Readers may recall last year’s front page feature [Issue 20], an interview with Louis Ferrante, historian, former member of the Gambino crime family and author of Borgata Volume I: Rise of Empire, as he chronicled the mob not only as it grew in power in America, but the origins of the Cosa Nostra in Sicily, including the etymology of the word, mafia – from the Moors apparently, which would not surprise the amateur historian played by Dennis Hopper in the movie True Romance. He has now published the second part, Clash of Titans, as firmly established mobsters attract the attention of politicians, and the Kennedys in particular.
The relationship between the families and the Kennedy family is a long one, beginning with Joseph Kennedy, Jack and Robert’s father, before the war. Ferrante writes extensively, having carried out research which is referenced throughout, of the primarily bootlegging activity of the older Kennedy, thus increasing his already vast wealth. He was now able to obtain political influence which peaked as United States Ambassador to the Court of St. James in London from 1938-1940. The Kennedys were the closest the US had to a royal family, at least until fairly recently.
“That’s right. There [is] a lot of scattered material about Joseph Kennedy, the patriarch of the clan, being involved with the mafia. Usually there are accusations during the bootlegging era. And there are also accusations of his work in Hollywood. He owned a B movie flick company…and he dealt with the mob. He needed the mob’s influence to keep labour problems at bay. He was definitely involved with the mafia. I went to all these different sources to grab a piece here, a piece there, because usually it’s vaguely mentioned in passing, whereas the biographer doesn’t want to taint his image too much, but they want to point out that there are allegations that he was involved with only [Owney] Madden, who was originally from England and became a famous United States gangster in the Lucky Luciano era. Kennedy was involved with Frank Costello; with Luciano briefly; Genovese; Joe Bonanno. All of these allegations are from scattered sources, so I was able to pull them together and show in one chapter that he looks pretty dirty to me!”
During the 1950s both Jack and Robert Kennedy were active in the United States Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor and Management, also known as the Rackets committee: Robert as assistant counsel for the Committee on Government Operations and, as the Senator for Massachusetts, Jack was a member. The two of them went at organised crime and refused to back down, right? Wrong. Both Kennedys were concerned about pushing too far for fear they would drag their father into the investigations.
“Robert F. Kennedy does go on to the Rackets Committee and he’s very carefully avoiding anything that goes near his father. There was one instance they were investigating buildings that were run or controlled by the Teamster Union in New York. The investigator found out that the buildings were owned by Joe Kennedy. Bobby had a heart attack and he ordered the investigators to desist. He did not want to go down that road.”
This is why the Kennedys are not popular within certain elements of society in America. The fact they were crooked when presenting a squeaky clean image is a real problem for many.
“That’s where the hypocrisy comes in. Mobsters, we could swallow a lot. When I was on the streets, we understood that the agents had their job to do. And if they arrest you, be polite to them. This came straight down from John Gotti. If the agents arrest you, be polite to them. Don’t curse them. They’re doing a job. They have families too. This is their job. All of the elders taught us that. This is their job and this is our job. As long as they don’t go outside the bounds, we have no right to despise them.
“However, if they’re dirty, then they’re just as bad as us and they don’t deserve our respect. That was how the mob felt about Bobby Kennedy. I saw it in my own day. I was part of that. There were crooked agents, there were crooked cops. You were allowed to spit on them if you see them in the street.
“If the guy is a law abiding, faithful servant of the law you have to respect them because they’re doing their job, we’re doing ours. If they get you fair and square at the end of the day, so be it. You have got to go to jail. It’s the dirty cops that we hated. That’s what I saw during the Bobby Kennedy era. They [the mob] despised the Kennedys because they felt like there was an element of hypocrisy, and that was the problem.”
Surely Jack Kennedy was a different case? The establishment of Camelot in the White House, and Jack as the golden boy, the youngest ever president, shot down in November 1963? Surely there is huge respect for him?
“It all started with the myth of Camelot. That’s what I learned throughout my research. The press seized onto this new young president, even before he won, when he was campaigning, the press was all in on defending him and overlooking any faults that he might have had. They created this myth of Camelot. He was very easy-going. He forgave people very easily, whereas Bobby held grudges. Joe Kennedy used to say, ‘Bobby hates like me, we’re both haters. If you cross us, we’ll hate you forever.’ Whereas John Kennedy, if you cross John Kennedy the next day, he shook your hand and said, hey, ‘Let’s have a touch football game on the lawn.’”
