In this post I want to talk about one “occurrence”, since its too early for me to say a “Mob hit”, which is quite similar to many high profile public killings such as the assassination of JFK or the public hit on one quite infamous Mafia boss Joe Colombo from the New York area. Both killings occurred in front of thousands of eye witnesses and in both cases, the alleged assassins were killed sooner or later, and on top of that, both cases remain closed, but at the same time, a little bit opened since there are still many unexplained details or connections regarding the murders. Or even the killing of JFK’s brother Robert Kennedy which occurred in almost the same style. Well there was one alleged assassination attempt which preceded all of the previously mentioned situations, and this one occurred on President Franklin Roosevelt, in which luckily for him remained alive but one famous Mayor, who stood close by, received one bullet in his stomach and several people around him were also hurt but managed to survive while the first unlucky individual later died. Since this was a tragedy which occurred decades before the JFK and Colombo assassinations, my personal belief that there is some connection in the details of the killings between the three assassinations. Like for example, all of the previously mentioned targets were killed by some kind of strange and lone gunmen who in some way sacrificed their lives in eliminating publicly some high profile individual, allegedly for their own or personal ideas and reasons. This wasn’t happening only in the U.S., but instead it was, and it’s still happening all over the world. I mean yeah, probably some of these types of killings were triggered by one single mind, who decided to solve the problem in his own way, but some were triggered by another party, which decided to use some lunatic with crazy ideology or maybe even with some tough life problems, ready to sacrifice their lives and eliminate the main target. Similar to today’s suicidal Islamic extremists, who place a bomb on themselves and kill dozens of people with one blast, but some and especially the older generations were raised differently by concentrating on their main and single target. So my point is that it’s very hard, almost impossible, to make one whole conclusion on who did what and was there someone else behind the murder or the assassin acted alone. The public high profile killing which I previously mentioned regarding the President and the Mayor occurred in 1933 at Bayfront Park in Miami, Florida in front of hundreds of visitors who came to see their President-elect Franklyn Roosevelt and everything finished with the fatal wound in the stomach of Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak.


So while researching the internet regarding that same situation, I came across one quite interesting and at the same time realistic and logical site, which is known as http://chicagotruecrime.com/about-us.html and the main individual is Steve Shukis, one quite educated gentleman with Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from the University of Illinois in Chicago. At first when I stumbled upon Shukis’ site, I quickly became quite interested in his theory regarding the Cermak situation since it’s quite thoroughly researched, with facts, detailed explanations and realistic conclusions. But after awhile, when I created one of my previous timeline or list regarding the Mob’s most professional contract killings from the Chicago area, I began making some different conclusions rather than the ones which are already placed by Shukis and so I decided to make my own theory regarding that same case, but with the help of the work of the previously mentioned author.


Now, to try and understand the “bad karma” which occurred that faithful day, we have to go back a little bit in time regarding the Mayor’s previous activities and personal background so we can understand the circumstances which followed him though his whole life time. You see, during the late 1890s, young Anton “Tony” Cermak mostly hung around Chicago’s Southwest Side and began his political career as a simple precinct captain, who by 1902 was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives. Story goes that during that same time period and also around that same territory belonged to one of Chicago’s biggest gambling racketeers at the time known as James O’Leary, who ruled supreme over the Southwest Side and also the territory around the Union Stockyards. O’Leary was closely connected to the Irish faction of the Democratic Party with the help of one Roger Sullivan, who in turn was the head of that same faction and also later became Cermak’s mentor. There’s nothing surprising in this kind of info since the whole political machine in Chicago at the time was financed by organized crime, and with that kind of backing, during the 1910’s, Cermak worked as Alderman of the 12th Ward. In 1922, Cermak was elected as the president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners and later in 1924 he attended the lavish funeral of one shady political boss and head of the Unione Siciliani known as Michele “Mike” Merlo. But the thing was that by that time, or in January, 1925, Irish crime boss “Big Jim” O`Leary also died of natural causes and so according to some reports, Joseph "Polack Joe" Saltis and Frank McErlane became the new rulers of the Southwest Side. So my point is that Cermak was always involved or backed by some gangsters, who in this example were mostly non-Italians which was possibly a problem in the eyes of the rising Italian Mob at the time.


So the first problem for Cermak with the Italian underworld possibly started right there since the Saltis gang was in a conflict with the Diamond Joe Esposito clan from the West Side and also with the Ralph Sheldon gang from the nearby South Side, which was in close alliance with the Esposito group. In 1928, Esposito was killed, possibly by his own people, and also that same year Cermak became the chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party. You see, at the time the Italian underworld was fighting for two main spots, including the top position in their Unione Siciliani and also for the Mayor of Chicago. So they already had the Mayor spot since the Republican representative William Hale Thompson was their guy but regarding the complete control of the Italian organization, well a lot of people ended up dead, including the infamous St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, and by 1930 the so-called Capone mob was the most powerful crime organization in Chicago. Now I don’t know if Cermak right away became connected to the Italian rising crime syndicate but there is one story that during this period he was allegedly connected to one gangster known as Ted Newberry, who in turn was a former member of the Moran gang and in fact he was the one who lured the Moran group that faithful day when all of them ended up massacred by hundreds of machinegun bullets. So Newberry became a close associate of the Capone Mob, especially Paul Ricca, and story goes that he even received a diamond belt buckle personally from Capone himself, regarding the nicely done job. So Newberry allegedly was the one who made the connection between Cermak and the Italian syndicate, and according to one FBI memo, Cermak allegedly promised the Capone Mob all rights in operating the lucrative policy racket around the city of Chicago, in exchange for him to receive the Mayor position and of course a percentage from the proceedings.


