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The Mafia did it.


Guest Stephen Turner

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Guest Stephen Turner

AmericanMafia.com

When challanged to define organised crime RFK replied "dont define it, do something about it."

Kennedy personally fought hard for, and secured legislation originally proposed by the Kefauver committee, but ignored by Congress, to fight oganised crime on a National basis. To get the job done at the Justice Dept's criminal division, Kennedy brought in Jack Miller to run things. Kennedy made sure that a secure friend was placed in charege of the IRS, a friend who understood Kennedy-think; meaning that the sole purpose of the IRS was not to raise money for the Government, but to harass gangsters, and, as it turned out, anybody who annoyed the Kennedy's. as a result, theIRS man-hours of participation in organised crime cases rose from 8,836 in 1960 to 96,182 in 1963.

The results were staggering. Kennedy's Justice Dept was able to bring 288 tax cases (mostly evasion) against the estimated 5,000 Mafioso operating in the United States in 1963. As John Kennedy told the writer Jack Anderson, he was aware that the Mob had stolen the election for him and as a result, he needed to attack them to show that he would not be beholden to them. So if organised crime came round the White House with its hand out, they would chop it off.

The once structured world of Organised crime was collapsing around them, all across America, hundreds of hoods were under investigation or indicment by the Justice Dept, under surveillance by the FBI, and most dangerously of all, their enormous incomes were under scrutiny by the IRS. In Chicago, the immigration servic was deporting Paul Ricca, the IRS was hounding Tony Accardo and a conviction looked positive, Sam Giancana was lockstepped, the outfits private piggy-bank, the teamsters pension fund was under scrutiny, as were the casino's it owned, and Jimmy Hoffa was going to Jail. It was so bad that Joey Auippa, one of Giancana's best soldiers, was arrested under the Federal Migratory Bird Protection act after federal agents found edible doves in his freezer. It wasn't going to end either. everyone agreed that JFK would easily win re-election against Goldwater in the 1964 election. it was kill, or be killed, and for the bosses it was a simple selection, they would have to strike first, and assassinate the President of the United States. And afterwards, enter Jack Ruby...

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Guest Stephen Turner

Like everyone else in America the Mob assumed that Kennedy would name Ramsey Clarke Jr. as his Attorney General, which would have been a stroke of luck for O/C because when Clarke's father had been A/G under Truman, the Mob prospered. As Murry Humphreys said "Attorney General Tom Clarke was, he always was 100%for doing favours.

But jfk stunned everyone when he named his Brother as A/G. L/A gangster Mickey Cohen summed up RFK's appointment for the entire Mob when he said "Nobody in my line of work had no idea (sic) that he was going to name Bobby A/G, that was the last thing anybody thought."

The mob wasn't sure where it stood with Bobby until his first press conference, when he announced that as his top priority, the Justice dept was going after O/C, "If we do not, Kennedy said, "on a National scale, attack organised criminals with weapons, and techniques as effective as their own, they will destroy us."

RFK was never clear on who he meant by us...

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RFK is the only attorney general that I can recall who really had an agenda (destroying organized crime, though he was also trying to destroy Castro of course). The others have seemed content to perform their primary duty of protecting the president, whoever he may be at the time, in his various criminal activities. I suppose that the fate of JFK and RFK may in fact be why AGs have chosen not to have agendas. And anyway protecting criminal presidents has certainly become a full-time job.

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RFK is the only attorney general that I can recall who really had an agenda (destroying organized crime, though he was also trying to destroy Castro of course). The others have seemed content to perform their primary duty of protecting the president, whoever he may be at the time, in his various criminal activities. I suppose that the fate of JFK and RFK may in fact be why AGs have chosen not to have agendas. And anyway protecting criminal presidents has certainly become a full-time job.

It's too bad that Reagan's first Attorney General, William French Smith, didn't

take on the task of continuing the work of the HSCA. Then again, a Republican

administration didn't want to take the chance of making Kennedy, a Democrat,

into a martyr. Perhaps the Reagan people knew JFK would become a martyr

if Smith continued to pursue the investigation into the assassination.

Bill C

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RFK is the only attorney general that I can recall who really had an agenda (destroying organized crime, though he was also trying to destroy Castro of course). The others have seemed content to perform their primary duty of protecting the president, whoever he may be at the time, in his various criminal activities. I suppose that the fate of JFK and RFK may in fact be why AGs have chosen not to have agendas. And anyway protecting criminal presidents has certainly become a full-time job.

It's too bad that Reagan's first Attorney General, William French Smith, didn't

take on the task of continuing the work of the HSCA. Then again, a Republican

administration didn't want to take the chance of making Kennedy, a Democrat,

into a martyr. Perhaps the Reagan people knew JFK would become a martyr

if Smith continued to pursue the investigation into the assassination.

Bill C

Reagan's career was closely managed by MCA, and Lew Wasserman in person. MCA was called Mafia Corporation of America by much of the entertainment industry, due to its known mob affiliations. Wasserman was close friends with Sidney Korshak, the Chicago mob's fixer in L.A. and Vegas. Reagan pushed for Jackie Presser, leader of the mob-tied Teamsters union, to be his Secretary of Labor. He was either incredibly naive about these things, or a bit dirty himself. In either case, he had little interest in pursuing the HSCA's leads as they pertained to the mob. In fact, his Justice Department ignored Otis Stokes' and Robert Blakey's assertions of mob involvement and only looked into the dictabelt evidence. Having satisfied themselves the evidence was bogus, they dropped the investigation.

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