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Mob Played No Role in JFK Election
Chicago, IL
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
By Patrick Butler
Gazette Magazine, Chicago
Despite all the legends and tabloid TV shows, organized crime played no role in getting John F. Kennedy elected President in 1960, according to University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) finance professor and crime historian John Binder.
The race "the Mob" really cared about was the one for State's Attorney, which could be why Democratic challenger Dan Ward got more votes than JFK in the so-called "Syndicate" wards, Binder said.
While writing his book, "The Chicago Outfit," Binder analyzed voting patterns in what were then the reputed "Outfit" wards-the Near West Side/West Side 1st, 24th, 25th, 28th, and 29th, as well as the Northwest Side 45th and the suburbs of Cicero and Chicago Heights?and found the percentage of Democratic votes in Mob-controlled wards went up an average of only four percentage points-from 56 to 60-while Democratic percentages for the rest of the city skyrocketed from 60% to 75%.
"Obviously Jack Kennedy was a very popular candidate, so his percentages were higher than [Democratic Presidential candidate] Adlai Stevenson got in 1956," Binder explained. "But no more so in the Mob wards than in any other wards"
If the Mob had any vested interest in the 1960 election, it was in ousting Republican State's Attorney Benjamin Adamowski who, Binder said, had become "a thorn in the side of the Outfit, raiding gambling joints in Cicero and strip clubs in Calumet City"
The Democratic machine likewise worried that, if Adamowski were re-elected, he would expose deep-seated corruption in City Hall and possibly pose a serious threat to the first Richard Daley in the 1963 Mayoral election, Binder said.
Ward defeated Adamowski by only 25,000 votes, prompting Adamowski to get a recount of ten wards, four of them Outfit-controlled, where Ward walked away with more votes than JFK, Binder said.
While there is no question the Democratic Organization pulled out all the stops to get JFK elected and Republican Adamowski defeated, there is nothing particularly sinister about that, Binder said.
"After all, that's what political organizations do," he noted. "They get out the vote on election day" He added that while there is "some evidence the Democratic Machine worked overtime, the chicanery was probably no different than in 1956 or any other year"
Whether the ward-heelers did more than usual because it was Jack Kennedy and not Adlai Stevenson as the candidate is the subject of Binder's current research into the role of the first Mayor Daley and Chicago's formidable Democratic Machine of that era.
It is important to remember that the Democratic Organization and the Outfit never were the same thing, said Binder, who is a former president of the Merry Gangsters Literary Society, a now defunct fellowship of writers, former detectives, and crime buffs.
"The fact that dead people voted in Chicago was due to the Machine, not the Mob," said Binder, for whom Outfit history has been an "obsessive hobby" for the past 14 years.
"Academics can be very passionate about their hobbies," said Binder, who considers it perfectly reasonable for a fellow who teaches about investments, corporate structures, financial market regulation, and economics to have a passion for organized crime.
After all, he said, the Outfit was about making money and even Mob hits were, as they say, nothing personal?just business.
"Much of what has been written about the Outfit, the 1960 Presidential election, and other events involving the Kennedy family appear to be historical myth and are not to be taken seriously," he said. Binder added that while it is true JFK and Chicago Mob bigwig Sam Giancana for a time shared the same mistress, Judith Exner Campbell, there never was any evidence they made any political or business deals.
While it also is true Joe Kennedy, the clan's paterfamilias, smuggled Canadian whiskey into the U.S. during Prohibition mostly for his own consumption, "he may have been privately selling some to friends on a first-come, first-served basis," Binder said. "But he certainly wasn't running a bootleg operation, with gunmen, in Boston.
"In fact, the Mob hated the Kennedys," Binder said.
But not enough to have JFK killed for failing to get the government off the Outfit's back in return for supposed help in getting JFK elected, Binder said.
"That's way off," Binder asserted. "There's no proof of that, even though there's this guy in Statesville who claims he was the real shooter in Dallas" Binder speculates the man is trying to cut some kind of deal with the government for what he knows, wants to improve his standing among his prison peers, or has simply gone stir crazy.
"Guys in prison are always talking about knowing where Jimmy Hoffa is buried," Binder laughed.
Anyone who knows anything about the Mob understands "they don't touch legit guys," Binder explained. "It's more trouble than it's worth. What FBI agents have been killed by the Outfit? None"
If mobsters do not want the grief "that comes from killing a clean cop or honest reporter, can you imagine how much more grief you'd get for killing the President of the United States?" Binder asked, noting organized crime is first and foremost a business enterprise.
The Outfit, Binder continued, "clearly isn't what it used to be," adding that the old Italian-run crime families have been elbowed aside in recent decades by African-American, Russian, and even Chinese gangs.
Today's Chicago Outfit, he said, deliberately keeps a low profile, avoiding publicity and "keeping their heads down, which is a very savvy decision as opposed to the New York mobsters who think the thing to do is hit someone in the head with a frozen mackerel in broad daylight in the Fulton Fish Market," Binder said.
Today's crime bosses have not only funneled their wealth into legitimate businesses as a form of money laundering but are not necessarily expecting their sons or nephews to follow in their footsteps if they are not quite cut out for the "family business," Binder added.