The next year, or in 1931, Cermak was elected Chicago's 36th mayor by defeating “Big Bill” Thompson and immediately established a Democratic stranglehold in the mayor's office, which quickly built the strength of the Democratic Party by also bringing together old enemies within the group. Cermak obviously felt powerful and during his whole lifetime he was a very ambitious guy, but maybe too ambitious for a man in his position. As I previously stated that during his political carer, Cermak was mostly backed by Irish, Pollack or Slovakian racketeers and gangsters and I also remember reading some articles in which he was described that sometimes he used foul language regarding Italian gangsters or Italians in general, and so my point is that he possibly waited for the right moment to turn his back on the Capone Mob. And that moment came that same lucky year for Cermak’s career, when Al Capone was imprisoned and was also taken out from Chicago’s underworld scene and so many old and hidden enemies decided to take over his criminal empire. And obviously one of those factions was the Cermak/Newberry alliance who suddenly decided that Prohibition was almost over and they needed another racket, which was gambling. So when the Capone Mob came asking for approval and backup from Cermak, he obviously realised that the Caponites were after the policy racket since it was their next huge financial income. You see, someone probably assured Cermak that with their complete control over the policy racket, he would become the richest guy in the city of Chicago. So he obviously made a plan for “selling” the rights to the previous “owners”, which meant the Jones brothers and the African-American crime syndicates and to simply takeout the next-in-line boss of the Capone Mob, which they all thought it was Frank Nitto. The thing was that Nitto was the guy who they regularly saw regarding the Outfit’s interests and in fact I truly believe that he was in fact Capone’s number two guy at the time. But that same year when Capone was sent to prison, Nitto received a softer treatment of only 18 months imprisonment, and so Cermak and Newberry thought that after finishing his short sentence, Nitto would’ve taken over the Capone Mob and with him gone, the Caponites would run for their lives. Obviously neither Newberry, nor Cermak understood the Mafia and its own way of regrouping in their ranks, but still they waited for the right time.


In 1932, Nitto was out and so the Cermak/Newberry faction allegedly made the first move for eliminating their “main” target. To tell you the truth, the duo orchestrated one quite known move by sending two corrupt police detectives so the whole thing would look like a raid and quickly kill their target right there on the spot and in the end to say that it happened in a self defence. So on December 19, 1932, in a gangland fashion, two detectives from Chicago’s police squad, Harry Miller and Henry Lang, went to Nitto’s office at 221 N. LaSalle Street, and the duo entered through the door, disarmed the four bodyguards and handcuffed the alleged crime boss. Suddenly detective Lang took a military position and fired five shots into Nitto’s body and quickly after that, the duo left the scene. Miraculously Nitto managed to survive and slowly recovered in a hospital, and that’s where Cermak and Newberry made a huge mistake by thinking that with Nitto out of the picture or “with the head dead, the body dies”, but the problem was that neither the alleged “head” was dead, nor the Capone Mob was really damaged by the situation because since Capone’s and Nitto’s imprisonments, the group was headed by other individuals who held the organization strong. I mean Nitto wasn’t the top boss but still he was very powerful and highly regarded captain who was in charge of the Near North Side, meaning a non-Sicilian became the boss of the territory which used to be the heart of the old Sicilian Mafia. Obviously Newberry was the one who at least understood the streets and with Nitto still being alive, he knew that the Caponites were coming after him and so he fled the city but less than a month later, or on January 3, 1933, he was found dead in Indiana, riddled by several shotgun blasts.


So on one of his pages, Steve Shukis claims or made a conclusion that there is no real proof for Cermak ordering the hit on Frank Nitto, and it is possible that during his alleged war on gangsters, he gave “free-reign” or free pass for some of the police squads to harass and assault all high profile Chicago gangsters, which according to Shukis, was possibly the main reason for the Outfit’s alleged wish for wanting Cermak dead. This is completely untrue since there’s one FBI memo which might be the only proof that Cermak swindled the Outfit regarding the policy racket and gave it to the previous owners a.k.a. the African-American syndicate, which was possibly the main reason or beginning for the long time quarrel between the black syndicates and the Outfit regarding that same racket. So maybe Shukis’ claims that the Newberry/Cermak alliance being non-existent might be true, but obviously the Jones/Cermak alliance and the swindling of the Outfit were two quite real situations. On top of that, at the time Cermak’s daughter was fooling around with one Mob associate known as Otto Kerner, who after Cermak’s death, or the next year, married his daughter and a decade later became a U.S. States Attorney and Outfit associate. So my point is that Cermak possibly was already tied to the Outfit but for some reasons he swindled them and allegedly became their target. Another interesting info is that after the imprisonment of Al Capone in 1932, two Outfit members Jake Guzik and Murray Humphreys tried to refine the operations of the old Capone Mob and to intensify the cultivation of political and police officials, which will be friendlier to the Outfit and obviously Cermak was standing in their way. Here are some of the documents and reports:

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=87554&relPageId=9&search=mayor_cermak

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=142181&relPageId=145&search=mayor_cermak

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Kerner_Jr.

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html...61&tab=page (this report starts from the previous page, from the last sentence)


So after looking at some of the facts and also circumstances which surrounded Mayor Cermak, we can obviously form a conclusion that he had come from long way back and also possessed deep Mob-connections and also had the power of having the last word on who was going to illegally run what in his own city, especially in the sphere of the gambling business. Also I can’t confirm if he had something against the Italian crime syndicates or the Italians in general, but all I know is that he obviously was against the Capone Mob and wanted to remain as the top overseer of all vice in Chicago, which was a huge “no, no” in the eyes of the Capone crime syndicate.


According to some reports, after the Newberry murder, Mayor Cermak was warned several times by government agents that he was probably in trouble since they allegedly noticed that he was being followed by quite suspicious individuals. For example, he was allegedly warned by his associates regarding the gangsters who were following him and that it was all reported to the police and the FBI. Also story goes that Cermak was also warned by couple of his other close friends in the political world that rumours were floating for his future assassination but according to one of his close associates, Cermak always said that he was the Mayor and no one dared to touch him. Still he was convinced to buy himself a bullet-proof vest and moved into a different apartment and he even increased the number of his bodyguards from two to five and placed guards at the homes of his two daughters.


So I believe that we can make another conclusion regarding Cermak’s situation after the Newberry murder that the Mayor was obviously fearing for his own life and also for the lives of his loved ones, since he obviously realized the mistake and also the danger in which he implicated himself.


So when the cops received all the complaints and secret infos that the Mayor’s life was in danger, they quickly began following all suspects from the Capone Mob who allegedly had the ability and connections to pull off such a job. I believe that the gangsters were quite aware of their small chances of getting the Mayor in Chicago, so they probably waited for the perfect moment, or in other words, they waited for the Mayor to leave town and start moving around. So on February 12, 1933, word went out, that Cermak was in Florida and was about to attend the speech of President Franklin Roosevelt in Miami, on February 15, or three days later. Now, if the gangsters really wanted to kill the Mayor, they obviously did not have a lot of time for preparations since Cermak was obviously a high profile and very well secured target, meaning if they wanted to accomplish something, they needed to start with the logistics right away. Now coincidence was that on February 14, or less than 24 hours before the gathering, Capone members William White and Vincenzo Gibaldi a.k.a. Jack McGurn were arrested at the train station in Chicago, while waiting for their lift to Florida, and so they were questioned for their plans in Miami and later they were arrested and allegedly held at the police station in Chicago until the next morning or in other words, until the whole thing passed down in Florida.


