The Kennedy Brothers: The Rise and Fall of Jack and Bobby (32 page)

[. Edgar Hoover, with secrets about Jack’s philandering and Joe Senior’s connections with the mob, was able to blackmail the Kennedys.

Courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Library/Look Photo Collection.

Johnny Rosselli, friend of Joe Kertnedy and alleged conspirator in the assassination of President Kennedy. Courtesy of the author.

Chicago Outfit boss Sam Giancana. Hoover first learned of his contributions to the Kennedy for President campaign via an FBI bug in Giancana’s office in the Armory Lounge. Courtesy of CORBIS/Bettmann.

A full year before JFK’s assassination, Carlos Marcello, shown here leaving one of his many court appearances, vowed violent revenge against the Kennedys at his swampland estate in Louisiana.

Florida-based godfather Santos Trafficante Jr. maintained his innocence in the plot to kill the president, but his association with Jack Ruby and Johnny Rosselli, among others, suggested otherwise.

Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach listens as Alabama governor George Wallace proclaims his defiance of the desegregation order of the University of Alabama. “Dismiss him,” Bobby advised Katzenbach, “as a sort of second-rate figure.”

The author on Point Mary, Key Largo, where “Colonel” Johnny Roselli trained his Cuban sniper unit in the summer of 1962. Courtesy of the author.

Within days of the Rosselli-CIA meeting in September 1960 to plan the murder of Cuban premier Fidel Castro, this embrace confirmed the Americans’ worst fear. Courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Library/ Look Photo Collection.

“[T]here is a possibility that an impostor is using Oswald’s birth certificate,” FBI director Hoover wrote on June 3, 1960, to the State Department. This was an early indication that Oswald’s identity was being manipulated.

Former Soviet officials later wondered why President Kennedy did not confront Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko with evidence of Soviet missiles in Cuba in October 1963, instead of issuing a public ultimatum that pushed the superpowers to the brink of war. Courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Library/Look Photo Collection.

Former anti-Castro underground leader Jorge Recarey Garcia-Vieta, here pictured on his graduation day in April 1963 as an officer of the U.S. Army. Courtesy of Jorge Recarey Garcia-Vieta.

Jack Ruby, shown here with three of his strippers, met with Johnny Rosselli twice in Miami in early October 1963. Courtesy of CORBIS/Bettmann.