well and she gave birth

to a baby girl they named Antoinette.

-The man was a great father.

-There was never any yelling and screaming.

Never any swearing.

I never heard my father wear in that house.

I understand he had quite a temper

and-- but never-- I never heard him swear in the house.

Now, it was just an easy, pleasant, and nothing

contentious.

It was almost like you're in a make-believe world.

NARRATOR: In 1938 Angelina gave birth to another girl.

Bonita Lucille.

Bonnie.

She was a very healthy baby.

These were very happy times at home for Sam.

Sunday mornings he'd make the Italian pancakes for everybody.

Flour and milk in a frying pan with hot oil.

Dad-- he just-- having dinner-- always had dinner together.

I mean, that was, growing up it was 5:30, 6 o'clock.

We all sat down to dinner.

-Basically when he was there, it was always [INAUDIBLE].

He never brought the outside in.

BONNIE GIANCANA: He was funny, he was comical, he was witty,

he was smart, he was charming.

He just would walk into a room or a restaurant,

and there was something about him

that people just were drawn to him.

Most of them didn't know who he was.

It was just that there was a certain presence about him.

ARTHUR LURIGIO: He'd never step out of the house

without looking like he came out of a catalog.

Perfectly dressed from head to toe.

My dad especially admired the hats that he wore.

My dad would wear the same hats.

BONNIE GIANCANA: Growing up, he was always dressed very well.

He, you know, everything put together,

and then as I just go back and I start looking at pictures when

he was younger, I just think, oh my gosh.

He was scaffold back then.

-You know, a very warm person.

Very charming, very personable, very,

very generous and very good.

-What I remember the most about what he would do for people is

that anyone that had a problem-- could-- he could not say no.

He wouldn't actually go out and offer, but if someone would

come to him and ask, and I saw it over and over again.

Especially with somebody-- the children of some of his

associates that possibly were gonna--

didn't want to go to school.

He believed that, you know, go to school,

get a better education, have a different life.

This is not the life for you.

And I know for a fact that he's changed-- he changed--

personally changed several lives.

Encouraging them to go to school,

helping them go to school, pay for their-- [INAUDIBLE]

going to school.

-The Sam Giancana I met personally

was soft spoken, gentlemanly, and bright!

-It's why he walked into a room and everybody

turned their head.

-I think his biggest strength in my opinion-- for what I heard

over the years-- is that he's very charismatic.

You know, he was.

He just overwhelmed people with his style and his power.

And being a fact that he wouldn't hesitate one second

to take care of something, you know, it was, you know,

[INAUDIBLE].

[GUNSHOTS FIRING]

He represented a man that was-- certainly

should have been feared, because he would not hesitate one

minute to [INAUDIBLE] a guy out.

NARRATOR: So now Sam was using is wheelman skills

as the personal driver for Outfit boss Paul Ricca.

It was a whole lot safer than driving for jobs.

More steady.

He needed to move up in order to support a growing family.

As a cover, Sam worked with his brother-in-law

in a small envelope factory, but it wasn't the kind

of action he wanted to be close to.

So we found some new action.

Looked hopeful.

Prohibition was over, but the wholesaler still

liked to get the cheap tax-free stuff

so you could make more money.

Sam teamed up with another "Patch" hotshot, Guido

[INAUDIBLE], to supply the bootleg.

Felt like a lucky plan but it wasn't.

The IRS raided the farm and busted the whole crew,

Sam included.

This was federal.

No way could Sam's dad afford the $5,000 bail.

That tab fell to Angeline's father to pay.

Sam got four years.

First in Leavenworth, then Terre Haute.

Tough on Angelina and the girls.

Angelina had delicate health and raising two kids

alone with nothing took its toll.

BONNIE GIANCANA: The only thing I remember, for some reason,

one Christmas, might have been a Christmas Eve or maybe

a Christmas Day, but someone came over.

I think one of his friends came over and brought lots

of-- lots of Christmas presents.

NARRATOR: But for Sam, it was like being

sent away to graduate school.

He learned all he needed to know from guys who knew everything.

Doing a stretch for tax evasion on Sam's cell block

was a talkative black convict named Eddie Jones.

Eddie and his brothers were the policy kings of Chicago.

The policy racket took in $180,000

a week in the black neighborhoods.

ARTHUR LURIGIO: What was appealing

about the policy rackets?

Anybody could buy a lottery ticket.

You could be the poorest man or woman in Chicago.

You could pay-- you could pay a nickel and you'd buy a number,

and it was everybody's dream.

I'm going to win today, I mean-- but it gave poor people

a daily sense of hopefulness.

That's why it was so popular.

NARRATOR: The Joneses controlled the policy racket,

and Sam learned all about it from Eddie.

Eddie and his brothers had made a fortune

and owned greatest estates in France and Mexico.

Sam and Eddie teamed up.

Sam used his pull to get Eddie better treatment,

and Eddie taught Sam how his family business worked

and how to memorize number combinations.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

JOHN J. BINDER: Eddie Jones was one of the three Jones'

brothers who were involved in the policy gambling

on the South Side of Chicago.

There were a number of individuals-- most of them

but not all them African American-- who were running

policy gambling, which by the 1930s,

was focused in the city's black neighborhood.

The South Side and the West Side.

The Jones brothers were very, very successful with this.

-Well, big Ed Jones was the-- at that period of time--

he was essentially the head of the policy racket in Chicago.

Now there were probably a dozen different policy wheels--

independent policy wheels, but like the Outfit,

they kind of unofficially would elect the titular head

to represent them to the city.

In other words he would be the bag man-- the payoff man--

to bring the money into the city.

ARTHUR LURIGIO: Policy rackets is a lottery.

Every day you pick a number.

Usually it's three numbers.

Sometimes it's four or five.

Eddie Jones said to Sam Giancana, hey, look,

you know, when we get out of here

you know, maybe we can do some things together.

-They became friends in prison, and I think maybe it's

because they had a Chicago connection.

I think Sam liked Eddie Jones because Eddie

Jones was a gentleman.

Eddie Jones had class.

I think Eddie Jones talked about his criminal activities

and probably Mooney did too, and they shared some stories.

And Mooney figured out a way for the Outfit

to make millions of dollars through the policy

rackets or the numbers.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: When Sam got out in 1943,

Chicago was still a one boss town.

Only now the boss was a guy named

Anthony Accardo, a guy Sam knew very well.

Like Sam, Accardo was a Capone wheel-and-trigger man.

While Sam managed to get out of the draft by saying the words,

"I steal," he did make it go at an honest living

back at the envelope factory.

Then Angeline got pregnant again,

and Sam started thinking about ways

to make his old colleague, Accardo,

think of him as a major operator.

Angeline's health took a bad turn and family members were

afraid her rheumatic heart might not survive the pregnancy.

She went into labor three months early

and delivered a baby girl weighing only one pound.

Barely alive.

The doctors had to work around the clock

to keep her breathing.

Sam was right there for all that.

He'd come in every night after working the streets

and fall asleep in that chair outside the baby's viewing

room.

He was high on life the day she was well enough to go home.

The baby made it.

A third daughter, Francine.

Not the son every Italian is supposed to want,

they say she was Sam's favorite.

FRANCINE GIANCANA: [INAUDIBLE].

I'll admit it.

NARRATOR: When Eddie Jones got out of the joint,

Sam was right there waiting for him.

House in the joint, house outside, right?

Jones went for it and staked Sam to $100,000

to run one of the Jones family rackets, jukeboxes.

Sam did well with the jukeboxes, for both

himself and the Jones family.

That's the way that Sam made his first fortune.

By 1945, Sam was able to move his family out of "the Patch"

and into a large house in suburban Oak Park.

-I think he admired Eddie Jones, but his interest in business

transcended any personal feelings he might have had

about him, and he saw an opportunity for the Outfit

to encroach upon the policy rackets

and eventually take over the policy rackets.

NARRATOR: You think having some money for the first time

in his life he'd be satisfied.

No.

Sam wanted a seat at the table.

He knew the boss of Chicago came up the same way.

But the guys around the boss all thought of him as Mooney.

Too crazy and unstable to run anything.

He had to change that.

-That was the door that was open to Sam Giancana-- which Eddie

Jones, I'm sure didn't [INAUDIBLE] Sam Giancana then

[INAUDIBLE] levered it open by saying to the guys

in the Outfit, hey, maybe the outfit can come in on this

and basically grab this.

NARRATOR: He worked overtime to get an audience

with Accardo in his inner circle.

He offered to bring the profitable black policy

wheel under Outfit control.

All of it.

That got their attention.

All he had to do was sell out the best friend he ever had.

The guy that made it all possible for Sam

to move his family to Oak Park.

Eddie Jones.

ARTHUR LURIGIO: He kidnapped Eddie Jones

and brought him to a basement of a home-- unknown location--

and said, Eddie, you want to live?

Here's what you have to do.

Take this $250,000, take a train, go to Mexico.

See you later.

And Eddie Jones was a rational and reasonable person,

and that's exactly what he did.

