All language subtitles for Momo.The.Sam.Giancana.Story.2011.1080p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX]

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-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]