Assassination

JFK won the election of 1960. After his inauguration, he appointed his brother Robert F. Kennedy (Bobby) as Attorney General. Bobby was tough, and he vowed to go hard after all elements of organized crime in the US, including the Mafia.

This didn’t actually sit well with their father Joe. Joe Sr. had great political power during the FDR Administration. He also made many contacts with organized crime bosses, most notably Sam Giancana, Santo Trafficante Jr, and Carlos Marcello. Giancana was the boss of the Chicago Outfit, one of the most powerful and influential Mafia organizations of the time. 

It has been speculated by many, but never actually proven that Sam Giancana made a deal with Joe Kennedy to get the Chicago dock workers and labor unions to support JFK in the election. Joe is also said to have worked similar deals with people like Trafficante and Marcello. The deal with Giancana, brokered by Frank Sinatra came with a promise; Giancana and the other Mafia bosses would push their people into voting for Jack, and as a result, the Kennedy Administration would basically give the Mafia a free pass to do as they please. It was basically a, “Vote for my son, and I promise that my son will leave you alone!” type of deal.

However, Jack and Bobby didn’t see it that way. Bobby, as Attorney General, started an organized crime task force, and was going after any and all organized crime syndicates. While  Joe made the deal that said that organized crime would be left alone, Jack and Bobby were doing all they could to bring down organized crime syndicates.

As you can expect, this didn’t go over well with people like Trafficante and Giancana. They began to feel that Joe Kennedy was using his son to go after and eliminate all rivals and anyone to whom he owed favors. Instead of having a free reign in which to operate, Mafia bosses were being taken down at near record pace. Bobby’s task force was both ruthless and highly successful in its war on organized crime, and the mob bosses planned to retaliate. 

At 12:30pm local time on the morning of November 22, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald fired on the Kennedy motorcade from a grassy knoll near a book depository in Dallas, TX. Kennedy was in a car with his wife Jackie, Texas Governor John Connally, and Connally’s wife Nellie when Oswald opened fire.

 As they were driving through Dealy Plaza, Nellie Connaly turned to JFK and said, “Mr. President, you can’t say Dallas doesn’t love you.”

“No, you can’t!” was The President’s reply.

They were the final words he ever spoke. Shots rang out from the grassy knoll. Kennedy was hit. The same shot that hit the President also hit and severely wounded Governor Connally. A second shot hit the President in the back of his head, and was devastating. Pieces of his skull and brains, and a great deal of blood covered the back seat of the limo.

First Lady Jacqueline started to climb out the back of the limo, though she later said she had no recollection of ever doing so. After she was back in her seat, Jackie turned to the Connally’s and said, “They have killed my husband. I have pieces of his brain in my hand.”

The motorcade quickly sped to nearby Parkland Memorial Hospital. The President was pronounced dead on arrival, nearly thirty minutes after the first shot was fired.