John Roselli

There is also a professional wrestler named John Roselli

John "Handsome Johnny" Roselli (sometimes spelled Rosselli), aka John F. Stewart (July 4, 1905 to sometime between July 28 and August 9, 1976) was an influential mobster for the Chicago Outfit who helped them control Hollywood and the Las Vegas. Rosselli was also involved with the CIA plot to kill Cuban president Fidel Castro in the early 1960s. Some theorists believe he was also involved with John Fitzgerald Kennedy's assassination in 1963.

Formative years

Born Filippo Sacco (sometimes spelled Phillippo) 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, from Italy to the USA in 1911, settling in Somerville, Massachusetts near Boston. At the time, his father, Vincenzo Sacco, was already residing in the United States. Fleeing to Chicago in 1922 after committing a murder, Sacco changed his name to "John Roselli" (in honor of Italian Renaissance sculptor Domenico Rosselli) and became a member of the Chicago Outfit working for Al Capone.

In 1925, after jumping bail on a federal narcotics arrest, an asthmatic Roselli was ordered by Capone to relocate to Los Angeles after jumping bail. 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. Roselli's close friend, film producer Bryan Foy, brought him into the movie business as a producer with Foy's small production company, Eagle Lion Studios. Later on, Rosselli lead the Outfit's multi-million dollar extortion campaign against the motion picture industry.

1940's

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. On December 4, 1942 Roselli was inducted into the United States Army. He served as a private until he was arrested March 19, 1943.

In 1943, after a year long trial on the racketeering charges, Roselli was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison. However, in 1946 he was paroled after serving only three years. It was speculated that the Outfit's political fixer, Murray "The Camel" Humphreys used his influence with President Harry Truman's Attorney General, Tom C. Clark, to spring Rosselli out of prison. After his release, Rosselli immediately returned 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.

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 representative in Las Vegas. His job was to ensure that the Chicago and LA mob bosses each received their fair 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.

Some researchers believe that Roselli (who specialized in spreading rumors and disinformation, was the source of the rumor that Castro had tried to assassinate President John F. Kennedy.

1960's

After the Cuban Revolution in January 1959, Fidel Castro closed down all the mob casinos in Cuba and drove out the mobsters. Given that experience, Rosselli, Chicago boss Sam Giancana, and New Orleans boss Carlos Marcello would be receptive to overtures on killing Castro.

In 1960, the CIA recruited ex-FBI agent Robert Maheu, then a top aide to billionaire Howard Hughes in Las Vegas, to approach Roselli. Maheu passed himself off as the representative of international corporations that wanted Castro killed because of their lost gambling operations. Roselli introduced Maheu to two men he referred to as "Sam Gold" and "Joe." "Sam Gold" was Giancana and "Joe was Santos Trafficante, the Tampa, Florida boss and one of the most powerful mobsters in pre-revolution Cuba. The agency gave the mobsters six poison pills to murder Castro. For several months, mafia hitmen tried unsuccessfully to put the pills in Castro's food. In 1961, after the failed CIA-sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, an angry President Kennedy pulled the plug on this operation. Records show that the CIA successfully recovered all six poison pills.

These assassination attempts by Roselli were publicized in 1971 by Jack Anderson, a Washington Post reporter, and acknowledged by the CIA in 2007 when it declassified the Family jewels documents.

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

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

1970's

On June 24 and September 22 1975 Roselli testified before the 1975 U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCIA) led by Idaho Senator Frank Church about CIA plan to kill Castro, Operation Mongoose. Shortly after Roselli testified, an unknown gunman shot and killed the disgraced Giancana in the basement of his Oak Park, Illinois home. This happened just days before Giancana was to testify before the committee. Giancana's murder supposedly prompted Roselli (whose own power base disappeared with Giancana's death) to permanently leave Los Angeles and Las Vegas for Miami.

On April 23, 1976, Rosellli was called before the committee to testify about a conspiracy to kill President Kennedy. Three months after his first round of testimony on the Kennedy assassination, the Committee wanted to recall Roselli. However, at this point, he had been missing since July 28. On August 3, Senator Howard Baker, a member of the new SSCIA, requested the FBI investigate Rosselli's disappearance.

On August 9, Roselli's decomposing body was found in a 55-gallon steel fuel drum floating in Dumfounding Bay near Miami, Florida. Roselli had been strangled and stabbed and his legs were sawed off. Some believed that boss Trafficante ordered Roselli's death. According to this theory, Trafficante believed that Roselli had revealed too much about the Kennedy assassination and Castro murder plots during his Senate testimony, violating the strict Mafia code of omerta (silence.)

Aftermath

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

New York mob boss Bill Bonnano claimed in his autobiography that while he was imprisoned with Roselli he spoke to him about the Kennedy assassination. Roselli allegedly told Bonanno that he had fired a shot from a storm drain located on Elm Street in Dallas.

Further reading

• Charles Rappleye & Ed Becker, All American Mafioso: The Johnny Roselli Story; Barricade Books, Inc.; 1995 ISBN 1-56980-027-8
• The James E. Files confession

See also

• Family jewels (CIA)
• Kennedy assassination theories

External links

• http://imdb.com/name/nm0741831/
• The CIA Family Jewels - includes several memos on Roselli's involvement in attempts to assasinate Fidel Castro