NARRATOR: Sam took over the entire policy wheel

making him and the Outfit rich.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

ROBERT M. LOMBARDO: All indications

are that he rose in stature because of his ability

to take over the policy wheels in Chicago

which began with big Ed Jones.

Now that didn't happen overnight.

There was probably a 10-year struggle

to take control of these different policy wheels

because the black policy syndicate resisted.

But I really think that that pushed Giancana's status

up within organized crime because he

was able to bring in that much money.

Money is power.

NARRATOR: And at home in Oak Park, things were great.

Right there, on the corner of Wenonah and Fillmore,

on a big lot and a garage against the alley,

the Giancanas lived in postwar suburban splendor.

BONNIE GIANCANA: What we thought was the normal was that-- come

home, you have dinner, you talk, you do things, spend time

together, had lots of vacations.

With vacations, I mean, as-- as a-- as a family.

But no, I never sensed that there was anything different.

We all had our kind of places at the table.

We just kind of fell into, you know, dad would sit here,

mom would sit there, and I would sit

in one place and my little two sisters

would sit someplace else.

NARRATOR: In spite of Angie's delicate health,

these were good times.

Sam bought a 16 millimeter projector

so he and Angie could watch their favorite movie

every night, "Always in my Heart,"

starring Kay Francis and Walter Huston.

Well did she say yes?

-Well, not exactly, but I think I have an even chance.

-Better than even.

I'm pulling for you.

-Well thanks, Marty!

Thanks.

BONNIE GIANCANA: If you don't know the story,

it's about a man who-- a man that

goes to jail for something.

As it turned out he was falsely accused of it,

and he was married at the time.

And since he was going to be gone for a long time,

he divorced his wife and she went on-- basically on her way.

And the end of the story is they get back together.

Everything is OK, and I think that may have been

around the time when he was in jail in the '40s.

NARRATOR: The story of a wife who

stays loyal to a husband who goes to jail

was stirring stuff for the Giancanas.

-Always in my heart.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

BONNIE GIANCANA: He had to set up

the projector and the screen, and the many times I would see,

he'd be watching the movie and when my father would sit

and-- he had is legs propped on something and he had this cigar

and he would twirl the cigar.

That's what I knew he would-- he would even

do that at the dinner table-- dinner--

after my mom died and he would start thinking.

And he had this twirling cigar.

He was-- there was something-- you know,

he was thinking about something.

NARRATOR: Sam's daughter, Bonnie, excelled at athletics,

and that made her a special kind of companion for Sam.

If there was anything Sam loved more than hitting the links,

it was hitting the links with Bonnie.

Who from a very early age could give Sam

a run for his money on the green.

-I was a-- I was a Cub fan and I just always think

I wanted to be a baseball player.

When my mother was [INAUDIBLE], we'd do this [INAUDIBLE]

and I remember-- [INAUDIBLE] "Sam, wanna

do something with your daughter?"

And so the next day I was at the golf course.

NARRATOR: Sam got along so well with his daughters

that they really had no idea what the other part of his life

was about.

-And so I only know one part of him.

NARRATOR: Sam was always there for his family.

Not just looking after them and giving them things,

but contributing to their home life.

Is charming side.

He was never demanding or overbearing,

but always charmed them into behaving

the way he felt girls should behave.

BONNIE GIANCANA: We think he expected certain behavior.

Girls were different in his life, in his world than boys.

I know one thing that he really disliked is women smoking.

It'd drive him crazy.

NARRATOR: Holidays with Sam were always a blast.

FRANCINE GIANCANA: Fourth of July, Christmas, New Year's.

They were all big holidays for us.

-Halloween was a wonderful time.

For some reason he liked Halloween.

At Halloween parties everyone got dressed.

Always had pumpkins.

On the outside, carved pumpkins.

Cracker Jack was the trick and treat in our house.

Obviously every kind in the neighborhood

would come get a box of Cracker Jack.

He enjoyed the social part of holidays.

Enjoyed having people in.

Enjoyed having parties.

Enjoyed even getting dressed up and doing kind of goofy things

that you wouldn't expect a man like that to do.

Everything took place in the basement.

We had a tree upstairs.

It basically would be the first floor of the house,

and we had another tree downstairs

because we were always down there and for Christmas Eve,

Christmas Day, the whole holiday season-- we

would be spending it down there.

And, of course, Christmas was another big, big, big time,

and we had the Santa Claus-- we had a Santa Claus and sleigh

and reindeer on the front-- on the front lawn all lit up.

And there were-- all the shrubbery

around the property was lit up.

That was-- it was-- we enjoyed the holidays.

It was festive.

-I had gifts that were taller than me.

-Gifts arriving-- you know, wine, cigars--

-He would have presents and he would have gifts

and he would have envelopes, which I was more excited about.

And because I know when I used to get an envelope at home,

there was always a little money in it.

But his envelopes are a little bit fatter.

NARRATOR: Angie was always the perfect wife.

Living out the suburban American dream of the stylish homemaker.

I suppose maybe by today's standards

and say, social life, always dressed well.

She would never think of leaving the house like-- [INAUDIBLE]

kind of people leaving the house today.

She's was always dressed, always-- well,

you know, well manicured and suave.

-She always was very stunning.

I mean she dressed very classy.

NARRATOR: As Sam rose in importance to the Outfit,

he surrounded himself with his old pals

from the 42 Gang-- Butch Blasi and Chuckie English.

Butch and Chuckie.

These two guys would center their lives around Sam.

-You got almost certainly I think Butch Blasi, who becomes

Sam's driver/bodyguard [INAUDIBLE].

-Our godfather was Butch-- Dominic "Butch" Blasi

who was Sam Giancana's bodyguard.

-I just remember kind-hearted Butch.

That's Butch Blasi.

I mean, he-- for some reason, maybe by the time

I started putting anything together,

he would-- I mean he was like-- it

seemed like he was his brother.

That's how much he trusted him.

-Butch was actually a butcher, so like many members

of the Outfit, Butch had a legitimate business.

-Butch was kind of like a post-- you know,

a leaning post and a communicator.

-Butch Blasi was extremely loyal to Sam Giancana, which Butch

Blasi played a number of different roles in the office,

but they were all concentrated around

Sam, and what Sam needed, and Sam's well-being.

So Butch was called at various times to chauffeur.

His bodyguard, his secretary, I call

him also is emissary and intermediary.

So Sam obviously trusted Butch.

Being a chauffeur for a boss is a prized position.

NARRATOR: Chuckie English was a handsome, charming guy

with the ladies everywhere.

One of Sam's most intimate friends.

He ran the very lucrative jukebox concession.

JOHN J. BINDER: Chuck English gets

to be a very, very prominent guy in the Outfit

with a lot of interest on West Side gambling

and I think it's like vending machines and stuff like that.

Chuckie English reaches his apex sort of under Sam Giancana.

NARRATOR: Another 42 alum was Jackie [INAUDIBLE],

who rose up with Sam but later turned on him.

In 1951, Sam got his mug on the front page of the Chicago Trib

as one of the bad 19.

Kind of a who's who of Chicago gangsters.

Sam's daughters felt the blowback at school.

Finding out the hard way what their dad did for a living.

Angie tried to soft peddle at home explaining to the girls

that their dad got into some trouble once,

but now he was just a real smart businessman.

-When the kids in my class had made some kind of a comment

about, oh, your dad's a gangster-- something like that,

[INAUDIBLE] just a second I got into a fight with them.

-And it becomes this big 500 pound weight on your back.

-Finger pointing [INAUDIBLE].

I just ignored it.

I didn't think it was real.

-You hear whispers, you hear people

pointing the finger at you.

People making comments about your family and your uncles

and stuff like that.

And, you know, we talk about it, but the world

does become small.

It becomes very small to you, and you do get the sense

that people are watching-- even when they're not,

you become overly paranoid.

And you live a life that way, and it's very difficult

to-- it's very difficult to shake that.

-Well, I dunno.

I just walked with my head high.

I didn't-- I just let it bounce off my shoulders.

-Well, the one thing I always-- what

I started seeing in our family-- that everybody just because

very negative.

-I respectfully decline to answer

on the grounds [INAUDIBLE].

BONNIE GIANCANA: [INAUDIBLE] was investigating.

Names were being brought up, and that's

when I started to realize that he had

a higher position-- he was different.

-Always thinking the worst.

Paranoid of the mail.

Paranoid of the doorbell ringing.

Paranoid of people you don't know in a room.

You know, you question everything

because that's how you grow up.

You grow up being driven to school.

You grow up being told, you know, make sure this person

comes and picks you up.

-I didn't know.

I didn't know.

Don't want to believe it.

No one seemed happy in their own skin.

And while it may have been rough on the playground,

there were perks to having a dad that was quickly becoming

the major earner for the Outfit.

BONNIE GIANCANA: All you had to do was ask to be there.

Whatever-- you go to a restaurant

if you go to wherever you want, you

were always given red carpet treatment.

Things like that.

If you wanted to see a show and there weren't any tables,

tables would appear.

-My mother said he was just a wonderful guy.

Every time she would go to dinner.

Especially at places that Sam frequented.

Never could pick up a check.

