Even though Johnny Roselli was just a soldier in the Chicago Outfit, he was one of the most powerful mobsters in cosa nostra history. Roselli was born in 1905 in Esteria, Italy, and arrived in America in 1911 with his mother. His real name was Filippo Sacco. They first settled in East Boston where his father was working there. His father died in 1914, and Johnny's mother remarried. His stepfather, Roselli was the one who first introduced him into a life of crime by talking him into burning down the family home. The stepfather then collected the insurance money. Roselli ran away from home at the age of 15 and jumped on a train to Chicago.

Under the name John Roselli he became a member of the Torrio Mob, which was ran by Johnny Torrio and his Underboss Al Capone. In 1925, Torrio gave the leadership to Capone after being shot by a gang of Irish thugs called the North Side Gang. In the late 1930s Roselli represented Chicago's intrests in Los Angeles and extorted money from film companies by threatening to have unions under his control slow productions, causing studio costs to soar. He also produced a few crime movies, including "He Walked By Night" and "Gangsters." But they were only B-movies. Roselli became really close to members of the Los Angeles crime family. He also started the Friars Club. In 1968, Roselli and four others swindled a number of Hollywood actors-including singer Tony Martin and comedians Phil Silvers and Zeppo Marx-out of $400,000 in a crooked card game. Roselli had peepholes in the ceiling so that observers could see the players cards and make signals. Roselli made close ties with Jewish mob leaders Moe Dalitz and Meyer Lansky.

Roselli was linked along with his boss, Chicago Outfit leader Sam Giancana, with Operation Mongoose, the so called CIA-Mafia plot to assassinate Cuba's Fidel Castro. Castro had tossed the underworld out of Cuba, and the Lansky, Dalitz and Chicago mobs were out a fortune from their shuttered Havana Casinos. Giancana thought that murdering Castro would open up the door to Cuba again. Roselli didn't really like the idea, he realized the plot wouldn't work and even Tampa Mafia boss Santo Trafficante Jr., didn't agree with it as well. Santo Jr. used Mongoose as a scam against the CIA.

There's also a rumor that Roselli was one of the men involved in the JFK assassination. They say he shot Kennedy from a storm drain. In 1975, Roselli testified at a special hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee five days after Giancana was killed in his home. Giancana was also subpoenaed, but his death prevented his testimony. There was a lot of speculation that he was killed because certain people in the underworld and CIA didn't want somebody snitching them out about their involvement in Operation Mongoose or the murder of JFK. Roselli disclosed some details of Mongoose, and said he was just trying to be a patriotic American. He said the plots involving poison pills and poison cigars had failed. Roselli did not tell the senators that no poison ever went to Cuba, that instead the mobsters had simply flushed it down the toilet. They did not do the same with the CIA funds given them to organize the various plots with their supposed Cuban allies.

After his CIA testimony, Roselli's lawyer wanted him to get a bodyguard, but Roselli laughed at him. He had done many things for the LCN and felt he was safe going into retirement in Plantation, Florida. "Who would want to kill an old man like me?" he asked. On August 9, 1976 Roselli's body was found in a 55-gallon oil drum. Holes were punched in the drum and heavy chains coiled around it to weigh it down, and the drum was dumped into Florida waters. The idea was to make the drum stay down indefinitely, but gases caused by the decomposing body brought the drum to the surface.

Read also: Barrel Murders; CIA-Mafia Connection; Operation Mongoose; The Last Mafioso; Mafia Encyclopedia; Bound By Honor.

Yes, Roselli got around plenty despite not being very high in the Mob hierarchy. I think it was his good looks, suave manner and general savvy--he was an ideal front man for many Mob enterprises.

Some cool information. I remember reading about Roselli in the last mafioso.

Yeah, that dude came to a pretty messy end, didn't he?
Marcello & Trafficante? Giancana had just been taken out, the other link in the Castro/CIA plot. Would bosses such as they have needed permission, per say? Would they have needed to have their plot sanctioned by the Outfit? Marcello was pretty powerful in his heyday, but was that power confined to New Orleans? Trafficante maybe.

Yeah, interesting guy, old Filippo Sacco. Funny how he gets thrown into the Kennedy Assasination.

Thanks for the cool posts.