Kennedy Assassination: the Boys in Chicago

The Dallas County District Attorney gave Kennedy conspiracy buffs a most excellent President's Day Present.

Two thousand pounds of material about the Kennedy assassination, which had been locked in the prosecutor's Office for forty years , are to be released for the first time.

There might be some interesting stuff there, but I suspect it will end up being about as enlightening as searching New Jersey football fields for the body of Jimmy Hoffa.

The materials contain a document, which if authentic, would be the holy grail of the whole matter. It is a purported conversation between Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby, prior to the assassination.

But there is no doubt it is bogus.

It begins with Ruby telling Oswald that the “boys in Chicago” want to get rid of Bobby Kennedy. And then Oswald came up with the notion of achieving this by shooting his brother.

After a brief conversation, where the two dopes decided that would be a pretty good idea, Ruby warns Oswald not to get get caught (duh) and concludes with the warning:

"if you do talk, then the boys will make me follow you, wherever you go, and kill you.”

The problem is the “boys in Chicago” do not like to be referred to as the "boys in Chicago” and they do not entrust delicate operations, like whacking the President of the United States, to guys that refer to them as “the boys in Chicago” and talk like they came out of a Jimmy Cagney movie.

Of course the “boys in Chicago” were none too happy with the bootlegger's son.

But it was their fault for letting themselves get suckered. They had been dubious of Jack from the start. They disliked and distrusted Joe--but worse, there was that snot nosed Bobby, who had already made a big name for himself, being the wise ass staffer at the Kefauver Hearings. But Joe promised Bobby would be no problem.

There is no one the Kennedys will not sell out, and there is no such thing as loyalty--its all about the Kennedys (as Hillary Clinton was recently reminded). Joe Kennedy built his fortune by cheating his way to the top on Wall Street. Roosevelt picked him to run the SEC because he knew it took "a thief to catch a thief." And Joe was a great prosecutor. By this time the Kennedys were way too noble to associate with their Irish brethren in Southie, and Joe relocated the family to the compound at Hyannis.

Thats the Kennedy way.

The “boys in Chicago” were foolish to think the son would be any different.

Although Sam Giancana was irked that Jack was sleeping with his girlfriend, he understood it was impossible for the Kennedy men to keep their pants on. And it wasn't nice the way they snubbed Sinatra. But none of that is enough to break up a working partnership.

Even though Giancana and friends knew how morally bankrupt the president was, they just could not understand why he would allow his pious little ratty brother to do everything he could to destroy them. After all, they were the ones who put Jack in the White House, by getting out the dead vote in Cook County.

Such profound arrogant disloyalty was inconceivable--even coming from the son of Joe Kennedy.

It might be a coincidence that Woody Harrelson's father, a hitman for Carlos Marcello, was in Dallas that November day. And it might be a coincidence that Jack Ruby had done three runs to Cuba for Marcello. But it is a fact that both Marcello and Giancana were disgusted that the president had flinched and sacrificed their idyllic Cuba , when bullied by the Soviets.

However that could all be forgiven as youthful inexperience, and the type of thing to be expected from a weak man.

If that was all there was.

Jimmy Hoffa watched the coverage of the assassination at Teamster Headquarters in Washington. When it was announced the president was dead he commented:

“Bobby Kennedy's just another lawyer now.”