According to my research, during this period McGurn’s rarely killed but he was the main suspect or alleged logistician for many of the contract killings which occurred during that period or previously. Also his business was in Chicago instead of Florida, since he allegedly answered to the Cicero group and only one guy from that crew had constant business down there and that was Ralph Capone, the boss of that same crew. My point is that by this time there other Capone members who were in charge for their interests around the Florida area besides Capone, such as Jake Guzik or Johnny Patton and Eddie O’Hare. And as for Willie White, I believe that there’s no need to say anything regarding his personal profile since he was one of the most murderous individuals. In plane words, these guys were professional and quite violent extortionists and also professional killers, who kidnapped or killed anyone who stood in their way, including cops. The main point here is that they were also good logisticians for orchestrating kidnappings, bombings and above all, contract killings. But the problem is that many Mob historians and sceptics say that there was no chance for McGurn and White to go down to Florida out of obvious reasons, and to eliminate their target and the problem here is that many of these sceptics never really explored the world of the Mafia. First of all, both White and McGurn were quite known faces, not just in Chicago, but also all around the country including Florida. So no Mafia boss would ever place these two famous killers in front of dozens of bodyguards, police men and secret service agents, and between hundred of attendees and newspaper men. There was no chance for them two to not get noticed by these people, which means that if they wanted for the job to be done obviously they would’ve used someone from the “outside” or some who had almost no ties to their organization or as some called them “out-of-town men”. This is something which occurred quite often during the days of Prohibition and also it is well documented. So what the hell were White and McGurn doing that same day on train station?! They were obviously waiting for their ride to Miami, and so the next question is, what was their purpose down there?! They obviously knew about the huge political gathering and they were also aware of the number of cops on the streets, so as I previously stated that there was no chance for them to get even near the gathering, but possibly they were “forced” to go there and overlook something. Or maybe it was decoy or a diversion for the cops to think that they got the wannabe assassins?! According to my long time research on the Chicago Outfit, I can assure you that during this period, the Mob quite often used assassins who recently came or were brought by some other party from a different city to eliminate the problem. You see, when al Capone came on the scene, the media and newspaper men went crazy about these fellas and so they constantly followed them and took pictures of them, and this was just one of the main reasons for changing their murder logistics. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes they still personally killed each other but when it came to high profile and highly secured targets, they used other and more skilful people.


So Shukis claims that neither White nor McGurn could’ve not arrived in Miami since both of them were locked up for the night on February 14, or the previous day before the gathering occurred which they would’ve needed additional time to reach the location by train. But as I previously stated that Shukis obviously forgot regarding the possibility that maybe it was decoy or a diversion for the cops to think that they got the wannabe assassins. Again, according to my long time research on the Chicago Outfit, I can assure you that during this period, the Mob quite often used all kinds of alibis, decoys, professional tactics and assassins just to eliminate their problem. They often used military tactics, huge payoffs and every possible tool for creating their logistics on some particular contract killing. For example, when the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre occurred, the cops found a trail of evidences which led straight to Claude Maddox but the thing was that he had a strong alibi, meaning he was in court during the shootings. Even the Judge stepped in Maddox’s defence, who later came out to be one of their puppets. So this is only a theory but maybe McGurn and White were sitting there on purpose so they can get noticed by the police and get themselves arrested, while the real assassin took the train, who knows?!


So now we can make a third conclusion that the cops were quite aware of the Mayor’s situation and they probably followed the most dangerous members from the Capone Mob, before they went down to Miami, arrested them and later transferred them back to Chicago’s police station. It was a simple tactic to show the gangsters that they were not allowed in that area until the President’s gathering was over. In fact, the Chicago police was the only department at the time which constantly gave warnings regarding the dangerous situation.


So the day has come on February 15, when among the thirty or more noted political visitors and local leaders on the platform at Bayfront Park, also present was Mayor Cermak. Now all of those political leaders who attended the gathering had their own chauffeurs who in turn some also acted as their security guards but the main thing was that President Roosevelt, besides being always followed by his huge security, he was also watched by ten Secret Service men, who often followed him when he toured around or out of the country. And on top of that, there were also Cermak’s security guys who carefully watched for any familiar faces in the crowd, who might’ve belong to Chicago’s underworld, which proves my previous point regarding the two Caponites on the train station. My point is that there was so much security at that particular gathering, which means that not even a simple fly had no kind of chances in getting even near any of the political officials. When President Roosevelt arrived in his presidential automobile, suddenly he singled out Mayor Cermak for a greeting and later the President stood on the back seat of his car and spoke briefly to the crowd. There were great cheers and as he finished, and Cermak immediately rose from his seat and stepped to the front of the stand. He leaned over so he can again shook hands with Mr. Roosevelt and later the Mayor moved away. While Cermak stood few feet away from the President’s car, there was a startling interruption when at that moment allegedly five shots rang out. One quite short man, who stood 9 meters from the President, between two or three rows of spectators, began yelling and started shooting. The first shot missed the President who quickly slid down under the backseat, but somehow the target continued shooting four more times. As I previously stated that Cermak was only a few feet away from the President, and the same distance as near as Mr. Roosevelt to the man with the pistol. When the smoke cleared, Cermak received a bullet in his stomach, or below his last rib and five other individuals, who stood behind him, were also injured, while President Roosevelt remained unharmed. Cermak died 19 days later from complications which occurred from the bullet, not from the bullet hole or the pierced body part. The assassin was declared as anarchist who missed his original target which was the President, and just twelve days after Cermak’s death, he was executed by the government. Here’s a video of the assassination attempt and a short interview with Joe Zangara, and another one of the Mayor’s funeral: (for further explanations, please notice and remember Zangara’s relaxed body position and face while answering the questions, which in turn are all answered in some kind of cynical style and used sentences such as “his a capitalist” and “because my stomach hurts…yeah”)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EBxpnczKZk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OA5_XPxdrPU


