US – Paducah Sun – Bookshelf Browser
Title: Bookshelf browser
Newspaper: Paducah Sun
Date: 1992
“Double Cross” is as shocking as the life of the book’s subject, crime boss Sam Giancana.
Know to friends and enemies as “Mooney,” he was a Chicago hood who shot and killed his way to power and then used it to expand the mob’s influence into the arts, unions and federal government.
In this biography, Moony took part in the infamous St. Valentine’s Day Massacre and gunned down dozens of men before he was 20.
He showed not mercy to his victims.” Sometimes you want it to last, so you just play with a guy, toy with him a little bit. They always act the same… they beg you not to do it to ‘em. When you finally do hit the (bastard), he drops like a sack of potatoes right there at your feet.
The book also dwells at length on Mooney’s alleged ties with the CIA, including an attempt to eliminate Castro, and his relationship with the Kennedy family.
The co-authors credit Mooney wit twice saving Joe Kennedy’s life from hit men, but it was done for a reason: Mooney figured he would have easy access to the White House after John F. Kennedy took office.
“It’s all ins and outs for me when Jack’s elected,” Mooney explained to Chuck. “I’ll be on easy street,,, no more coppers, no more FBI. … As far as my business is concerned – Vegas, Teamsters, drugs, you name it – they’ll all just turn their heads and they’ll have executive order to do it. Or else.”
There are controversial chapters in which Mooney is linked to the death of Marilyn Monroe and the assassination of John and Bobby Kennedy.
Mooney died like he had lived. On June 19, 1975, he was cooking sausages in his suburban home in Illinois when a killer fired one shot into the base of his skull, on into his mouth and five more under his chin.
Chuck Giancana implies that his brother’s murder was not gangland retribution but was order to keep him from testifying about his government connections.
