But He Was a Good Crook--Cook!

[Tim Gratz]

In his autobiography, Robert Maheu states that he liked Sam Giancana because he was a "good fellow well met" (words to that effect anyway: a good drinking buddy) and was a good cook as well. Apparently Maheu gave no consideration to the number of murders Giancana had authorized, some of which are too brutal to describe. Giancana's culinary arts apparently compensated for the blood on his hands.

I recently aquired (would you believe for 25 cents at a library sale?) an interesting book on the James Bond novels by Kingsley Amis. The book is titled "The James Bond Dossier" and it was written in 1965. It contains a passage appropos to the above. In it, Amis derides Bond's admiration for a hoodlum:

Bond not only respects Draco as an efficient private-army organizer and multifarious bandit, he also finds him lovable. My imagination is probably limited, but I find it hard to believe that the head of a super-Mafia--one who'd held on to the job for more than a few hours, anyway--could possibly be lovable. Cordial he might well be, as the public hangman might equally well be, but for me personally the company of either, at even the matiest get-together, would be spoiled by continual recollections of how he earned his living.

Maheu did not share Amis' ethical sensitivities. Neither did Maheu's friends in the CIA. And their moral myopia may very well have contributed to the tragedy in Dallas.

Edited July 14, 2005 by Tim Gratz