Now let’s look at the situation like this…the guy who did the shooting came out be one Italian or Calabrian immigrant, known as Joe Zangara who worked as bricklayer and decided to visit the gathering so he can eliminate his target, which allegedly was the President himself. According to the main investigating reports, Zangara was “obsessed” with the urge to kill a King or a President, since through all of his life time he allegedly hated capitalists. And so when he read the newspapers that Mr. Roosevelt was coming down to Miami, that’s when he allegedly decided to go for the kill and to satisfy his crazy desire. So the main investigators at the time came to a conclusion that Zangara was in fact some kind of anarchistic individual who came to kill the President of the U.S. but instead missed and managed to wound Mayor Cermak and several other people, including Mrs. Gill the wife of the president of Florida Power and Light Company at the time, one chauffer, one club owner and one retired New York policeman who also guarded the President that same day, and in the end one secret service agent known as Robert Clark. So if you ever saw a picture of Zangara, you’ll remember that he was quite short individual, with only five feet and one inch tallness, which means that it was quite tough for him to rose above all of the cheering spectators in front of him and to hit his target. And the answer for that was that he fought his way to the second row and got up on empty chair and that’s how he got his clear aim. The main problem regarding the Cermak/Zangara case is that the general story is made out of more than few conflicting reports. For example, when the motor engines started running, the two politicians, the President-elect and the Mayor of Chicago, stopped their conversation and began moving away from each other and that’s when the assassin started shooting. So the assassin obviously waited for the two individuals to part from each other so he can hit his main target, which according to him was the President but it ended up being the Mayor, who already stepped away.


You see, if we stood in front of the President’s limo, the Mayor was standing from the right side of the car, which was the opposite side from which the assassin took the shots. So the Mayor was standing with his face towards the assassin while talking to the President who was also standing in his car and when the engines began running, the two individuals slowly backed off from each other, and that’s when the shooting began and the Mayor received one bullet under his last rib or in his stomach, which is a proof that he was really backing away from the President and was turned with his right side towards the assassin, instead of standing and shaking hands while the shooting occurred. Also another one of the conflicting reports stated that after the first shot, Zangara began shooting in the crowd around him, but looks like that wasn’t the case since according to one eye witness, when Zangara took aim at his target, his hand was “jogged” or in other words, steady and “frozen” as he took the first shot. So according to another close eye witness, or Mrs. Cross, said that she stood near Zangara and was quite offended by his rudeness, obviously when he popped up on the chair and when she heard the first shot, she “bravely” grabbed his arm which allegedly was the reason for his four missed shots. Later it turned out that Mrs. Cross was lying about grabbing the assassins arm, but instead after hearing the first shot, she began panicking and unintentionally bumped the chair on which Zangara was standing on and made him miss his main target four times. So this means that Zangara remained on the chair after the first shot, possibly so he can get his target again or possibly to try and hit his alleged real target which was the President. So if that’s true then even with difficulties for holding his gun, Zangara somehow managed to empty his pistol and also managed to hit five more people. According to his own words, Zangara said that after missing his target with the first shot, he emptied his gun hopefully so he would get killed by the cops and security. I wonder if his aim wasn’t allegedly bungled by the lady, would’ve all the bullets ended up in Cermak’s body, since after hearing the first shot, the President slid down under his back seat?! Obviously we’ll never know that but I know one thing for sure, if that ever occurred, there would’ve been no doubts about the whole thing being a Mob hit.


So I believe that we can make another conclusion, that Zangara was 9 meters away from his target, with at least a dozen of cheering fans in front of him, and he used .32 caliber five-shot revolver, which was emptied at his target, while he stood on a chair. Zangara was allegedly aiming straight at the President, who in turn was standing in his car, with Mayor Cermak standing few feet left from him. Many researchers say that the shooting occurred while the President and the Mayor were shaking hands which is false since nothing happened until Cermak moved a couple of feet from Mr. Roosevelt. That’s when the alleged assassin decided to fire his gun one time and later he emptied all of the remaining bullets from his gun in the same direction or in Cermak’s direction. One proof was that one of the bullets entered his body, and the rest of the four bullets ended up in people who stood behind or besides Mayor Cermak, which means that none of the bullets entered or even grazed the President’s body or car or anyone who stood nearby or behind him, even though the distance between him and Cermak was only few feet away. So my point is that either Zangara was a terrible shooter, since it would be shameful for me to say that the universe decided to turn on the “law of bad karma” and suddenly one quite corrupted political individual received a bullet in his gut, instead of the supposed target.

When the cops questioned him from where did he bought or received the gun, Zangara quickly answered that he allegedly bought it from a guy named Gordon Davis, who in turn was a Miami pawn broker. Davis sold the gun to Zangara with an ammo pack of ten bullets. Later the cops questioned Davis who allegedly told them that he had known Zangara for “quite some time” and also admitted that he was the one who sold him the revolver. He simply said that Zangara visited him at his pawnshop and purchased the weapon. The thing was that Zangara’s weapon wasn’t a problem at all, since they found it in his hand right there on the scene and later compared the bullets which were taken out from the surviving victims and it was confirmed that it came from Zangara’s gun. The problem was that Davis allegedly admitted having a criminal record back in Chicago, but denied any connections to the Capone Mob and the thing was that the detectives knew that during those days Miami was a Mob heaven for retired racketeers and refugees and also an open territory for all gangsters around the country. But even in this story there’s some conflicting information, like for example Davis stated that he knew Zangara for quite some time and this was in February, 1933, while Zangara arrived in Miami somewhere around August, 1932, and story goes that he did get out much. So this means that Zangara was down there for only five months, which maybe for Davis himself represented “quite some time”. My point is that Davis lied since he was possibly pressed by the investigators regarding Zangara’s obvious symptoms of suspicious behaviour and so he had to tell them that he allegedly knew him for quite a while and so he thought that everything was alright. Now I wonder if Davis also lied regarding his non-existing syndicate connection?! So obviously there’s no proof of Davis having or not having syndicate connections, but still there’s one quite confusing moment which again brings up the “syndicate” question.


So the next conclusion would be that Zangara bought his weapon from one former Chicago criminal who resided in Miami and there’s obviously not even a shred of evidence about any Mob involvement in the assassination, but on the other hand, there’s too much coincidence in the story and reports, meaning a Chicago guy selling a gun to the assassin, while the Mayor was having problems with the whole Chicago Mob at the time.


