One of the accepted wisdoms of the 1960 presidential
election is that Joseph Kennedy delivered Illinois for his son, John, through
the former’s close connections to organized crime. We believe that this fable
is long overdue for reconsideration.
This legend of the 1960 election rests upon the notion that
Joseph Kennedy was a rum runner who was consequently in cahoots with the mafia
and thus in some way beholden to them. With these close connections to the
underworld, Joe pulled a few chits and bribes in Chicago to get the Daly
machine, also beholden to organized crime, to deliver the state of Illinois to
Kennedy, if by a hair.
The problem with the theory is an absence of facts. We have
previously reported scholarship which shows that Joe Kennedy was not a rum
runner, and we would extend the thesis that connections to organized crime were
slender.
The Kennedy brothers made a name for themselves in the 1950s
as being tough on organized crime, with Bobby involved in Congressional
investigations into the matter. This did not sit well with FBI chief J Edgar
Hoover who was in fact a pal of the crime lords. Hoover was quite a corrupt of
official, even having cheated extensively on his income taxes.
If Joe were such a friend of the syndicate, then surely he
would have helped his friends by calling off his attack dog sons from their
pursuits of the criminals in organized crime – especially Jimmy Hoffa. As
Attorney General, Bobby Kennedy was even more ardent in his attempts to retire
the corrupt union leaders and to undermine their involvements in crime.
In fact Bobby published a book on the subject of organized
crime in the 1950s in an attempt to warn Americans of its lethal dangers. The
problem is that organized crime has penetrated every element of American
society and government, in large measure due to the CIA who uses it for many of
its criminal operations.
It is a fallacy of history to say that J Edgar Hoover was a
foe of crime. He was its patron saint who often looked the other way as it
slimed its way through American business. The plutocrats control American
business and the CIA of whom the Kennedys ran afoul when they went after
organized crime, a transgression which cost both of them their lives.
Thus it seems highly unlikely to us that the mob delivered
Illinois to Kennedy. It was Nixon, in fact, who had the close ties to labor and
crime as his followers included Jack Ruby, George Meany, Bebe Robozo, Robert
Vesco and others in and around the crime scene. The establishment was greatly
behind Nixon whose loss was something of a shock.
Copyright 2013 Tony Bonn. All rights reserved.
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