And it was a life that really not a normal person would live.

-Maybe we had a little bit more than other people

and we had more privileges.

Cars-- maybe driving better cars.

-Sam told my father that if my name ever helps you out,

use it.

My father told me he used it one time.

He was at Christmas party when he worked for Ford back then,

and they were in this hall having dinner

with all the salesmen and managers

from all over-- probably the Midwest.

And he said that there was another table that got drunk

and they were using profanity and they

were swearing and everything else.

My father said, "Would you mind toning it down

because there's women at the table."

Well, apparently my dad turned around.

The guy got up.

Walked towards my father with a bottle

to hit him in the head with it.

So my mother said, "Nick, duck!"

So my father ducked.

He swung it, and the place broke out in this huge fight.

My father's friends punished everything--

they laid them out.

The police came and then grabbed my father.

And they were taking him-- they were going to arrest him.

My father said to him, "My uncle wouldn't

be happy if this happened to me."

And the cop said, "Who's your uncle?" [INAUDIBLE]

Sam Giancana."

He goes, "Come with me."

Grabbed my father, uncuffed him, took him around the back,

got him an elevator, and said, "Get out of here."

[MUSIC PLAYING]

BONNIE GIANCANA: She was not always in the best of health,

so the winters in Chicago were getting a bit much.

And so we were spending a lot more time-- er,

she was spending a lot more time in Florida.

NARRATOR: In 1954, at age 40, Angie suffered a stroke

while vacationing in Palm Beach.

It was a blood clot that formed behind her heart

and moved to her brain.

She slipped into a semi-coma.

Sam was at her side holding her hand

for every second of her last 48 hours.

When she died, Francine and Bonnie

were at school in Chicago.

BONNIE GIANCANA: I came home from school

and I walked in the house and I saw a roomful of people.

I looked around and said, "Where's Mom?"

-He did wear a black tie-- for a year-- what I remember--

and, which, kind of, at that time,

I thought that was just better-- you know, that was respectful.

-He lost the love of his life.

NARRATOR: Sam was disconsolate after Angie died.

He retreated.

He turned over the day-to-day responsibilities

of raising the girls to Angie's sister.

At night, after the girls went to bed,

Sam would break out the projector

and watch his and Angie's favorite movie,

"Always in my Heart."

He would fall asleep on the couch and wake

up to the sound of the projector reel flapping.

-He would play that over and over.

He would go in his little office, put in-- I don't know,

a 16 meter and he would just watch that quite a bit.

And I think more so after my mother passed away.

It must of reminded him of his [INAUDIBLE] or whatever.

NARRATOR: Both Sam's father, Antonino, and his beloved wife,

Angie, died in 1954 only a couple months apart

and both after long illnesses.

Politicos, businessmen, and mob leaders from across the country

turned out for both funeral services,

noting Momo particularly solemn and well-behaved at both.

-After that, it seemed everything changed.

Something changed in him, and he wasn't as cautious

as he may have been or should have been.

He became more flamboyant.

-Yeah, he wasn't at home as much.

BONNIE GIANCANA: The following year my dad and I went to Vegas

and he was going to have a birthday party for me.

Not that I knew anybody, but there

was a bunch of celebrities there.

[INAUDIBLE], Julie Lewis, Sinatra, I think,

showed up for a little while.

Joe DiMaggio may have been there.

I mean it was something that was a surprise.

NARRATOR: Sam threw himself in his work

and started to spread out in ways no man from "the Patch"

had ever spread out before.

For starters, he became crime boss of Chicago.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

MR. X: Sam probably had very good skills--

people skills for the people he wanted to.

-Sam Giancana appears to come in as the operating

boss of the Outfit in '57.

Tony Accardo voluntarily steps out of that role.

ROSS RICE: Well, Tony was the head of the Chicago family--

repeated head of the Chicago family for a number of years.

He got his start back in prohibition

working for Al Capone.

Never convicted of crime.

He had several different tenures as the head

of the Chicago family as best we can tell.

He would voluntarily step aside for health or personal reasons,

but would always serve as a consigliere or a counselor.

-When Tony Accardo decided to retire,

Sam was his underboss then and he just got into that slot.

-Initially, Accardo in my opinion

was the guy who pulled Giancana off.

Probably got him into the Outfit.

He probably-- Sam Giancana was probably not more

than an associate when he first went away to prison

for the bootlegging charge of late 1930s.

Comes back out and I think he becomes probably a full member

of the Outfit because Giancana gets recognized

by Accardo. [INAUDIBLE] well, this guy's got some ideas,

he's got something on the ball.

And I believe his rapid rise was due solely to that.

-For Sam to be able to bullshit that guy,

you got to give Sam some credit for that.

For as crazy [INAUDIBLE] as he was,

it's a pretty good accomplishment.

NARRATOR: What Sam soon discovered

was that Chicago was no longer a one boss town.

Tony Accardo wasn't going anywhere.

He just wanted Sam to be his beard.

To step up and take the heat.

MR. X: His boss before him, Tony Accardo [INAUDIBLE],

you know, he outlined a program there,

you know, live underneath the radar as well as you could.

Which obviously in that spot it's really hard to do,

but you don't have to bring out more than is necessary.

ARTHUR LURIGIO: Tony Accardo, in some respects,

was the antithesis of Sam Giancana.

Tony Accardo didn't want to be in the limelight ever.

Tony Accardo wanted to keep his picture out of the newspaper.

Tony Accardo wanted a low profile.

Tony Accardo sold his mansion in River Port

because he was getting too much attention because it was

palatial and moved to a small apartment with his wife.

Tony Accardo didn't want his face out there.

Didn't want himself being up front.

JOHN J. BINDER: Starting in about 1957,

Sam Giancana is the operating loss of the Outfit.

But in those years, beginning probably around 1943,

there is a guy above the operating boss.

The operating boss, unlike in New York or other crime

families, is not the last word.

There's a chairman of the board above the operating boss.

When Giancana is the operating boss from '57 to '66,

Tony Accardo is the so-called chairman of the board.

-Well, there's some suggestion that Sam was the street boss,

Sam was the front boss, but behind the scenes, Tony Accardo

and Paul "The Waiter" Rico were still calling the shots,

making the final decisions.

In 1957, in thereabouts, Tony Accardo decided to step back.

Let somebody else take over.

Around that time there was a little more law enforcement

heat being generated on the Outfit.

There was no denying that there was organized crime in America.

After the Apalachin Meeting took place,

J. Edgar Hoover couldn't say there

was no such thing as organized crime.

-What a lot of people fail to realize

is that the FBI really didn't get involved

in the investigation of organized crime of the mafia

until the mid to late 1950s.

NARRATOR: On November 4, 1957, in the home of Joe

"The Barber" Barbera, in Apalachin, New York,

was the historic summit of mob leadership attended by over 100

mobsters from all over the United

States, Canada, and Italy.

Sam was there representing the Chicago Outfit.

Local and state law enforcement agencies,

who noticed all the out-of-state plates on all the fancy cars,

raided the meeting and detained and indicted

over 60 crime bosses.

The others, Sam included, literally headed for the hills

to avoid [INAUDIBLE].

The main outcome was that FBI director J. Edgar Hoover could

no longer ignore the existence of organized crime in America.

He was forced to put some guys on it.

-The event that really propelled Cosa Nostra

to the national prominence was the discovery

of what was called the Apalachin Meeting in upstate New York.

That's when law enforcement officials, federal law

enforcement officials, the FBI, and the Department of Justice

realized that there was an organized crime

element in American society was much larger, much greater

in terms of length and reach than we

had ever thought existed.

ARTHUR LURIGIO: Sam lived in Oak Park, 1147 Winona Street.

I know the address because my dad would drive me past Sam's

house all the time to show me the FBI cars,

and they were always sitting there even if Sam wasn't there.

When Sam was in Mexico, the FBI was sitting in front.

NARRATOR: The FBI, with virtually no experience dealing

with organized crime, put the full court press on Sam

utilizing nine cars to follow his every move.

They were going up against the best wheelman in Chicago.

He led these suits on a chase like something

out of an action movie.

Losing them, causing them to have collisions,

and even sneaking up behind one agent, who was totally lost,

and taunting, "Here I am!"

But they found better ways to follow his activities

and actually tried to gaslight him.

-They took, in particular delight,

in trying to annoy and rattle Sam Giancana to the point where

they had 24 hour surveillance on him.

ROSS RICE: Our investigation here in Chicago

didn't center on Sam Giancana because of he was Sam Giancana.

It was because he was the repeated

head of the Chicago Outfit.

So we were looking at him as the leader of this group

as well as a number of his underlings in attendance.

JOHN J. BINDER: I think they knew that, well, they

estimated we can rattle this guy.

We can get to this guy.

-You know, always looking over my shoulder.

To this day I won't sit with my back towards the window.

ROSS RICE: Bill Roemer was one of about a dozen agents

assigned to Chicago office who were part of a squad or a group

that was charged with investigating

the Chicago Outfit.

NARRATOR: FBI agent Bill Roemer came to know more

about Sam Giancana than he'd ever wanted.