You see, if you start researching the story, you might find many myths such as the bullet in Cermak’s stomach being .45 caliber instead of .32 caliber, which was Zangara’s gun, and so it quickly brings the conspiracy theory that there was some imaginary second shooter in the crowd, other than Zangara. That’s obviously false since the autopsy records showed that all of the bullets, including the one in the late Mayor Cermak, were .32 caliber. Steve Shukis also claims that the imaginary .45 caliber bullet is a pure myth and I also agree but later he states that “the science of ballistics was still in infancy in early 1933, and considering that there were thousands of witnesses to the shooting and immediate apprehension, and a complete confession, it doesn’t seem like a ballistics report would have been deemed necessary.” Now, if you ask me there’s more than one conflicting information in Shukis’ statement, like for example the first one is that the science of ballistics was not in the early stage of development. Proof for that were the ballistics investigations in a scientific crime detection laboratory which occurred by the end of 1929, or four years before the Cermak assassination. They were already able to investigate bullets from the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, like acquiring guns and bullets from the police stations to determine whether the actual shooters were in fact real police officers. Or in 1931, when the cops raided Fred Burke’s house and they found two Tommy guns, which again with the help of ballistics tests proved that both of the guns had been used in the St. Valentine's Day massacre and those same tests also showed that one of them had been used in the murder of gangster Frankie Yale few years earlier.


The second conflicting info in Shukis’ statement is the non-existing .45 caliber bullet, which instead was followed by the real report of .32 caliber bullets being used in the shooting but the problem for me personally is that there was no kind of ballistics report, which obviously would have been quite important for the investigations. You see, Shukis states that everything ended with a total of 8 “hits” on 6 victims with only five bullets. So yeah I believe that this is quite confusing and one thorough ballistics test and report would’ve been great, instead of receiving only doctors’ reports. Shukis also states that it is “impossible” to track the trajectory of the bullets or bullet fragments, which again I’ll disagree that it is not impossible since that’s the main point of a ballistics report. Also if you look at some of the diagrams on Shukis’ site, you’ll notice the picture which says “scene 4:shots fired” that Zangara did not fire a single shot until Cermak got near the President’s car, made a conversation and then backed off, the same moment when the shooting occurred and one bullet went into Cermak’s direction and the second in one person from his left side far behind him, which again means that the first two bullets went into his direction, not the President’s who was on his right side. Even the last diagram, which is a little bit conflicting, but still you’ll notice that Cermak is on the President’s right side and again most of the bullets are in his direction. Here are Shukis’ diagrams:

http://chicagotruecrime.com/cermak-part-iii.html


Shukis was not the only one, who stated that there were six victims hit by five bullets, since there was another similar statement in the 1958 Florida Historical Quarterly Report, which was written by Nathan D. Shapee, Professor of History at the University of Miami, who delivered his report regarding the Zangara case at the annual meeting in Tampa, Florida. The so-called conflicting info is that on page 101, where Professor Shapee talks about all of the main people, who were involved in the tragedy, but he also talks about whom else received a bullet besides Cermak and in the end he finished his sentence with a “sixth bullet” ending up on the ground. Then on page 104, the Professor stated that “Zangara shot through a crowd of people around him, shot through a group of people around Roosevelt’s car and wounded “six people with five shots”. I know that you can already see the conflicting information, meaning at first he stated that 5 people were wounded, including Cermak, with 5 shots and a 6th one ending up on the ground, and later he states that 6 people were wounded with 5 shots. I mean there are a lot of sixes in only two sentences but on different places. If anything of this is true, then I can somehow explain the six people being wounded with five bullets, but what about the sixth bullet in the ground, which again bring the question on why there was no kind of ballistics tests? Because if there was really a sixth bullet on the ground, and Zangara’s used a five-bullet pistol, than this obviously can raise the question in the minds of many conspiracy theorists, if there really was another shooter with the same calibre, which sounds more realistic rather than the one myth regarding the .45 caliber. Maybe the Professor made a mistake but for me personally this is the most confusing moment since nobody heard or reported a sixth shot, except for the previous five which allegedly all came from Zangara’s .32 caliber pistol. Maybe it was only a bullet fragment in the ground? Or maybe fragments from that same bullet went into some of the victims? Maybe the second “imaginary” shooter used the same moment when Zangara was empting his pistol and took a shot at the same time when one of Zangara’s bullets blasted out, which is something almost impossible but you can never really tell with the old timers. Here’s the Shapee report:

http://ucf.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/ucf%3A22370/datastream/OBJ/view/The_Florida_historical_quarterly.pdf


The main conclusion this time would be that Zangara managed to hurt six people with five shots and the most important thing to remember is that no kind of ballistics investigations or reports were ever made by the authorities, except for the reports which were sent by the doctors who pulled out the bullets and fragments from the victims. So because of that there’s no hard evidence or additional info regarding any sixth bullet, since the assassin used a five-bullet pistol. If there really was a sixth bullet, than that’s the kind of info which would change the whole investigation.


As I previously stated that Zangara took his first steady shot from almost 9 meters away from the President’s car and Mayor Cermak, and anyone who ever held a gun and took a shot from that kind of distance, knows that he or she doesn’t need any kind of special skills for hitting the prime target. Shukis stated that “We might assume that Zangara was taught how to shoot a rifle in the army, but nothing suggests that he had any special ability or training. His job assignments reflect that his superiors considered him better suited for basic labor than a highly skilled “marksman” or “sharpshooter”“. I completely agree with Shukis regarding Zangara being better suited for the basic stuff, but we can assume that something else was the reason for that, like for example his obvious mental and health problems. I mean no kind of military captain or lieutenant, who was right in his mind, would’ve let a guy such as Zangara to hold a rifle 24/7, even if he was the best shooter out there, which would’ve made him even more dangerous for everyone around him. The main problem for me personally is that this information regarding Zangara’s passive military activity is that all of this information comes from Zangara’s own words, since his military record was somehow destroyed during World War II, and the thing was that Zangara’s could’ve said or wrote anything, since he obviously was an individual who needed a psychiatric and medical help. So my point is that we can only speculate regarding his military skills, but I know one thing for sure that Zangara obviously went through a shooting training more than a couple of times, and because of some reason for which we don’t have a clue about, allegedly brought him in the lower level of the military hierarchy. You see the basic shooting training with a rifle at the time started from 15 meters range distance the least, meaning he possibly did go through that same basic training and obviously felt the power of a rifle. So, when he took a .32 caliber pistol and took one clear and steady shot from only 9 meters, Zangara somehow managed to “miss” his alleged “prime” target, which allegedly was the President himself, and hit Cermak who was more than few feet distance from the “prime” target. My point is that for a guy that possibly went through some kind of military shooting course, missing his alleged prime target for more than few feet, from only 9 meters with a clear shot, sounds a little bit strange.


