Mob didn't turn out vote for Kennedy

[Don Roberdeau]

Good Day.... "Chicago Sun Times" 21MAR06 article....

http://www.suntimes.com/output/elect/cst-nws-mob21.html

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Mob didn't turn out vote for Kennedy: UIC professor

March 21, 2006

BY ABDON M. PALLASCH Staff Reporter

No, the Mafia did not win the 1960 presidential election for John F. Kennedy, according to a study by a University of Illinois at Chicago professor.

After Kennedy's razor-thin victory over Richard Nixon in Illinois, which cemented Kennedy's lead in the electoral college, Nixon backers blamed Mayor Richard J. Daley's notorious precinct captains for election-night hijinks.

But years later, another argument emerged: Kennedy or his father made a deal with the mob to throw the election in Chicago -- and thus Illinois -- to Kennedy.

Author Seymour Hersh made the argument in a 1997 book. Frank Sinatra's daughter, Tina, and Judith Campbell Exner, reputed former mistress of the late president and of late Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana, also made versions of that argument.

To test the theory that the mob turned out the vote in Chicago's 1960 general election, John Binder, a finance professor at UIC, analyzed vote totals for five city wards where the mob reputedly had clout, as well as in Cicero and Chicago Heights.

Those areas performed no differently than the non-mob wards and suburbs, Binder found. "There's really no evidence to support that story," Binder said. "Some of the people telling these stories are nuts."

The Democratic votes in the 1st, 24th, 25th, 28th and 29th wards, as well as in Cicero and Chicago Heights, did not jump any more from Adlai Stevenson in 1956 to Kennedy in 1960 than other comparable wards and townships, he said.

Exner had also said she was sent to deliver money from the Kennedy family to Giancana to help fund union efforts on Kennedy's behalf in the West Virginia primary election in which Kennedy surprised Hubert Humphrey. Binder questions that as well.

"How in God's name is Sam Giancana going to get anything done in West Virginia?" he asked. "They don't have any influence there."

Could the mob's influence in the 1960 Chicago general election have been citywide through the unions as opposed to just the mob-controlled wards?

Binder calls that unlikely because Kennedy and his brother had antagonized union leaders during the McClellan hearings.

"There is evidence that unions voted the other way -- they couldn't stand the Kennedys," Binder said.

apallasch@suntimes.com

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Best Regards in Research. Honored to be yours in the pursuit of The Truth,

Don

Don Roberdeau

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"I'm not satisfied when I see men like Jimmy Hoffa--in charge of the largest union in the United States--still free."

----JOHN F. KENNEDY, Senator & Presidential candidate, during the first 1960 Presidential election tv-radio debate, Monday, September 26, 1960, Chicago, IL

[Owen Parsons]

Good article. It pretty much confirms what I had already suspected via pattern recognition of the attacks on Kennedy.

Edit: Binder's full paper can be downloaded here: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=888638

Edited March 23, 2006 by Owen Parsons

[Norman T. Field]

As I mentioned in my post in the Giancana thread, I am not buying this. I remember huge allegations of vote fraud after that election (I live in Chicago). And to answer another question, the OUTFIT had huge influence over many local unions. Heck, many of the local unions were founded by the OUTFIT. I do know that a local TV stations insisted that a new local of the electricians union be created for their facilities as they absolutely refused to have the OUTFIT controlled IBEW local 134 on their property.

At that time, you literally could not be slated to run for many Cook county offices, including Judges, unless the 'boys' gave their ok. Check out the Robert Cooley book "When Corruption was King".

Don't kid yourself about the depth of the OUTFIT's power in Chicago in that era.

[Owen Parsons]

I think the anecdotal evidence about voter fraud and the Outfit's supposed role is rather insignificant next to the statistical analysis. The entire paper (which I linked) is more detailed and thorough than the article.

Edited March 23, 2006 by Owen Parsons

[Pat Speer]

As I mentioned in my post in the Giancana thread, I am not buying this. I remember huge allegations of vote fraud after that election (I live in Chicago). And to answer another question, the OUTFIT had huge influence over many local unions. Heck, many of the local unions were founded by the OUTFIT. I do know that a local TV stations insisted that a new local of the electricians union be created for their facilities as they absolutely refused to have the OUTFIT controlled IBEW local 134 on their property.

At that time, you literally could not be slated to run for many Cook county offices, including Judges, unless the 'boys' gave their ok. Check out the Robert Cooley book "When Corruption was King".

Don't kid yourself about the depth of the OUTFIT's power in Chicago in that era.

I absoultely agree, Norman, that the mob had a lot of control, but the question is did they USE that control to help Kennedy in Chicago? The answer seems to be "no". Has anyone done similar research on the West Virginia primaries? It would be interesting if it turned out that Kennedy's votes came from areas outside the influence of unions.

Interesting thought. Perhaps the mob "double-crossed" Kennedy in 1960 by claiming to help him but by actually doing nothing. Perhaps Kennedy became aware of this, and responded by sicking Bobby on them.

Someone could probably find a way to blame it all on Frank Sinatra.

[Guest Stephen Turner]

[.

Someone could probably find a way to blame it all on Frank Sinatra.

Or indeed, the Boogie.

[Norman T. Field]

The premise of the research is:

As the vote totals for '56 and '60 are approximately equal, therefore - no vote fraud occurred.

I still don't think this holds water, as it neglects the impact of the Adamowski race for State's Attorney. Chicago had (and still has) a huge population of Polish immigrants and their children. If the Polish vote went Democratic in '56, (which it did) and then went huge for Adamowski and the Republicans in '60, (which is again what happened) then MASSIVE vote fraud would be necessary for the Democrat vote in '60 to equal that of '56.

I have read for years that Chicago has more Poles than any city in the world except Warsaw, this was a huge vote swing in '60 to the Republicans that was usually a solid Democratic vote.

The issue of 'white flight', the exodus of urban whites to the suburbs as their neighborhoods experienced black immigration from Bronzeville also ought to be considered. Chicago had thousands fewer actual voters in '60 than '56 owing to white flight, which was in full swing by '60.

Therefore: The mere facts that the vote totals are comparable does not prove that fraud did not occur.