JFK and Sam

Antoinette Giancana, John R. Hughes & Thomas H. Jobe
Cumberland House Publishing (2005)
ISBN 1581824874
Reviewed by Joanne Benham for Reader Views (8/06)

There have been so many books written about the assassination of John F. Kennedy, one would wonder why someone would bother writing another.  There are two schools of thought about the assassination.  One theory is that Lee Harvey Oswald was a lone gunman, working on his own initiative.  The other theory is that the assassination was a giant conspiracy involving the FBI, the CIA and the Mafia.

One name that comes up time after time in the conspiracy theory camp is Sam Giancana, the Mafia chief of Chicago during the late 50s and 60s.  This book is co-authored by Sam’s daughter, Antoinette, who had intimate access to several of the main characters named in the conspiracy theory.  Her co-authors are doctors in the fields of neurology, neurophysiology and neuropsychiatry who provide expert analysis about what could and could not have happened that day in November, 1963. 

The authors lay out a logical sequence of events, showing the strong links between the Kennedy family and Sam Giancana; links stretching back to prohibition days when Joseph Kennedy was a bootlegger with a contract on his head for running his rum through Mob territory without permission.

Whatever theory you believe, this book is fascinating, delving into the inner workings of politics and the Mafia.  I could hardly put the book down, although I had to keep skipping ahead to follow a particular story thread because the authors would throw out a tantalizing bit of information and then tell you they would explain it more fully in a future chapter.  I couldn’t wait to get to that chapter.

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