So let’s assume that with someone’s help, meaning some unknown individual passed Zangara a similar gun and gave him some basic training. There’s nothing odd in this kind of statement since the Chicago Outfit or the Mob at the time, was known for previously training its future assassins regarding their shooting skills so they can perfectly complete their job. For example, it was reported that after the 1932 spectacular assassination of Chicago racketeer George “Red” Barker, the cops found a makeshift target range and according to many witnesses, a couple of men were seen there shooting a Thompson at a 12 inch post the very same day before Barker was killed. So my final point is that Zangara was either a terrible shooter or a perfect one, since it would be shameful for me to say that the whole universe suddenly decided to turn on the “law of bad karma” and one corrupted and quite troubled political individual received a bullet in his gut, instead of the “supposed” target. According to some reports and also according to Shukis himself, Zangara claimed that every time he took a weapon in his hand, he would’ve felt his intense stomach pain, which is a strong proof that Zangara had both serious mental and health problems, which he continuously told that to the investigators, over and over, as the main reason for his violent act. At the same time, this can be a proof that Zangara was possibly lying since he never mentioned the kind of pain during the assassination attempt and his alleged urge to shoot to death any famous capitalist was quite huge for someone who allegedly had a problem in holding a weapon.


As a conclusion on this part of the story, I would like to say that we don’t have Zangara’s military record, except for his own word and few small reports, but I think that we can safely say that he obviously went to some sort of a shooting training, which was probably something inevitable for those days. On top of that Zangara obviously needed some kind of psychiatric or doctor’s help, which possibly was the main reason for his alleged low level military activities.


After reading some of his answers and simple health diagnostics, if you ask me Zangara was the perfect target for easy manipulation, and if anyone ever thought about it, he or she would’ve received a great “puppet”. You see, Zangara was a sick man who suffered from serious type of depression and constant hypochondriac thoughts, possibly caused by some organ difficulties and felt a lot of physical pain. In fact, he suffered from adhesions on his gallbladder, which can be often caused by the result of injury during some previous surgery. Or in other words, Zangara was suffering from post-Cholecystectomy Syndrome, which is a symptom that often appears after a gallbladder surgery. Even though it is almost impossible to predict which patient will go on to develop that kind of syndrome, still there are some strong factors that are known to increase the risk following a surgery. These factors include surgery performed for causes other than confirmed gallbladder disease, also patients with a prior history of irritable bowel syndrome or other chronic intestinal disorders, and in the end patients with a history of certain psychiatric illnesses. So my point is that Zangara was previously suffering from some kind of weak delusional disorder, which during those days was known as paranoid disorder, and after his gallbladder surgery, the situation got worst. Meaning he obviously developed serious mental illness in which a person cannot tell what is right from wrong. The main feature of this disorder is the presence of delusions, unshakable beliefs in something untrue or not based on reality. You see individuals such as Zangara with delusional disorder, often continue to function normally, apart from the subject of their delusion, and generally do not behave in an obviously odd or bizarre manner, which again explains his almost normal behaviour. So some patients, such as Zangara himself, might become too much preoccupied with their delusions that their lives become disrupted. Obvious proof for that was Zangara’s preoccupation with his desire to kill a President or some big time capitalist.


Second proof were many of Zangara’s answers which were directed to the investigators and judges such as “When did it first come to your mind to do that?” and he replied “All the time my mind is in my stomach”. Quite “reasonable” answer right?! Or another example would be when he answered again the same question in a similar way such as “When did it first come to your mind?” and then “When I get in trouble in the stomach, when it come, my head look like I am gone. You see I suffer all the time and I suffer because my father send me to work when I was a little boy…spoil my life. If I no suffer, I no have trouble. I no kill the President. If I nice, well, I no bother the President. It get in my mind…capitalists make trouble to the poor people…I am sorry I shot someone else. . . I am ready for die, no use living. . . . I am no good, stomach like a drunk man, can’t walk on street, people think I am drunk.” Again, this was another quite “reasonable” answer for one “quite sane” individual, right?! According to some of the individuals who read the court transcripts, when the investigators returned to interrogation of the motives for the attack on the President-elect, Zangara again returned to the pains in his stomach as being the main reason for the atrocity. He even allegedly stated that he was sorry for shooting Cermak and the rest of the people, but it was their fault for being in his way. Obviously no one from the victims was in his way, nor stood in front of the President, which means that Zangara was rumbling.


I’ll be honest that my personal opinion can be mostly backed again by Professor Nathan Shapee and his 1958 Florida report, in which out of obvious reasons he also argues that Zangara was insane, no questions asked. For example, when County Physician Dr. E. C. Thomas examined Zangara and attributed his pains to a nervous gastritis induced by fright, but still in the end he declared him sane. In fact, this was allegedly the first of an unchanging and endless line of opinions, which made Zangara a “sane” individual in the eyes of the public. Professor Shapee reported that the decision of the court-appointed counsel for declaring Zangara to be a “sane man” was possibly backed by the main reason or fact that he embarrassed Miami, meaning the local political administration and the President-elect, and additionally frightened the whole nation. So I personally completely agree with Shapee but I would’ve added another possibility that if there was any kind of evidence that Zangara was allegedly backed by some third party, the evidences were already “destroyed” by making him a sane person and later sentencing him to death. You see, when the “sane” Zangara really pleaded guilty to the charge of murder in his first trial and came out in public for a longer time period, story goes that many law officers and other individuals, who attended the trial, already had rejected his strange behaviour. According to Shapee, the Miami Herald at the time in one of its editorials published “Get his kind off the earth!” You can also witness that in his own report the Professor also stated that one of the judges who interrogated Zangara during the first trial, had a quite tough time in getting on single sensible story from him, but still in the end he declared the prisoner sane and sentenced him to over 80 years in prison. According to the story and evidences, in this trial that same judge had the report of a lunacy commission which he had personally appointed. On top of that the psychiatrists were not asked to rule on the man’s sanity so they described him as a “psychopathic personality”. Shappe states that he managed to read the whole court transcripts and quickly formed an opinion that Zangara was in fact “legally lynched”. The suspicious judge, who I’m referring to, went by the name of Judge E. C. Collins who in turn appointed his own three members of the Dade County Bar Association as his counsel, including Lewis M. Twyman, who was the president of the bar association; James M. McCaskill and Alfred E. Raia, an attorney of foreign extraction. So when Zangara’s defence tried to quash the charge that their client had tried to commit a murder on the four wounded persons, Judge Collins denied the motion and continued doing the same thing, especially when the defence argued that Zangara could’ve not premeditatedly tried to murder President Roosevelt and that in fact he attempted to murder someone else. So after all that rambling from Zangara and all of those limited questions, in the end “the Judge ended the questioning as soon as he found a good stopping point”, it was reported by Professor Shapee.