Inevitably when one discusses the mafia and JFK, the small matter of 22nd November 1963 rears its head. Here in the United Kingdom, our understanding of the assassination is affected by our detachment to it. Of course JFK was popular over here, and people were very upset when they learnt of his murder, but over the years it’s drifted from memory, which one cannot say is the case over the pond. 65% of Americans think there was a conspiracy, while that figure is 17% in this country. To put that into context, 24% of Britons think Lady Diana was assassinated. So we have a degree of separation. Consequently I’m a sceptic when it comes to theories involving grassy knolls, CIA plots and mafia hits, hugely attractive though they are.
“I always assumed that there was one shooter and there may have been another one on the grassy knoll. I think most Americans do because you could clearly see on the Zapruder film, his [JFK] head gets blown back. That is from a bullet from the front. If you have ever shot anyone or seen anyone shot, if you shoot somebody, they do not come flying towards you unless they are already running towards you. If someone is standing still and you shoot them, they fall back. They do not fall forward. [JFK’s] head goes back and to the left, which is consistent with the shot from the grassy knoll. 77 witnesses heard shots from the grassy knoll, and [many] ran toward the knoll to see if they could find the shooter. So there was certainly more than one shooter and the evidence is there to prove that.
“Governor Connolly, who was in the car with Kennedy when he was killed, was injured but not killed and Connolly was hit with another bullet. To say they all came from one shooter is preposterous because it does not make sense with the amount of shots, the acoustics and the people who were hit. The Warren Commission, who investigated the assassination, came up with the ‘magic bullet theory’. It meant that one bullet entered Kennedy’s throat, made a downward turn, went into Connolly’s back.”
I have not shot anybody, and so I must take Louis’ word for it, but I know the answer to this one, which is that recent evidence has shown that Connolly was seated in a ‘jump seat’, so not placed as was thought at the time, directly in front of Kennedy. The bullet was therefore not required to perform fantastical acrobatics before finishing its journey in the Texan governor’s right thigh.
“That’s [from] the defenders of the Warren Commission. Kenny O’Donnell, who was part of the ‘Irish mafia.’ He was part of Kennedy’s inner circle. He was a couple of cars back and he told the Warren Commission the shots came from behind. At [a] later date, somebody asked him about the shots and O’Donnell said the FBI ‘sat me down and said [that] they came from behind. I figured that’s what they wanted me to say and I went with it.’
“He is a perfect example of all of the other witnesses that went along with it. There were a number of witnesses who [disagreed]. There are a spate of suicides. A lot of people who insisted there was a bullet from the grassy knoll suddenly felt like killing themselves later in life. I’m not sure if that’s connected, but there is something to do with feeling that bullets come from grassy knolls and killing yourself.”
If we go with the conspiracy theory, there seems to be a motivation to kill JFK, but surely this is simply far too big a job for the mob?
“The mafia did not necessarily send in a couple of cauliflower head guys, with flat noses and 38 snub nose revolvers. They were funding the operation and pulling the pieces together. So there is evidence that Marcelo, in the months prior to the assassination, put out a million dollar contract on the street saying anybody who takes out Kennedy, [gets] a million cash. Marcello was good for that. That’s like a dollar bill or a shilling for Marcello. It’s nothing for him. So he is putting a million dollars on Kennedy’s head.
“David Ferry puts together all the pieces. He brings the shooters together. There is a theory that Oswald did not even fire a shot. That doesn’t come from me. That comes from J. Edgar Hoover. Somebody was impersonating Oswald and wanted him to look like a character that he was not. [Hoover’s] agents heard tape of a person who was impersonating Oswald. He tells this to the Secret Service [and] to the CIA later on. There [is also evidence that] Oswald was sitting at a lunch table, drinking a Coca Cola, [a few] seconds after the assassination. There is a theory that other people were seen in the window.”
As with many other conversations on 22 November 1963, this one will run and run. Although Louis’ book is impeccably researched, I remain unconvinced. But I find the idea of a conspiracy so intriguing, that reading each page of his latest volume is a hugely satisfying experience. In a year’s time there will be the third and final entry, which takes us up to the name that dominates talk of the mob in the 1980s and 1990s, that of John Gotti – Ferrante’s former boss, which promises to be every bit as absorbing as the previous two. Until that time I can dip into Rise of Empire and Clash of Titans which are simply the definitive accounts of the mafia in the twentieth century.
Louis Ferrante is a writer and the author of Borgata Vol II: Clash of Titans.
