Sam "Momo" Giancana ((born Salvatore Giangana) June 15, 1908 — June 19, 1975) was a famous Italian-American mobster and boss of the Chicago Outfit from 1956-66. Among his nicknames included "Mo", "Mooney" and "Sam the Cigar" "Sam Flood

Born as Salvatore Giangana to Sicilian immigrants in Little Italy, Chicago, also known as "The Patch." His father, Salvatore Giangana, operated a pushcart and later briefly owned an Italian lemon ice shop, which was later firebombed by gangland rivals of his son. It has been alleged by relatives that Salvatore would have become legitimately wealthy had he not always been forced to bail his eldest son out of prison.

Sam Giancana joined the 42 Gang, a juvenile street crew answering to political boss Joseph Esposito (mobster).[1] He soon developed a reputation for being an excellent getaway driver, a high earner and vicious killer. After Esposito's murder, which Giancana was allegedly involved in, the 42 Gang was transformed into a de facto extension of the Chicago Outfit. Giancana's leadership qualities and knack for making money on the street gained him the notice of Outfit higher ups like Frank Nitti and Paul Ricca.

After serving a term in the Illinois State Prison System, Giancana made a name for himself by forcing Chicago's African-American bookmakers to pay a Street Tax to the Outfit. Giancana's crew is believed to have been responsible for the murder of Teddy Roe, an African-American mob boss from the South Side, Chicago. Roe had allegedly refused to pay the street tax Giancana had demanded and had fatally shot a member of Giancana's crew.

The amount of money that the Southside gambling war had produced for the Outfit was staggering and brought him further notice. It is believed to have been a major factor in his being anointed as the Outfit's new boss when Tony Accardo retired in 1962. Giancana was purported to have been present at the 1957 Apalachin Meeting of the American Mafia.

It is widely reputed and partially exposed in the Church Committee Hearings that Giancana and other mobsters had been recruited by the CIA during the Kennedy administration to assassinate Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, who had taken power in January 1959. Giancana was himself reported to have said that the CIA and the Outfit are "different sides of the same coin."[

However, Sam's daughter, Antoinette Giancana, has stated her belief that her father was running a scam in order to pocket millions of dollars in CIA funding.[2]

According to the recently-declassified CIA "Family Jewels" documents, Giancana and Miami Syndicate leader Santos Trafficante were contacted in September, 1960, about the possibility of an assassination attempt by a go-between from the CIA, Robert Maheu, after Maheu had contacted Johnny Roselli, a member of the Las Vegas Syndicate and Giancana's number-two man. Maheu had presented himself as a representative of numerous international business firms in Cuba that were being expropriated by Castro. He offered $150,000 for the "removal" of Castro through this operation (the documents suggest that neither Roselli nor Giancana and Trafficante accepted any sort of payments for the job). According to the files, it was Giancana who suggested using a series of poison pills that could be used to doctor Castro's food and drink. These pills were given by the CIA to Giancana's nominee Juan Orta, whom Giancana presented as being a corrput official in the new Cuban government, and who had access to Castro. After a series of six attempts to introduce the poison into Castro's food, Orta abruptly demanded to be let out of the mission, handing over the job to another, unnamed participant. Later, a second attempt was mounted through Giancana and Trafficante using Dr. Anthony Verona, the leader of the Cuban Exile Junta, who had, according to Trafficante, become "disaffected with the apparent ineffectual progress of the Junta". Verona requested $10,000 in expenses and $1,000 worth of communications equipment. However, it is unclear how far the second attempt went, as the entire program was cancelled shortly thereafter due to the launching of the Bay of Pigs invasion. [3] [4] [5]

At the same time, Giancana, according to the "Family Jewels," approached Maheu to bug the room of his then-mistress Phyllis McGuire, whom he suspected of having an affair with comedian Dan Rowan. Although documents suggest Maheu acquiesced, the bug was not planted due to the arrest of the agent tasked with planting the device. According to the documents, Robert Kennedy moved to block the prosecution of the agent and of Maheu, who was soon linked to the bugging attempt, at the CIA's request. [6] [7]


Downfall
Giancana's behavior was too high profile for the Outfit's taste, and attracted far too much federal scrutiny. He also refused to cut his underlings in on his lavish profits from offshore casinos in Iran and Central America. Both of these factors resulted in much bitterness among the Outfit's rank and file.

As a result, Sam Giancana was deposed as boss by Tony Accardo and replaced by Joey Aiuppa. After several years of exile inside a lavish villa in Cuernavaca, Mexico, Giancana was arrested by Mexican authorities and deported back to the United States.


] Murder Victim
Shortly after returning to Chicago, Giancana was shot in the back of the head on 19 June 1975 while frying Italian sausage and peppers in the basement of his home in Oak Park, Illinois. After falling, his body was turned over and shot a further six times in the face and chin. It was believed by investigators that his murderer was a close friend whom he had let into the house. At the time he was scheduled to appear before a Senate committee investigating CIA and Outfit collusion in plots to assassinate Fidel Castro.

Some have alleged that the CIA was responsible for the shooting as Giancana had a somewhat troubled history with the agency. However, former CIA Director William Colby has been quoted as saying, "We had nothing to do with it."

Most investigators believe that Joey Aiuppa, Giancana's onetime friend and successor as Chicago Outfit boss, was responible for ordering the hit on the disgraced former Godfather.

Giancana had reportedly continued in his refusal to share the profits from his offshore gambling operations and was also scheming about how to regain his former post as boss. According to former Outfit associate Michael J. Corbitt, Aiuppa seized control of Giancana's casinos in the aftermath of the murder, strategically sharing them with his capos.

It is widely believed that longtime friend and associate Dominick "Butch" Blasi was Giancana's assassin. Other Outfit suspects are Harry Aleman, Chuckie English, and Anthony Spilotro.

Giancana was interred next to his wife Angelina in a family mausoleum at Mount Carmel Cemetery (Hillside) in Hillside, Illinois.


Giancana is the subject of several biographies, one of which, Mafia Princess, was written by his daughter Antoinette and filmed in a poorly reviewed TV movie starring Tony Curtis as Giancana. A 1995 HBO movie named Sugartime depicts Giancana's relationship with Phyllis McGuire of The McGuire Sisters, with Sam being played by John Turturro. Other movie portrayals of Giancana include Oscar winner Rod Steiger in the miniseries Sinatra and Robert Miranda in the HBO movie The Rat Pack. Cable company TNT is working on a six hour miniseries of the life of Sam Giancana. Influential mafioso-rapper Kool G Rap had once stated that the "G" in his name had stood for Giancana and even released an album called The Giancana Story.


Urban Legends
It is also widely reputed that, at roughly the same time, Joseph P. Kennedy recruited Giancana to help mobilize labor union voter and financial support behind his son Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy in the latter's bid to become the Democratic Party's nominee for the 1960 Presidential election; the alleged point of contact between the elder Kennedy and Giancana is widely alleged to have been Frank Sinatra. (What is not in dispute is that Joseph Kennedy was a rumrunner and bootlegger who had had extensive dealings with the Chicago Outfit during Prohibition.) It is also been suggested that Giancana rigged the West Virginia Democratic primary, at the elder Kennedy's behest, in order to demonstrate that a Roman Catholic candidate could win in an overwhelmingly Protestant State. (The HBO film, The Rat Pack dramatizes these alleged events)