So in his own mind, Zangara was obviously always a nobody, with an illusion that he had no kind of hope of ever becoming somebody, and so people like that usually become simply mad and often try to impose their pain to others so everybody can understand their situation or at least, everybody can hear about it, and so their usual targets are usually famous people. In other words, sometimes they become an easy “tool” for someone else’s desires in accomplishing some atrocity. If he at least talked to a couple of people, like his uncle for example who went by the name of Vincent Cafaro, regarding his crazy ideas and violent solutions, than there’s a great possibility for that kind of information could’ve arrived at the wrong door or entered the wrong ear, since judging to his open talk after the assassination attempt, he obviously had no problem in sharing his ideas. So let’s say that Zangara probably shared some of his violent ideas and desires towards the world’s most powerful capitalists at the time with few of the people which he obviously met during his stay in the U.S. So my point is that powerful organized crime syndicates at the time such as the Capone Mob or the Chicago Outfit, obviously had the power of manipulation and in fact, manipulative people usually prey upon your good and caring nature and the reality is that Joe Zangara was that same kind of victim, meaning he somehow cared for the world, or found a “getaway door”, and felt betrayed by the so-called capitalism, since that same time period the Great Depression already spread out through the country. You see, Zangara was an individual who lost all hope so maybe the “Devil” came and gave him a hand?!


These fellas rose in the hierarchy of Chicago’s underworld by preying on sensibilities and emotional sensitivity, and they knew that they had a good chance of hooking some weak individual into some kind of imaginary relationship, since that same victim is often feeling and caring person. But obviously the reality is that they only care about what the victim can do for them. You see, by that time many of the mobsters and racketeers have mastered the art of deception and they often appeared respectable and sincere, which was a way of luring their victims in some sort of a relationship. Manipulative people are really not interested in you except as a vehicle to allow them to gain control so that you become an unwilling participant in their plans. They have several ways of doing this, as many of you will recognize and they will often take what you say and do and twist it around so that what you said and did becomes barely recognizable to you. And as I previously stated that Zangara was the perfect individual for that kind of manipulation, who probably felt respectable and gave his whole loyalty, but I also have to be honest that this will always remain as one simple theory since statements like this can never be really proved, especially in cases such as this one when the main actor is suspiciously declared sane and afterwards quickly executed.


So if it wasn’t for the Mob, then who could’ve pushed for Zangara’s fast conviction and made false reports regarding his “stable” mental state? I mean he had the right to an insanity defence trial, since the defendant obviously showed signs of paranoid delusion. For example, during the 19th century in America, some of the courts often looked to whether the defendant could distinguish between good and evil, while others asked whether the defendant did not know what he did. So by the end of the century, it was generally accepted that insanity was a question of fact, which was left to the jury to decide. You see, during those days the so-called "McNaughton rule" was a standard, which was obvious for to be applied by the jury, after hearing medical testimony from prosecution and defence experts. The whole thing started in 1800 when the British government voted the Criminal Lunatics Act, but its real significance came in 1843, in the so-called McNaughton case, where one Englishman known as Daniel McNaughton shot and killed the secretary of the British Prime Minister, believing that the Prime Minister was conspiring against him. The court later acquitted McNaughton "by reason of insanity," and he was placed in a mental institution for the rest of his life. However, the case caused a public uproar, and Queen Victoria ordered the court to develop a stricter test for insanity. So after that, the McNaughton rule became the standard for insanity in the United States and the United Kingdom, and is still the standard for insanity in almost half of the states.


So the pre-final conclusion would be that Joe Zangara was declared by the investigators as sane individual with anarchistic ideas, who just a couple of weeks after the death of Mayor Anton Cermak, which occurred on March 6, 1933, he was sentenced to the electric chair. The thing was that during his trials, his defence was unable to win any kind of motion regarding his mental state or his alleged real victim instead of the President, but the most important thing to remember was that during the 1933 trial of Zangara regarding the assassination attempt and the murder of Mayor Cermak, no kind of insanity defence was ever offered, even though the convicted felon had the right for it and showed clear signs of mental instability.


So again the question remains on whom could’ve pushed for Zangara’s fast conviction and made false reports regarding his “stable” mental state? In my own mind, I came to that answer when read another of Shukis’ statements, like the one in which he reported or again made a conclusion that “for all of their effort, and with all of their combined resources, the FBI and the Secret Service uncovered nothing to indicate that the Outfit was behind Cermak’s murder…Are we to believe that J. Edgar Hoover and the entire U.S. Secret Service were all too stupid to recognize the fact that their own files “proved” that the Mob killed Cermak?” Now I absolutely agree with Shukis that they were far from being stupid but I have few questions and my first question would be, if the Mob was really involved then wouldn’t this be a job perfectly executed? Or the second question would be, if we’re talking about the same FBI who threw away Byron Bolton’s testimony regarding the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre and according to some reports, they never really questioned the witness regarding the situation even though he admitted to it?! Or the same FBI which denied the existence of a national Mob syndicate for quite a long period, and by the time they officially announced it, the boys controlled half of the country?! Or maybe the same Secret Service which a decade later after the Cermak incident, invited the Mob, especially the Outfit’s long time allies the Luciano crime family in New York, to help in numerous operations and continued their relationship decades later?! Or later the CIA who paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to one top Chicago Mafioso, regarding the assassination of another country leader?! If you ask me, the whole thing looked like one lazy investigation in which everyone was happy that the President-elect remained untouched and the “ruthless villain” was caught and executed. Just like during the Dark ages. As for the “poor” Mayor, I believe that everyone in the higher level of political and government circles felt safer to say that there was no kind of syndicate connection in the Zangara and Cermak cases, because if something like that ever came out in public, all hell was going to break loose. The main proof for that was right after the death of the Mayor, when some of the police detectives in Chicago strongly suspected that the assassination was in fact Mob-related shooting and so they contacted the police department in Miami and gave them a list of Chicago gangsters who resided or were on a trip at the time in that area, including 18 gangsters, 12 of whom were known Chicago Outfit members and associates. But the arrests were never made because it turned out that the request had been deleted by the State's Attorney Thomas Courtney, who obviously didn’t want any of that kind of information to get out in public. But when the St. Valentine's Day Massacre occurred few years earlier, half membership of the Capone Mob was brought in for questioning and all kinds of ballistics tests were made.


