Gus Russo maintained that while the Outfit was apparently instrumental in getting JFK elected by swinging Illinois, and they definitely had their strings crossed, including with the Marilyn Monroe thing, they were absolutely not involved in the assasination.

Which makes it odd that he used Double Cross as a source, then, because that is the premise of the whole book.

I can't remember exactly what Russo said but I think it went something like this: The Outfit helped JFK get elected, then the Kennedys f**ked over the Outfit. Robert Kennedy started coming down on organized crime like a ton of bricks and didn't care about whatever deal they'd struck. That sent Giancana into a white hot rage but, at the same time, he didn't do anything about it, least of all have Kennedy killed, as that would have brought untold heat on them, enough heat to potentially destroy the entire thing.

Recently, from what I can tell, most researchers, and I mean the people who have basically devoted their lives to the JFK assisination and are regarded as the world authority, have come to the conclusion that Oswald acted alone.

And, to contradict Russo, I think someone (Binder?) came out with a paper or an academic article that purported to definitively show that the mob never swung Illinois for JFK.

I didn't read it because that is a whole other level of nerdiness that I generally do not partake of.