-Bill attended the Notre Dame University.

Was a boxer.

Had a very imposing physical presence.

Like most of the agents that were on the squad

then and worked with Bill, they were

very dedicated to their job.

It wasn't personal with them.

They have no personal animosity towards Sam

Giancana or anyone else.

They were tasked with gathering evidence

on the existence of this organized crime group.

There was the Outfit-- the Chicago Outfit,

and they set about that job in a very professional manner.

NARRATOR: Over his years in following Sam,

Agent Roemer would have a number of confrontations

and hear a lot of personal threats.

And every time Sam pushed back at the feds,

Tony Accardo got pissed off.

You weren't supposed to do things that attracted more

attention to the Outfit than was absolutely necessary,

and Sam drew a lot of heat.

-Sam would often threaten Butch at the instrumentality

of violence.

He screamed at Agent Roemer, "I'm

going to get Butch to come after you with a machine gun."

ROSS RICE: I think he and the other agents were offended

at times by some of the things that Sam Giancana did or said

and the way he treated the agents.

I now that Sam was always treated with respect.

He was afforded his right under the Constitution

by the agents that investigated him.

I don't think Sam returned the favor.

-Sam was not the most stable character as opposed

to Paul Rico, Tony Accardo where stuff just

bounces off of those guys [INAUDIBLE].

So they-- they had a very particular strategy then.

So how do we get to this guy?

NARRATOR: The tails paid off for the feds.

Before long they knew all the places

where Sam talked business.

Roemer planted the bugs himself, fully aware that he could

tell no one, carry no badge, and say nothing about the FBI

if he got caught.

He managed to plant live mics in most of the places

where Sam held secret meetings with Accardo, Butch,

Chuckie, and many other intimates.

They had Sam wired for sound, and over the years

they found out a lot of amazing things

that they could never prosecute because these wiretaps were not

legal.

-We had the tapes but they couldn't

be used against him in court.

And I think that was disheartening to the agents

because, from my experience, there is no better evidence

that you can present to a jury than a defendant's own words

in his own voice.

-Sam taped the FBI following him.

Sam took pictures of the FBI following.

-Even on the golf course, they were playing a foursome--

the FBI guy just playing foursome behind Sam Giancana,

and if they could, try and drive their balls into wear

Sam was standing as he's waiting at the next tee.

Stuff like that.

BONNIE GIANCANA: He used to play golf here quite a bit,

and of course, everybody knew that he was-- he played golf

here, and when he-- the government was

after him and harassing him and following him,

they would end up coming-- rent a golf cart, play golf.

At some point in time, he had a camera-- he had a camera

and started taking pictures of-- [INAUDIBLE] following him here

at the golf course and other places.

That-- that was kind of an interesting--

it was kind of a fun-- something to watch.

NARRATOR: He sued the FBI in court.

Can you imagine how much that pissed Accardo off?

To bring that kind of public attention to the Outfit?

Are you kidding me?

To make matters worse, Sam got up and testified in open court.

But the FBI council who had the first opportunity to cross

examine him was so unprepared, it drove the FBI agents wild.

That the crazy head of the Outfit

put himself on the stand and no one

was prepared to ask a single question.

-And Sam found a lawyer who argued

that case persuasively in court.

To me that was genius.

Sam used his own secret photos and films

to prove that the technique of lockstep surveillance involving

an intrusive 24 hour presence in the subject's life

was more harassment than investigation.

This was the kind of public crap against legal authority

that Accardo and others really hated.

-Sam won that case.

The lockstep surveillance case was

an infringement on his constitutional right.

NARRATOR: In 1959, Sam threw his oldest

daughter the wedding of a lifetime.

Not since the Capone days had any Chicago

gangster thrown such a lavish affair.

FRANCINE GIANCANA: It was at the La Salle Hotel

and all these people were there.

NARRATOR: There are more than 400 guests including

Sam's associates and old friends from "the Patch,"

and a few uninvited and unwelcome members

of the press and law enforcement.

Sam left the reception to find a Trib reporter and two

federal agents taking notes from a guest list that included

names like Tony Accardo, Chuck English, and on and on.

It was a list of the names that could supply

the feds with a blueprint of the outfit.

Sam got physical, shoving them away from the list.

That opened him up for getting served with a subpoena

to appear before the McClellan committee on organized crime.

Once again, Accardo was not amused.

ARTHUR LURIGIO: Sam had a long reach.

Sam had relationships with bosses of other crime families

in a way that none of his other predecessors did.

NARRATOR: As soon as Sam took over Outfit operations,

he started thinking beyond Chicago.

ARTHUR LURIGIO: Sam was looking to extend the Outfit's

operations beyond the city and he did.

NARRATOR: The Outfit became very powerful in Hollywood

through control of all the labor unions.

JOHN J. BINDER: The Outfit was actually

able to blackmail, or extort money

from the major Hollywood film producers.

Normally viewed to be very powerful

individuals, but they caved in and paid up

because the Outfit got them by the throat.

They could shut down the movie making

industry in the United States.

Literally could shut it down.

And so they started the movie studios, made millions

of dollars from that, but the movie studios also

profited because they had had no labor problems

as long as the Outfit was there.

NARRATOR: The Outfit became a force

to be reckoned with in Las Vegas.

FRANCINE GIANCANA: I mean I spent more time in Las Vegas

than I did at home.

I mean since I was eight years old,

I was in Vegas so many times, I don't-- I

thought I lived there.

-The Outfit used the [INAUDIBLE] pension

fund to build one of the casinos in Las Vegas.

-Seems like the Outfit gets into Las Vegas in a very, very big

way, and they ultimately become [INAUDIBLE]

crime family, the biggest player in Las Vegas.

-When the outfit has a Casino, they're not only

controlling the casino, they're not only taking a skim,

but they're venturing out into many other ancillary businesses

that they're controlling.

JOHN J. BINDER: Vegas was an open city

declared by the commission.

Any [INAUDIBLE] crime family could

go in there so it wasn't just Chicago.

NARRATOR: In 1955, Accardo and the Outfit financed the Riviera

to the tune of $10 mil using a group of Miami investors

as fronts.

Then they got the Stardust through the efforts

of Sam's man, Johnny Roselli.

The Stardust paid off with $400,000 a month to the Outfit.

Then the Tropicana, the most luxurious casino on the strip,

fell under Outfit control when Ricardo got his hands

on the [INAUDIBLE] pension fund.

Sam, Accardo, and Roselli brokered a deal

with the Desert Inn's [INAUDIBLE] and the New York

families to run the Desert Inn, the Stardust, and the Riviera.

All three major casinos on the strip.

Over the next decade, the outfit added the Hacienda, the Sahara,

and the biggest downtown Casino, the Fremont,

to its Vegas holdings.

The Vegas skim brought millions of dollars in for the Outfit

every month.

In Havana, Cuba, the outfit had a sweetheart deal

with the local government to run casinos at a great profit.

Cuba's US-backed military leader, Fulgencio Batista,

appointed New York commission mastermind, Meyer Lansky,

as the adviser on gambling reform.

In 1952, Lansky offered the previous Cuban president

a bribe of $250,000 to step down so

that Batista could take office.

In return, Batista offered Lansky a government match

for any investment over $1 million in a Casino.

Florida crime boss, Santo Trafficante,

ran the Outfit's gambling empire there.

He and Sam's man, Johnny Roselli,

were partners in managing the highly

profitable Sans Souci Casino Resort.

Havana became a playground for Sam,

and a big concern of Accardo's.

But there was trouble on the horizon,

and a man named Fidel Castro.

Born on a Cuban sugar plantation, gifted in academics

and sports, Castro was both a lawyer and a pitcher

good enough to be scouted for American baseball teams.

But it was in the field of politics

that he really made his mark.

Connected with violent demonstrations

against the government from his college days,

Castro was an anti-American nationalist

and a family friend of Batista.

But when Batista assumed the Cuban presidency in 1952,

Castro went underground and became a revolutionary.

In 1959, just when Meyer Lansky was celebrating the $3 million

he made during his first operational year of his casino,

the Nationale, Castro led a worker's

revolt that became a revolution.

Ousting Batista, forming a communist government,

and nationalizing the casinos.

This was bad for the Outfit.

One minute they were running the place,

and the next thing Sam knew, Santo Trafficante

was in a Cuban jail.

He called up an old acquaintance from "the Patch,"

to go down there and get Trafficante out of jail.

A guy named Jack Ruby.

ARTHUR LURIGIO: Jacob Rubenstein grew up a block away from me.

He lived on the same block, actually.

Jack Ruby was low level, Outfit associate,

worked with Jewish members of the outfit

controlled gambling on the West Side.

JOHN J. BINDER: Jack Ruby comes up--

as a kid he grows up around Maxwell Street,

just out of Taylor Street.

You know, he's from the old quote, "Jewish Ghetto"--

Ghetto just meaning an ethnic neighborhood-- inside Chicago,

and he ends up as a gambler down in Dallas.

Very low level guy.

NARRATOR: By this time, Ruby ran a strip club in Miami

and often went to Havana on Sam's

behalf to handle Cuban relations.