Gazette Magazine, Chicago
Despite all the legends and tabloid TV shows, organized crime played no role in getting John F. Kennedy elected President in 1960, according to University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) finance professor and crime historian John Binder.
The race "the Mob" really cared about was the one for State's Attorney, which could be why Democratic challenger Dan Ward got more votes than JFK in the so-called "Syndicate" wards, Binder said.
While writing his book, "The Chicago Outfit," Binder analyzed voting patterns in what were then the reputed "Outfit" wards-the Near West Side/West Side 1st, 24th, 25th, 28th, and 29th, as well as the Northwest Side 45th and the suburbs of Cicero and Chicago Heights?and found the percentage of Democratic votes in Mob-controlled wards went up an average of only four percentage points-from 56 to 60-while Democratic percentages for the rest of the city skyrocketed from 60% to 75%.
"Obviously Jack Kennedy was a very popular candidate, so his percentages were higher than [Democratic Presidential candidate] Adlai Stevenson got in 1956," Binder explained. "But no more so in the Mob wards than in any other wards"
If the Mob had any vested interest in the 1960 election, it was in ousting Republican State's Attorney Benjamin Adamowski who, Binder said, had become "a thorn in the side of the Outfit, raiding gambling joints in Cicero and strip clubs in Calumet City"
The Democratic machine likewise worried that, if Adamowski were re-elected, he would expose deep-seated corruption in City Hall and possibly pose a serious threat to the first Richard Daley in the 1963 Mayoral election, Binder said.
Ward defeated Adamowski by only 25,000 votes, prompting Adamowski to get a recount of ten wards, four of them Outfit-controlled, where Ward walked away with more votes than JFK, Binder said.
While there is no question the Democratic Organization pulled out all the stops to get JFK elected and Republican Adamowski defeated, there is nothing particularly sinister about that, Binder said.
"After all, that's what political organizations do," he noted. "They get out the vote on election day" He added that while there is "some evidence the Democratic Machine worked overtime, the chicanery was probably no different than in 1956 or any other year"
Whether the ward-heelers did more than usual because it was Jack Kennedy and not Adlai Stevenson as the candidate is the subject of Binder's current research into the role of the first Mayor Daley and Chicago's formidable Democratic Machine of that era.
It is important to remember that the Democratic Organization and the Outfit never were the same thing, said Binder, who is a former president of the Merry Gangsters Literary Society, a now defunct fellowship of writers, former detectives, and crime buffs.
"The fact that dead people voted in Chicago was due to the Machine, not the Mob," said Binder, for whom Outfit history has been an "obsessive hobby" for the past 14 years.
"Academics can be very passionate about their hobbies," said Binder, who considers it perfectly reasonable for a fellow who teaches about investments, corporate structures, financial market regulation, and economics to have a passion for organized crime.
After all, he said, the Outfit was about making money and even Mob hits were, as they say, nothing personal?just business.
"Much of what has been written about the Outfit, the 1960 Presidential election, and other events involving the Kennedy family appear to be historical myth and are not to be taken seriously," he said. Binder added that while it is true JFK and Chicago Mob bigwig Sam Giancana for a time shared the same mistress, Judith Exner Campbell, there never was any evidence they made any political or business deals.
While it also is true Joe Kennedy, the clan's paterfamilias, smuggled Canadian whiskey into the U.S. during Prohibition mostly for his own consumption, "he may have been privately selling some to friends on a first-come, first-served basis," Binder said. "But he certainly wasn't running a bootleg operation, with gunmen, in Boston.
"In fact, the Mob hated the Kennedys," Binder said.
But not enough to have JFK killed for failing to get the government off the Outfit's back in return for supposed help in getting JFK elected, Binder said.
"That's way off," Binder asserted. "There's no proof of that, even though there's this guy in Statesville who claims he was the real shooter in Dallas" Binder speculates the man is trying to cut some kind of deal with the government for what he knows, wants to improve his standing among his prison peers, or has simply gone stir crazy.
"Guys in prison are always talking about knowing where Jimmy Hoffa is buried," Binder laughed.
Anyone who knows anything about the Mob understands "they don't touch legit guys," Binder explained. "It's more trouble than it's worth. What FBI agents have been killed by the Outfit? None"
If mobsters do not want the grief "that comes from killing a clean cop or honest reporter, can you imagine how much more grief you'd get for killing the President of the United States?" Binder asked, noting organized crime is first and foremost a business enterprise.
The Outfit, Binder continued, "clearly isn't what it used to be," adding that the old Italian-run crime families have been elbowed aside in recent decades by African-American, Russian, and even Chinese gangs.
Today's Chicago Outfit, he said, deliberately keeps a low profile, avoiding publicity and "keeping their heads down, which is a very savvy decision as opposed to the New York mobsters who think the thing to do is hit someone in the head with a frozen mackerel in broad daylight in the Fulton Fish Market," Binder said.
Today's crime bosses have not only funneled their wealth into legitimate businesses as a form of money laundering but are not necessarily expecting their sons or nephews to follow in their footsteps if they are not quite cut out for the "family business," Binder added.
William S. Bike
ANB Communications
Chicago, IL
773-229-0024
First Url: ANB Communications
Second Url: Gazette Magazine, Chicago
