Chicago crime boss Sam Giancana was born Gilormo Giancana in 1908 in Chicago, Illinois. Baptized Momo Salvatore Giancana and known as Sam, he grew up in a rough neighborhood on the west side of Chicago as the son of Sicilian immigrants. As a teenager, Giancana led a street gang called "The 42s," who carried out low-level tasks for members of the powerful Chicago Mafia of the 1920s, led by the notorious gangster Al Capone. Giancana got a job as a "wheelman," or driver, in the Capone organization and was arrested for the first time in 1925 for auto theft. He soon graduated to "triggerman," and by the age of 20 had been the prime subject in three murder investigations but was never tried. Giancana climbed the mob ranks throughout the rest of the decad, as the leadership in Chicago changed with the jailing of Capone in 1931. He first served prison time starting in 1939, for illegally manufacturing whiskey. After his release in the early 1940s, Giancana set out to take over Chicago's illegal lottery gambling operations, particularly those in the city's predominantly African-American neighborhood. Through a brutal string of events, including beatings, kidnappings, and murder, he and his associates won control of the numbers racket, increasing the Chicago Mob's annual income by millions of dollars. A psychologist who interviewed Giancana during his Selective Service physical examination during World War II classified the gangster as a "constitutional psychopath" who showed "strong antisocial trends." As a result, Giancana received 4-F status and was disqualified from military service. He profited from the war on the homefront, making a fortune manufacturing counterfeit ration stamps. By the end of the war, the Giancana family had moved from the city to a house in the affluent Chicago suburb of Oak Park. When Anthony Accardo stepped down as the head of the Chicago Outfit in the mid-1950s, Giancana ascended to the top spot. By 1955, he controlled the gambling and prostitution operations, narcotics trafficking, and other illegal industries in his hometown. Under his leadership, the Chicago Mafia grew from a relatively small-scale racket to a full-fledged criminal organization. He later told an agent for the FBI that he "owned" not only Chicago, but Miami and Los Angeles as well. In 1959, FBI agents planted a microphone in a room at the Armory Lounge in the suburb of Forest Park which served as Giancana's headquarters. For the next six years they were able to eavesdrop on the workings of the Mafia and gain knowledge of many criminal activities in Chicago and around the country. In 1965, Giancana was put on trial for refusing to testify before a Chicago grand jury investigating organized crime. He was sentenced to one year in jail. Upon his release, Giancana traveled to Mexico where he lived in self-imposed exile until 1974. He was extradited that year by the Mexican authorities to testify before another grand jury. He was granted immunity from federal prosecution and appeared before that jury four times but provided little information of use. Giancana was next called to testify before a United States Senate committee investigating Mafia involvement in a failed CIA plot to assassinate Fidel Castro. Before he was scheduled to testify, Giancana flew to Houston, Texas, and underwent gall bladder surgery. He returned to his Oak Park home on June 17, 1975. Two days later, he was shot once in the back of the head and several more times up through the chin while cooking in his basement. No one was ever arrested in connection with the murder.
No comments:
Post a Comment