Ruby got Trafficante out of jail and back to the US.

Sam would remember Ruby for that giving him a piece of one

casino and keeping him in mind for future operations.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NICHOLAS CELOZZI: One time he was watching these guys

throwing dice in an alley and my father was watching it.

And he said that an unmarked squad car came pulling up

and there was a detective that came out in plain clothes

and then there was a police officer

that was in his uniform.

And he was trying to break up the game.

He said, "Tell everybody get up and line up against the wall."

Apparently then Sam was running out of the building

and my father was watching, and they

said they got into this discussion.

And Sam got very angry and he grabbed the cop

and started punching him.

Punching the cop.

Punching the cop, kicked him, threw him onto the ground,

grabbed him and said, "Don't you ever bother my game again."

Threw him back in his car and they left.

-The late '50s- '58, '59, '60-- when

I realized that he was different.

Extremely different.

That there was extreme power.

-I mean, I met them all, really.

Just a slew of them.

[INAUDIBLE], Frank Sinatra, [INAUDIBLE] Martin,

[INAUDIBLE].

It just goes on and on.

MR. X: Sam was loved by every [INAUDIBLE] in the country.

NARRATOR: Sam enjoy hanging out with some pretty famous people.

He and old pal, Frank Sinatra, had some great times together.

Like when they got a little loaded at the Fountain Blue

Hotel and went around tossing cherry bombs on the yachts.

Tony Accardo watched antics like this and just fumed.

BONNIE GIANCANA: I think if they didn't know people were owning

these hotels he might of been thrown out.

-Sam had a little bit too much wine

and Sam announced, "I can call Frank Sinatra right now

and that son of a bitch will call me right back,"

and they said, oh, sure, Sam.

You're full of crap.

Butch, go dial the number!

And sure enough, he had Frank Sinatra on the phone

and he's passing the phone around to everybody.

NARRATOR: Sam and Frank hung out a lot in Vegas.

Sinatra introduced him to starlets.

There was another guy Frank did the same thing for.

A guy about to run for president, Jack Kennedy.

In fact, Sinatra introduced both pals-- Kennedy and Giancana--

to an ex-girlfriend named Judith Campbell Exner.

Soon, both Sam and Kennedy were sleeping with her.

In 1988, Judith Campbell Exner claimed

that she had been a courier between Kennedy and Giancana,

and even gone so far as to arrange

several meetings between them.

Was it true?

Did Sam and Kennedy know that they were both sharing a woman?

Maybe not.

But Sam knew Kennedy's dad.

ARTHUR LURIGIO: Joe Kennedy, much older than Sam, supposedly

members of organized crime saved Joe Kennedy from assassination

a couple of times.

Joe Kennedy was a bootlegger.

There's no mistake about that.

He was in the alcohol business when it was illegal

and when it was legal.

So there's no question that he was involved

during and after prohibition and that he had contact

with members of organized crime.

NARRATOR: While Outfit guys like Sam were always on the outs

with society, Joe Kennedy had managed a transition for him

and his family from bootlegger to [INAUDIBLE].

ROBERT M. LOMBARDO: Was the Kennedy fortune

based on the money they made during prohibition?

Sure it was.

ARTHUR LURIGIO: Joe Kennedy ran afoul of the purple gang

in Detroit.

There was a lot of pass through from Canada of sugar

and alcohol, and supposedly Joe Kennedy

stepped on somebody's toes in Detroit.

The Italians in New York stepped in and saved Joe Kennedy.

NARRATOR: Sam was credited by some

with saving Joe Kennedy's life on another occasion.

ARTHUR LURIGIO: Another story is that Joe

Kennedy insulted Frank Costello.

Frank Costello was going to have Joe Kennedy killed.

He contacted Sam.

Sam saved Joe Kennedy.

NARRATOR: In 1959, Joe Kennedy wanted major help from Sam

in getting his son elected president.

He knew Sam might not be so approachable, mostly

because Joe's other son, Bobby, was giving him holy hell.

Humiliating him on the McClellan committee hearings.

QUESTIONER: And would you tell us about the vice operations

down in Lake County, Indiana?

-Would you explain that because I honestly believe [INAUDIBLE].

QUESTIONER: Would you tell us whether if you have opposition

from anybody that you dispose of them

by having them stuffed in a trunk? [INAUDIBLE],

Mr. Giancana?

NARRATOR: Joe's daughter had married Rat Pack member Peter

Lawford and Joe knew that his son John had met Sinatra

through Lawford and shown him quite a time in Vegas.

He also knew that Sinatra wanted Jack to be president

because Sinatra wanted a president for a pal.

And he also knew that Sinatra had

a close friendship with the Chicago boss.

So Joe asked Sinatra to Hyannis Port for a meeting.

In the last year of his life, Sinatra publicly

admitted through his daughter Tina

that this meeting indeed took place.

Joe asked Frank to reach out to Sam Giancana,

to get Sam to use his resources and influence over unions

and polling districts to get Jack Kennedy elected president.

Some people say Sinatra ranged for Sam and old man Kennedy

to meet face-to-face.

-At the height of the Outfit's political power,

they controlled a block of boards in the city

called the West Side block.

The West Side block was part of the Democratic machine.

NARRATOR: And what would be in it for Sam?

Well, for one thing, Bobby would lay off.

The new president would focus on the Soviet Union

and lay off organized crime, and Sam could operate freely

knowing that he owned the White House.

Something about that sounded good to Sam.

-It's nice to have a president in your back pocket, you know?

I would assume that's how he felt.

ARTHUR LURIGIO: There was a tradition of organized crime

corrupting politics in Chicago dating

back to the late 19th century.

In a sense, Joe Kennedy challenged Sam

to a test of his political muscle,

and Sam rose to the challenge.

NARRATOR: Sam put people in Springfield

who would ensure that legislation wouldn't pass.

If it was unfavorable to the business of organized crime.

So Sam Giancana was very political.

MR. X: Sam's involvement with the Kennedys--

the deal that I heard from people that I believe would

know-- is that their job here in Chicago

was to carry-- make sure that they

got the vote from Illinois.

From what I heard, that was what carried

Kennedy into the presidency.

NARRATOR: On election day, 70 million votes

were cast across the country.

Jack Kennedy won the popular election

by 113,554 of those votes.

He won Chicago's Cook County by a margin four times larger.

In Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, and Nevada,

Kennedy had very close victories.

These were all states where Momo's Outfit had union

control, and they yielded the 63 electoral votes that

kept Richard Nixon from being elected.

-Supposedly the vote in Chicago brought him over the threshold.

He won by one of the smallest pluralities

in presidential history.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: It was right around that time

that Sam, in spite of a lot of fooling

around-- fell in love for the second time in his life.

FRANCINE GIANCANA: He had a lot of people that-- women that

would come in and, you know, visit and whatever--

[INAUDIBLE] and keep him company.

[INAUDIBLE] well, then Phyllis was basically out of state,

so it was just a little different.

He had the license to do whatever he wanted,

and I have to admire him for that.

But he never even-- he never got married.

NARRATOR: Phyllis McGuire sang with a popular trio

called The McGuire Sisters.

When they played Vegas, the sisters liked to party

and play the tables.

That's where Sam first cast his eyes on Phyllis.

She was tall, ravishy, and $100,000 deep in gambling debt.

Sam smooth-talked her, but it wasn't so much

what he said that impressed her as what he did.

He took care of her debt.

Not by paying it, but by telling the Cleveland

hood who owned the Casino to eat it.

It was the beginning of a close, devoted relationship that would

pretty much go on the rest of Sam's life.

MR. X: He was crazy about her.

Make no bones about [INAUDIBLE].

He loved that woman.

-I liked it because it made him happy.

He was happy and he's-- and she was wonderful to be around.

She was wonderful to all of us.

It was a very good relationship and it lasted a long time.

FRANCINE GIANCANA: She was like a spitfire.

I mean she was just so-- she lit a fire, you know,

when she just walked in-- you know what I mean?

And just put a lot of enthusiasm in the company.

-She truly cared about him.

NARRATOR: The McGuire sisters were playing games

all over the world and Sam would take off of with them.

In London, a photographer got a shot

of Sam partying with the sisters that

made the papers all over the world.

Accardo and some of the other Outfit players didn't like it.

See, more and more, Sam was leaving Butch in charge

of the Chicago rackets while he chased

Phyllis across the ocean.

MR. X: [INAUDIBLE] they were a little upset about it.

That [INAUDIBLE] you know, getting

a little too Hollywood for them.

NARRATOR: In late 1961, Sam and Phyllis

had a public encounter with Agent Roemer

and his team of FBI men at Chicago's O'Hare Airport.

-My understanding is Giancana was at the airport to meet her.

To pick her up.

Agent from the FBI here in Chicago

had also gone to the airport.

They were armed with a grand jury subpoena

which they planned on serving her.

She had apparently been able to avoid serving the subpoena

whether it was intentional or just

because of her travel schedule.

I'm not sure.

But there was a confrontation at the airport between Bill Roemer

and some of the other agents.

