Salvatore "Sam" Giancana (15 June 1908 – 19 June 1975) was boss of the Chicago Outfit from 1957 to 1966, succeeding Tony Accardo and preceding Sam Battaglia. Giancana was infamously involved in CIA attempts to kill Fidel Castro during the 1950s and 1960s, and he was also involved in Las Vegas casino gambling. Giancana was whacked in 1975 for his refusal to share the profits from his casinos.
Biography[]
Salvatore Giancana was born in Chicago, Illinois on 15 June 1908 to Sicilian immigrant parents, and he joined the 42 Gang as a child. Giancana became known as an excellent getaway drive, a high earner, and a vicious killer, and his reputation gained him the notice of Mafia bosses like Frank Nitti, Paul Ricca, and Tony Accardo. During the 1930s, he joined the Chicago Outfit, and he convinced Accardo to stage a take-over of Chicago's African-American lottery pay-out system after World War II. In 1952, Giancana murdered gambling boss Theodore Roe, who had killed a Chicago Outfit made man. Giancana's takeover of the gambling racket earned the family millions a year, and Accardo resigned in 1957 to allow for Giancana to become the boss, with himself serving as Giancana's consigliere.
Chicago boss[]
Giancana watching the McGuire Sisters at a club
During John F. Kennedy's presidential administration, the CIA contacted Giancana, recruiting him and other mobsters to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro. In September 1960, Giancana and Santo Trafficante, Jr. planned to use poison pills to kill Castro, but the program was cancelled ahead of the Bay of Pigs invasion of April 1961. In 1966, Giancana was deposed as operational boss by Ricca and Accardo, who made Joseph Aiuppa the new boss; he was too high-profile to be kept on as boss. He later made money from gambling operations in Mexico and Iran, and he adamantly refused to give Accardo a cut of the action, as Giancana made the money outside of the Outfit's jurisdiction, and he did so by himself. Accardo decided to have Giancana whacked on his return to the USA.
Death[]
Giancana after being shot
On 19 July 1975, Giancana had dinner with longtime associate Dominic Blasi at his house in Oak Park, Illinois, frying sausage and peppers and eating at his table. Blasi informed Giancana that Accardo was worried that he would get back together with his mistress, the singer Phyllis McGuire of the McGuire sisters; Giancana's high-profile relationship with McGuire attracted too much police attention to the family in a time when the family's leadership was constantly on trial. Giancana angrily said that McGuire was his girl, and that he would never leave her. Blasi told Giancana that he would get up to get some more wine, but he instead retrieved a silenced pistol from a drawer and shot Giancana in the back of the head several times. Giancana was killed shortly before he was due to be interviewed about John F. Kennedy's assassination.