The last or final conclusion would be that the FBI and the Secret Service, or the government in general, did little to uncover anything which would’ve indicate that the Chicago Outfit or the Mob was behind Cermak’s murder or tried to manipulate the assassin in any kind of way.



So now let’s try and make a list of all the previously mentioned conclusions:


1. By the early 1930’s Mayor Anton Cermak was an individual who came from long way back and also possessed deep Mob-connections and also had the power of having the last word on who was going to illegally run what in his own city, especially in the sphere of gambling business. Also I can’t confirm if he had something against the Italian crime syndicates or the Italians in general, but all I know is that he obviously swindled the Capone Mob and wanted to remain as the top overseer of all gambling vice in Chicago, which was a huge “no, no” in the eyes of the Capone crime syndicate.


2. Cermak’s situation changed after the murder of mobster Ted Newberry, since after that the he obviously feared for his own life and also for the lives of his loved ones, since he obviously realized the mistake and also the danger in which he implicated himself.


3. The Chicago police was quite aware of the Mayor’s situation and they constantly followed the most dangerous members from the Capone Mob, before they went down to Miami, arrested them and later transferred them to Chicago’s police station. It was a simple tactic to show the gangsters that they were not allowed in that area until the President’s gathering was over. In fact, the Chicago police was the only department at the time which constantly gave warnings regarding the dangerous situation.


4. After their investigations, it came out that the assassin was 9 meters away from his target, with at least a dozen of cheering fans in front of him, and he used .32 caliber five-shot revolver, which was emptied at his target, while he stood on a chair. The assassin was allegedly aiming straight at the President, who in turn was already sitting in his car, with Mayor Cermak standing few feet left from him. Many researchers say that the shooting occurred while the President and the Mayor were shaking hands which is false since nothing happened until Cermak moved a couple of feet from Mr. Roosevelt. That’s when the alleged assassin decided to fire his gun one time and later he emptied all of the remaining bullets from his gun in the same direction or in Cermak’s direction. One proof was that one of the bullets entered his body, and the rest of the four bullets ended up in people who stood behind or besides Mayor Cermak, which means that none of the bullets entered or even grazed the President’s body or car, even though the distance between him and Cermak was only few feet away.


5. The assassin bought his weapon from one former Chicago criminal who resided in Miami, and there’s no proof for any syndicate connections and also there’s no other proof or conflicting info regarding any sixth bullet, other than the one from Professor Nathan Shapee, since the assassin used a five-bullet pistol. So like I said that there’s obviously not even a shred of evidence about any Mob involvement in the assassination, but on the other hand, there’s too much coincidence in the story and reports, meaning a Chicago criminal selling a gun to the assassin, while the Mayor or the victim was having problems with the whole Chicago Mob at the time.


6. The assassin managed to hurt six people with five shots and the most important thing to remember is that no kind of ballistics investigations or reports were ever made by the authorities, except for the reports which were sent by the doctors who pulled out the bullets and fragments from the victims. So because of that there’s no hard evidence or additional info regarding any sixth bullet, since the assassin used a five-bullet pistol. If there really was a sixth bullet, than that’s the kind of info which would change the whole investigation.


7. The assassin’s military record is non-existent, except for his own word and few small reports, but I think that we can safely say that he obviously went to some sort of a shooting training, which was probably something inevitable for those days. On top of that Zangara obviously needed some kind of psychiatric or doctor’s help, which possibly was the main reason for his alleged low level military activities.


8. In the end, the assassin was declared by the investigators as sane individual with anarchistic ideas, who just a couple of weeks after the death of Mayor Anton Cermak, which occurred on March 6, 1933, he was sentenced to the electric chair. The thing was that during his trials, his defence was unable to win any kind of motion regarding his mental state or his alleged real victim instead of the President, but the most important thing to remember was that during the trial regarding the assassination attempt and the murder of the Mayor, no kind of insanity defence was ever offered, even though the convicted felon had the right for it and showed clear signs of mental instability.


9. The last or final conclusion would be that the FBI and the Secret Service uncovered nothing, or in other words, haven’t done anything special (ballistics report, insanity tests, not arresting a single Capone member after the killing) to indicate that the Chicago Outfit or the Mob was behind Cermak’s murder or tried to manipulate the assassin in any kind of way.


So the summary from all of these conclusions would be that a lot of important pieces and details are missing from the investigation and I also believe that the killing of Mayor Cermak brought some kind of stability within the world of politics and organized crime in Chicago, no matter who did it. So I can’t finish my project with an empty statement such as the one Steve Shukis used “Ironically, in the 1960’s, The Untouchables television series aired a two-part episode entitled “The Unhired Assassin” which may have gotten closer to the truth than either the mob-murder proponents, or their deniers. The fictional account depicted Nitti and the mob planning to kill Cermak, when a demented loner Giuseppe Zangara accidentally beat them to it. And that may well be the truth of that matter.” I also have to be honest that I can’t end my project and say that the Mob did it either, but I can again obviously say that a lot of pieces are missing from the puzzle and for me the health department and the judicial workers are the first suspects. So for now, the Cermak hit was done by some strange guy who missed his prime target and acted alone, the JFK hit was again done by some strange guy who was declared as “the lone gunman”, and the RFK hit was also done by some strange fella who did it for his country, BUT the Joe Colombo hit was executed by a black street hustler who suddenly decided to kill a Mob boss and give his own life, “obviously” in some kind of a Mafia conspiracy…..hmmm…..