NARRATOR: The agents took Phyllis aside and gave

her choice between going into a private room at the airport

and answering some questions, or going downtown and answering

some questions in front of a grand jury.

She said she'd cooperate.

-She was very upset over the publicity that was given to her

because she had now been linked to what many consider

to be the head of the Chicago organized crime family.

NARRATOR: Sam saw her going into the room with the agents

and just went ballistic.

-Giancana, on the other hand, was enraged over the incident.

That is where his level of, what I would call hatred,

for the agents that were investigating him really

reached its zenith.

And it's my understanding there was a verbal shouting

match in the public concourse area at O'Hare Airport in front

of hundreds of people that were coming

and going from their flight.

BILL ROEMER: He started calling me all kinds of names

in the American Airlines concourse at O'Hare in Chicago

and I just was not used to that kind of abuse.

And so I finally called everybody around.

I said, "Come around and see this piece of scum.

This is Sam Giancana.

He's the boss of the Chicago mob.

You people are so lucky you can pass through Chicago.

We have to live with this piece of slime.

Just look at this jerk."

He never had been talked to just as I had never been talked to.

He had never been-- the successor to Al Capone--

and he bumped up against me and he said, "Roemer"-- he said,

"You got a fire tonight that's never going to go out.

We'll get you if it's the last thing we ever do."

NARRATOR: It was this occasion, more than any other, that

really rankled low profile Tony Accardo,

and set him against Sam in ways that

will become more and more of a problem.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

ARTHUR LURIGIO: That's one of the most sensational stories

in the history of organized crime.

NARRATOR: After the Cuban revolution in 1959,

Castro closed the casinos and sent the gangsters back home.

He allied himself with the Soviet Union

against the United States, bringing the threat

of nuclear war dangerously close to American shores.

Someone, somewhere in the Central Intelligence Agency

got the odd notion to form an unusual alliance.

-This is so incredible to me.

We don't need the sensationalize this.

In and of itself, it is highly sensational

to imagine that the federal government was cooperating

with organized crime for political reasons.

NARRATOR: Robert Maheu was a private investigator and ex-FBI

agent with a history of contracting out

to handle delicate matters for the CIA having secretly been

on the CIA payroll for about six years.

He was approached by Colonel Sheffield Edwards, director

of CIA's office of security and deputy director of plans,

Richard M. [INAUDIBLE] Jr., to arrange with Sam Giancana

a contract hit on Fidel Castro.

ARTHUR LURIGIO: It made sense to the CIA--

to Maheu and his contemporaries--

to enlist members of organized crime to do their dirty work.

And this is-- this is incontrovertible because we

have declassified documents that recorded conversations

with Sam Giancana and the CIA.

We have Robert Maheu who was an utterly

credible witness to the event.

This isn't fanciful.

This is a documented and it's an incredible story.

The CIA, I think, pretty clearly, deciding well,

the hoods have been dispossessed.

All those casinos and things were

grabbed immediately and nationalized.

Taken away.

Let's go to the hoods and let's see if we can maybe enlist them

to do some of our dirty work for us

in the plot to kill Fidel Castro.

ARTHUR LURIGIO: That would give the government distance

from their assassination attempts.

A plausible deniability.

I think that they wanted to use organized

crime as a political tool.

They wanted-- they wanted the Outfit to be the fall guy.

They didn't want to get their fingerprints

anywhere near there.

[LOTTERY CHIMES]

NARRATOR: Maheu placed a call to Johnny Roselli, Sam's man

in Vegas.

Roselli, A.K.A. "Handsome Johnny,"

used to run the Outfit's Hollywood action.

But now he was running Vegas, although the FBI files listed

him as a producer at Monogram Studios.

Roselli was more than a little freaked out by the request.

Maheu played on Johnny's patriotism,

telling him how Castro was another Hitler.

It turns out Johnny had a lot of patriotism

and he took the $150,000 offer to Sam.

Sam Giancana, with one eye on the millions that weren't

coming in from Cuba and one on the political power

inherent in a clandestine relationship with the CIA,

said, "Yeah, Johnny.

Let's do it for nothing."

ARTHUR LURIGIO: The Outfit has lots of connections that

are left over from the days in which they controlled

the casinos and other illegal activities--

but they know people.

They can talk to people who maybe can get inside.

Can get at Castro.

NARRATOR: About a month later under the name Sam Gold,

Giancana met with Maheu face-to-face and informed him

that the Outfit and the United States government

were now officially partners in the assassination

attempt on Castro.

Giancana, Maheu, and Santo Trafficante

hold up at the Fountain Blue Hotel in Miami Beach

to plan the operation.

Being a rival agency, the CIA didn't know it,

but this meeting was taped by the FBI.

ARTHUR LURIGIO: We have documentation

that Maheu met with Sam Giancana and that they hatched

several plots to assassinate Castro.

[GUNSHOTS FIRNG]

Sam suggested a simple, effective mob hit.

A shooting, but the CIA thought that would

be difficult and dangerous.

The agents suggested poison pills,

which were delivered to Roselli for an undercover CIA

agent who had access to the premiere.

But before that plan could be executed, the agent was fired.

ARTHUR LURIGIO: The outfit came up

with a couple of different plans.

Hired-- hired and paid a person on the inside

to try to poison Castro.

They got Castro's mistress to come back to Cuba to try

to poison him, and the CIA came up

with a lot of-- what would seem almost

comical-- ways of killing Castro.

The exploding cigar.

But Castro supposedly had himself well insulated.

NARRATOR: Giancana decided to give Maheu

a bizarre and ill-advised loyalty test.

Sam had heard rumors that Phyllis McGuire was having

an affair with comedian Dan Rowan of Rowan and Martin.

He asked Maheu and the CIA to plant

a bug in Dan Rowan's Vegas hotel room.

They agreed to do it, fearful of losing

Sam's focus on the Castro job.

The man installing the equipment got caught by the Las Vegas

police who turned him over to the FBI,

and that's how J. Edgar Hoover learned that the CIA had

contracted with Giancana from transcripts of the FBI wiretap

tapes that he himself had sanctioned.

He was furious, and so was his justice

department boss, Bobby Kennedy.

They both believed that the CIA used horrible judgment

in aligning with a thug they were

both trying to build cases against.

Bobby said tersely to CIA general counsel Lawrence

Houston, "If you ever tried to do business with organized

crime again, with gangsters, you will let me know."

The entire operation was scrapped all

because Sam got the CIA to bug Dan Rowand's hotel room.

Still, certain Outfit members continued

to operate with CIA agents in inciting Batista loyalists

to move against Castro, delivering both arms

and propaganda to Cuba from off the Florida coast.

One of the gun runners was Sam's old pal, Jack Ruby.

In April of 1961, the CIA spearheaded an invasion

of Cuba's coastline by 1,500 exiles.

The success of the thrust hinged on the air support

that the president had promised.

When the initial ground attack at the Bay Pigs failed,

Kennedy reneged, skittish about possible repercussions.

The insurgents regrouped.

Huddled against the baby, they suddenly

found themselves seriously outnumbered

by Castro's regulars.

The CIA pleaded for Kennedy who reconsider,

but was again denied.

The whole thing was a botched job

and it really pissed Sam off.

[REEL CLICKING]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: In early 1962, Roemer's wiretaps of the Armory

Lounge conversations gave the FBI intelligence

that President Kennedy and Sam Giancana were both shacking

up with Judith Campbell Exner.

J. Edgar Hoover brought the matter to Bobby Kennedy's

attention and Bobby Kennedy took the matter very,

very seriously.

White House logs show that one more call was placed

to Campbell Exner, after which there was no further contact.

This is when Bobby got John to shut the iron

gate against Sinatra and a whole bunch.

Sinatra had built a home for John Kennedy

in Palm Springs, a presidential getaway.

Kennedy never saw it.

The next time he came west, John Kennedy

snubbed Sinatra and stayed at the home of singer Bing Crosby.

Sinatra took it hard, but there was more hell to pay than that.

Bobby Kennedy, as Attorney General, kept coming after Sam.

Sam knew that he'd been screwed by the Kennedys.

What was worse-- Accardo knew.

When Sam put the Outfit to work for Kennedy's election,

he had to convince Accardo that Kennedy would ease up.

Then, Bobby Kennedy got New Orleans boss Carlos Marcello

deported to Guatemala, and that was really the final straw.

A lot of heat was put on Sam to burn Sinatra who'd

sworn up and down the Kennedy could be trusted,

but Sam loved Frank too much to kill him.

Instead, Sam was a silent owner of a supper club

in Wheeling Illinois call the Villa Vanice.

It was on Eight Acres and had canals and gondolas equipped

with prostitutes and bus rides to a nearby [INAUDIBLE]

where there was illegal gambling.

But the big draw was Sinatra and his pals, The Rat Pack.

The place was packed for the grand opening,

and it was solid profit for Sam because the entertainment

was free.

Sinatra performed at the Villa Vanice for a solid month gratis

as payment for failing to get the Kennedys

to honor Joe's deal with the Outfit.

