13. Greed Does in Dangerous Mobster
Chicago mobster Sam Giancana (1908 – 1975) got his start as Al Capone’s driver and worked his way up the Chicago Outfit to become one of its highest-ranking leaders. He was pals with Frank Sinatra, and had many political ties, including to the Kennedys, whom he reportedly helped by getting JFK into the White House in 1960 with ballot stuffing shenanigans. Conspiracy theorists have long fingered him as a potential culprit in JFK’s assassination, as payback for what he viewed as ingratitude. Rather than cut the mob some slack, Kennedy’s DOJ, headed by his brother Robert, had ramped up its investigations of mafia activities.
Giancana was viewed as a loose cannon by his mafia colleagues, for his tendency to attract attention. They also saw him as a greedy pig, for his refusal to share in the gambling profits of operations he had set up in Mexico and Iran. That invited payback. After repeated attempts at persuasion failed, a hitman entered his house, evading a police protection detail, and shot him in the back of the head as he was frying sausages. The hitman then turned him over, and shot him six more times in the head and neck.
