No Mo
His nickname was "Mooney",but no one called him that to his face. He got the name because of his violent temper. But everyone close called him "Mo".He was Mo to the mob. He was Mo to the cops.
I heard my father say once that he took his orders from Sam Giancana,aka. Mo. I remember once going with my parents to his house in Oak Park,a suburb of Chicago. Those wiseguys didn't want to live on Taylor Street anymore. It was status to live in the suburbs even though they got their schooling in the Patch.
I remember Sam Giancana's wife,Ange,say to my mother that she was happy to see Diamond Joe's grandkids. Mo worked for my grandfather in the beginning.He was a driver for the mob and a stickup guy. He'd be in and out of jail.That's where he went to school. He showed a lot of nerve and won the confidence of higher ups like Paul Ricca and Tony Accardo. They also were patroned by Diamond Joe.After my grandfather was killed they all fell in line with Capone.
Of course when I was a kid I had no idea what Sam Giancana did or what my father was involved with in Chicago. My father was at most a fringe guy,but later I found out that the checks he got for working for the state liquor commission and other civil service jobs in Chicago ,he'd often forget to cash.
After a beef with the law,my mother put her foot down and made my father move out to California. But moving far away like that couldn't make my father want to lose touch with The Outfit. To go completely legit after living like he did was impossible. He was always in touch with Chicago. They'd have him do some things for them out here once in awhile. That's when I first saw the FBI at our door.
But my father's main contact back in Chicago was always Mo Giancana. Whether my father got the word from Jackie Cerone or Frank LaPorte(I remember those guys coming out here)the word was always passed down from Mo.
Sam Giancana wanted to run things in The Outfit. Guys like Accardo and Ricca who were just as powerfull(maybe even more)were happy to let Mo run the show. That got a lot of the heat off them.Mo loved the spotlight that came with the power which he also loved. But being a high profile gangster is like showing up law enforcement. After Bobby Kennedy became attorney general,he got the FBI to put pressure on the boys.
Mo hated the harassment.His "Mooney"would surface and he'd go ballistic. The FBI guys loved to put the heat on him. They'd tease him and try to provoke him into doing something stupid.
Later one of the guys on the House Committee on Assassinations (Robert Blakey)in the 70's concluded that the hit on John Kennedy was ordered by the mob. Giancana was to testify before the commission before he was murdered inside his Oak Park home.
Maybe Mo was involved with some of the soldiers who were a part of it,but to think that organized crime put out a contact on the President is ludicrous. Like my father told me,"They don't have that much juice."
Besides,if Mo had the muscle he would have had some of those FBI guys whacked.
"Mo" Giancana