He also got Eddie Fisher and Sammy Davis,

Jr. to do likewise.

-[INAUDIBLE]

NARRATOR: There was another woman John Kennedy,

Frank Sinatra, and Sam Giancana all slept with.

One much more famous than Judith Campbell Exner.

Sam had known Marilyn Monroe before she was famous.

He met her through Johnny Roselli.

He even invested in her career.

-I think that there's another highly sensational story there

that the President of the United States

and the boss of a major crime family

are sleeping with America's number one starlet.

NARRATOR: Sam had found out from his old CIA contact, Maheu,

that the CIA had recorded lovemaking

between Jack Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe.

He'd known about the affair from Sinatra,

but now we learn from Maheu that Jack had pulled out,

and now, his brother Bobby, was having

an extramarital affair with Marilyn.

An affair he was trying to end because she

was becoming unstable.

Sam invited Monroe to the Cal Neva,

the Tahoe lodge he owned with Sinatra where Sam had

his own affair with her according to FBI wiretap

conversations between Sam and Johnny

Roselli at the Armory Lounge.

Maybe that was Sam's revenge against the Kennedys,

but according to Sam's brother, Pepe, there was more.

Pepe claims that Sam told him that Maryland told Sam

that she had letters from Bobby Kennedy.

Sam's plan, according to his brother's report,

was to murder Monroe, make it look like suicide,

then have the police find the letters from Bobby Kennedy.

The Kennedys would be disgraced and removed from office.

Pepe Giancana swears that Sam got

a couple of out-of-town guys to break in to her place

and feed her an Nembutal suppository, which

killed her quickly and left no evidence.

Then they scattered Bobby Kennedy's

love letters all over the place.

Sam opened the papers expecting to see

Bobby Kennedy blamed for the suicide.

But Bobby's name wasn't mentioned.

The Secret Service had gotten there first

and swept the incriminating letters from the death scene.

Not everybody believes the story.

ARTHUR LURIGIO: I think Sam's relationship

with Marilyn Monroe was sexual only.

I don't think that he had any other kind of a relationship

with her.

But the fact that the president and the boss of the Outfit

were sharing women is an incredible story

in and of itself.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[GUNSHOT SOUND]

-The theories abound and we talk about organized crime's

connection to the Kennedy assassination.

Sam's name comes up.

-The Outfit despised the Kennedys going back

to the McClellan committee hearings.

-Organized crime certainly had a motive.

They certainly had the means and they had an opportunity.

NARRATOR: According to Pepe Giancana,

Sam told his brother of his own complicity

in the events of November 22, 1963, in his Oak Park basement.

According to this account, Lee Harvey Oswald

was recruited by Carlos Marcello as a [INAUDIBLE].

One of Oswald's uncles was Marcello's lieutenant,

but more importantly, Oswald had deep ties to Cuba

and Castro would be blamed.

The actual shooter were supplied by Giancana-- Richard Kane,

Chuckie Nicoletti, and Milwaukee Phil Alderisio.

MR. X: Oswald I don't think could [INAUDIBLE]

rob a gumball machine let alone to be positioned into this.

It had to come from people that, you know, know how to kill

[INAUDIBLE].

NARRATOR: It was Richard Kane, according to Sam's brother, who

fired the shot that killed John Kennedy.

Interesting guy this Richard Kane.

He was a Chicago cop on Sam's payroll.

Both an FBI informant and a made member of the outfit.

He had also worked with the CIA, Sam, Roselli, and Ruby

on the whole Cuban fiasco.

FBI agent

Roemer always claimed that no way could Sam

have been involved in the Kennedy assassination

because the FBI surveillance would have picked it up.

But the guy he had watching Sam was FBI informant Richard Kane,

and in 1963, Roemer and the FBI had no idea

that Kane was actually working for Sam.

So there were things that the feds didn't know.

To make certain that Oswald would never talk,

Sam got his old helper, Jack Ruby,

to get two Dallas policeman, J.D. Tippit and Roscoe White,

who were secretly on his payroll to shoot Oswald.

Everything was arranged.

-The '60s [INAUDIBLE] when it all happened and I remember he

was home that day.

It was on the TV and I was sitting

there and he just [INAUDIBLE] like shot.

-Was Sam Giancana happy that Kennedy was assassinated?

Yes.

[GUNSHOT SOUND]

NARRATOR: But Sam didn't stay happy.

The plan went wrong.

Oswald shot and killed Officer Tippit and got arrested.

Then he started to talk.

LEE HARVEY OSWALD: [INAUDIBLE] you people have been given,

but I emphatically deny these charges.

NARRATOR: Sam put the arm on Jack Ruby.

-The world will never know the true facts of what occured.

Our motive.

-I heard this from fellas that would know that he had six

months to live with cancer or something

and I don't know if that's all true or not.

I really don't know when he did that.

I know he died shortly after the Harvey thing,

but it makes sense that he would do that.

Sort of take one for the team there.

ARTHUR LURIGIO: I'm playing with my cars

on the carpet watching TV and there

comes Jack Ruby shooting Oswald.

And My dad screams, "That's Jacob!

For Christ's sake, there's Jacob."

That was Jack Ruby.

Think about how incredible that story is.

NARRATOR: If Pepe Giancana's story is true,

then Sam had only half of a success.

The intrusion of Jack Ruby into this bit of American history

would always raise questions about the Outfit's involvement

in the Kennedy assassination.

Which would also piss off Sam's boss, Accardo,

who would once again see the Outfit make the papers.

But there was one good outcome.

-The events in Dallas greatly profited organized crime

because the organized crime program died with JFK.

[GUNSHOT SOUND]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

MR. X: His flightiness and his craziness

all through is life with the pain

that he carried as a youngster all the way until he's

the boss, and I would think that this just was enough's enough.

When enough his enough, its enough.

That's not my word but it's somebody

that was very close to that situation.

-Sam was a jet setter, Sam was in the newspapers.

Sam had his face on the camera all the time.

That just bought more opportunities for the media

to cover Sam.

NARRATOR: Tony Accardo didn't like it.

ARTHUR LURIGIO: The Outfit does not

like a boss in the limelight.

Every boss that's been in the limelight

has suffered repercussions either from law enforcement

or from the organized crime family.

The beginning of his downfall was his bringing attention

to the Outfit and it did not start with Phyllis McGuire.

It started with Sam's continuing battles with the FBI.

-He had a desire to be in the public eye,

and when he was running the Chicago family

he had a very high profile.

There were almost daily newspaper stories and accounts

of his activities, whether it was going out to dinner

or having a party in his house.

And that type of publicity isn't good for business

when your business is illegal crime.

-The Outfit did not, did not like Sam's relationship

with Phyllis McGuire because the cameras were always there,

and when the cameras were pointed on them,

the story was always about Sam Giancana, boss of the Outfit.

Sam Giancana, boss of the crime syndicate.

JOHN J. BINDER: She's playing in London, he's in London.

She's playing on the west coast, he's in the west coast.

She's playing in Vegas, he's in Vegas,

and he's just sending Butch Blasi

back and forth as a conduit.

Butch, fly back to Chicago.

Tell the guys he was at this.

No, you're supposed to be in Chicago if you're

the operating boss minding the business.

I think that's what really got him into trouble.

-Unlike some other crime bosses, they

may never leave the neighborhood.

Sam was all over the world.

-The other part was his unstable behavior in public

as the FBI was putting the screws

through him mentally shall we say.

NARRATOR: It was on Tony Accardo's recommendation

that Sam rose in the outfit.

Now Accardo had some serious buyer's remorse,

and powerful under bosses, like Jackie Cerone,

were complaining.

-One day sitting in a kitchen of a home

somewhere there's Paul Ricca, Tony Accardo,

probably almost certainly Sam "Teets" Battaglia,

and all of a sudden, Paul Ricca has enough.

He just goes off on Accardo and says, "It's all your fault.

You brought this asshole to me.

You vouched for this asshole.

It's all your fault."

NARRATOR: Accardo just kept looking at Butch Blasi,

who seemed to be doing Sam's job.

JOHN J. BINDER: Accardo developed

just this incredible hatred for Sam Giancana,

and again that seems to have been driven by Sam fooling

around with women which led him to not mind the store.

And by [INAUDIBLE] 1966, they-- you know,

they pulled him from that job.

They told him Sam, you're out.

-Took over in '62.

He had it for about four or five years where

it was-- the Outfit was at its strength.

But then when he left he sat out for all that time and kind

of just left it in shambles.

NARRATOR: Hauled off before a grand jury,

Sam kept taking the fifth.

The judge told him that all his past crimes were officially

forgiven so he could not possibly incriminate himself.

Sam took the fifth again.

The judge had Sam arrested and held in the Cook County Jail

while the grand jury sat for almost a year for contempt.

BONNIE GIANCANA: He was asked questions.

It was the grand jury here in Chicago

and he refused to answer.

And then he said, well, why don't you

sit in jail for a while until you're ready to answer.

-To go see him in jail was devastating.

NARRATOR: When Momo got out, he read the handwriting

on the wall and left the country.

He fled Chicago in-- I believe it was 1965 or 1966

and he went to Mexico.

