John Roselli

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John "Handsome Johnny" Roselli (sometimes spelled Rosselli), aka John F. Stewart [1] (July 4, 1905 to sometime between July 28 and August 9, 1976) was an influential Mafia soldier, one who had helped to control Hollywood and Las Vegas for the Chicago Mafia and who had allegedly been involved with the CIA plot to kill Cuban dictator Fidel Castro in the early 1960s and John Fitzgerald Kennedy's assassination in 1963.

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[edit] Formative years

Born Filippo Sacco (sometimes spelled Phillippo[2]) in Esperia, Italy ( in the Province of Frosinone) on July 4, 1905, he had been best known by his mob nickname of "Handsome Johnny." Sacco immigrated with his mother, Mariantonia Pascale Sacco and one Caterina Palazzo[2], from Italy to the USA in 1911, settling in Boston, Massachusetts. At the time, his father, Vincenzo Sacco, was already residing in the United States. Fleeing to Chicago in 1922 after committing a murder, Sacco shortly afterward changed his name to "John Roselli" (in honor of Italian Renaissance sculptor Domenico Rosselli) and became a Mafia member, working for Al Capone. In 1925, an asthmatic Roselli was ordered by Capone to relocate from Chicago to Los Angeles after jumping bail on a federal narcotics arrest. Roselli began his California criminal career, working with Los Angeles mobster Jack Dragna. By the late 1930s, the shrewd and charismatic Roselli had overtaken the ineffective Dragna in power and influence, leading the Chicago mob's multimillion-dollar extortion of the motion-picture industry after his close friend, film producer Bryan Foy, brought him into the movie business as a producer with Foy's small production company, Eagle Lion Studios.

[edit] 1940's

Roselli was inducted into the United States Army on December 4, 1942 and served as a private until he was arrested March 19, 1943.[1]

In 1942, Roselli was indicted on federal labor racketeering charges along with George Browne, former president of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees union, and Willie Bioff, labor racketeer and former pimp. After a yearlong trial, Roselli had been convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison, but had served only three, being paroled in 1946 through the influence the Chicago mob's political fixer, Murray "The Camel" Humphreys had with President Harry Truman's Attorney General Tom C. Clark and immediately returning to his highly-profitable Hollywood extortion operations. The extensive influence the Chicago Mafia had over Hollywood is best illustrated in 1948 when Chicago Mafia boss Tony Accardo told Roselli to force powerful Columbia Pictures president Harry Cohn into signing then-unknown actress Marilyn Monroe to a lucrative multi-year contract. The usually combative Cohn quickly complied without opposition, mainly because Cohn had obtained control of Columbia through mob funds and influence provided by both Accardo and Roselli.

[edit] 1950's

In the early 1950s, Roselli gradually shifted his focus away from Hollywood and toward the fast-growing and highly profitable gambling mecca, Las Vegas. By 1954, Rosselli had become the Chicago and Los Angeles mob's chief and most powerful representative in Las Vegas, ensuring that the mob bosses of each city received their share of the burgeoning casino revenues. However, according to the Los Angeles office of the FBI, Roselli was employed as a movie producer at Monogram Studios.[1]

In the wake of Fidel Castro's takeover of Cuba in January 1959, Rosselli and other powerful mobsters like Sam Giancana and Carlos Marcello had worked closely with senior CIA officer William K. Harvey and others in the notorious CIA plot called Operation Mongoose, targeting Castro for assassination, which despite millions of dollars and several years spent, had ultimately failed. Roselli (who had specialized in spreading rumors and disinformation to divert suspicion away from the Mafia) is believed by some researchers to have been the chief source of the falsehood that Castro had been behind the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

[edit] 1960's

In 1963, singer Frank Sinatra had sponsored Roselli for membership in the exclusive Los Angeles Friar's Club. Soon after his acceptance, Roselli had organized and overseen a major card-cheating operation, one that had lasted from June 1962 to July 1967[1] and bilked scores of wealthy men (including millionaire Harry Karl, the husband of actress Debbie Reynolds, and Zeppo Marx) out of millions of dollars. Grant B. Cooper represented some of the defendants in the case, including Roselli. Roselli was fined $55,000. During the trial, secret grand jury transcripts were discovered on the defense attorney's table, and Cooper eventually plead guilty to contempt for possessing the documents.[3]

In 1968, Roselli had been tried and convicted of illegal residence in the United States (he'd never acquired lawful US residence or citizenship) and had been ordered deported to Italy by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Italy refused to accept him, so Rosselli remained in the United States.

[edit] 1970's

Roselli testified the 1975 U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCIA) led by Idaho Senator Frank Church on June 24 and September 22 of 1975 about his knowledge of and connections with the CIA's ill-fated Operation Mongoose and April 23, 1976 about his knowledge and connection to a conspiracy to kill President Kennedy.[1] The subsequent SSCIA sought further testimony from Roselli and on August 3, 1976, Senator Howard Baker, a member of the new SSCIA requested the FBI investigate the disappearance of Roselli who had been missing since July 28, 1976.[1] Shortly after Roselli testified, the by-then disgraced former Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana was shot and killed by an unknown assailant in the basement of his Oak Park, Illinois home days before he was to testify before that same committee, prompting Roselli (whose weakening power base had finally disappeared with Giancana's death) to permanently leave Los Angeles and Las Vegas for Miami. Fourteen months later, on August 9, 1976, Roselli's decomposing body was found in a 55-gallon steel fuel drum floating in Dumfounding Bay, Florida. Roselli had been strangled and stabbed; his legs had been sawed off and his remains stuffed into an empty oil drum. Some believed Roselli's murder had been ordered by Tampa, Florida mob boss Santo Trafficante because Trafficante had believed the aging Roselli had talked too much about the Kennedy assassination and Castro murder plots during his Senate testimony, violating the strict Mafia code of omerta (silence.) [4]

James Files has claimed, in detail, that he, Roselli and Charles Nicoletti fired the fatal shots killing President John F. Kennedy at Dallas’ Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963.

Bill Bonnano also states in his autobiography that while he was imprisoned with Roselli he spoke to him about the Kennedy assassination. Roselli claimed that he had fired a shot from a stormdrain located on Elm Street.

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e f FBI FOIA filesJohn Roselli FBI Files
  2. ^ a b FBI FOIA filesJohn Roselli FBI Files
  3. ^ "Sirhan's Lawyer Pleads Guilty To Contempt in Cheating Trial", The New York Times, August 26, 1969.
  4. ^ "Deep Six for Johnny", Time Magazine, August 23, 1976.
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