It was a self-imposed exile if you will.

He had been subpoenaed several times.

Testified before a Senate committee

that was investigating racketeering

and organized crime.

I think he felt that the FBI was getting

close to having charges filed against him.

To making an arrest.

-He was gone, what, a year or two years?

That I think was when I kind of realized

basically what was going on.

NARRATOR: Sam went to Mexico and settled

in just outside of San Cristobal.

He appears to have been living in a villa.

You know, someone secluded perhaps in Mexico.

Probably paying off the Mexican authorities to,

you know, be left alone.

Be ignored.

There are reports of him doing gambling stuff

outside the United States at that point.

NARRATOR: From there, Sam traveled

all over Latin America running gambling operations.

When Phyllis or his daughters wanted to see him,

they had to see him there.

-There are some claims that the Outfit was mad at Sam

for not giving him a cut of some of this stuff.

Finally, when the US government brought enough pressure

on the Mexican government to have Momo deported.

JOHN J. BINDER: He's in his villa.

The Mexican police or the national police or whoever

burst in, grab him in maybe nothing more than his pajamas,

take him to the airport, shove him on a plane,

and forcibly deport him from the country

and fly back to the United States.

He's a-- at that point a somewhat ill older man

and has nowhere else to go.

FRANCINE GIANCANA: I was in [INAUDIBLE] basically when

he would come home and be there, you know,

finally seem like he was going to settle down.

[INAUDIBLE]

NARRATOR: He made it home just in time

for his daughter Francine's wedding.

FRANCINE GIANCANA: Well, when I got

married I got married in his basement.

In Oak Park.

I mean, you know, and it had this beautiful thing.

Bonnie had another one and I got married in a basement.

He'd just come home.

-He had left the country and '66 and then gone to Mexico.

He somehow found a way to get back here.

He wasn't able to walk her down the aisle

but he was in the house and it was a catered fair

and we just had the wedding here.

-He couldn't leave the house.

NARRATOR: Summoned to appear before the Senate's

select subcommittee on intelligence,

Sam's failing health allowed him to postpone his appearance.

A series of gallbladder operations kept him bedridden.

At last, back on his feet, another subpoena

ordered him to appear without alibi in Washington, DC,

on June 24, 1975.

-What the newspapers will tell you is that there-- the Outfit

was afraid he was going to testify and his subpoena

to testify under some federal grand jury

about these CIA activities.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

FRANCINE GIANCANA: It was a weird feeling

leaving that night.

Because first of all, usually Butch is always there

and he wasn't there.

NICHOLAS CELOZZI: Sam was there eating-- we were talking

about it-- and he was by himself.

And he just kept staring out the window.

And he had no one around him.

None of his friends, you know, with Blasi, Chuckie English.

Other people that, you know, were

supposed to be there to protect him.

They were never around.

NARRATOR: Sam's boss, Tony "The Big Tuna" Accardo,

known to insiders as JB, had lost all patience with Sam

by this time.

-Jerry went to pick him up, drive him to the house,

and he came home and got [INAUDIBLE].

-You don't know what's going on behind the scenes.

-I think Chuckie English was in the house though.

Which was strange.

It was strange for him to be there that day.

We left there by 9:30.

By 10:30 we got a call.

-Why would he be making sausage and peppers

at the holes in Oak Park where everybody knew he was at if he

thought that he was in any danger.

ARTHUR LURIGIO: Sam trusted who was down there in the basement.

Sam might have been cooking for the people

down in the basement.

The people who were down in the basement

have been down in the basement hundreds of times before.

And I think I know who the people down in the basement

were.

-Butch was the last one there that night.

When the party broke up, everybody left.

The car doing surveillance on-- I

think a Chicago police department car-- was doing

a rolling surveillance that night.

At the time it was still at the Giancana house.

After everybody leaves, they see Butch come back.

And then the Chicago car gets called off

and goes somewhere else.

FRANCINE GIANCANA: And then when we were pulling out

of the driveway, he was pulling in

and we got home and Joe called and he

said, whoa, something happened to Dad.

I don't know what's going on.

-Well, I know that another crew was on it.

They were on it first-- they got called off at the last minute.

There was an easier way to do it and it was Butch Blasi.

ARTHUR LURIGIO: Chuckie English and Butch Blasi

were down in the basement.

That would be my guess.

MR. X: My thing is that I don't think Butch was as close to Sam

as people thought-- or at least what Sam [INAUDIBLE].

[GUNSHOT SOUND]

-As you know, he was killed in the kitchen of his home

in June of 1975.

Another of the many unsolved gangland slayings

that we have here in Chicago.

There was no sign of forced entrance.

He obviously knew the person that was sent to kill him.

ARTHUR LURIGIO: When Sam was killed,

I looked at my dad and I said, "Who-- who do you think

did this?"

And he said, "You know who.

[INAUDIBLE]."

-When Butch pulled that .22 out on him I

think he might have started regret then.

Prior to that I don't think he knew

what the hell was going on.

ARTHUR LURIGIO: Allegedly the murder weapon was found

in Thatcher Woods on the way to River Fort where Butch lived

and where Chuckie lived.

-I think that Tony Accardo would have been involved

in the decision to have Sam Giancana killed.

I don't think there's any question about that.

Somebody of Sam's stature would have

to be approved from the top.

JB's best guy was Jackie Cerone.

He wanted him to be on the boss.

Sam rejected him.

Flat out said I don't want him.

In fact, his quote was, "Over my dead body," which Jack later

in years had said, well, he finally got his wish.

JOHN J. BINDER: Sam Giancana's killing in 1975

was-- as far as I'm concerned-- certainly

ordered and sanctioned by Tony Accardo.

ARTHUR LURIGIO: Sam was ready to testify

before the Senate committee on assassinations.

I don't believe Sam Giancana was killed because they

thought that-- that he would be a rat.

Sam Giancana would never be a rat.

But Sam's testifying would continue

to bring new attention to the Outfit.

That was big news when Sam Giancana testified.

-It was devastating for a lot of people that depended on him.

-It's difficult losing family members, and what that does,

quite frankly, is it teaches you not to get close to people.

-Deep down inside, he had a good heart, and a lot of things

have been said and a lot of things

have been written about his anti-social behavior, diagnosis

that were made early on in his life that

seemed to have stuck with him.

I just think that it's a misnomer.

That that's probably the most important thing

is that we know he wasn't an angel.

But he wasn't a bad guy.

-You knew him in one particular way,

and then you hear everything else about him

when you [INAUDIBLE].

You know, you hear things in the television.

You read things in the newspaper.

He was always in the headlines at that time.

-I think he made a lot of his own luck.

He created good things, and I'm sure that a little luck was

involved in that he lived as long as he did.

He had a good life considering the so-called occupation

he was in.

-I mean, he was kind of my health.

He would shovel the driveway.

He would-- I mean, just simple things.

Just being a father and a grandpa.

-Everyone's world just changed in a moment

and it was never going to be the same.

-All this kind of stuff was just kind of a weird normality

that we had to grow up with.

Death was always around and it was just kind of very surreal

how everybody just dealt with tragedy

because it always just was there.

While Sam was running the Outfit,

he brought in millions every month.

Whatever money Sam Giancana had when he died was never found.

-A strong belief is that it was squirreled away somewhere

and what he maybe we thought of as the great love

of his later life after his wife died, Phyllis McGuire,

that she had control over those accounts and she got the money.

That's the common belief.

-It's a mystery we've never really been able to solve.

Every year around his birthday, there's a rose on-- on the door

and to this day we still don't know.

We had a wonderful life growing up.

I had a wonderful life even after I left the home

and married.

I mean, it was just-- it was good.

I don't know how he was in business.

I don't know-- to tell you the truth, the only thing I know

about a lot of things are things that I've read in the paper.

-I was just like [INAUDIBLE] as a generally gentle person.

A father.

He was a wonderful [INAUDIBLE] husband to my mom.

You know what, I don't even want to know.

I-- [INAUDIBLE] no.

I don't read the books.

I don't read the newspaper.

I-- you know.

I don't want to know because I-- it's not how I remember him.

I remember him as my father that I adored.

-I just remember good things.

-He just was my idol.

He really was.

NARRATOR: In the late 1970s, partly as an aftermath

to Watergate related federal prosecutions of FBI

surveillances, the FBI began making public the secret files

of recorded conversations of Sam Giancana

and other public figures.

These files now available to the public show

the tip of a fascinating iceberg that was Sam Giancana.

During his lifetime you could read in the papers

that he was a ruthless crime boss.

But now these transcripts revealed

to anyone who's interested a man who was the intersection

of illegal gambling, murder, CIA plots, presidential Black

Ops, spies, and the most sexually haunting

women the world has ever known.

A man who grew up poor in "the Patch"

who killed guys, who loved his family,

was adored by his daughters, betrayed by his friends.

[GUNSHOT SOUND]

Who hung out with the famous and the invisible, who

was both courted and prosecuted by Kennedys,

and was finally exposed by these tapes

as a very complicated guy.

The tip of a very strange iceberg.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

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